Inferno1994
The one that proves terza rima can live in English. Pinsky, a working poet, uses a supple slant-rhyme to keep Dante’s three-line chain moving without contorting the sense, and the result is fast, muscular, and built to be read aloud. It covers the Inferno only, and purists note the rhyme sometimes costs a shade of literal accuracy, but no modern version better conveys why this poem drives. The facing Italian and Nichols’s notes round out a handsome edition. The top pick for a first, spoken Inferno.