Purgatorio

This is the central volume, in terms of both its place and prominence, of the triptych of Dante's Divine Comedy. It seems
to be a current trend to commission contemporary poets and translators to breathe new life into classical works with facing-page
translations of the original texts—Dante's Inferno was similarly translated just two years ago—and it is an idea that makes a good
deal of sense, for who is better qualified to strip the original works of their layers of glosses and scholarly obfuscations than a
poet who can simultaneously pay obeisance to both the letter and the spirit of the work? Merwin is himself a poet of some
renown, regarded not only for his verse but also for his prose and his previous works of translation (among them, The Song of
Roland and The Poem of the Cid). He has received many distinguished awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bollingen Prize,
and a fellowship in the Academy of American Poets. One might wonder what relevance Dante's work of sin, repentance, and
salvation has in an age that shuns responsibility for personal actions: Merwin himself suggests that any poetic work, unless
consigned to an ash heap of obscurity, will be rediscovered and reinterpreted in every age until it becomes