This week I’ve been working on a piece about a new translation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, by poet Michael Palma. An English translation of Dante isn’t exactly a new idea. It’s a pretty important work in the Western canon, and centuries old, so of course it’s been translated into English tons of times. But that’s all the more reason why I wanted to talk to Palma – to ask why this was a well worth returning to today. And he said that one of the principal themes of the poem that was especially relevant today was “corruption on the part of the powerful.”

“Dante’s great concern in the poem is that the papacy has usurped the political realm, that the separation of church and state has ceased to exist in Dante’s Italy. And without these checks and balances between the spiritual dimension and the temporal dimension, there’s nothing to restrain the papacy from its leaders indulging themselves in the worst components of human nature,” he said. “All these things I think are eternally relevant.”

For what it’s worth, Palma was also extremely concerned with maintaining Dante’s original rhyme scheme – his terza rima. And because of that, this version is much more readable than other Dante translations I’ve cracked open.

But what say you? Do you have a relationship with The Divine Comedy? Are you a diehard Dante-head? What do you think The Divine Comedy has to tell us about our present condition? Let us know at bookoftheday@npr.org.