Some updates and changes, and some welcomes

Hello, everyone! It’s really great to have this many people interested in reading the Divine Comedy. I’m glad you’re all here… well, only here metaphorically, of course. If you’ve been meaning to talk a friend into subscribing, I’ll add a subscription button in this email, so you can just forward it to them:

In the subject line, I promised some updates and changes. Nothing’s changed about our start time (April 7) or the rest of our schedule, but I will have to go with a different translation. As much as Ciardi’s translation remains my favorite, it is not in the public domain, and I could be hit with a lawsuit and/or removal from Substack if I use it. I also don’t have the money or copyright know-how to request usage from the publisher (though I don’t imagine they’d let me just post the text online…).

Instead, we’ll be using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s translation. I chose this one for a few reasons. It’s in the public domain, of course. It’s considered a more accessible translation, so first-time readers can follow it more easily. The text is easily found on Project Gutenberg, which makes formatting significantly easier for me. In addition, LibriVox has audio recordings of every canto being read.

With that said, I personally intend to read along from my personal copy of Ciardi’s text. If you would like to obtain your own, here is a link to it on Bookshop (an Amazon alternative supporting independent bookstores). If you’re more experienced and would like to read from another translation - or even a version in Italian - please, by all means, go right ahead! There are dozens of translations, and many people have voiced their opinions on the best starting points.

I know some of the Substack groups have made a Discord, and I am entertaining this idea (mostly stopped so far by the qualities of being a busy tired grad student and very slow with technology). If I do create such a thing, I’ll send out word about it. If you have any other concerns or thoughts on your mind, feel free to drop me a line (I have an email listed on the About page that works).

Enjoy your day!