My Inferno translation is officially out!!!

My translation of Dante's Inferno has finally been released! I've been working on this for over a decade. It's in a verse form known as terza rima, just like the original Italian. There are also notes, a bibliography, a glossary of people and places (with pronunciations), and a ton of original artwork (maps, illustrations, diagrams of Dante's Hell). I am unbelievably excited!! I can't wait for people to check it out. If you buy the book and like it, don't forget to leave a review on Amazon: it really helps a lot.

In the middle of the journey of our life,

I found myself again in a dark forest,

for I had lost the pathway straight and right.

Podcast Interview: Walking with Dante

Yesterday I was featured in an interview on Mark Scarbrough's podcast, "Walking with Dante."

I have been a huge fan of this podcast from the very first episode. Basically, it is a slow walk through Dante's Divine Comedy; in each episode, Mark Scarbrough takes a short passage from the Comedy and walks us through it with detailed discussion. He is always full of insight and original ideas (and original ideas can be hard to come by for a seven-hundred-year-old piece of literature). Mark is also very responsive on social media, and it's been fun to have discussions about Dante and the Comedy on Twitter. So, with all of that, I am so glad I got to be a part of the "Walking with Dante" podcast. My thanks to Mark Scarbrough for inviting me to interview!

Have a listen via the link above (it's just over twenty minutes). I'd love to hear from anyone who has further questions about me, my work, or anything else. And if you haven't started listening to the podcast, do yourself a favor and start from the beginning. Like the Comedy itself, it's well worth the journey.

New translation of a sonnet by Dante

I just translated the sonnet, "Guido, I wish," by Dante. It will be included in the historical background section for my Inferno translation. Check it out here:

            Guido, I wish (Guido i’ vorrei) (2021)
 

Sonnets for Ashley Faye: Christmas 2020

Christmas this year, the world is shut inside.
No gatherings of family and friends,
no feasting with a ham and chocolate pie.
Just sit indoors and wait for it to end.

But baby, if I must be stuck at home,
I’m happy that I'm stuck at home with you.
We’re isolated, but we’re not alone,
for we are two in one and one in two.

So Christmas this year, let us stay inside.
We’ll drink hot cocoa sitting by the fire,
we’ll roast a bird and make our own damn pie,
we’ll have our Christmas as our hearts desire.

The world can fall apart if we’re together,
so long as I'm with you, now and forever.

Inferno I.130-136 (engraving by Gustave Doré)

And I to him: “Poet, I ask you please—
by that same God whom you had never known,
so, from this evil and worse, I may flee—

to lead me to the place of which you spoke,
that I might see the gateway of Saint Peter
and those whom you make out to be so low.”

Then he moved on, and I kept after the leader.

Inferno I.49-54 (engraving by Gustave Doré)

And then a wolf, who seemed to be encumbered

with every craving, looking lean and light,

and she’s made wretched lives for many others—

with the fear that issued from her very sight,

she put upon me such a heavy strain

that I lost hope of getting to the height.

Inferno I.46-48 (engraving by Gustave Doré)

Against me he appeared to make his way,
with his head high and with furious hunger,
so that the air itself appeared to quake.