Publikazzjonijiet Dumnikani:Ħsibijiet fuq id-Divina Commedia
Issue 128; edited by Fr Raymond Gatt OP;
2019; 100 pp
Every quarter, Knisja Elfejn (Komunikazzjoni Dumnikana) has been publishing a series of interesting books on various subjects, but all dealing in a way with Christian teachings as their fundamental theme, in a particularly hugely interesting didactic form.
The latest edition, this year, has been dedicated to Dante, with Ħsibijiet fuq id-Divina Commedia. Having spent 20 years of my life translating this masterpiece into Maltese, I welcomed this book with great enthusiasm and lots of bitter-sweet nostalgia.
Fr Raymond Gatt, OP, opens the book with an editorial focusing on Dante, his works and his times, particularly the genesis and the events, personal and historical, that eventually led to the creation of this unique work of literature.
Simon Mercieca explains in a highly professional way, how Dante looked at Purgatory, in the then prevailing controversial theological concepts about it; a debatable cause for discussions and cynicism. Joseph Brincat also goes through Dante’s life in relation with the Commedia, highlighting the essential value of allegory in the work, as well as what was the ultimate effect of the symbolisms used, and/or the various interpretations of innumerable scholars of Dante throughout the centuries.
This is followed by President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, who professionally expounds Dante’s thoughts and visions about Church and State. Fr Lawrence E. Attard, OP, then looks in depth into Dante’s distinction between temporal and spiritual power.
A must for all would love to dig further into Dante’s life and into the Divina Commedia
Tonio Borg discusses most effectively how Dante looked at politics and the relative human rights. Politics is once again dealt with by Louis Galea, who brilliantly adds ethics as the universal theme that drove Dante on in his quest for what is essentially human.
Also very interesting is Richard Muscat’s contribution: numerology in the Commedia, particularly how Dante related various numbers in his work to further embellish the allegorical symbolisms used in all the three Cantiche.
Charles Briffa then writes about Dante in Maltese. This deals with translations of the Commedia since 1864. I beg to differ that the Commedia has been fully translated three times in Maltese. As far as I know, it has been fully translated (and rhymed) only once, by me, between 1966 and 1986, and published in 1991, at my own expense. Since 1864, only parts or sporadic adaptations of the Commedia were translated or written. Erin Serracino Inglott published only the Inferno in 1964, and the other two Cantiche, supposedly finished, never saw the light.
The last contributor in this book is Fr Joseph Agius, OP, who deals expansively with the sense of the Biblical text in the communal tradition.
Information about the contributors concludes this very valuable and informative book, a must for all lovers of literature, but particularly for those who know and love Dante like I do, and would love to dig even further into his life and into the Divina Commedia itself, the greatest literary work of all times.