A dialogue with several voices to tell the Divine Comedy to young people

A short excerpt, to give an idea of ​​the climate of this version of the Divine Comedy – for now, Hell – rewritten for the boys: “‘And while I look down there with my eye, / I saw a head yes of gross shit, / which did not seem to be secular or cherco ‘. Dante, what are you doing? Do not say the bad words! We didn’t really expect it from a great poet like you … Yes, Dante is a great poet; and for this very reason he uses all the words he has at his disposal. If he has to talk about beautiful things, he uses beautiful words; if he has to talk about ugly and disgusting things, he uses ugly and disgusting words ”.

Editions for younger readers of Dante’s work already exist several, it goes without saying; but all, understandably, choose the path of the anthology: the most significant songs, the most famous characters. Franco Nembrini and Gianluca Recalcati (We went out to review the stars, Ares, 288 pp., 20 euros) instead – fresh from the success of his commentary on the Comedy for Mondadori, the first; teacher for years engaged with the younger boys, the second – choose the arduous path of integral presentation, through a lively dialogue with two voices (or rather, three, because even the numerous illustrations by Samuele Gaudio “speak”).

The first is Dante’s voice, which tells of his journey, what he sees, what he encounters, what he thinks: a lively and direct paraphrase of Dante’s text, interspersed with the most famous triplets, which allows you to walk the whole path with him. The second voice is that of Nembrini / Recalcati, which winks at the language of the young reader, always aimed at giving back to Dante’s journey all the flavor of adventure, of the journey to discover the world and himself. From time to time the counterpoint explains the most difficult passages, offers the outline elements to understand – what is this symbol, who is that character … -, suggests food for thought. Because the purpose of the operation is clear, declared at the start: “We have experienced hells in recent years: Covid, the war, the disappointment of politics … Most of all the boys, young people, who at the dawn of life face a black horizon – also because too often they face adults who only know how to complain and curse, who no longer know how to bear witness to happiness, no longer have sufficient reasons to hope. What need is there, then, to take another hell in hand, the one Dante tells us in the Divine Comedy? There is a very great need: because Dante tells us that from hell, from any hell, we can get out“. Yesterday, Friday 4 November, in Bassano, the “Catholic Culture” prize was awarded to Franco Nembrini.