The Italian Embassy in Yangon is also taking part in the Week of the Italian Language in the World, involving young Burmese people. About 30 young people, more than half beginners in the study of the Italian language, have made five videos dealing with their encounter with Dante, made possible thanks to the first-ever translation into Burmese of the fifth Canto of the Inferno and a sonnet, the XXVI, “Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare”, from the Vita Nova have been translated, by a local poet selected by the Italian Embassy.
In the videos, the students describe, in Italian, their impact with the work of the Supreme Poet, which for most of them, was unknown. In the videos, the students also read a triplet each from the fifth canto of the Inferno. Alessandra Schiavo, the Italian Ambassador to Myanmar, said: “This confirms not only the interest in our culture but also the hunger of these young people to be open to the world”. “Supporting these young people in their desire to continue studying, although schools and universities in the country have been closed for over a year and a half because of the pandemic and the large number of people who have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement,” added the Ambassador, ”is, together with the dissemination of Dante’s work, the most significant meaning of this cultural initiative of our Embassy.
