Ladies and gentlemen,
I must thank so very much the "Enrico Fermi" Cultural Committee and my friend Paul Palombo, Professor at Fordham University, splendid admirer and renowened scholar of Dante's work and a man that is a beloved friend of the Albanian culture and albanians. By having organized this event they have created the possibility to have Dante's poetry recited not only in Italian but in Albanian as well.
I must also thank from my heart my italian and albanian friends that have, with their presence, honored me this evening.
This meeting is a tribute to the immortal masterpieces of Dante, a genius who is not only the pride of the Italian people but is also the pride of humanity in general.
I consider this meeting an additional source of pride because it is a further indication of the close ties that exist between the Albanian culture and European culture but mostly the close relationship to Italian culture.
I must confess that my translation of Dante's Inferno represents the most important achievement in a cycle of several European works which I translated and whose clear purpose was to exspose and resist tyranny, violence and fanaticism. This cycle, realized in the time of communist regime, includes: Aescylu's "Prometheus Bound" , Volter's "Zadig or La Destinè", Dostoyevsky's "Memories from the house of the dead", Saint-Ekzupery's "Wind, Sand and Stars" and "Novels of Kolyma" of russian dissident writer Shalamof, who better than any other writer had indicated the monstrous proportions of the violence and tyranny produced by the communist system.
My country, Albania, was the country in which this tyranny and this violence were applied to their most excesive levels, more than anywhere else.
I feel a great deal of emotions in reading Dante's Canto's in Albanian in front of such a distinguished public, particularly here, in America, where you are implementing the most daring and democratic attempt at realizing a harmonious society, composed by the people of diverse races, nationalities and religions, a society - free of all sorts of discrimination and with democratic tolerance for all.
Thank for your attention.
New York, May 25, 1995