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Rating: Fear, anguish, dread, terror, pain, relief, struggle, happiness, joy, divine ecstasy: Yes, divine, as a gentleman named Boccaccio liked to pair with the title. Divine because it is the sum of the highest literary arts, because it is the most discussed, lauded, intriguing, dramatic, outrageous, superb text ever written.
The Commedia, written by the ultimate poet Durante Alighieri between 1307 and 1321, is the most majestic work of world literature, a universal work, a perfect and meticulous encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, a summa of all the highest poetic sentiments.
In the jubilee year of 1300, the poet embarks on a journey that will lead him to visit the three great realms of the afterlife (a bit like Ulysses or Aeneas, narrated by Virgil). And in just two days of walking, with the loving guidance of the poet-prophet Virgil, Dante travels entirely through the infernal valley, where he encounters devils, the damned, monsters, giants, mythological figures, and Lucifer, the absolute ruler of hell. On the third day, he will then climb the arduous mountain of purgatory, explore the earthly paradise, and only after purification rites, will he ascend, with Beatrice's guidance (not coincidentally a woman, a gender celebrated by all the poets of the dolce stil novo as the supreme perfection of beauty) to the celestial spheres.
Dante paints an extraordinary succession of allegories that relate to his time, his society, his Florence, his Italy. Despite being a low-medieval work, the theme of the Commedia is terrifyingly current: The thirst for power, lust, and arrogance (represented by the three beasts) are the only obstacles that prevent us from ascending to a higher level of knowledge, from knowing eternal peace, from climbing that hill illuminated by the sun. And then what does Virgil tell us? To ascend to this "higher" conception we need to take a longer journey, an enormous psychological excursus on our sins, on our mistakes: <A te convien tenere altro viaggio/ rispuose poi che lagrimar mi vide/ se vuò campar d'esto loco selvaggio>
The dark forest. A dense wood full of obstacles, dark, shadowy. Like perdition, like the corruption of society: a shadowy gloom that hinders and frightens us, and when we are about to reach the light, there is something that impedes our way and that
The Commedia should therefore be read with a critical eye, and in every verse, Dante hides something truly important. We must not forget, however, that the story, after all, as the supreme poet himself tells us, is only a comedy.
The extreme beauty of Dantean tercets, even when they seem far-fetched, even when they are obscene (and there are many), even when they convey the most repugnant image, makes us jump and a shiver runs down the reader's spine. How can a human being have written something like this? How can a human mind conceive thoughts of such high elevation? How can it describe ecstatic images with such few and dry words?
Like a celestial vision of God, the divine Commedia explores our soul, but above all, makes us proud to be Italians. A sacrilegious journey that has a single goal, perfection:
"The love that moves the sun and the other stars"
P.S.: I am an atheist, I confess. But if I were truly mistaken, when I die, after discovering my error, I will surely be sent to the first circle of purgatory: the proud. Who would have allowed me to ruin such a great work if not my pride?
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