I got inspired to read Dante’s Divine Comedy, by writings of my mentor Daisaku Ikeda. Since childhood, I’ve read his writings and have felt inspired. When there was fear of partition and speculation of new rulers over the heads during 1947, my mentor Daisaku Ikeda was in Japan. The war had just gotten over and they were working through jobs. It was around this time, he met his lifelong mentor Jose Toda.
Throughout the time he was working for Josei Toda in SGI and helping him rebuild his failing business. He would write accounts of his day in a journal and also share some thoughts of his while reading classic literature.
Dante’s Divine Comedy is one of them. Why is Dante’s Divine Comedy considered a classic literature ? Why should one read Dante’s Divine Comedy? What is its purpose (since it’s a lifelong work of Dante)?
One thing I gathered is that it is written in a vernacular language which was spoken by most common folks and that at the time there were many dialects of Italian in each city and most poems which were written were in language that was spoken by the aristocrats and the church. That makes it first literature of the time meant for the common folks.
