Hell of the "Divine Comedy" announcer

In the middle of the path of this life
I was found in a forest of total darkness,
That you had lost the true path.
How can I tell you how much I have difficulties?
That wild forest, harsh, hata forest,
I miss him with fear again!

The verses above are taken from Song XXXIII of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy", a work pronounced by Pashko Gjeçi.

In one of the photos from the last years of his life, his portrait comes complete as he lights a cigarette.

The man who wandered so long in the world of Dante or Homer would be 101 years old today. He was born on September 7, 1918 and passed away on January 21, 2010.

Pashko Gjeçi studied at the College of the Jesuits, which he did not manage to finish as the religious schools were closed at that time. After graduating from the high school in Shkodra with very good results, in 1938 the boy won a scholarship to pursue higher studies in Italy. In 1943, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature in Rome with high results, with a diploma thesis "The Life and Works of Dom Ndre Mjeda". Wanted to work as an assistant-pedagogue, Pashku refuses and encouraged by Ernest Koliqi to make his own contribution to the homeland, he returns the same year. The Ministry of Education of that time appointed him as a professor of Literature and Latin in the gymnasium of Shkodra.

After the communists came to power, Pashko Gjeçi continued to teach at that gymnasium until the middle of 1945 and then moved to the city of Durrës. Here he was arrested as being involved in an organization which aimed to violently overthrow the communist government in Albania.

The trial would sentence him to five years in prison, which he did mainly in Durrës and in the Maliqi swamp, where he was sent during the summer months. After his release from prison, Pashko Gjeçi returned to his hometown in Shkodër. There he decided to translate the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

From 1968 to 1972 he taught Latin at the Faculty of Medicine. He works near the school book house as a proofreader until his retirement in September 1978. In 1976, "Odyssey", another translation of his, will be published. With the fall of the communist regime and the arrival of the 2000s, the masterpieces translated by him into Albanian were republished, but also saw the light of publication for the first time. "Divine Comedy" and "Odyssey" were reprinted in 2006, "Fausti" (part 1) in 2008, "Andromaka" and "Atalia" by Rasini in 2010.

The Italian association "Dante Alighieri" in the 70s internationally evaluated Gjeç's Albanian translation as one of the three best translations of the "Divine Comedy" in the world. Gjeçi was decorated by the Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, in 2004, with the "Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity" for the translation of Dante. For the 90th anniversary of his birth, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports of Albania awards him the National Translation Award "Fan Noli", for the translation of Goethe's "Faust".

Pashko Gjeçi passed away at the age of 91. /Albania/