Week of the Italian Language Marked in Tehran

TEHRAN (Iran News) Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Perrone hosted the event while Italian Cultural Counsellor Yara Romanova and First Secretary of the embassy Giulia Flore helped him for holding the event in style.

Addressing the participants Ambassador Perrone welcomed the participants and said that on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of famous Italian writer and intellectual Italo Calvino, this year’s event in Tehran was dedicated to him as many of his works have been translated in Iran several times.

He then pointed to the style of Calvino’s writing and reiterated that he was challenging with the Fascist forces during the World War II and he believed literature had important role in politics and his special look and vision to the realities and the world were of his characteristics.

Perrone noted that Calvino was interested in foreign cultures and he paid a visit to Iran and he was in Iran for two months to make a documentary and during his presence in Iran he visited Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan and Yazd and he praised Iran. He reiterated that some 30 works of Calvino have been translated in Iran by famous Iranian translators.

Then Romanova took the floor and invited the participants to watch a short and documentary film where Calvino’s friend during his visit to Iran Alber Negrin recounted some of that unforgettable travel. She said some of Negrin’s photos during his and Calvino’s visit to Tehran have been put on display in this event.

Then a documentary made by Mohammad Moghadam with the title of “The Shape of Time” was screened for the participants in which some translators and directors expressed their views on Calvino’s impact on Italian literature and translation of his works in Iran.

They all hailed Calvino for being creative and reiterated some 95% of his works have been translated in Iran.

Then in the second part of the event, a roundtable chaired by First Secretary Flore was held with presence of some translators and publishers of Calvino’s works and they explained why they chose the works of Calvino for translation.

Calvino is best known works include Italian Folktales, a lyrical retelling of 200 traditional fables, the allegorical Our Ancestors trilogy, the whimsical Cosmicomics short story collection, and the novels Invisible City and If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler.

The Week of the Italian Language in the World is an event that has been held by Italian missions abroad since 2001 and that over time has become one of the most important initiatives dedicated to the celebration of the Italian language internationally. The event is held and marked in the third were of October (16-21) every year and each year it is dedicated to one of the greatest of Italian literature and language.

This year Italian Embassy in Tehran chose Calvino because he is famous in Iran and his works have been translated into Persian. It also postponed the event to late October and early November and some photos and books of Calvino were put on display during the event.