William Shakespeare’s death 400 years ago was commemorated recently in many enlightened countries besides England, his  birthplace. The Bard, like Venice, does not only belong to England, however, like Venice, is the world’s heritage.

Malta, a country rightfully proud of its history and culture, unfortunately is of the opinion that Shakespeare is a passé entity because we know enough English to speak it and write it. As far as I am aware, not one single activity was organised in gratitude for the legacy this genius left  to this world.

Shakespeare has left among many other precious works a vocabulary that is used daily by anyone expressing oneself in English. Our pride in our ways has somehow made us eschew the benefits derived from reading.

There is, I believe, a direct relationship between the lack of reading and the poor marks and results achieved in the English language examinations.

It also explains ,to some extent, why we are so insular and must have everything translated into Maltese.

Shakespeare once fell victim to one misguided patriot who translated six of his plays into Maltese. Full marks for his optimism and zero marks for failing to capture the beauty, the nuance, the melody and the originality of the language used.

The other day, I listened to Fr Joe Borg encouraging Campus FM listeners to read more. Well, I say,  power to his elbow. His Campus FM has Patricia Salomone reading a novel by de Waal. That kind of programme is surely a good idea, especially because it is in English. The station should extend it to reading the Classics.

We had no Shakespeare tributes but we can always have Dan and Stan or song contests and other trivia from  the other media to broaden our minds.

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