How young the classics are. Ovid and Seneca's advice (re)translated to speak to everyone.

Ovid's advice for overcoming heartbreak, Cicero's "tips" on friendship, which even surfaced in his final year of high school. Seneca's compass for the pursuit of happiness, and Plutarch's invitation, a pioneer of vegetarianism, to respect animals. Great classics, not so distant from us. "Trying to bring them closer together by retranslating them is a long-standing dream of mine. There are prestigious translations, but sometimes you come across texts written in a somewhat dated Italian that risks alienating young people and those who have never studied Greek and Latin." Thus Cristina Dell'Acqua, a professor at Collegio San Carlo and IULM University, launched the venture (and the new series "I classici," fresh off the press from Roi Edizioni) together with a team of scholar-teachers "to get the pulse of young people and strike the right balance between accurate translation and the need to be understood by as many readers as possible, because these are timeless, rather than timely, texts. They teach us so much." Dell'Acqua, who has been teaching for 34 years, has always believed in this, and over the years has gradually refined methods to engage young people and make sense of the translations: much more than simple (or very complicated) mental exercises. Language is not neutral, but above all, it is alive: using "fresher" terms also means being more faithful to the authors and demonstrating their "energy" even outside of school. "We love books that speak to us, that relate to our lives," the professor emphasizes, "why should we see the Greek and Latin classics only as texts to suffer through? They have just as much to say to us as the Russian and French classics; we just need to change our perspective."

The new literary adventure begins with four "acts," the first four volumes of the series edited by Cristina Dell'Acqua: "How to Live Happily" (De vita beata) by Seneca, "The Value of Friendship" (De amicitia) by Cicero, "How to Heal the Pains of Love" (Remedia amoris) by Ovid, and "How to Respect Animals" by Plutarch, which collects two texts by the Greek scholar. "How often do we say that our animals only lack speech?" smiles Professor Dell'Acqua. "A couple of millennia ago, Plutarch wrote a work not only to recount their intelligence: he anticipated the idea of respect, which also includes not eating them. And he goes further. Imagine Ulysses asking Circe to transform all the Greek men he had transformed into animals. "No problem: just ask," she replies, while one of them explains why he doesn't want to go back to being a man."

We then explore the timeless theme of heartbreak. "Ovid gives very practical advice: distract yourself, travel, don't idealize the person, but grasp their flaws," explains the curator, who didn't yet know she'd nailed the text she'd chosen for her final-year exams when she chose to retranslate Cicero's "De Amicitia." A sign of fate or a "proof of concept" of how timely it is to reflect on it. "Right now, I believe a topic worth addressing is loneliness," confirms the professor. "There's a heated debate on social media, on 'Adolescence,' and we have a generation of young people suffering, both victims and perpetrators. It's hard to cultivate real-life relationships. In such a heated period, the philosopher Cicero has a lot to say." The politician Seneca, too, "was perfectly immersed in everyday reality and can help us understand how to carve out moments of serenity within our everyday lives." Especially in the age of artificial intelligence, where asking questions will be increasingly crucial. "One of the methods we can implement is to get young people to think about things, to read, translate, reflect, and talk to them," Professor Dell'Acqua emphasizes. "School is a privileged place, but even at home you can practice more. We often overwhelm kids' days with 'doing, doing, doing.' But we need to find the time to stop and think, regaining a certain slowness: festina lente, in short, hurry slowly." Never give up. "My first principal, who recently passed away, Father Bernardino Bacchion, used to say that adults need to run so kids can keep up, and even the laziest one can trot," Cristina Dell'Acqua concludes. "It's true: we need to lend a hand to adolescents. They know how to show grit and push past obstacles." And often, even classics can come to the rescue and offer a different perspective.