Celebrating World Book Day

April 23 is a symbolic date for world literature. Three major authors passed away on that date. Spain’s Miguel de Cervantes, the celebrated writer of Don Quixote, considered the world’s first modern novel, William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright in English language and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the first universal author from the American continent.The three of them lived during the same time and passed away on the very same day, April 23, 1616. Hence, this date was selected as Unesco’s World Book Day, an international day to promote reading world-wide.As Spain’s ambassador to Qatar, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the two figures that reflect the diversity and importance of the Spanish language in the world, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso. Miguel de Cervantes lived an incredible life of adventures. In addition of being a poet he was a soldier and traveller.We know very little of his early life though many historians believe he had Arab ancestry, a logical fact taking into consideration the seven centuries of Arab presence in the Iberian peninsula. He travelled through Italy, back in the 16th century a battlefield between major of powers, where he learnt of Latin poetry and Italian art. Allegedly he also fought a duel which cost him some trouble.In 1570 he joined the Spanish navy and a year later participated in the Battle of Lepanto, where he lost an arm (he was nicknamed the one-handed from Lepanto). Later he was taken prisoner by the Ottomans and spent five years in jail in Algiers.After being released, he returned to Spain where he produced his literary works: The Galatea, Novelas Ejemplares and the masterpiece El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.As for Inca Garcilaso, he represents the universal character of the Spanish language, spoken by more than 500mn people and being the official language of 22 countries.Inca Garcilaso was born in Cuzco, current Peru and back then part of the American realms of the Spanish Empire. His work represents a blend of the traditions of the peoples of America and Spain. He recorded the traditions, culture and history of the Inca in his masterpiece Comentarios reales de los Incas. As testimony of the multicultural aspect of the Spanish language, it still harbours more than 4,000 words of Arab origin.A prominent example of the continuous interaction between the Spanish and Arab language is found in Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the most influential Spanish poets. He wrote a book of qasidas, El Divan del Tamarit, and other similar poems. This masterpiece honours the legacy of the Arab poets of Al-Andalus. Lorca attempted to immerse himself in their poetry in order to reveal the soul, the essence, and recast it in his own manner to explore how close he could come in Spanish to some formal aspects of classical Arabic poetry.Finally, on this occasion, I would like to pay a tribute to all authors and I would like to encourage everyone to read books. World Book Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the passion of reading and the universal heritage of literature.