Wednesday, March 18, 2009
By Dr. Haim Reitan
A remarkable creative individuality
Shefki Hysa was born in Ersekë on July 20, 1957 in an intellectual family.
His father, Mazar, was a teacher for the minority vlleh at this time and followed their pastoral movement, passing the summer in "Gramoz" mountains in the region of Kolonje with Erseka as municipality, pending the winter so in Saranda, always concerned for the education of shepherds’ children. All his family lived in Shalës, Konispol.
The mother of Shefki, Bahrieja followed up her husband in his movements taking care of the family. Shefki belongs to an old patriot family settled in Konispol, Shales in the 18-th century, perhaps in the period of the Muslim influence in the region, since it is considered as one of the first seven founding families of Shales village, according to the popular memory. AS we can see, it was a rich family, who lived caring for livestock and agriculture, owns several timber, pasture and cropland, therefore they can be considered as real patriots and they were ready to be sacrificed to protect their homeland, La Patrie - Chameri, from the separatory intentions of Greek invasion.
The grandfather of Shefki, the well-known patriot Shefki Hoxha (they were religious for generations and that’s why they were called "Hoxha"), is known as one of the founders of the first patriots’ clubs of Konispol, Filat, as a donor of the first schools in the Albanian region Chameri (Konispol, Filat and Gumenicë), and as a tough critic of any power, such as Turkish and following the royal power of Zog The I-st . In the early 20-s, Shefki Hoxha was famous as a democrat, a great adherent of Noli and his reformist government, regardless of the fact that its properties could be affected. This was one of the reasons why he was imprisoned by the regime of Zog I. The popular poet of the region sang:
"Telegrams come and go, / gendarmes raise custody, / a rebellion was spoken for, / when the Chameri King denied, / deny Ahmet his majesty. / In Shales took Shefki, / Konispol, Maze Hami / and also Xhafo Pandalejmoni "…
Shefki Hoxha fell ill in prison in Lezha and died in 1936, because of unbearable pain of imprisonment.
The father of Shefki Hysa, Mazar, has been persecuted as anti-dictatorship, although their home in Shales was an important war support. In 1960 Mazar was fired from Education, because of his brother nationalist Sadedin, shot without trial by the Communists on November 13 of 1943 at the Partisan hospital of Theollogos. So, their family was involved in the blind mechanism of the war classes, which seriously affected even Shefki, after the death of his father, Mazar, in 1976. Mazar Hysa, the father of Shefki Hysa, left this world with the bitter taste of this life. Shefki has managed to survive thanks to the genes inherited from the grandparents.
Shefki has begun his studies in the village of Shalës, Konispol. He started high school, with agricultural profile, in 1972 and completed in 1976 at Konispol, Tchamëri . (The communist regime of the period had obliged him to attend the agricultural school, because of his "bad" biography, as a family of rich and anti-communist origin and for the fact that his uncle, Sadedin, was shot for political reasons). After ten years of surviving efforts, in 1985, Shefki is able to have the right of studying literature at the University of Tirana. Thanks to the insistence of the well-known Albanian writer Dritëro Agolli, his position as Chairman of the Union of Artists and Writers of Albania, allowed him to give Shefki the right to follow his university studies and also in other occasions, as in the case when to poet Namik Mane was denied the right of publications, he did his best to help him.
In 1989 he was graduated in language and literature at the Faculty of History and Philology, at the University of Tirana. Meanwhile he continued to write and published his first stories. So finally Shefki Hysa has been recognized and valued his talent for prose, characterized by a remarkable creative individuality as the critics expressed for his first lyrics, welcomed by the public and literary readers. "My dear teller, by strange comments and sensitive feelings; a writer always appreciated by me and others," so expressed Dritëro, enthusiastic for his literary future and he never would be disappointed. During 1991-97 he worked as a journalist for the newspaper "Çamëria" and as chief editor for newspapers "Kombi" and "Dielli". In the meantime he attended several specializations for journalism, publishing, public relations and international issues.
Since 1997, he continued working in the administration of the Parliament of Albania.
He founded and continues to run the Cultural Association "Bilal Xhaferri" and Publishing House "Bilal Xhaferri".
He is the Secretary of the Union of Writers and Artists of Albania.
Among his publications, he has "The bird and the devil," stories (1992), published by "Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing House.
“Peace Hostages" novel (1994), published by " Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing house"
"Dammed Paradise" novel (1997), published by "Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing House.
"Confessions of a thief," stories (1999), published by "Arbëria" Publishing House
"Chameri Flavor" stories (2004), published by "Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing House, ISBN 99927-960-1-4
"False Miracles," stories (2005) publication of the "Bilal Xhaferri" publishing house, ISBN 99927-960-0-6
Editor of the novel "The Prostitute worthy of respect" (1992), writer Jean Paul Sartre.
Editor of the romance "Fatal Love" (1992), writer Alfred de Musset.
Editor of the romance "Bloody Love (Beyond distances)" (1992), writer Bilal Xhaferri.
Editor of the romance "Krastakraus (Berat ceded)" (1993), writer Bilal Xhaferri.
Editor of the novel "Invasion of the Vikings" (1993), writer Pjetër Arbnori.
Editor of the romance "La belle with the shadow" (1994), writer Pjetër Arbnori.
Editor of poetry volume "The vine of Tears" (1995), poet Namik Mane.
Editor of stories volume "One ordinary night” (2003), author Namik Mane.
Editor of stories volume "White desert" (2007), author Jack London.
Editor's novel “We have traveled the World with our paws” (2007), writer Xhulia Xhekaj, and etc etc. Publications and literary essays edited and created by him and other authors.
Since 1995 publishes and edits as chief editor the monthly magazine "Eagle’s Wing", a political, cultural, literary and social magazine, published first in 1971, in two languages, Albanian and in English, as organ of Chame League in Chicago, the - US. Its first founder, editor and leader was Bilal Xhaferri, poet, prose-writer and a well-known dissident publicist, who was born on November 2, 1935 at Ninat, Konispol, and after an intense literary and publicist, died in exile (fleeing Albania in 1969 as anti-communist nationalist) on October 14, 1986 in Chicago, in the United States.
"The Eagle’s Wing" was a forum of free democratic thinking basically by anticommunist, anti -dictatorial and anti-enverists inclinations, which tended the union of all Albanian political forces in exile, the unification of thought, programs and their goals for a free Albania Pro-Western. The magazine dealt largely Albanian national issues, especially Chame issues, the problem of Kosova, and other territories left outside the legitimate borders of Albania, and also the problems of the Albanian communities everywhere in the world and Diaspora. Bilal Xhaferri was able to publish 39 editions.
Since 1995 and after "Eagle’s Wing" has continued to be published in Tirana, as the official journal of the Cultural Association "Bilal Xhaferri" (The Cultural Community of Chameri) founded and directed by journalist and well-known writer Shefki Hysa, who enabled the return of Bilal Xhaferri bones in Albania and to glorify the extraordinary values of this rare personality, persecuted and thrown into oblivion of the communist dictatorship in Albania. Shefki Hysa, acting as editor and chief editor of the monthly magazine, with its contributions and those of his friends, was able to publish 80 editions and continues insisting to glorify this pedestal of free thinking, following Bilal Xhaferri’s ideals.
His ideal: Chameri and ethnic Albania.
Dr. Haim Reitan, Diplomat,
Honorary President
of the Diplomatic Mission
Peace and Prosperity
A remarkable creative individuality
Shefki Hysa was born in Ersekë on July 20, 1957 in an intellectual family.
His father, Mazar, was a teacher for the minority vlleh at this time and followed their pastoral movement, passing the summer in "Gramoz" mountains in the region of Kolonje with Erseka as municipality, pending the winter so in Saranda, always concerned for the education of shepherds’ children. All his family lived in Shalës, Konispol.
The mother of Shefki, Bahrieja followed up her husband in his movements taking care of the family. Shefki belongs to an old patriot family settled in Konispol, Shales in the 18-th century, perhaps in the period of the Muslim influence in the region, since it is considered as one of the first seven founding families of Shales village, according to the popular memory. AS we can see, it was a rich family, who lived caring for livestock and agriculture, owns several timber, pasture and cropland, therefore they can be considered as real patriots and they were ready to be sacrificed to protect their homeland, La Patrie - Chameri, from the separatory intentions of Greek invasion.
The grandfather of Shefki, the well-known patriot Shefki Hoxha (they were religious for generations and that’s why they were called "Hoxha"), is known as one of the founders of the first patriots’ clubs of Konispol, Filat, as a donor of the first schools in the Albanian region Chameri (Konispol, Filat and Gumenicë), and as a tough critic of any power, such as Turkish and following the royal power of Zog The I-st . In the early 20-s, Shefki Hoxha was famous as a democrat, a great adherent of Noli and his reformist government, regardless of the fact that its properties could be affected. This was one of the reasons why he was imprisoned by the regime of Zog I. The popular poet of the region sang:
"Telegrams come and go, / gendarmes raise custody, / a rebellion was spoken for, / when the Chameri King denied, / deny Ahmet his majesty. / In Shales took Shefki, / Konispol, Maze Hami / and also Xhafo Pandalejmoni "…
Shefki Hoxha fell ill in prison in Lezha and died in 1936, because of unbearable pain of imprisonment.
The father of Shefki Hysa, Mazar, has been persecuted as anti-dictatorship, although their home in Shales was an important war support. In 1960 Mazar was fired from Education, because of his brother nationalist Sadedin, shot without trial by the Communists on November 13 of 1943 at the Partisan hospital of Theollogos. So, their family was involved in the blind mechanism of the war classes, which seriously affected even Shefki, after the death of his father, Mazar, in 1976. Mazar Hysa, the father of Shefki Hysa, left this world with the bitter taste of this life. Shefki has managed to survive thanks to the genes inherited from the grandparents.
Shefki has begun his studies in the village of Shalës, Konispol. He started high school, with agricultural profile, in 1972 and completed in 1976 at Konispol, Tchamëri . (The communist regime of the period had obliged him to attend the agricultural school, because of his "bad" biography, as a family of rich and anti-communist origin and for the fact that his uncle, Sadedin, was shot for political reasons). After ten years of surviving efforts, in 1985, Shefki is able to have the right of studying literature at the University of Tirana. Thanks to the insistence of the well-known Albanian writer Dritëro Agolli, his position as Chairman of the Union of Artists and Writers of Albania, allowed him to give Shefki the right to follow his university studies and also in other occasions, as in the case when to poet Namik Mane was denied the right of publications, he did his best to help him.
In 1989 he was graduated in language and literature at the Faculty of History and Philology, at the University of Tirana. Meanwhile he continued to write and published his first stories. So finally Shefki Hysa has been recognized and valued his talent for prose, characterized by a remarkable creative individuality as the critics expressed for his first lyrics, welcomed by the public and literary readers. "My dear teller, by strange comments and sensitive feelings; a writer always appreciated by me and others," so expressed Dritëro, enthusiastic for his literary future and he never would be disappointed. During 1991-97 he worked as a journalist for the newspaper "Çamëria" and as chief editor for newspapers "Kombi" and "Dielli". In the meantime he attended several specializations for journalism, publishing, public relations and international issues.
Since 1997, he continued working in the administration of the Parliament of Albania.
He founded and continues to run the Cultural Association "Bilal Xhaferri" and Publishing House "Bilal Xhaferri".
He is the Secretary of the Union of Writers and Artists of Albania.
Among his publications, he has "The bird and the devil," stories (1992), published by "Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing House.
“Peace Hostages" novel (1994), published by " Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing house"
"Dammed Paradise" novel (1997), published by "Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing House.
"Confessions of a thief," stories (1999), published by "Arbëria" Publishing House
"Chameri Flavor" stories (2004), published by "Bilal Xhaferri" Publishing House, ISBN 99927-960-1-4
"False Miracles," stories (2005) publication of the "Bilal Xhaferri" publishing house, ISBN 99927-960-0-6
Editor of the novel "The Prostitute worthy of respect" (1992), writer Jean Paul Sartre.
Editor of the romance "Fatal Love" (1992), writer Alfred de Musset.
Editor of the romance "Bloody Love (Beyond distances)" (1992), writer Bilal Xhaferri.
Editor of the romance "Krastakraus (Berat ceded)" (1993), writer Bilal Xhaferri.
Editor of the novel "Invasion of the Vikings" (1993), writer Pjetër Arbnori.
Editor of the romance "La belle with the shadow" (1994), writer Pjetër Arbnori.
Editor of poetry volume "The vine of Tears" (1995), poet Namik Mane.
Editor of stories volume "One ordinary night” (2003), author Namik Mane.
Editor of stories volume "White desert" (2007), author Jack London.
Editor's novel “We have traveled the World with our paws” (2007), writer Xhulia Xhekaj, and etc etc. Publications and literary essays edited and created by him and other authors.
Since 1995 publishes and edits as chief editor the monthly magazine "Eagle’s Wing", a political, cultural, literary and social magazine, published first in 1971, in two languages, Albanian and in English, as organ of Chame League in Chicago, the - US. Its first founder, editor and leader was Bilal Xhaferri, poet, prose-writer and a well-known dissident publicist, who was born on November 2, 1935 at Ninat, Konispol, and after an intense literary and publicist, died in exile (fleeing Albania in 1969 as anti-communist nationalist) on October 14, 1986 in Chicago, in the United States.
"The Eagle’s Wing" was a forum of free democratic thinking basically by anticommunist, anti -dictatorial and anti-enverists inclinations, which tended the union of all Albanian political forces in exile, the unification of thought, programs and their goals for a free Albania Pro-Western. The magazine dealt largely Albanian national issues, especially Chame issues, the problem of Kosova, and other territories left outside the legitimate borders of Albania, and also the problems of the Albanian communities everywhere in the world and Diaspora. Bilal Xhaferri was able to publish 39 editions.
Since 1995 and after "Eagle’s Wing" has continued to be published in Tirana, as the official journal of the Cultural Association "Bilal Xhaferri" (The Cultural Community of Chameri) founded and directed by journalist and well-known writer Shefki Hysa, who enabled the return of Bilal Xhaferri bones in Albania and to glorify the extraordinary values of this rare personality, persecuted and thrown into oblivion of the communist dictatorship in Albania. Shefki Hysa, acting as editor and chief editor of the monthly magazine, with its contributions and those of his friends, was able to publish 80 editions and continues insisting to glorify this pedestal of free thinking, following Bilal Xhaferri’s ideals.
His ideal: Chameri and ethnic Albania.
Dr. Haim Reitan, Diplomat,
Honorary President
of the Diplomatic Mission
Peace and Prosperity
By Dr. Haim Reitan
Chameria
Chameria is the southernmost part of the Albanian territorial lump. Thus it is the ancient ilyrical Thesprotia, the natural beauty and the Epiryc spirit, a jonian Territorial Seashore stretches of the deep Albanian southern from Saranda to Preveze which form Toskeria.
Its largest part, beyond Konispol’s boundary, at the Bota’s saddle and far on toward south, was unduly annexed by Greeks in 1913. Only konispol’s region with its round villages was remained from Tchame, inside the motherhood lump-Albania. From the ancient times Tchame is divided from Greece by the Narta’s gulf and by the Preveza’s narrow. It extends 100 km towards north, and rises to Dodona’s peak eastside.
Within this space it is précised over 4.000km2 terrene. Since Chame occupies the main place in Europe-Azia passages and since the infield (olive-groves, citrus, viticulture, arboriculture and farming) and its harbors (Gumenica, Preveza, Sallahora, Parga and Sajadha) are some of the main economical sources in the south Balkan.
It has been coveted, assaulted time after time by the easterners and westerners and often transformed in a battle field. Greeks were the invaders who consistently aimed not only the extinction of Albanians of these ethnical territories, but also the disintegration of “Chame” as a notion. Because of many wars the Chame population could never come up to over 115000. Maybe because of survival reasons over 65% of Chames enfolded the Islamic religion and others remained orthodoxies.Tchames suffered big losses in each of the fightings with different conquerors, but their biggest fatality was that caused from Greeks, after six month armed grappling. Just as they entered in Tchame (10-12 March 1913), the Greeks army began the extinction of the bravest men. Only near Paramithise, they shredded 100 from those they could capture. The next massive squall fulminated in the winter of the year 1921-1922, by the Greek invaders. Hundreds and hundreds Chames and Janines were killed, imprisoned, deported, clobbered; hundrets of women and ladies were ravished and massacred.
Another massive squall even more ravishing was shredded by the Greek rulers during year 1922-1926, who dispatched from Chame 30000 Islamic Albanian and other 40000 from Jeanine and Trans-Gramoz, with the most violent ways and means. Even more dreadful was the wash that they fulminated during Oct-Dec 1914 and Jan-April 1941. Initially they ravished from their hotbeds all the Islamic
Albanians from 14-15 and up and closed them in the death’s traps notably set in the Egeik waters. Not a few of them were barbarously killed during the craw lings on the roads, and more and more passed away among the above mentioned traps, similar to those of Aushvichit, Dakaut, Majdanikut etc. the final extinction of Islamic Albanians, Greek rulers had preprepared to be on April 1941, when they would shut all children and women in those traps. But God sailed in towards the Greek wolfs the German tigers. This gave the chance to be stopped the Greek monstrous and to return those who could survive in those traps and come back to Chame.
The thorough extinction of the Albanian musclemen from the enslaved Chameria, Greek did during the summer autumn of 1944and march of 1945. Thousand and thousand of them: men, women, children, were grinted.from all these population only 20 - 22000, running through the ball salvos managed to get into the Albanian land.
The main towns, central districts of Chameria are Gumenica which includes town-districts of lure and Narta.
Chameria has nearly 286 agricultural villages, mainly arboriculture and farming. It drenches from the jonians sea watermarks, and it’s a Mediterranean freshness clime and rank belt, a virgin nature, always green and far away from the industrial pollutions.
Dr. Haim Reitan, Diplomat,
Honorary President
of the Diplomatic Mission
Peace and Prosperity
Chameria
Chameria is the southernmost part of the Albanian territorial lump. Thus it is the ancient ilyrical Thesprotia, the natural beauty and the Epiryc spirit, a jonian Territorial Seashore stretches of the deep Albanian southern from Saranda to Preveze which form Toskeria.
Its largest part, beyond Konispol’s boundary, at the Bota’s saddle and far on toward south, was unduly annexed by Greeks in 1913. Only konispol’s region with its round villages was remained from Tchame, inside the motherhood lump-Albania. From the ancient times Tchame is divided from Greece by the Narta’s gulf and by the Preveza’s narrow. It extends 100 km towards north, and rises to Dodona’s peak eastside.
Within this space it is précised over 4.000km2 terrene. Since Chame occupies the main place in Europe-Azia passages and since the infield (olive-groves, citrus, viticulture, arboriculture and farming) and its harbors (Gumenica, Preveza, Sallahora, Parga and Sajadha) are some of the main economical sources in the south Balkan.
It has been coveted, assaulted time after time by the easterners and westerners and often transformed in a battle field. Greeks were the invaders who consistently aimed not only the extinction of Albanians of these ethnical territories, but also the disintegration of “Chame” as a notion. Because of many wars the Chame population could never come up to over 115000. Maybe because of survival reasons over 65% of Chames enfolded the Islamic religion and others remained orthodoxies.Tchames suffered big losses in each of the fightings with different conquerors, but their biggest fatality was that caused from Greeks, after six month armed grappling. Just as they entered in Tchame (10-12 March 1913), the Greeks army began the extinction of the bravest men. Only near Paramithise, they shredded 100 from those they could capture. The next massive squall fulminated in the winter of the year 1921-1922, by the Greek invaders. Hundreds and hundreds Chames and Janines were killed, imprisoned, deported, clobbered; hundrets of women and ladies were ravished and massacred.
Another massive squall even more ravishing was shredded by the Greek rulers during year 1922-1926, who dispatched from Chame 30000 Islamic Albanian and other 40000 from Jeanine and Trans-Gramoz, with the most violent ways and means. Even more dreadful was the wash that they fulminated during Oct-Dec 1914 and Jan-April 1941. Initially they ravished from their hotbeds all the Islamic
Albanians from 14-15 and up and closed them in the death’s traps notably set in the Egeik waters. Not a few of them were barbarously killed during the craw lings on the roads, and more and more passed away among the above mentioned traps, similar to those of Aushvichit, Dakaut, Majdanikut etc. the final extinction of Islamic Albanians, Greek rulers had preprepared to be on April 1941, when they would shut all children and women in those traps. But God sailed in towards the Greek wolfs the German tigers. This gave the chance to be stopped the Greek monstrous and to return those who could survive in those traps and come back to Chame.
The thorough extinction of the Albanian musclemen from the enslaved Chameria, Greek did during the summer autumn of 1944and march of 1945. Thousand and thousand of them: men, women, children, were grinted.from all these population only 20 - 22000, running through the ball salvos managed to get into the Albanian land.
The main towns, central districts of Chameria are Gumenica which includes town-districts of lure and Narta.
Chameria has nearly 286 agricultural villages, mainly arboriculture and farming. It drenches from the jonians sea watermarks, and it’s a Mediterranean freshness clime and rank belt, a virgin nature, always green and far away from the industrial pollutions.
Dr. Haim Reitan, Diplomat,
Honorary President
of the Diplomatic Mission
Peace and Prosperity
By Visar Zhiti
The Big Chame Concussion
Shefki Hysa is the author of many narrative and story books in which echoes the troublous Chame wind and where people’s fate is connected with their land like the roots thrust deeply into stones but also like the life fingers blooded as they are grasp reality. He likes realism and the truth no matter how thrilling is. That is the reason he becomes its historian, strong witness, feeder of collective memory. Aforetime I have written that meanwhile the massacres in Kosovo are a stone’s throw and still vivid, even thought “The Balkan’s executioner”, the Serbian Miloschevich, the last communist dictator keeps on being judged for anti-humanism crimes to the court of Hag (in TV programs was often presented the Byblitical outgo of Kosovo’s, their expatriation from dardany since the world was created), we are exposed to another expatriatation of Albanians in the south most ancient and cruel Ilyric, although it didn’t have international televisions as witnesses nor didn’t congregate the worlds army, NATO, to punish the worse.
And so the Chame nationalities were expatriotated from their epyrioth land, houses were set on fire. People were slaughtered in concert with live stocks, olive-groves and the future were destroyed; it was killed the national mythology. Their terror peregrinated towards mother-land and than came like another massacre the cruel dull obliteration. Even after three-thousand years no one could say anything, in the mythic Balkan, another Troia in modern times was set on fire. Meanwhile tchames found in their homeland a dictatorship, which way didn’t try to defend the rights of its fellow countrymen, but on contrary didn’t let them alone. Maybe it prosecuted them more than the others, invented enemies, and imprisoned them. In order to meet their dreams, Chame people among their motherland communist prisons joined to Kosovo’s people to elope from hither to thither. But… the only thing they were going to meet was the rusty manacle. In this way, meanwhile Albania was cruelly fragmented by the others; Albanians did fragment inside by themselves. Later on was difficult to remember Kosovo and tchame… nothing was says about in geographic scholastic prints, history didn’t dare, conscious was constrained…
Nonetheless collective memory which milled about like a subterranean river, hidey reinforced and hardened the right resistance. Literature achieved to bring out some anonymous songs about splited lands, any tremulous Cham wail or a blustery Kosovo elegy. Folk-dancing’s recalled apocalypse with their hullabaloo, while writers tried to create metaphoric possibilities or to say sth about Kosovo and Chame through Ezopy’s language. I recollect that, if the poet Ali Podrimja like in our big sorrow would go in the trans-national coast Chame , and would write hermetic poems which he would secure thrice: from the Albanian dictatorship, the Serbian conqueror and from the Chauvin Greeks. Here, in the remaining Albania, Chame writers felt difficulty and prosecution. Books were prohibited to them; they set themselves in prisons, eloped, kept mum, waited….
Now the Chame voice has came back from its sorrow ember, covered with the ash of the ancient obliteration, to cracker of promethean fire and the world is always seeing and feeling more and more its illumination and its fervour, will be longed for the truth and justice… and a slaughter population deserves to be given back their land and their spirit, wealth songs and the future…
A thrilling squawk is the literal creativity of Shefki Hyses, bearer of the tragedy of its population, that the mythical Balkan found its calmness…
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
The Big Chame Concussion
Shefki Hysa is the author of many narrative and story books in which echoes the troublous Chame wind and where people’s fate is connected with their land like the roots thrust deeply into stones but also like the life fingers blooded as they are grasp reality. He likes realism and the truth no matter how thrilling is. That is the reason he becomes its historian, strong witness, feeder of collective memory. Aforetime I have written that meanwhile the massacres in Kosovo are a stone’s throw and still vivid, even thought “The Balkan’s executioner”, the Serbian Miloschevich, the last communist dictator keeps on being judged for anti-humanism crimes to the court of Hag (in TV programs was often presented the Byblitical outgo of Kosovo’s, their expatriation from dardany since the world was created), we are exposed to another expatriatation of Albanians in the south most ancient and cruel Ilyric, although it didn’t have international televisions as witnesses nor didn’t congregate the worlds army, NATO, to punish the worse.
And so the Chame nationalities were expatriotated from their epyrioth land, houses were set on fire. People were slaughtered in concert with live stocks, olive-groves and the future were destroyed; it was killed the national mythology. Their terror peregrinated towards mother-land and than came like another massacre the cruel dull obliteration. Even after three-thousand years no one could say anything, in the mythic Balkan, another Troia in modern times was set on fire. Meanwhile tchames found in their homeland a dictatorship, which way didn’t try to defend the rights of its fellow countrymen, but on contrary didn’t let them alone. Maybe it prosecuted them more than the others, invented enemies, and imprisoned them. In order to meet their dreams, Chame people among their motherland communist prisons joined to Kosovo’s people to elope from hither to thither. But… the only thing they were going to meet was the rusty manacle. In this way, meanwhile Albania was cruelly fragmented by the others; Albanians did fragment inside by themselves. Later on was difficult to remember Kosovo and tchame… nothing was says about in geographic scholastic prints, history didn’t dare, conscious was constrained…
Nonetheless collective memory which milled about like a subterranean river, hidey reinforced and hardened the right resistance. Literature achieved to bring out some anonymous songs about splited lands, any tremulous Cham wail or a blustery Kosovo elegy. Folk-dancing’s recalled apocalypse with their hullabaloo, while writers tried to create metaphoric possibilities or to say sth about Kosovo and Chame through Ezopy’s language. I recollect that, if the poet Ali Podrimja like in our big sorrow would go in the trans-national coast Chame , and would write hermetic poems which he would secure thrice: from the Albanian dictatorship, the Serbian conqueror and from the Chauvin Greeks. Here, in the remaining Albania, Chame writers felt difficulty and prosecution. Books were prohibited to them; they set themselves in prisons, eloped, kept mum, waited….
Now the Chame voice has came back from its sorrow ember, covered with the ash of the ancient obliteration, to cracker of promethean fire and the world is always seeing and feeling more and more its illumination and its fervour, will be longed for the truth and justice… and a slaughter population deserves to be given back their land and their spirit, wealth songs and the future…
A thrilling squawk is the literal creativity of Shefki Hyses, bearer of the tragedy of its population, that the mythical Balkan found its calmness…
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
By Ismail Kadare
A book of messages of hope and peace for Chameria
I was impressed by the book with short stories “Chameria’s flavour” written by Shefki Hysa, promoted in one of the programs of the national TV Channel. I am interested in every publication on Chameria, whenever it is remembered. This is not to encourage any disturbances in the Balkans, as someone might think of, but to calm down any restless conscience. This is why I said that I was impressed by the book with short stories “Chameria’s flavour” of this author of Chameria’s origin. I was interested in reading this book and I was anxious to go carefully through its pages and come across the message of hope and peace that it conveys to the reader.
In short, I would say that this book is necessary, imperative and moral, like every publication of this nature. There are many reasons that the Chams do not forget Chameria and this is not only their right, but also the right of all the Albanians. Furthermore, it is a moral task, because one can never forget the suffering wound of thousands and thousands people. It can never be forgotten the displacement, it can never be forgotten the birth place, where the hearth is. All of these will help to get rid of the nightmares, as the book “Chameria’s flavour” does.
It is high time for the Balkans to get rid of the old crimes, and one of them is what happened to Chameria - the Chams drama. In this way, the Balkans will pave the way towards the emancipation. Only after this, the Balkans might become part of the emancipated European family.
Ismail KADARE
January, 2004
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
A book of messages of hope and peace for Chameria
I was impressed by the book with short stories “Chameria’s flavour” written by Shefki Hysa, promoted in one of the programs of the national TV Channel. I am interested in every publication on Chameria, whenever it is remembered. This is not to encourage any disturbances in the Balkans, as someone might think of, but to calm down any restless conscience. This is why I said that I was impressed by the book with short stories “Chameria’s flavour” of this author of Chameria’s origin. I was interested in reading this book and I was anxious to go carefully through its pages and come across the message of hope and peace that it conveys to the reader.
In short, I would say that this book is necessary, imperative and moral, like every publication of this nature. There are many reasons that the Chams do not forget Chameria and this is not only their right, but also the right of all the Albanians. Furthermore, it is a moral task, because one can never forget the suffering wound of thousands and thousands people. It can never be forgotten the displacement, it can never be forgotten the birth place, where the hearth is. All of these will help to get rid of the nightmares, as the book “Chameria’s flavour” does.
It is high time for the Balkans to get rid of the old crimes, and one of them is what happened to Chameria - the Chams drama. In this way, the Balkans will pave the way towards the emancipation. Only after this, the Balkans might become part of the emancipated European family.
Ismail KADARE
January, 2004
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
By Sazan Goliku
KADARE AS A PERSONAGE
Notes about the novel “Hostages of peace”
of the writer Shefki Hysa
I met Ismail Kadare by chance one of the days he was in Tirana. During the conversation I said to him that “a writer has published a novel about you”. He was glad of course, but he is not accustomed to immediate expression of his feelings. Nothing moved in his face. He just said: “He had to ask me first”.
But I wanted to justify someway the writer and explain myself theoretically. So I said to him: “It isn’t a biographic book, like the other books that are written for the well-known personalities of the different fields such as science, culture, politics, sport… He has written a novel and you are a personage in that novel, the protagonist of the book. Is it necessary to ask for an authorization when you want to create a personage and the prototype is alive?
It seemed that Kadare sneered. I was showing the fields to the father. He has walked in that furrow for a long time.
In a press conference with the intellectuals of Tirana, Ismail Kadare answered in this way the question about this novel: “…Even though it has discovered some of my privacies, the novel is very nicely written, especially the part for the autumn of 1990.”
The novel of the writer Shefki Hysa “Hostages of peace” was welcomed by the readers, but even by the literary critique, so the author saw it reasonable to republish it revised.
A question rises while reading this novel: What kind of typology does it belongs to? Is it an adventurous, a feuilleton, a picaresque or simply a biographic novel? The author, despite his attempts to remain realist till the end, has been able to entwine elements of these types of novels, without being identified with any of them. This is one of the secrets of the typological and compositional originality of this novel.
The main topic of the book is the rapport of the writer and the man with the dictatorship, which suppresses and deforms the consciousness of individuals and personalities, who create protective shells to exist but it arouse in them even the rebellion spirit. The fact that the two personages where are based the triggers of the subject evolution are two teenagers, two artists, two adorers that are in love with the art of Kadare is significant as well as motivated from the mental and psychological aspect. Very young, with the intuition and the desire to discover and congratulate on every new contemporary and modern element in the literature and art but also with the dispositions and the mentality that differs a little from the official mentality of the dictatorship that professed itself as Marxist, those two guys personify the gemmae of a new liberal spirit even though it isn’t expressed in an explicit way because of the high-risk conditions, especially in the province.
The complexity of the figure of Kadare as a writer and man is the base of the shocking dramatization of the novel. This feature is explained and analyzed by the judgments and the estimations of the two guys, the different intellectuals, the party and state representatives and also through the creation and the recreation of the significant scenes and situations, too much fragile and in the ambit of a possible tragedy. The views from which the writer is investigated are antipodal:
The security men and the employees view him as an enemy (“We know what you deserve but we can’t do anything to the one who is above us!”), while the teenagers and the intellectuals with a free spirit and a democratic thinking consider him as “the unique hope” but they are also sorry for the debts that the writer has to pay to the regime to survive and write his real works.
The succinct structure of this laconic novel is gestated with vital and conventional components, with an absurd atmosphere and an existential weigh, with dreams and the immediate moment when you wake up, with documentation almost chronic and with a trivial and hyperbolic reflection. These contradictory structural elements form a flowing rainbow in the reader’s contemplative imagination and especially the reader that has enjoyed the sublimity of the Kadere art.
While reading the last pages of the roman, the ancient idea that every creator, is a man and remains such, provokes me.
When the historical-literary studies will sift and point out the books of the last decade of the century that we are leaving behind, I think that the hand of the studier of Kadare will stand even over this interesting novel.
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
KADARE AS A PERSONAGE
Notes about the novel “Hostages of peace”
of the writer Shefki Hysa
I met Ismail Kadare by chance one of the days he was in Tirana. During the conversation I said to him that “a writer has published a novel about you”. He was glad of course, but he is not accustomed to immediate expression of his feelings. Nothing moved in his face. He just said: “He had to ask me first”.
But I wanted to justify someway the writer and explain myself theoretically. So I said to him: “It isn’t a biographic book, like the other books that are written for the well-known personalities of the different fields such as science, culture, politics, sport… He has written a novel and you are a personage in that novel, the protagonist of the book. Is it necessary to ask for an authorization when you want to create a personage and the prototype is alive?
It seemed that Kadare sneered. I was showing the fields to the father. He has walked in that furrow for a long time.
In a press conference with the intellectuals of Tirana, Ismail Kadare answered in this way the question about this novel: “…Even though it has discovered some of my privacies, the novel is very nicely written, especially the part for the autumn of 1990.”
The novel of the writer Shefki Hysa “Hostages of peace” was welcomed by the readers, but even by the literary critique, so the author saw it reasonable to republish it revised.
A question rises while reading this novel: What kind of typology does it belongs to? Is it an adventurous, a feuilleton, a picaresque or simply a biographic novel? The author, despite his attempts to remain realist till the end, has been able to entwine elements of these types of novels, without being identified with any of them. This is one of the secrets of the typological and compositional originality of this novel.
The main topic of the book is the rapport of the writer and the man with the dictatorship, which suppresses and deforms the consciousness of individuals and personalities, who create protective shells to exist but it arouse in them even the rebellion spirit. The fact that the two personages where are based the triggers of the subject evolution are two teenagers, two artists, two adorers that are in love with the art of Kadare is significant as well as motivated from the mental and psychological aspect. Very young, with the intuition and the desire to discover and congratulate on every new contemporary and modern element in the literature and art but also with the dispositions and the mentality that differs a little from the official mentality of the dictatorship that professed itself as Marxist, those two guys personify the gemmae of a new liberal spirit even though it isn’t expressed in an explicit way because of the high-risk conditions, especially in the province.
The complexity of the figure of Kadare as a writer and man is the base of the shocking dramatization of the novel. This feature is explained and analyzed by the judgments and the estimations of the two guys, the different intellectuals, the party and state representatives and also through the creation and the recreation of the significant scenes and situations, too much fragile and in the ambit of a possible tragedy. The views from which the writer is investigated are antipodal:
The security men and the employees view him as an enemy (“We know what you deserve but we can’t do anything to the one who is above us!”), while the teenagers and the intellectuals with a free spirit and a democratic thinking consider him as “the unique hope” but they are also sorry for the debts that the writer has to pay to the regime to survive and write his real works.
The succinct structure of this laconic novel is gestated with vital and conventional components, with an absurd atmosphere and an existential weigh, with dreams and the immediate moment when you wake up, with documentation almost chronic and with a trivial and hyperbolic reflection. These contradictory structural elements form a flowing rainbow in the reader’s contemplative imagination and especially the reader that has enjoyed the sublimity of the Kadere art.
While reading the last pages of the roman, the ancient idea that every creator, is a man and remains such, provokes me.
When the historical-literary studies will sift and point out the books of the last decade of the century that we are leaving behind, I think that the hand of the studier of Kadare will stand even over this interesting novel.
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
By Sokol Jakova
The life of the artist in the communist dictatorship
Thoughts about the novel “Slaves of the peace”
of Shefki Hysa
Although the books of the writer Shefki Hysa treat all in all rich problems and topics, they are characterized by the reveal and the unmasking of the communist dictatorship, the reflection with realism and veracity of the lives of ordinary people in that fierce and vicious period, when the poorest population of Europe shouldered the weight, the violence and the terror of the most sanguinary dictatorship of the continent. In this sense while in the novel “The cursed heaven” the author points out the tableaus of people’s lives during the dictatorship, in “Slaves of the peace” he moots an important problem and somewhat special, little touched in our literature: the problem of the lives and the work of the artists during the dictatorship.
The problem of the artist is bound up with the problem of the system, under of which a population lives. The artists are the most sensible stratum of it and always in opposition with every kind of political power that doesn’t accomplish the obligations toward the country and its population. But the communist dictatorship is so much severe and powerful that with its terror, diablerie and astuteness, it was able to convert even these petrels of the truth in “slaves of a silent war under the blessing of the peace…Yes, yes! Slaves of the peace”…
Therefore even some of the most noted figures of the Albanian literature that become personages of this novel, doesn’t show any desire, boast or servility of the author to know them, but on the contrary they demonstrate a serious attempt to find out the message that during the dictatorship even the elite talents such as Kadare or Agolli were obliged to save with their writings, and so, in this way, apart from the convictions and the spirit against the regime, they were “slaves” of the peace. And if there were these, you can imagine how it was the file of all the Albanian writers and artists. Surely, there were even some writers that didn’t put up with the communist violence, all their ways were closed, and so they pushed through the perdition and escaped, such as the writer with a certain future Bilal Xhaferri, whose figure is described with love from Shefki Hysa not only in this novel but even in other writings.
Thus “Slaves of the peace” though it makes an attractive description of the well- known writer Ismali Kadare, it isn’t just a personalized novel for Kadare, but in general for the Albanian artist during the dictatorship.
I think that from the typological aspect this is an artistic novel with a historical and documentary background. Such a literature is becoming more and more attractive for the reader of today.
The subject of the novel is simple. The writer Ismail Kadare comes on vacations with his family in a coastal city of the South. The writers of the city headed by Cife, the director of the branch of “League of writers and artists of the district” and in particular Cifja, Xheki and Piro are vivified and make a cordial welcome to the writer and his family. During those days on vacations, Kadare is converted in the focus of the writers’ and artists’ attention, but not only. And in this way the novel continues with conversations and different episodes for Kadare, for his writings and the advanced thoughts for that time.
When the author of the novel introduces the figure of the big writer, in spite of the utilization of the creative whim that gives to the figure the artistic character, turning him into a personage, he uses even a lot of impressions and happenings regarding Kadare, that are true. In this way, with his own intuition, the author makes the portraiture of this special writer and personality of the Albanian letters. In this way, Kadareja is discovered as a quiet, serious man, not only as a magnificent writer for Xheki, Cife or Piro and in general for the youth of those years, but also as a thinker and a philosopher for the art and life in general. In the view of the young creators like Xheki and Piro he takes in special dimensions and turns into an imagery to be imitated for his values as a big creator. The author, during the description of the historical figure of Kadare, staying faithful to the truth, intends that this famous artist didn’t like, even considered it wrong the interference of the politics in art and especially of those mediocre people in power that leaded the communist culture and ideology and that Kadare couldn’t tolerate. Let’s bring to mind the episode when Kadare was invited for dinner and he is with Cifja, the first secretary and with how much sadness and disregard the writer conducts himself.
Another historical figure that is given with rapid lines in the novel is that of Dritëro Agolli, the other big writer who is presented as especial and waggish, with his nice humor, even with the known vices, but anyway well-minded and good-natured. During the presentation of these famous figures, who were also loved from the readers and especially from the new creators, as we mentioned above, Shefki Hysa makes a portrait with the right lines even to his favorite writer, the real dissident, Bilal Xhaferri. The author of the novel, being familiar with his Cham origin, the life and the activity of this writer that escaped because he didn’t find any kind of space to express his values in his own country, with the writings he left, after the death in the peak of his artistic circumspection, emphasizes the message that if Bilal Xhaferri had had the possibilities to write and publish in a democratic place, and not under the hoof of the dictatorship, we would have had another colossus of the Albanian letters.
In his novel “Slaves of the peace” the writer Shefki Hysa, following the progress of the history of the events, describes even the figure of Enver Hoxha, during a meeting that he had with Ismail Kadare and his family. The figure of this dictator is given with rapid lines in the novel, as every Albanian has known him, but the author of the writing, with a significant implication narrates how the leader of the communist dictatorship gave instructions even to the most known creators, so they could serve to the party cause.
“Before they went away, in spite of Zaharia’s book “La fin du mistere etrusque”, Hoxha gave them even a set of Balzak’s books in French.
- O, we covered you with Balzak!-he joked.
It was a joke of a man, well informed about the discussions made all over the world regarding the relation between the realistic literature of the XIXth century and the contemporary one, in which Balzaku was in focus of the contrapositions that hadn’t passed without making an echo even at our country. The smiling view of Hoxha has absolutely a hidden implication, thought Kadare. I think it says: “In the literary creations you mustn’t be a critic realist like Balzak, meanwhile do what he did, get out from your convictions, and against them, devote yourself to the method of socialist realism, to the description of the reality in its revolutionary development. Thus, you will bring in the literature the beautiful reality of the future, with in focus the positive hero…”
Besides the historical personages, in which is entwined the creation of the author with documentary data, in the novel “Slaves of the peace” are depicted even many figures of personages, totally artistic, with special qualities and characteristics. Among them we can mention the couple Xheki-Pirro, two young and talented boys: the first in the literature field and the second in that of picture and both with dreams for the future. One of them was to make a career in the respective fields, to become someone in life but the communist regime doesn’t open the doors easily even to these young artists with a future because of their biography. These and many others like these have Kadare as an imitation and inspiration model, have respect for him, even if they discuss severally for many things regarding the big writer.
The figure of Xheki, who, as a personage symbolizes in a way the author himself and that is given even in the confidential plan, in the relations with Esmeralda, is widely touched. A personage given with artistry is even Cifja, a lively person, joyful and full of humor, who has had a difficult life but he has known how to juggle and to survive owing to his strong character. Cifja is an admirer of Kadare and his work, therefore, like Xheki and Piro, even this personage has respect and a huge sympathy for the big writer.
It is well known that the communist dictatorship had as a central lever for the holding of the power with violence: The State Security. The writer Shefki Hysa in “Slaves of the peace” has tried, and I think he has succeeded, to sculpt with appropriate lines the figure of the Security man, Ramush Kaleci. The reader understands from the surname of this abhorrent man that the author has put him in focus to unmask and denigrate him for the squalid profession. There is a passage in the novel where the figure of Ramush is described with irony, in a grotesque as well as ridiculous way, until he becomes a rag: “Xheki, surprisingly, as with magic, was converted in a shade. And he was invisible for Ramush Kaleci’s eyes. It was a wonderful situation because it is imperceptible for a general mind being a shade. Look how he turned round in mid-air wherever he wanted, in that phantasmagoric situation. He could see everything, everyone and without being watched by someone. This was the prettiness of that new situation that he was living. So there, Ramush Kaleci! Let’s go near him. As it were. He hasn’t felt anything yet. He is breathing like a miser, as he is devouring all the oxygen to asphyxiate the other human beings. The enemies. And what a puffy face,
“Like a bun, burst with laughter Xheki and hit him in the nose with the tip of the forefinger”. Ramush, with a fool view, scratched the nose and watched for a while, as he wanted to catch by surprise any pestilent beetle. Xheki burst with laughter. It was a big pleasure to make fun of this fat dumpling. He tickled him in the neck and without letting him to recollect himself, strained him one ear, and then the other. Ramushi stopped open-mouthed, like being hit by palsy. What a big pleasure!...
The figure of the shade that follows Ramush and other elements of the magic, such as the episode of the description of the Hell or the episode of the return in the past where is realized the meeting of Kadare with the King Pirro of Ephyrus, etc., remind you the magical atmosphere that lives in the popular Cham epos and at the same time remember you the mastery that the author Shefki Hysa utilizes in such fanciful circumstances in his composition, merging wonderfully, as with magic, the real with the unreal, the real life with the dreams of the personages, becoming in this way the typical representative of a new wave of the magical realism with Albanian peculiarities, a bit similar with the magical realism that characterizes the books of Gabriel Garcia Markes.
Ramush Kaleci is the prototype of the persecutor, the spy, the greyhound that runs after his “chase” and persecutes him as far as he makes a calamity. In such a way he follows even Kadare when he comes in the southern coastal city supposing “to protect him”, but also to survey what he does and whom he stays with. An interesting point of the novel is also the story of “the stealing” of the book of Kadare that ends in a bluff for Ramush and he is finally unmasked.
The writings of Shefki Hysa are distinguished for their lithesome and dynamic style, for a clean language, for a lively and attractive dialogue and for expressive details, which makes it curious and interesting for those readers that desire to learn more from that black period of our history, from the period when the communist dictatorship governed.
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
The life of the artist in the communist dictatorship
Thoughts about the novel “Slaves of the peace”
of Shefki Hysa
Although the books of the writer Shefki Hysa treat all in all rich problems and topics, they are characterized by the reveal and the unmasking of the communist dictatorship, the reflection with realism and veracity of the lives of ordinary people in that fierce and vicious period, when the poorest population of Europe shouldered the weight, the violence and the terror of the most sanguinary dictatorship of the continent. In this sense while in the novel “The cursed heaven” the author points out the tableaus of people’s lives during the dictatorship, in “Slaves of the peace” he moots an important problem and somewhat special, little touched in our literature: the problem of the lives and the work of the artists during the dictatorship.
The problem of the artist is bound up with the problem of the system, under of which a population lives. The artists are the most sensible stratum of it and always in opposition with every kind of political power that doesn’t accomplish the obligations toward the country and its population. But the communist dictatorship is so much severe and powerful that with its terror, diablerie and astuteness, it was able to convert even these petrels of the truth in “slaves of a silent war under the blessing of the peace…Yes, yes! Slaves of the peace”…
Therefore even some of the most noted figures of the Albanian literature that become personages of this novel, doesn’t show any desire, boast or servility of the author to know them, but on the contrary they demonstrate a serious attempt to find out the message that during the dictatorship even the elite talents such as Kadare or Agolli were obliged to save with their writings, and so, in this way, apart from the convictions and the spirit against the regime, they were “slaves” of the peace. And if there were these, you can imagine how it was the file of all the Albanian writers and artists. Surely, there were even some writers that didn’t put up with the communist violence, all their ways were closed, and so they pushed through the perdition and escaped, such as the writer with a certain future Bilal Xhaferri, whose figure is described with love from Shefki Hysa not only in this novel but even in other writings.
Thus “Slaves of the peace” though it makes an attractive description of the well- known writer Ismali Kadare, it isn’t just a personalized novel for Kadare, but in general for the Albanian artist during the dictatorship.
I think that from the typological aspect this is an artistic novel with a historical and documentary background. Such a literature is becoming more and more attractive for the reader of today.
The subject of the novel is simple. The writer Ismail Kadare comes on vacations with his family in a coastal city of the South. The writers of the city headed by Cife, the director of the branch of “League of writers and artists of the district” and in particular Cifja, Xheki and Piro are vivified and make a cordial welcome to the writer and his family. During those days on vacations, Kadare is converted in the focus of the writers’ and artists’ attention, but not only. And in this way the novel continues with conversations and different episodes for Kadare, for his writings and the advanced thoughts for that time.
When the author of the novel introduces the figure of the big writer, in spite of the utilization of the creative whim that gives to the figure the artistic character, turning him into a personage, he uses even a lot of impressions and happenings regarding Kadare, that are true. In this way, with his own intuition, the author makes the portraiture of this special writer and personality of the Albanian letters. In this way, Kadareja is discovered as a quiet, serious man, not only as a magnificent writer for Xheki, Cife or Piro and in general for the youth of those years, but also as a thinker and a philosopher for the art and life in general. In the view of the young creators like Xheki and Piro he takes in special dimensions and turns into an imagery to be imitated for his values as a big creator. The author, during the description of the historical figure of Kadare, staying faithful to the truth, intends that this famous artist didn’t like, even considered it wrong the interference of the politics in art and especially of those mediocre people in power that leaded the communist culture and ideology and that Kadare couldn’t tolerate. Let’s bring to mind the episode when Kadare was invited for dinner and he is with Cifja, the first secretary and with how much sadness and disregard the writer conducts himself.
Another historical figure that is given with rapid lines in the novel is that of Dritëro Agolli, the other big writer who is presented as especial and waggish, with his nice humor, even with the known vices, but anyway well-minded and good-natured. During the presentation of these famous figures, who were also loved from the readers and especially from the new creators, as we mentioned above, Shefki Hysa makes a portrait with the right lines even to his favorite writer, the real dissident, Bilal Xhaferri. The author of the novel, being familiar with his Cham origin, the life and the activity of this writer that escaped because he didn’t find any kind of space to express his values in his own country, with the writings he left, after the death in the peak of his artistic circumspection, emphasizes the message that if Bilal Xhaferri had had the possibilities to write and publish in a democratic place, and not under the hoof of the dictatorship, we would have had another colossus of the Albanian letters.
In his novel “Slaves of the peace” the writer Shefki Hysa, following the progress of the history of the events, describes even the figure of Enver Hoxha, during a meeting that he had with Ismail Kadare and his family. The figure of this dictator is given with rapid lines in the novel, as every Albanian has known him, but the author of the writing, with a significant implication narrates how the leader of the communist dictatorship gave instructions even to the most known creators, so they could serve to the party cause.
“Before they went away, in spite of Zaharia’s book “La fin du mistere etrusque”, Hoxha gave them even a set of Balzak’s books in French.
- O, we covered you with Balzak!-he joked.
It was a joke of a man, well informed about the discussions made all over the world regarding the relation between the realistic literature of the XIXth century and the contemporary one, in which Balzaku was in focus of the contrapositions that hadn’t passed without making an echo even at our country. The smiling view of Hoxha has absolutely a hidden implication, thought Kadare. I think it says: “In the literary creations you mustn’t be a critic realist like Balzak, meanwhile do what he did, get out from your convictions, and against them, devote yourself to the method of socialist realism, to the description of the reality in its revolutionary development. Thus, you will bring in the literature the beautiful reality of the future, with in focus the positive hero…”
Besides the historical personages, in which is entwined the creation of the author with documentary data, in the novel “Slaves of the peace” are depicted even many figures of personages, totally artistic, with special qualities and characteristics. Among them we can mention the couple Xheki-Pirro, two young and talented boys: the first in the literature field and the second in that of picture and both with dreams for the future. One of them was to make a career in the respective fields, to become someone in life but the communist regime doesn’t open the doors easily even to these young artists with a future because of their biography. These and many others like these have Kadare as an imitation and inspiration model, have respect for him, even if they discuss severally for many things regarding the big writer.
The figure of Xheki, who, as a personage symbolizes in a way the author himself and that is given even in the confidential plan, in the relations with Esmeralda, is widely touched. A personage given with artistry is even Cifja, a lively person, joyful and full of humor, who has had a difficult life but he has known how to juggle and to survive owing to his strong character. Cifja is an admirer of Kadare and his work, therefore, like Xheki and Piro, even this personage has respect and a huge sympathy for the big writer.
It is well known that the communist dictatorship had as a central lever for the holding of the power with violence: The State Security. The writer Shefki Hysa in “Slaves of the peace” has tried, and I think he has succeeded, to sculpt with appropriate lines the figure of the Security man, Ramush Kaleci. The reader understands from the surname of this abhorrent man that the author has put him in focus to unmask and denigrate him for the squalid profession. There is a passage in the novel where the figure of Ramush is described with irony, in a grotesque as well as ridiculous way, until he becomes a rag: “Xheki, surprisingly, as with magic, was converted in a shade. And he was invisible for Ramush Kaleci’s eyes. It was a wonderful situation because it is imperceptible for a general mind being a shade. Look how he turned round in mid-air wherever he wanted, in that phantasmagoric situation. He could see everything, everyone and without being watched by someone. This was the prettiness of that new situation that he was living. So there, Ramush Kaleci! Let’s go near him. As it were. He hasn’t felt anything yet. He is breathing like a miser, as he is devouring all the oxygen to asphyxiate the other human beings. The enemies. And what a puffy face,
“Like a bun, burst with laughter Xheki and hit him in the nose with the tip of the forefinger”. Ramush, with a fool view, scratched the nose and watched for a while, as he wanted to catch by surprise any pestilent beetle. Xheki burst with laughter. It was a big pleasure to make fun of this fat dumpling. He tickled him in the neck and without letting him to recollect himself, strained him one ear, and then the other. Ramushi stopped open-mouthed, like being hit by palsy. What a big pleasure!...
The figure of the shade that follows Ramush and other elements of the magic, such as the episode of the description of the Hell or the episode of the return in the past where is realized the meeting of Kadare with the King Pirro of Ephyrus, etc., remind you the magical atmosphere that lives in the popular Cham epos and at the same time remember you the mastery that the author Shefki Hysa utilizes in such fanciful circumstances in his composition, merging wonderfully, as with magic, the real with the unreal, the real life with the dreams of the personages, becoming in this way the typical representative of a new wave of the magical realism with Albanian peculiarities, a bit similar with the magical realism that characterizes the books of Gabriel Garcia Markes.
Ramush Kaleci is the prototype of the persecutor, the spy, the greyhound that runs after his “chase” and persecutes him as far as he makes a calamity. In such a way he follows even Kadare when he comes in the southern coastal city supposing “to protect him”, but also to survey what he does and whom he stays with. An interesting point of the novel is also the story of “the stealing” of the book of Kadare that ends in a bluff for Ramush and he is finally unmasked.
The writings of Shefki Hysa are distinguished for their lithesome and dynamic style, for a clean language, for a lively and attractive dialogue and for expressive details, which makes it curious and interesting for those readers that desire to learn more from that black period of our history, from the period when the communist dictatorship governed.
Translated by: Dr. Haim Reitan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
