Anthology-Preface: Jorina Kryeziu
Translation: Αsimina Xirogianni
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Viola Isufaj, Alisa Velaj, Ledia Dushi, Ani Gjika, Azem Qazimi, Belfjore Qose, Ervina Halili, Rudina Çupi, Nurie Emrullai, Kushtrim Thaqi
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This anthology in two languages, in Albanian, and in Greek, has been motivated of the European Project “Anthologies of Young Poets” – an initiative undertaken by “Εκδόσεις Βάκχικον” (“Vakxikon Publications”), under the direction of Mr. Nestoras Poulakos. Α bilingual anthology, where the selected authors are represented each one by three poems in the original language and respectively translated in the Greek language.
This initiative makes able the presentation and incorporation of a few well known Albanian poets, to the contemporary European poets. Parallel to the poetic creativeness in the original language we juxtapose the translations in the Greek language too. The selection of the young Albanian poets has been done with special attention, including also the poets living and creating out of the administrative borders of the Republic of Albania, respectively in Kosovo, North Macedonia and Diaspora as well. Presenting them, we aim to bring to the attending system the best valuable and productive acquirements of the today’s Albanian poetry, considering the fact that it is used not only the standard Albanian language, but the Gega-dialect also – respecting and appreciate each one’s author’s choice.
A characteristic of the lyrical subjects is that the poetry is cultivated chiefly as a personal passion, and also as professionals, we remark that a few of them, though they are poets, novelists, aesthetes, etc., come from the academic world, they are explorers, translators, critics, etc. Beside the poetry volumes published or included in the anthologies, we have remarked that these poets had published their works in the national and international literature reviews, as well, making so their poems circulate in a few languages as: English, German, French, Italian, Rumanian, Portugal, Turkish, Swedish, Polish, Macedonian, Greek, Serbian, Chinese, etc.
Most of them had studied Language and Literature as: Associated Professor Viola Isufaj, PhD. Ledia Dushi, PhD. Alisa Velaj, PhD. Belfore Qose (Zifla), Rudina Çupi, Nurie Emrullai, Journalism: Azem Qazimi, MA in English Literature and MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry: Ani Gjika, Economics: Kushtrim Thaqi, also them who began to write poems since their childhood, as in the case of the poet Ervina Halili, who has been graduated in Literature Theory and Psychoanalysis. She has written her first poem, “Turma 97”, (“Crowd 97”) in the age 11, motivated of her writing machine -as a relict- and the massive students‘ protests of the University of Prishtina, refracting the everyday’s moments and hypothetic images to the poetic art. This poetical mirror -presented in the front of the reader- has been not left only in the hands only of the compiler, personal gusto, hazard or their preferences for each powerful poetical voice, but are respected the gusto, preference for their creative colleges, estimating them of creativeness, style, innovation, brought to the today’s Albanian poetry, moreover being each one a part of the poetry’s festivals or nominated or winner of the literature national and international awards, as in the case of the poet Ani Gjika (prizes of National Endowment for the Arts, English PEN, Framingham State University’s Miriam Levive Reader Award, 2014), or of Viola Isufaj, Ervina Halili, Belfjore Qose (Zifla), etc. A special attention we had been paid to the selected names and I have to tell that this task was a privilege and responsibility as well.
In our country never have been missing poetry books, but no everybody could be represented in the international scale with its own poems. As regarding the poets who should be included in our anthology, we thought they would be more successful if they bring, through the art of the word, artistic intuition and innovate. This way, the efforts and energy expensed in this field would be worthy and bring to life emotions in the attending system, as well.
We can say that every year the outputs are too various and they go abroad also. Besides the authentically poetic values the authors have a good activity as regarding the meaning of poetic filiations.
The starting points for each selection are not casual, but a dredge of the artistic values, which cause emotions and often decompose the poem’s “frame”, appearing in new forms not only as regarding the expressive plane, but as innovative forms as well, doing the poetry for them as “an expression of that which is under, which is under the silent sounds of the whispers” (Kushtrim Thaqi).
My personal desire, as relating to this edition, is that the reader put aside the work of the compiler -which as a matter of fact has been so nice and difficult in the same time- and taste the anthology of the young Albanian poets, as an authentically artistic and cultural communication of our poets, which demonstrate creative values and skills, cultivate different styles, often too extreme between them, bear witness of style heterogeneity, distinguish themselves of authentically poetic inherence, the ambiguous expressions, suggestions and associations of image-thoughts, metaphorical abstractions, till the esoteric and elliptic forms.
PhD. Jorina Kryeziu (Shkreta)