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GJERGJ FISHTA: THE HIGHLAND LUTE Title: Lahuta e Malcis (The highland lute) Originally published: Shkodër, Shtypshkronja Françeskane, 1937 Language: Albanian The excerpts used are from The Highland Lute (Lahuta e Malcis); The Albanian National Epic, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie & Janice Mathie-Heck (London and New York: I.B. Tauris in association with The Centre for Albanian Studies, 2005), pp. 3–4. About the author Gjergj Fishta (born Zef Ndoka) [1871, Fishtë, near Shkodra – 1939, Shkodra, west Albania]: poet, writer, politician, publicist, educator, and one of the most prominent figures in Albanian cultural life during the first half of the twentieth century . He was educated initially in Franciscan colleges in Troshan and in Shkodra (It. Scutari, Srb. Skadar). In 1886, Zef was sent by the Franciscan order to Bosnia, where he attended several Franciscan schools. There he came into close contact with the classical Latin and modern West European literary traditions, as well as with Croatian poets Andrija Kačić-Miošić (1704–1760) and Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević (1865–1908). He was ordained a priest in 1894 and was formally accepted into the Franciscan order with the name Gjergj Fishta. Soon afterwards, he returned to Shkodra and started working as a teacher in the college of Troshan and as the parish priest in the nearly village of Gomsiqe. In 1899, together with other well-known Albanian activists, he founded the cultural association Bashkimi (Unity), which prepared and published a dictionary of the northern dialect of the Albanian language. By 1902 Fishta had become director of all Franciscan schools in northern Albania. He replaced Italian with Albanian as the language of instruction. In 1907, together with another well-known cultural activist, Shtjefën Gjeçovi-Kryeziu (1879–1929), Fishta founded the first Albanian public library in Shkodra. He participated in the ‘Congress of Representatives of Albanian Societies’ held in Manastir (Gr. Monastiri, Mac. Bitola) in 1908 and was elected president of the special committee, whose aim was to choose a definitive alphabet for the Albanian language. In 1913 Fishta founded the monthly Hylli i Dritës (The day-star), one of the most important cultural periodicals in Albania prior to 1944. Between 1916 and 1919 he edited the cultural biweekly Posta e Shqypnis (The herald of Albania) in Shkodra. Together with other well-known literary and political figures, Fishta participated in the works of the Komisija Letrare Shqype (Albanian literary commission), which decided that the Latin GJERGJ FISHTA: THE HIGHLAND LUTE 225 alphabet (with several new letters) should become the alphabet for Albanian. He opted for the choice of the northern dialect as the future Albanian literary language, but the ‘Commission’ decided that it should be built on the basis of the vernacular of Elbasan as a compromise between the northern (Gheg) and southern (Tosk) dialects. In 1919 Fishta served as the secretary of the Albanian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. In 1921 he was elected a representative of the region of Shkodra and the vice-president of the first Albanian National Assembly. Although he served as the superior of the Franciscans in Albania between 1935 and 1938, Fishta withdrew from political and social activity in 1937. He moved to the Gjuhadoll monastery, where he spent his last years editing his literary works. In 1939 he was nominated a regular member of the Italian Academy of Sciences and Arts, although this was perceived as a controversial act. With a total of almost 100,000 verses, numerous articles and prose texts to his name, he was named “the Albanian Homer” during his lifetime. This high position was confirmed by the fact that Gjergj Fishta was the first Albanian to have been nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature. Soon after his death in December 1940, communist rule was established in Albania. The new authorities condemned Fishta, calling him a traitor due to the fact that he accepted the nomination to the Italian Academy of Sciences and Arts. They considered him a reactionary writer, due to the Catholic themes in his works, and an agent of the Vatican due to his educational activities. Nevertheless, people continued to remember Fishta’s works; in Kosovo his poem ‘The highland lute’ has been particularly praised and cherished. Main works: Vierrsha i pershpirteshem t’kthyem shcyp [Spiritual verse translated into Albanian] (1906); Anxat e Parnasit [The wasps of Parnassus] (1907); Pika Voeset [Dewdrops] (1909); Mrizi i zâneve [Mid-day rest of the Zanas] (1913); Gomari i Babatasit. Poem dramatik [The...

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