Translations and Adaptations of C. P. Cavafy in Albanian

C. P. Cavafy became an important model for Albanian poets during and immediately after the dissolution of the Communist regimes in Albania and the former Yugoslavia. Cavafy was first introduced to Albanian writers through a series of translations. These translations inspired a variety of original Albanian poems which emulated Cavafy's historical and nostalgic themes and poignant symbols: Moikom Zeqo's "Anna Comnena," Bardhyl Londo's "Ithaca," and Lindita Arapi's "Walls," for example, all adapt Cavafy's poems of the same names. Cavafy's poems ground the poems' symbolism in a specifically Hellenic historical, political, and cultural context; the Albanian analogs re-contextualize these truths to suit the unique context of post-Communist Albania and Kosovo.