The forced marriage between Albanian literature and Marxism-Leninism was firmly cemented from the start with the founding in October 1945 of the Albanian Writers’ Union. Initially, responsibility for cultural policies in post-war Albania was conferred upon the poet Sejfulla Mal\u00ebshova (1901-1971), who used the penname Lame Kodra. Originally from the P\u00ebrmet region of southern Albania, Mal\u00ebshova spent a good deal of his life abroad. Most of the verse of this self-styled rebel poet was written in exile and was published in the now rare volume Vjersha, Tirana 1945 (Verse). He had studied medicine in Italy and in 1924, at the age of twenty-three, became Fan Noli’s personal secretary in the latter’s democratic government. With the overthrow of Noli, Mal\u00ebshova fled to Paris and from there, inspired by the October Revolution, he continued on to Moscow where he studied and later taught Marxism. In the Soviet Union he joined the Communist Party (1930-1932) but was subsequently expelled as a Bukharinist. As minister of culture in the communist-controlled provisional government, Mal\u00ebshova followed a relatively liberal and conciliatory course in order to encourage the reintegration of non-communist forces into the new structures of power. He was not one to condemn all prewar writers such as Gjergj Fishta as reactionaries, nor was he in favour of a total break with the West. Mal\u00ebshova soon became the spokesperson of one of the two factions vying for power within the party. With the backing of the Yugoslav communists, however, the faction of his adversary Ko\u00e7i Xoxe (1917-1949) gained the upper hand by early 1946 and Mal\u00ebshova fell into disgrace. At a meeting of the Central Committee on 21 February 1946, Mal\u00ebshova was accused of opportunism and right-wing deviationism and was expelled both from the Politburo and from the Central Committee.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, Sejfullah Mal\u00ebshova survived his fall. This left-wing idealist who had once been a member of the Comintern was interned in Ballsh for two or three years and spent all his later life in internal exile as a humble stock clerk in Fier where, for years, no inhabitant of the town dared speak to him. His only social contact was to play soccer with the children. Whenever anyone approached he would pinch his lips with his fingers, signifying the vow of eternal silence which ensured his survival.<\/p>\n

Sejfullah Mal\u00ebshova died on 9 June 1971 of appendicitis in unimaginable isolation. Although everyone in town knew his poems by heart, no one dared to attend his funeral. He was buried in the presence of his sister, the gravedigger and two Sigurimi<\/em> agents.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How I Love Albania<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve no farm estates or manors,
\nI’ve no shops or lofty buildings,
\nYet I love my land, Albania –
\nFor a barn in Trebeshina,
\nFor its boulders and its brushwood,
\nFor a hut above Selishta,
\nFor two fields ploughed in Zallishta,
\nFor a cow and for a donkey,
\nFor an ox, a little lambkin,
\nThis is how I love my country
\nLike a shepherd, like a peasant.<\/p>\n

Yes, I love my land, Albania,
\nFor the clover in its meadows,
\nFor a quick and agile maiden,
\nFor its spring of water gurgling
\nFrom the cliffs and flowing swiftly
\nThrough the leafy oak tree forests,
\nTumbling down to form a river,
\nYes, I love my land, Albania,
\nFor the fenugreek in blossom,
\nFor the birds that fly above it,
\nFor the nightingales a-singing,
\nIn the shade and in the brambles,
\nTrilling songs of love and longing,
\nThis is how I love my country,
\nLike a poet in devotion.<\/p>\n

Yes, I love my land, Albania,
\nRight from Kor\u00e7a to Vranina,
\nWhere the farmer sets off early
\nWith his hoe and plough a-toiling,
\nSows and reaps by sun and moonlight,
\nYet, he has no food to live on,
\nWhere the farrier and saddler
\nDay and night stoop o’er their duties
\nJust to get a few stale breadcrumbs,
\nWhere the porter at the dockyards,
\nLaden down with iron and barrels,
\nBears his load, barefoot and ragged,
\nAlways serving other people.
\nYes, I love my land, Albania,
\nRight from Skopje to Janina,
\nWhere its people in misfortune
\nSuffer, live their lives in serfdom,
\nYet they have a fighting spirit –
\nThis is how I love my country,
\nLike a revolutionary.<\/p>\n

(1939)<\/p>\n

[Si e dua Shqip\u00ebrin\u00eb<\/em>, from the volume Vjersha<\/em>, Tirana 1945, p. 18-19. Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rebel Poet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen to me, men and women,
\nEverywhere,
\nThere’s an warrant out to snare me
\nfrom Tiran\u00eb.
\nOver hill and over dale and
\nin the fields,
\nTheir patrols are right behind me
\nstep by step.
\nI fear not their hunting dogs and
\nall their guns,
\nI am off and make my journey
\npath by path,
\nI am off and will find shelter
\nhouse by house,
\nEverywhere in this, my country,
\nI’ve my lair.
\nI’m a thug and I’m a rebel
\nand I’m proud,
\nBoth the beys and, yes, their thrones I
\nwill attack.
\nI have come to do my job,
\nprotect the poor,
\nAnd a war on slavery have I
\nnow declared.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0*\u00a0*<\/p>\n

Who have raised their guns against me?
\nlet me know!
\nWho’s behind me, searching for my
\nevery trace?
\nStop a while and listen to me,
\nsoldier boy,
\nAre you not a peasant’s son, a
\nvillage lad?
\nBide a bit and listen to me,
\nbrother mine,
\nHold your pace and save your bullet
\nFor those men,
\nFor the ones who rob, oppress our
\npiteous home,
\nFor the ones who here exhaust us
\nin our plight.
\nAnd my poems may, too, resemble
\nme, a thug,
\nFor my lines with black gunpowder
\nhave I filled.
\nSongs of war and songs of fire
\nin my mouth,
\nAnd a storehouse full of weapons
\nis my chest,
\nVerse, my verse, fly off in fury
\nlike a bomb,
\nGo and furl out like a war cry,
\nlike a flag,
\nLet our country’s people gather
\neverywhere,
\nLet the tyrant tremble, quiver
\nin his hall.
\nTo your feet arise, oh Kor\u00e7a,
\nmatriarch,
\nWith Devoll and with Kolonja,
\nwith Opar.
\nCome forth now, oh Vlora river,
\nbanner high,
\nAs you’d come to pick your bride up
\nin her veil,
\nTo the vanguard like Gjoleka,
\nKurvelesh,
\nBeat upon them, Chameria,
\nlike a storm.
\nLike an earthquake may you bellow,
\nMount Tomorr,
\nMay the waves of Shkumbin river
\nseethe and boil.
\nRise up, people, like a lion,
\nCast the yoke,
\nIn Berat and in Tirana,
\nElbasan,
\nAnd you, Mat, Luma and Dibra,
\nlike the wind,
\nSeize your arms and for your freedom
\ntake to war,
\nMoan and groan, oh wretched Shkodra,
\nancient town,
\nCome along, arise Kosova,
\njoin the dance,
\nWith Krasniqi, Bajram Curri
\nand Tetov\u00eb.
\nLet our country’s people gather
\neverywhere,
\nLet the tyrant tremble, quiver
\nin his hall.
\nVerse, my verse, fly off in fury
\nlike a bomb,
\nGo and furl out like a war cry,
\nlike a flag.<\/p>\n

(1935)<\/p>\n

[Poeti rebel<\/em>, from the volume Vjersha<\/em>, Tirana 1945, p. 13-16. Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The forced marriage between Albanian literature and Marxism-Leninism was firmly cemented from the start with the founding in October 1945 of the Albanian Writers’ Union. Initially, responsibility for cultural policies in post-war Albania was conferred upon the poet Sejfulla Mal\u00ebshova (1901-1971), who used the penname Lame Kodra. Originally from the P\u00ebrmet region of southern Albania, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albanian-authors","tag-classical-authors-19th-early-20th-centuries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":887,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions\/887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}