Classical poet Ndre Mjeda (1866-1937) bridges the gap between late nineteenth-century Rilindja culture and the dynamic literary creativity of the independence period. Mjeda was born on 20\u00a0November 1866 in Shkodra and, like so many other Gheg writers of the period, was educated by the Jesuits . Influential in his upbringing were Jesuit writer Anton Xanoni (1863-1915) and Franciscan poet Leonardo De Martino (1830-1923). The Society of Jesus sent the young Mjeda abroad for studies and training. <\/p>\n

He spent an initial three months in the spring of 1880 in the village of Coss\u00e9-le-Vivien near Laval in the west of France and thereafter attended a college at the Carthusian monastery of Porta Coeli north of Valencia, Spain, where he studied literature. In 1883, we find him in Croatia studying rhetoric, Latin and Italian at a Jesuit institution in Kraljevica on the Dalmatian coast. From 1884 to the beginning of 1887, he trained at a college run there which was run by the Gregorian University of Rome, and in 1887 transferred to another Gregorian college in Chieri southeast of Turin where he remained until the end of that year.<\/p>\n

It was during these years that Ndre Mjeda began writing verse in Albanian, including the melancholic and much-read poem Vaji i bylbylit <\/em>(The nightingale\u2019s lament), published in 1887 in the booklet Scahiri Elierz <\/em>(The honorable poet), expressing his longing for his native Albania. Also of this period is the poem Vorri i Skanderbegut <\/em>(Scanderbeg \u2019s grave). The theme of the exiled Albanian yearning nostalgically for his homeland under the Turkish yoke was nothing unusual in Rilindja literature, in particular in the decade following the defeat of the League of Prizren, and many of his other poems are devoted to such nationalist themes. In Mjeda\u2019s verse, however, we sense the influence not only of the Rilindja culture of the age, but also that of his mentor Leonardo De Martino , the Scutarine Catholic poet whose refined 442-page bilingual verse collection L\u2019Arpa di un italo-albanese <\/em>(The harp of an Italo-Albanian) had appeared in Venice in 1881. An equally important component in Mjeda\u2019s verse were the contemporary poets of Italy: the patriotic Giosu\u00e8 Carducci (1835-1907), the pensive Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912) and the sensuous Gabriele D\u2019Annunzio (1863-1938), as well as the Latin literature of classical antiquity.<\/p>\n

From 1887 to 1891, Mjeda taught music at the College of Marco Girolamo Vida in Cremona on the River Po, the city of composer Claudio Monteverdi and of Antonio Stradivari . There and in Soresina he continued writing verse and at the same time devoted himself to the translation of religious literature. In 1888, the Propaganda Fide in Rome published his Jeta e sceitit sc\u2019 Gnon Berchmans <\/em>(The life of St John Berchmans ) about a Jesuit saint from Brabant, and in 1892 T\u2019 perghjamit e Zojs Bekume <\/em>(Imitation of the Holy Virgin) translated from Spanish. In later years he was to publish a translation of the Katekizmi i madh <\/em>(The great catechism) in three volumes, Historia e shejt\u00eb <\/em>(Sacred history), and a life of St Aloysius of Gonzaga .<\/p>\n

From 1891, Mjeda studied for a couple of years at the theological faculty of a Gregorian college in Krak\u00f3w in Catholic Poland. In 1893, we find the poet in Gorizia on the Italian-Slovene border and in the following year back in Kraljevica where he taught philosophy and philology and served as librarian at the Gregorian college. He was subsequently appointed professor of logic and metaphysics. It was in 1898 that a conflict is said to have broken out among the Jesuits of Kraljevica, apparently concerning their loyalties to Austria-Hungary and the Vatican. The exact details of the scandal are not known, but Ndre Mjeda was somehow involved and was promptly expelled or resigned that year from the Jesuit Order. Mjeda was a member of the Literary Commission set up in Shkodra on 1\u00a0September 1916 under the Austro-Hungarian administration, and from 1920 to 1924 he served as a deputy in the National Assembly. After the defeat of Fan Noli \u2019s June Revolution and the definitive rise of the Zogu dictatorship at the end of 1924 he withdrew from politics and served thereafter as a parish priest in Kuk\u00ebl, a village between Shkodra and Sh\u00ebngjin. From 1930, he taught Albanian language and literature at the Jesuit college in Shkodra, where he died on 1\u00a0August 1937.<\/p>\n

Mjeda\u2019s poetry, in particular his collection Juvenilia<\/em>, Vienna 1917 (Juvenilia), is noted for its classical style and for its purity of language. It is probably no coincidence that the title of this work for which Mjeda is best remembered is the same as Giosu\u00e8 Carducci \u2019s lyric volume Iuvenilia<\/em> which was published almost half a century earlier. Mjeda\u2019s Juvenilia <\/em>includes not only original poetry but also adaptations of foreign verse by Tommaso Grossi (1790-1853), Giuseppe Capparozzo (1802-1848), Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). A second cycle of poetry begun by Mjeda was to be devoted to the ancient cities of Illyria: Lissus <\/em>(Lezha), Scodra <\/em>( Shkodra), Dyrrachium <\/em>(Durr\u00ebs) and Apollonia <\/em>(Pojan). However, only the first two parts of this cycle ever saw the light of day. Lissus<\/em>, composed of twelve sonnets, appeared in May 1921 in the Franciscan monthly Hylli i Drit\u00ebs <\/em>(The day-star), and Scodra <\/em>was published posthumously in 1939.<\/p>\n

Though not covering an especially wide range of themes, Mjeda\u2019s poetry evinces a particularly refined language under the influence of the nineteenth-century Italian classics and, in general, a high level of metric finesse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To the Albanian eagle<\/strong><\/p>\n

High amongst the clouds, above the cliffs
\nSparkling in perennial snow,
\nLike lightning, like an arrow,
\nSoars on sibilant wings
\n‘Midst the peaks and jagged rocks
\nThe eagle in the first rays of dawn.<\/p>\n

The azure sky above its head,
\nCompanion of the stars, glows
\nLike jewels, like the shimmering
\nGold of a bridal gown,
\nOr the radiant night in which
\nA god bestows wisdom and grace.<\/p>\n

Your kingdom is silent,
\nEagle, arbiter of freedom,
\nAnd in the empty wastes
\nThe harmony of stars
\nAnd the rising moon give you comfort,
\nAnd the pensive Muse is heard.<\/p>\n

But above the forlorn flatland
\nWhere your children in lamentation lie,
\nThunder resounds,
\nLightning flashes,
\nAnd you above those peaks
\nHear no echo of their lament.<\/p>\n

Oh, descend to us, royal
\nEagle, once more, as you did
\nWhen in battle, majestic
\nCastrioti the Great shone forth
\nAnd the whole world trembled
\nAt the brandishing of his sword.<\/p>\n

[Shqypes arbnore<\/em>, 1931, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie and first published in History of Albanian literature<\/em>, New York 1995, vol.\u00a01, p.\u00a0356-357]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n

I<\/p>\n

Tell me, eagles, birds of the highlands,
\nDo the rays of freedom shine upon those peaks,
\nIn the rugged mountain pastures and clearings
\nWhere springs of fresh water murmur in longing?<\/p>\n

Have you heard the echo of its anthem
\nOn your flights o’er the cliffs,
\nHave you heard its comforting song?
\nTell me, eagles, birds of the highlands.<\/p>\n

Freedom, freedom, the mountains cry,
\nBut can we find it on the earth we ply,
\nOr will slavery veil our every step?<\/p>\n

Fly, eagle, fly to horizons far away,
\nThe mountains surrounding Albania, survey,
\nTell us where freedom takes its source.<\/p>\n

V<\/p>\n

Freedom is yours! We have iron bars,
\nYet we languish in the mists and sombre night,
\nNo one knows our name, stripped of our country,
\nWe are slaves of the strangers on our own soil.<\/p>\n

Like chattel sold to the butcher, we’re driven,
\nCrazed, by his cane where we don’t wish to go,
\nSighs and lamentation on the lips of our people,
\nSuffering and grief is the name of our land.<\/p>\n

The storm of highland heroes in vain
\nInfiltrates the sleeping plain
\nLike a bolt of lightning from the clouds.<\/p>\n

Crushed by cruel oppression and travail,
\nShake in their tombs to no avail
\nThe forgotten bones of Dukagjini and Scanderbeg the Hero.<\/p>\n

VI<\/p>\n

But no, the Albanian race has not been stamped out,
\nWearied by the beatings of a harsh enemy,
\nBowed by the darkness of servitude,
\nIt broods and waits for its sudden awakening.<\/p>\n

And behold, the flashing strokes of freedom
\nExtend through the mountains, in stealth advance
\nFrom hut to hut, yes, the shadow of Scanderbeg,
\nA new spirit expands throughout the land.<\/p>\n

The mothers of Hoti tend cradles, childbed,
\nWhere fledgling young heroes are nurtured and fed
\nOn the milk of revolt.<\/p>\n

And high in the mountains, splendour regal,
\nClaws outstretched, the Albanian eagle,
\nSpreads its formidable wings.<\/p>\n

(1910-1911)<\/p>\n

[Lirija<\/em>, published in the periodical Leka<\/em>, Shkodra, 10, 1937. Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Winter<\/strong><\/p>\n

O’er fields and o’er mountains
\nBlows the bitter polar blast,
\nOh north wind, halt your fury,
\nAnd you, frost, don’t freeze me over,
\nDon’t congeal these last drops of blood,
\nCringe and cower, poor old man.<\/p>\n

With scythe in hand, winter has come,
\nHas culled the leaves and cropped the grass.
\nSnow whirls o’er the balcony.
\nThe piteous elder, feeble and frigid,
\nIn failing voice repeats:
\nCringe and cower, poor old man.<\/p>\n

[Dimni<\/em>, from the volume Juvenilia<\/em>, Vienna 1917. Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lokja<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/p>\n

On the porch are withered flowers
\nNot a soul, a deathly silence,
\nNo one is at home but Lokja
\nLonging for her dead companion.<\/p>\n

Alone to bed, alone she rises,
\nAshes on her head, lamenting,
\nNo one there to cast some shavings
\nOn the fireplace coals to light them.<\/p>\n

Bitterly does she regret she
\nNever had a son, for now his
\nYoung bride would be dwelling with her,
\nSetting out to fetch the firewood.<\/p>\n

She would keep the fire going,
\nShe would keep the food from spoiling.
\nWith the other ladies Lokja\u2019d
\nVenture forth in finest garments.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d have spent her years like springtimes,
\nShe\u2019d have gently rocked the children,
\nCalled their names with fondest pleasure,
\nWatched the babies in their cradles.<\/p>\n

Now has sorrow overcome her
\nAs she thinks of wretched Trina,
\nAs she curses Death who seized her,
\nClutched her and will ne\u2019er return her.<\/p>\n

II.<\/p>\n

Chrysanthemums but in the graveyards
\nBloom as autumn wanes and falters,
\nAnd the north wind\u2019s begun moaning,
\nHowling, cutting down the forests.<\/p>\n

With the winter do the woodlands
\nDrop their foliage worn in autumn,
\nGusts of blust\u2019ring wind now offer
\nTo the poor their leaves as pallets.<\/p>\n

Snow falls as the north gale\u2019s keening,
\nSpreading ice across the country,
\nFrom the heavens rage the tempests,
\nBlotting out the oaks and spruces.<\/p>\n

With some shavings in the fireplace
\nSits the widow all night mourning,
\nTo the flames her hands she stretches
\nLike a woman who is praying.<\/p>\n

Pale, a light appears before her,
\nSad reflection of her lifetime,
\nThus revealed is the Grim Reaper,
\nComing forward, calling to her.<\/p>\n

In the house a ghost has entered,
\nLike a breeze that filters through it,
\nIn the dusk an apparition
\nDrifts near Lokja at the hearthside.<\/p>\n

His swift arms descend upon her,
\nChoking her, embracing tightly,
\nParched lips on her brow now kiss her,
\nDarkness reigns, she is no longer.<\/p>\n

[Lokja<\/em>, from the cycle Andrra e Jet\u00ebs<\/em>, taken from the volume Juvenilia<\/em>, Vienna 1917, reprinted in: Ndre Mjeda, Vepra letrare, 1, <\/em>(Tirana: Naim Frash\u00ebri, 1988), p. 91-94. Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classical poet Ndre Mjeda (1866-1937) bridges the gap between late nineteenth-century Rilindja culture and the dynamic literary creativity of the independence period. Mjeda was born on 20\u00a0November 1866 in Shkodra and, like so many other Gheg writers of the period, was educated by the Jesuits . Influential in his upbringing were Jesuit writer Anton Xanoni […]<\/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-898","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\/898","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=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.shqipopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}