“The communists’ accusation against Fishta is that he accepted the title of member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts in Rome, granted by the Italian government; however, this was not a political position, unlike that of Omer Nishani…” / The unknown writing of Ali Këlcyra.

Memorie.al / In 1961, the renowned Albanian exile magazine “Shejzat” (The Pleiades), edited by the distinguished professor Ernest Koliqi, dedicated a special issue to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the birth of our great national poet, Father Gjergj Fishta (1871-1940). An organizing committee and an honorary committee were established for the celebration, featuring prominent Albanian figures of the time as well as friends and well-wishers of Albania. As one flips through this special issue of “Shejzat” (No. 11-12, Rome 1961), whose cover features a portrait of Fishta by the famous Albanian painter Lin Delija, one encounters the writing of Ali Këlcyra. Këlcyra’s remains were eventually brought back to the homeland by his daughter, Hana Klissura, to find rest in the Këlcyra cemetery, under the shadow of the few remaining walls of his family’s estates—burned by the Greeks in 1914, seized during the communist dictatorship, and subsequently left to the mercy of fate until today.

A four-page article, a perfect analysis written in French – not merely because French was a foreign language Ali Këlcyra mastered so well, but for the simple reason that our great national poet should be known as widely as possible beyond linguistic borders. In fact, in that issue of “Shejzat,” alongside writings in Albanian by Eqrem bey Vlora, Karl Gurakuqi, Martin Camaj, Rozolin Petrotta, etc., we also find articles in Italian and German.

Furthermore, enriching this special issue are illustrations by Lin Delija, Ibrahim Kodra, Dragutescu, and a portrait by Umberto Giunti. Ali Këlcyra’s writing, unknown to the general public and presented here translated into Albanian by Thomas Frashëri, besides its inherent value, testifies to the great importance of various magazines and periodicals published in the diaspora during the years when Albania was under dictatorship. Consulting and studying the materials presented in them undoubtedly fills a significant temporal void, enriching our national memory.

FATHER FISHTA – THE GREAT ALBANIAN NATIONAL POET

By Ali Këlcyra

Poetry is not merely the art of harmony and rhythm, and its purpose is not solely to provide fleeting spiritual pleasure. It is the duty of true poets to be guided by higher aspirations. Through their works, they enrich the soul and exalt the human being. Within man, they awaken the noblest feelings through striking images and the beauties of nature, thus giving life to the most magnificent events and unforgettable deeds.

From this perspective, Fishta is undoubtedly a great poet. Born in the Shkodra region during the second half of the last century, a friar of the Franciscan order, Fishta remains not only our greatest national poet but also, and above all, a genuine pedagogue of our people’s patriotic sentiment. He deserves admiration for his literary talent as much as he deserves appreciation for the significant role he played in the formation and consolidation of the Albanian consciousness. He carried out his intellectual activity during a critical period in our people’s journey, a time when the national renaissance faced not only major political problems at home and abroad but also the deadlock of religious division, which heavily influenced the masses and often became fertile ground for the intrigues of various powers and their claims over Albania.

These obstacles had serious consequences for achieving true national unity. Fishta’s poetic and rhetorical talent gave a great impetus to this unity. It can be said without hesitation that Father Fishta and Naim Frashëri are, among our compatriots, those who, through the force of their ideas and patriotism, contributed most to the awakening of the Albanian national sentiment, dormant for centuries under Ottoman rule. Precisely for all these reasons, every Albanian with common sense, and those insensitive to the absurdities of anti-national propaganda, should be eternally grateful to these great poets for the services they rendered to Albanian culture and the homeland.

Currently, the Albanian language has two main dialects: Gheg, spoken in the north, and Tosk, spoken in the south. Fishta, of Shkodran origin, wrote his entire literary work in Gheg. This is the reason why his language is not easily understood by the masses in Southern Albania. It is more widely read and appreciated by intellectually prepared individuals. However, in Northern Albania, Fishta remains a folk poet. His poems are recited and sung even by the simplest highlanders.

Nevertheless, Fishta is the undisputed master of Albanian letters, never ceasing to inspire all youth devoted to the cultivation of literature. His main work, “Lahuta e Malcís” (The Highland Lute), is a collection of poems, some of which can be considered masterpieces not only of Albanian literature but also of international literature. Part of this collection is the song of Oso Kuka, in which the poet describes in choice words the heroic deeds of this compatriot who, by lighting the gunpowder, blew up the fortress of Vranina along with its entire garrison, solely to avoid surrendering to the surrounding Slavic troops.

Oso Kuka’s furious and terrifying shout toward the Turkish pasha, who dared to express doubts about the Albanians’ spirit of sacrifice, carries so much expression of exaltation, nobility, and strength that in the German translation by Baroness Marie Amelie von Godin, this poem was judged by German specialists to possess the highest literary values. Without wishing to fall into the trap of national vanity by comparing the Albanian poet to the universally admired literary genius of the centuries, we can say that Fishta has the right to be considered the Homer of Albania.

Everything the Albanian race holds precious and generously exalted in its experiences and feelings was brought to light and sang with restraint in the lines written by him. For all these reasons, Fishta contributed through his works to the strengthening of the Albanian character and the enrichment of our people’s moral heritage. Nonetheless, this eminent man, who honors the Albanian nation in the eyes of foreigners and who deserves our gratitude in every respect, is trampled upon and despised by the current regime in Albania. The glorious memory of this distinguished citizen has been intentionally faded in our country by those in power.

Even his name has been erased from the list of Albanian literary personalities, which today includes authors and apologists of the regime whose mediocrity makes them unworthy of being considered even students compared to the master. Ostracism and oblivion are today imposed on Fishta’s immortal work, while it thrives more than ever in the souls of patriots and remains forever sacred in their hearts. Fishta, the great lighthouse of Albanian culture and intellectuals, who for nearly a century radiated over Albanian youth, has been extinguished since the day the current regime began its rule.

There is no heavier blow to the culture of our compatriots and no greater insult to national dignity. But why, then, this fury of the ruling clique in Albania toward the memory of a distinguished poet who is no longer alive? This low injustice has a dark reason, which the tyrants keep silent, camouflaged under grotesque pretexts so that the subjugated masses do not recognize it. Fishta’s entire literary work is inspired by the unyielding resistance of the Albanian people against Great-Slavic occupation. Fishta exalted the national sentiment by singing the deeds of ancestors in their centuries-old struggle, as shown by the example of the poem of Oso Kuka. The transmission and dissemination of such literature did not suit the regime that came to power after the World War at all, and even less its leaders, who were nothing but creatures of Tito.

Fishta’s official “excommunication” occurred precisely when the current regime was merely a satellite of Yugoslavia. This makes this political decision even more detestable. A literature that preaches to Albanian youth, as a national dogma, resistance against Great-Slavic pressure – which has absorbed three-quarters of our race and seems to aim to swallow what remains, pinning our people to the Adriatic shores – did not fit the government’s policy, even after the abandonment of Tito and the embrace of Stalin. This explains the hostile behavior of the Tirana government toward Fishta.

This behavior may change when Albania is liberated from Slavic influence. Then Fishta, a victim of his literary work due to the political opportunism of the current rulers, will be rehabilitated in the full apotheosis of his glory. To avoid telling this sad truth openly, the Albanian communists used a banal tool: they accused Fishta of being a collaborator with the fascist occupier. Regarding this accusation, it seems appropriate to provide these clarifications:

Firstly, the Albanian communists confuse the politician with the writer, while the distinction on this point is significant. Fishta was not a politician at all. Like all great artists, he took very little interest in daily politics. Throughout his life, as a friar and writer, Fishta was never a civil servant; he was only a deputy in the Albanian Parliament during the years 1920-1924, when the Albanian state was miraculously revived. He did not participate in parliamentary debates on administrative, legal, economic, or political issues.

However, as soon as it came to matters that affected him personally – such as aspirations for ethnic union and the protection of the rights of Albanian minorities under foreign rule – his voice thundered against international injustices toward the Albanian people. Under the powerful influence of his patriotic zeal and eloquence on purely national issues, the Parliament felt obliged to make decisions that were perhaps not always politically sound and that put the government in awkward positions relative to neighboring states. Fishta, the apolitical, found himself mixed indirectly and against his will in social divergences during the last years of his life, at a time when the two great world movements, Fascism and Communism, had deep consequences in Albania and provoked unrest.

It is true that Fishta, elderly and with little strength, frail and at the end of his life, did not join the resistance against the occupier and did not even call for it. It cannot be ruled out that Fishta, who had dedicated his life to preaching and exalting ethnic union, was not indifferent when this union was achieved, albeit under a regime that was not independent, in the circumstances of the war. It is very possible that within him, he felt gratitude toward the policy of the Axis that had realized this union. During the last war, many of our compatriots, compelled by circumstances, chose with goodwill and faith an ethnically united Albania under the influence of a Power, rather than a halved but legally independent Albania.

Although I was personally against this choice, I have never accused those who held an opposite opinion to mine of being traitors. Full national independence and territorial integrity with ethnic union are two issues of equal paramount importance; it is very difficult to choose between the two, especially when it concerns, as in our case, the abandonment of half of the Albanian people under absolutely foreign rule. The course of events after the war seems to have proven those who disagreed with my opinion right, because with a small and threatened Albania, fatally destined to be a satellite of one Power or another, we have now lost territorial integrity and national unity, as well as freedom and independence.

The main argument of the communist accusations against Fishta lies in the fact that he accepted, while the country was occupied by fascist troops, the title of member of the Academy of Letters in Rome, which was granted to him by the Italian government of that time. The title of Academician is not a political or administrative function, and the fact of accepting it cannot be considered actual collaboration with the occupier. But even if we accept it as such, the same argument should apply to everyone. Today, in the ranks of the communists, there are many individuals who were officials or officers in the service of the Albanian government led by the fascists. The well-known case of Dr. Omer Nishani is a case in point.

This veteran of Albanian communism was the director of the Communist Party organ printed in Geneva among the Albanian political emigration during the period 1924-1939. Upon returning to Albania during the fascist occupation, Nishani was appointed a member of the Council of State. This did not prevent him from being elected Chairman of the Presidium, that is, President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Albania, when the communist regime took power at the end of the world war.

The flagrant contradiction displayed by the regime’s behavior toward two compatriots – one with a nationalist tendency, the other of the extreme left – sufficiently proves the true motive that drives the Albanian rulers, under false arguments, to denigrate our great national poet. For this reason, the bitter accusations of an oppressive regime, craftily directed against Fishta, cannot prevent Albanians from admiring his poetic genius and honoring his person for the great services he rendered to the cause of the homeland./Memorie.al