By Albert Vataj
Part Two
Memorie.al / It are an understatement to say that Arshi Pipa remains one of the most authentic figures of democratic consciousness and action. He was much, much more than that. He was and remained a courageous voice of values. You might find it impossible to find a more perfect personification of a dissident in both life and work. Seeking him out and wanting to draw him forth from the times of trials, the devouring whirlpools, and the wraths of the communist dictatorship and beyond – and here he is now, who can be accepted without hesitation – he is Arshi Pipa. He worked with heart and soul, fought tooth and nail to be able to witness that perfect universe of the victor, the disciple of knowledge and learning, the crest of clarion calls and communication, communion, and creation. Everything in him and with him could have been conceived and taken flight to be realized like an ancient Antaeus, in every pulse, in every thought, in every love and expressive uniqueness.
Continued from the previous issue
“‘Trilogia Albanica’,” writes Peter Prifti, “as the first of its kind in Albanian literature, is an enlightening work, a rich mine for poets, folklorists, ethnologists, linguists and etymologists, historians, and scholars of Albanian literature in general. The novelty of its form, the wide range of ideas and disciplines it encompasses, the original treatment of the subject, and the richness of data, give this work a deserved place in Albanian literature. It is not an exaggeration to say that ‘Trilogia Albanica’ establishes its author as a leading scholar in the USA for De Rada and the Arbëresh people, for the structure of Albanian poetry and the character of Albanian literature in general.”
In 1991, he published “Contemporary Albanian Literature,” about which the scholar Italo Costante Fortino said: “Arshi Pipa’s latest study on the literature of socialist realism constitutes a first contribution… for a new order that must be established in literature and, primarily, in literary criticism.” Fortino’s words apply equally to the “Albanian Trilogy.”
Scientific research in the field of literary criticism cannot be conducted without taking into account Arshi’s original thoughts and theses, and without maintaining an approving or opposing stance toward them. He published many studies on Albanian and Arbëresh literature and culture in the foreign press, such as “Südost-Europa Forschungen”, “Zeitschrift für Balkanologie”, “Comparative Literature Studies”, “Books Abroad”, “Rivista di lettrature moderne e comparate”, “Mondo operaio”, “Revue des études sud-est européennes”.
In this field, Pipa also delved into world literature, especially Italian literature. He published scholarly articles of great cognitive value on Dante, De Sanctis, Manzoni, Ungaretti, Moravia, and Montale. Pipa published these essays in foreign scientific journals such as “Italica”, “Italian Quarterly”, “The Romanic Review”, “Comparative Literature”, “Books Abroad”, “Belfagor”, “Le ragioni critiche”, “Revue de literature comparèe”, “Revue des études italiannes”.
One of the most valuable fruits of this work is the work “Montale and Dante” (1968), in English, translated into Italian and, recently, if I am not mistaken, also into Albanian. With this work, he ranked himself among the world’s best scholars of this subject – namely, the objective evaluation of Montale’s poetry and highlighting Dante’s influence on Montale’s poetry.
“The fact that even today, after more than 30 years,” Astrit Lulushi has written, “the book ‘Montale and Dante’ continues to be described by critics as one of the deepest and most detailed studies about the great Italian poet, shows that Arshi Pipa was successful in this endeavor.” And further: “…without Pipa’s work, ‘Montale and Dante’, world literary criticism today would surely feel impoverished.”
Aesthetics and philosophy were also among his scientific interests. His legacy in these fields, besides the dissertation on Bergson’s philosophy mentioned above, includes scholarly articles and scientific reports presented at international conferences and congresses in Amsterdam, London, Uppsala, Palermo, Venice, etc. Remaining in manuscript is the philosophical work “La mia concezione sulla vita” (My conception of life).
I find it necessary to mention here Pipa’s thought on one of the most essential principles of aesthetics, that which relates to the beautiful in art versus the moral. Speaking about Benedetto Croce, Pipa says: “…The beautiful and the honest are separate from each other. Thus, whether a work is moral or not is in the hands of the artist. So an aesthetically scandalous book may pass, but the author should never write it” (My emphasis, A.Ç).
A special contribution is his scientific activity in the field of folklore, folkloristics, and linguistics. During his prison years, he prepared a work with folklore materials collected from the prisoners, about 420 typewritten pages, not counting here a theoretical introduction about our folklore and folklore in general; a work that was submitted to the Institute of Folklore in 1957, and today cannot be found.
Published in this field are the works “Albanian Folk Verse: Structure and Genre” (1978) and “Politics of Language in Socialist Albania” (1989). Pipa returned again to the analysis of various issues of our epic of the heroes (kreshnikëve) in the paper “Serbocroatian and Albanian Frontier Epic Cycles”, published in 1984, in the volume “Studies on Kosova” (edited by Arshi Pipa and Sami Repishti). Joining scholars Alois Schmaus, Stavri Skendi, and others, Pipa treats the cycle of the songs of the heroes of our Northern highlanders as a version of the Bosnian epic, modified by our ethnic psychology and our customary traditions.
In the work “Politics of Language in Socialist Albania”, he deals with the problem of our literary language standard, established in a forum where freedom of speech constituted sacrilege, as in all forums of the dictatorship, and reaches the conclusion that “‘unified language’ is neither unified, nor common, nor national; it is a Tosk variant patched with some phonetic borrowings from literary Gheg, which were missing from the structure of Tosk”; a conclusion from which one cannot remove a single comma (as a folk expression says), and which has finally been accepted by everyone.
It is of interest to present some of his thoughts on our language, which he knew and used perfectly in both dialects. He held the stance of Çabej: “I behold with sympathy a state, such as todays, when a small Albania, a very rare example in Europe, is able to express itself in two literary languages. This is a sign of wealth, of culture, which distinguishes us, whatever its cause might be.” And in another case: “Gheg and Tosk complement each other in the literary field in a fortunate way. There are things that one says powerfully, the other expresses pleasantly.”
He showed himself a master in both dialects. It suffices to mention here two poetic jewels: “Shemo Hajduti” (Tosk), “Kupe Danja” (Gheg), or the translation of Lucretius into Gheg, because there one finds the “titanic surges of thought and the all-encompassing trembling of the soul,” whereas Virgil in Tosk, “not that he cannot be translated well into Gheg, but that something vague and fluid that is his poetry melts better in Tosk.” However, although Pashko Gjeçi had to die to put the seal on this phenomenon, the Albanian conscience, regarding this major issue, is what it is: it prefers to accept prejudice instead of fact.
His concerns and interests for the situation in Albania, Kosova, and for all Albanian lands and their future, found their expression in the 1990 publication of the book “Albanian Stalinism. Ideopolitical Aspects”, a collection of writings of a political character, published in the Albanian periodical press of our diaspora and the American one, of the years 1958-1989. Pipa published writings of this nature in the newspaper “Dielli” (The Sun) during the years 1991-’92, years when he was the chairman of “Vatra” (The Hearth) and the editor of its organ.
Pipa is also distinguished for publishing activity in the field of the periodical press. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of literary and scientific organs. In 1944, when Albania suffered under foreign occupation, at a young age, he launched the magazine “Kritika letrare” (Literary Criticism), in which he is noted for an original and objective treatment of the personalities of Albanian letters; a feature that would accompany him ever later, when he would write major works in this field. In the pages of the magazine, among others, such peaks of our literature and culture as Noli, Konica, and Migjeni are outlined.
These works of Pipa have remained peaks in the history of our literary criticism as well. The essay written about Konica proves him as a first-class critic. It remains to this day one of the jewels of our literary criticism, as much for the depth of treatment as for the style of elaboration and conciseness. In the years 1945-’46, he was a member of the editorial board of the magazine “Bota e Re” (The New World). And, in 1987, a member of the editorial board of the quarterly magazine for critical thought, “Telos” (California).
In 1990, he began to publish in Washington D.C. the magazine “Albanica – A Quarterly Journal of Albanological Research and Criticism”, a magazine with great albanological scientific values. After three issues, for financial reasons, this publication – so necessary and important especially for presenting before the world the true economic and political state of our lands and our albanological sciences – was interrupted. For its time, in the Albanian diaspora, not only in that of America, there has been no second such journal to even slightly approach it.
Published there were scholarly articles in the Albanian, English, French, and German languages by well-known Albanian and foreign scholars such as A. Pipa, M. Camaj, P. Prifti, A. Logoreci, A. Klosi, A. Vehbiu, F. Pipa, Michele Roux, Odile Daniel, Francesco Altimari, Walter Breu, Hans-Jürgen Sasse, Matteo Mandalà, Peter Bartl, Armin Hetzer, Alain Ducellier, and Wilfried Fiedler.
The defense of the Albanian cause in all our lands was the goal of the magazine. “This magazine is coming out at a time,” was written on the back cover, “when both Albania and Kosova are facing a state of extraordinary crisis. While Albanians in the homeland, disgusted by Stalinist slavery, are abandoning the homeland taking the road of exile, the Kosovars, on their part, continue to abandon Kosova to escape Serbian slavery…!
But there is a difference between the situation in Albania and that in Kosova and in several Yugoslav republics where a majority of Albanians live. The Albanians of Yugoslavia, although persecuted, organize and protest, whereas the Albanians in the homeland do not even dare to whisper. But no one stops the Albanian migration living in democratic countries from speaking. It belongs to it to become the spokesperson for the silenced.” And such did Albanica become. The first issue was dedicated to the “Tragedy of Kosova and its actors.” On the front of the magazine, the map of Kosova together with the northern part of Albania was outlined.
Continuously, Pipa actively followed political developments in the homeland, in Kosova, and in the Albanian lands in the Balkans; he sent letters to the highest personalities of the American administration, spoke on “Voice of America,” gave interviews, etc. In this issue are published the letters Pipa sent to American President George Bush, two letters to Secretary of State James A. Baker, and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, regarding the Albanian cause in general.
In the years 1991-’92, he edited the newspaper “Dielli”, being simultaneously the chairman of “Vatra”. Pipa, remaining as always outside the boundaries of diaspora partisanship, as a true patriot, anti-communist, and democrat, harshly criticized the anti-democratic actions of the political forces that emerged on the scene immediately after the fall of the dictatorship, suggested valuable political platforms for democratic developments in Albania, and insisted that the responsibility for what happened during the 50 years of the communist regime be brought before justice.
Arshi Pipa died on July 20, 1997, in Washington, D.C., with the burning desire to see a democratic and Western Albania, and Kosova and other Albanian lands liberated and united with the homeland. He left his final wish: for his body to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the waters of the Adriatic. A few years before he died, he donated his rich library to the Historical Museum of Shkodër.
Pipa was a fierce defender of the national cause, an idealist patriot, a convinced democrat and anti-communist, a dissident in life and in literary and scientific activity, an exemplary model of non-conformism, a tireless worker, who dedicated all his life energies and intellectual abilities to the national culture. He was a rare erudite and a polyglot. Besides Albanian, he spoke, read, and wrote in English, Italian, French, and German.
The homeland honored him with the high title: “Naim Frashëri” of the First Class, and his city of birth declared him an “Honorary Citizen.” His bust cast in the Bronx has stood since 1999 in the premises of the City’s Historical Museum. Albanian culture, where the tone is still determined by the Dictator’s academics or their nostalgics, finds it hard to accept such a personality as Pipa, who unmasked them for an entire lifetime.
Here and there, specific individuals and democratic cultural institutions have begun to take the first steps to bring to light his scientific and literary work. But what about our diaspora? No promotional activity for his great patriotic, scientific, artistic, and publishing work. Except for an occasional high-value article like that of Astrit Lulushi, “Montale & Dante and Arshi Pipa”, and two or three tendentious critical writings, nothing else has caught my eye. An unpaid debt of “Vatra”, the Writers’ Association, and, in general, the intelligentsia here. / Memorie.al
