One of the most notable and successful activities during the Austrian cultural year in Albania, resulted to be the one of literary postcards undertitled ‘’From Austria with love.’’ This activity brought to the Albanian readers some of the most renowned authors of modern and classical Austrian literature.
At the framework of the 2018 Austrian cultural year in Albania, the Austrian Embassy in collaboration with Poeteka, ADD and Rauch opened in March the program ‘’Poetry Card- From Austria to Albania with Love.’’ The postcard format was chosen as Austria is known as a country which used postcards as a communications means among cultures quite early. This intercultural communications of image and text comprises a 115-years broad and rich tradition.
Poeteka restored this tradition before the Albanian public in a new format, dedicated to the promotion of cultures through literary texts, translation and reading of Austrian and Albanian authors. A special attribute was paid to the translators as communication bridge, as the readers were able to learn about authors’ portraits and biographies, and read their work in Albanian.
Altogether with authors and readers an elaborative communication and exchange was achieved through the postcards. Works were brought in the original language too, for the connoisseurs of German.
The first postcard to be introduced was that of a document from 1944, which celebrates the collaboration between the two countries. Among other interesting pieces were stamp portraits of authors, but especially an early 1944 publication of Rainer Maria Rilke in Albanian, translated by writer Arshi Pipa and published from ‘’Fryma’’ (Breath) literary magazine. The postcard was symbolically inaugurated on March 21, the World Poetry Day.
Besides those were also other publications such as poetry dedicated to Albania by albanologue Franc Nopsca.
Nopsca was born at an aristocratic Austro-Hungarian family and is regarded as the one of the founders of paleobiology and Albanian studies, as well as completing the first geological map of Northern Albania.
He studied at the Vienna university for fossilized bones and acquired a PhD in geology. He moved to the mountainous areas of Albania as having an interest in Albanian nationhood, and soon became associated with the Albanian resistance groups against the Ottomans and even smuggled weapons. After the Ottoman Empire left the Balkans, the countries separated and suffered internal conflicts, for which Albanian arose to its independence. Nopsca happen to be in the middle of it, and during the first world war he served as a spy for Austro-Hungary and at an international conference for the clarification on the status of Albania, he was a contender of the throne.
He published more than fifty scientific researches about Albania, covering linguistics, history, folklore, ethnology, the kanun (Albanian customary law), etc.. A number of his unpublished works, texts and drawings were acquired by scholar and nationalist Mid’hat Frasheri, but after Frasheri left in exile, the full Nopsca library were confiscated by the communist regime and now lays at the National Library.
Other portraits of the postcards are those of Joseph Roth and Nopsca with Albanian traditional costumes. The literary postcards collection consists of ten authors which is precious for both cultures, unites literature, journalism, travel diaries, short prose, translator and graphic artists, the biggest part of whom have visited Albania through the literary residency program ‘’POETEKA-Tirana in Between.’’
‘’I recall my childhood and I notice how my curiosity for the foreign was awakened and how my path from north Austria to Albania was sketched. A sunny May day in the 70s I was on a cruise between Patra and Brintisi, in the naval strait between Corfu and Butrint, when I saw Albania for the first time. The shore left me an enchanting impression. Then the country for us was unobtainable, but I knew that I would later tread in that place,’’ wrote in his specially written essay artist Christian Thanhauser.
Other authors have also grasped the attention of Albanian public during this cultural exchange year between Albania and Austria. One of them is Austrian nobelist Elfriede Jelinek, whose short creative story was published in a postcard on April 23, the World Book Day. The collection was then complemented with a postcard of Austrian journalist Joseph Roth, known for his texts dedicated to Albania of the both world war periods, and who appears dressed in traditional Albanian costumes. Then, the collection was forwarded by writer and translator Ilir Ferra, born in Albania but who has established his career in Vienna and writes in German.
Other writer and poets published as part of the project were renowned poet Georg Trakl, children’s writer Christine Nostlinger, author Andrea Grill and contemporary writers like Erwin Einzinger.
The project ‘’From Austria with love’’ became attractive to the reader who bought the postcards from libraries, but the this activity was also extended as souvenir gifting in the art of writing. The initiative encouraged both the recognition of Austrian writer in Albania, but also the recognition of Albanian writer working in Austria, who write both in Albanian and German.
Moreover the program ‘’From Austria to Albania with Love’’ made known the work of Albanian writers and translators who brought to the Albanian public the aforementioned Austrian writers, such as Arshi Pipa, Lindita Arapi, Admira Poci, Oriona Kraja Zylja, Majlinda Cullhaj, Lindita Komani. The successful projects of the Austrian Embassy and Poeteka will be celebrated on Dec. 14 near the youth center ‘’Arka’’ in Shkodra.
