Poet Gjergj Fishta commemorated in scientific conference

TIRANA, Dec. 20 – Franciscan pater Gjergj Fishta, the greatest and most influential figure of Albanian literature in the first half of the twentieth century, was remembered on Monday on his 70th death anniversary in a conference held in the northern city of Shkodra. The scientific conference called ” Gjergj Fishta, the poet and national thinker” held in the local Luigj Gurakuqi university, brought together scholars from Shkodra, Tirana and even Albanian speaking researchers in Montenegro.
“The conference was a modest attempt to honour the memory of a man who dedicated all his potential to language and the national literature in the early 20th century,” said Ledri Kurti, the head of the literature department at the Shkodra University as quoted by local media.
More than any other writer, pater Gjergj Fishta (1871-1940), gave artistic expression to the searching soul of the now sovereign Albanian nation. Lauded and celebrated up until the Second World War as the ‘national poet of Albania’ and the ‘Albanian Homer,’ Fishta was to fall into sudden oblivion when the communists took power in November 1944. The very mention of his name became taboo for forty-six years.
A renowned priest, teacher, politician and promoter of the northern Albanian Geg culture, Gjergj Fishta is the author of a total of thirty-seven literary publications. His name is indelibly linked to one great work, indeed to one of the most astounding creations in all the history of Albanian literature, Lahuta e malc Shkodra 1937 (The highland lute). ‘The highland lute’ is a 15,613-line historical verse epic focusing on the Albanian struggle for autonomy and independence. It constitutes a panorama of northern Albanian history from 1858 to 1913. Despite the success of ‘The highland lute’ and the preeminence of its author, this and all other works by Gjergj Fishta were banned after the Second World War when the communists came to power. The epic was, however, republished in Rome 1958, Ljubljana 1990 and Rome 1991, and exists in German and Italian translations.