Vedat Kokona commemorated on his birth centennial

TIRANA, Sept. 2 – On his 100th birth anniversary, Vedat Kokona, one of Albania’s brightest translators and lexicologists is being commemorated with an exhibition at the National Library in Tirana. The exhibition featuring 180 samples of Kokona’s works will remain on display until September 10. Apart from French-Albanian and English-Albanian dictionaries, Kokona is known for his wonderful translations into Albanian of some of the greatest works by Shakespeare, Dickens, Hemingway, Zweig, Maupassant, Gorky and Pushkin.
Vedat Kokona (1913 – 1998) was an Albanian translator, writer and lexicologist of the 20th century, well known for his dual dictionaries English-Albanian and French-Albanian and his contributions in Albanian lexicology and lexicography. Kokona was born on August 8, 1913, in Izmir, Turkey, to an Albanian intellectual family, originally from Gjirokastra, Albania. His father, Elmaz, was a lawyer. Upon the return of their family to Albania in 1920, he followed the primary school in Tirana. He finished in 1935 the lyceum of Korca, then pursued higher studies in law in Paris, France. In 1949, he was appointed as an editor and translator in the publishing house “Naim Frasheri” and as a professor of French at the University of Tirana, where he taught until retirement. Vedat Kokona devoted most of life and work to French language. He was one of the best lexicologists of this language. He worked on and published different French-Albanian and Albanian-French dictionaries and also English-Albanian dictionaries. His first dictionary was published in 1932. His last dictionary is a 40,000-word work.
He is one of the most important Albanian authors in lexicology and lexicography.
Kokona is one of the most renowned translators from French, Italian, English and Russian. He has made significant contributions in the field of translation of poetry and prose.