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Azem Shkreli
The River
Translated from
the Albanian by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck
Only silence
Wise. Undaunted thought.
You know something blue
And deep to slake our thirst.
When you flood we long for that word
As one bank longs for the other.
Oh, blessed river, what can we do
To flow with you and not grow old?
The Cliff
Translated from the
Albanian by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck
We saw what we saw,
You were silent. I hardly grew up.
I envied your
Shadow and patience,
I kissed your
Thought one day and left,
I don’t know why you taught me
The pain of a drip on stone.
The Words
Translated from the
Albanian by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck
I place you stone upon stone and build with you
The Great Wall of my faith in mankind,
In my shadow and in things which do not know me
I place you stone upon stone,
On the thoughts and silence I do not trust,
On the subdued new mother I place you
Stone upon stone,
On the pain of endurance, on
Unforgiven blood, on the traces
I did not leave when I took the wrong road, and on my
Guilt and that of Christ whom I never saw,
For you I place you stone upon stone
On my shoulders, on bread which must not be trampled,
And on my father’s hunched years,
I place you
Stone upon stone
On everything I do not have and
On everything I cannot do.
I place you stone upon stone on my head and take an oath.
___
Born in 1938 in the village
of Shkrel in western Kosova, Azem Shkreli lost his mother while he was only two
years old, and was brought up my his grandmother who died when he was still a
young boy. After high school he went on to study at the University of Prishtina
and graduated in 1965 in Albanian language and literature. Shkreli worked
tirelessly for freedom and independence for his fellow Kosovar Albanians, but
in 1997 he died after a trip to Germany. His many books of poetry
included Bulzat (The Buds), Engjujt e rrugëve (The Street Angels)
and E di një fjalë prej guri (I Know a
Word for Stone), published in 1970. He also wrote novels, short stories, drama,
movie screenplays, and essays.
English language copyright
©2006 by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck.