Chronicle in stone

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Chronik in Stein (original title: Kronikë në gur ) is a novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare from 1971. The German first edition, translated by Joachim Röhm , was published in 1988 by Residenz Verlag , Salzburg and Vienna . It is one of the most famous works by the internationally award-winning author.

Chronicle in Stone is an ode to the city of Gjirokastra.

The book is considered a “literary monument” ( Elena Panagiotidis ) to his hometown Gjirokastra , which is described in detail with its castle-like stone houses built on the steep mountain slope.

“It was really a very strange city. You could walk on a street and, if you wanted, stretch your arm a little to put your cap over the top of a minaret. Much was hard to believe and a lot was like a dream. "

- First chapter

action

The story is told by an unnamed first-person narrator who lives with his parents and grandmother in a large stone house in Gjirokastra. It is the time of the Greco-Italian War and the Second World War and the Italians have been occupying the city for some time. The boy describes everyday life in the city and the conversations of the people around him, which he does not always understand. The novel tells of the life of the narrator, his family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances who all foresee dark times.

After the Italians were repulsed, Greek soldiers entered Gjirokastra. The city is attacked several times from the air and the residents are as good as helpless in the face of the bombing. People die and houses are damaged. The small cannon on the city castle can't do much for defense. The entire city population flees into the darkness of the castle for a few days.

In the meantime, communism is flourishing in the country of Albania and Enver Hoxha finds a lot of support among the poor and severely weakened by the war population. In Gjirokastra, too, politically motivated murders of fascists begin , and one of the narrator's aunt switches to the partisans .

The Greeks soon moved away and the German National Socialist army bombed the city for over three hours. The narrator has meanwhile fled to a village with his parents and observes the destruction of his native city from afar. When they return, an apocalyptic picture presents itself to them: people are lying dead in the streets, those condemned to death are hung from power poles, the houses in the city have been destroyed.

Quotes

“I looked after the last farmers who were just crossing the bridge and thought how strange the division of people into farmers and townspeople was. How is it in the villages? Where are they and why can't you see them? In reality, I did not believe in the existence of villages. It seemed to me as if the retreating peasants were only pretending to go to villages when in reality they were going nowhere, but dispersed and hid there behind the flat, bushy hills around the city, until after a week , on the next market day, it was time again to fill our streets with green, bells, sounds and dew. "

- Second chapter

“At this time, the old whistle-blown woman's visits suddenly increased, which was to be expected. Unlike the old wise women, the whispering women always left their homes, especially in troubled times. The whispering women differed considerably from the wise women. The age of the whispering woman was more or less known, and it was far less advanced than that of the wise women. The whispering women complained about their daughters-in-law, while the daughters-in-law of the wise women were long dead. Likewise, the whispering women complained of rheumatism, tearing and other annoying ailments, whereas the wise women only knew the great suffering of blindness, of which they never complained. One could in no way compare the whispering woman with the wise women. "

- Chapter six

“One of those mornings, Mother Pino carefully locked her door and stepped out into the street. 'Where are you going, Mother Pino?' asked Bido Sherifi's wife from the window. 'To the wedding.' 'To the wedding? Who is getting married at such times? ' 'You're getting married,' said Mother Pino. 'People get married at all times.' "

- Chapter nine

“Something horrific had really happened. As the partisan column approached the center, Sheikh Ibrahim, who had climbed the minaret to watch the partisans arrive, suddenly pulled out a nail and tried to prick out his eyes. Passers-by who had hurried up the stairs had barely been able to lead him down, but angry and strong as he was, he asked for the nail back and yelled in a hoarse voice: 'I don't want to see communism!' After trying in vain to get it down, the people, who feared they might be thrown from the minaret by the raging man himself, had finally retreated downstairs and left the man who wanted to pierce his eyes alone upstairs. Sheikh Ibrahim hung with his upper body halfway over the stone parapet that surrounded the platform of the muezzin and sang an old religious hymn with dangling arms. "

- Chapter sixteenth

reception

"... the wonderful description of a forgotten province"

- Ulrich Enzensberger : The time

According to Thomas Kacza, the novel can also be understood as a homage to the communist dictator Enver Hoxha , who was also born in Gjirokastra.

Arshi Pipa , an intellectual of the Albanian diaspora, saw allusions to Enver Hoxha's sexuality and an equation of “red” and “white” terror in the novel.

Markus Gauß from the Wiener Presse described the novel as "moving, which I count among the most beautiful works in modern European literature."

expenditure

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elena Panagiotidis: Slow Resurrection of the Stone City . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 14, 2012 ( article on NZZonline ).
  2. ↑ Volker Mehnert: Ismail Kadaré: "Chronicle in Stone" . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 20, 2008 ( article on FAZ.net ).
  3. ↑ Ismail Kadare: Chronicle in Stone. (No longer available online.) In : lesen.Zeichen. July 18, 2010, archived from the original on December 5, 2012 ; Retrieved September 9, 2012 .
  4. ^ Ulrich Enzensberger: Tirana is silent. In: time online. September 11, 1992, accessed January 4, 2017 .
  5. ^ A b Thomas Kacza: Ismail Kadare - revered and controversial . Private print, Bad Salzuflen 2013.