Gjergj Fishta

Gjergj Fishta (born October 23, 1871 in the village of Fishta ( Zadrima ), † December 30, 1940 in Shkodra ) was an Albanian Franciscan , poet and translator. He is one of the most important cultural personalities and greatest writers of Albania in the first half of the 20th century and created the great heroic epic of northern Albania with Lahuta e Malcís (The Lute of the Highlands) . He is the national poet of Albania.

Life

The young Gjergj Fishta attended Franciscan schools in Troshan not far from his home village and in Shkodra . At 15, he was sent to Bosnia to study philosophy , Catholic theology, and languages such as Latin , Italian, and Serbo-Croatian . He made the friendship of Grgo Martić and Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević , who awakened in him a love of literature. In 1894 he was ordained a priest and was accepted into the Franciscan order. In the same year he returned to Albania, where he first worked as a teacher and later as a village pastor. In 1902 Fishta took over the management of the Franciscan High School in Shkodra and introduced Albanian as the language of instruction.

In 1899 he founded the cultural association Bashkimi , which wanted to establish an Albanian alphabet and published school books and a dictionary. In 1908 he took part in the Monastir Congress as its representative and was elected chairman of the decisive, eleven-member committee.

In 1913 he founded the magazine Hylli i Dritës , which was published with a few interruptions until 1944 and became the most important publication organ for the northern Albanian, Gegic culture. During the First World War , when Shkodra was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian army , he was editor of the newspaper Posta e Shypnisë (1916-1918).

From the beginning of April 1919 to 1920, Fishta was the secretary of the Albanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference and during this time also traveled to the United States . At the end of 1920 he was elected Member of Parliament for Shkodra, and in 1921 he took over the office of Vice-President in the Albanian Parliament . In 1924 he supported Fan Noli in an attempt to introduce a democratic system in Albania. After the establishment of the Zogu regime, Fishta therefore spent the years 1925 and 1926 in voluntary exile in Italy before he resumed his work as a teacher and writer in Shkodra.

He spent the last years of his life withdrawn in a monastery in Shkodra with diligent literary work.

Appreciation

"Gjergj Fishta was by far the greatest and most influential figure of Albanian literature in the first half of the twentieth century."

- Robert Elsie

Both through his work as a teacher and through his literary works, he had a great influence on the development of the written Albanian language in its gic (northern Albanian) form.

Hailed as the national poet of Albania and Albanian homer before the Second World War , Fishta's work was banned in communist Albania afterwards . The reasons were probably a general distrust of the clergy, Fishta's close relations with Italy and the close relations of the Communist Party of Albania with the Serbs and Montenegrins, who were often portrayed as enemies in Fishta's nationalist work.

In 1911 Fishta was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Imperial Austrian Franz Joseph Order .
In 1925 he was by Pope Pius XI. awarded the Al Merito .
With the Phoenix Medal from the Greek government .
By the Franciscan Order with the title honoris causae Lector jubilatus.
In 1939 he became a full member of the Italian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Works

Overview

Gjergj Fishta published a total of 37 works.

Te ura e Rrzhanicës . Poems, Zadar 1905
Anzat e Parnasit . Satires, Sarajevo 1907
Pika voese më vonë ri botuar si Vallja e Parrizit . Zadar 1909
Shqiptari i qytetnuem . Melodrama, 1911
Vëllaznia apo Shën Françesku i Assisi-t . 1912
Franciscan monthly magazine Hylli i Dritës (The Day Stars) , which was dedicated to literature, politics, folklore and history. With the exception of the turbulent years of the First World War and its aftermath, 1915–1920, and the first years of the dictatorship of Ahmet Zogu, 1925–1929, this influential journal of high literary repute was published regularly until July 1944. 1913
Judah Makabe . Tragedy, 1914
Gomari i Babatasit, Shkodër . 1923
Mrizin e Zanave , Shkodër . 1924
Lahuta e Malcís . Gesamtdruck, Shkodra 1937, (German: Die Lute des Hochlandes . Translated, introduced and annotated by Max Lambertz : Südosteuropäischenarbeiten . 51, Munich 1958)

He also worked as a translator of works by Molière , Manzoni and Homer, among others .

Lahuta e Malcís

Book cover of Lahuta e Malcís

By far Fishta's best-known work is the heroic epic Lahuta e Malcís , the lute of the highlands (the Albanian Alps are meant by highlands ). The epic consists of 15,613 verses divided into 30 songs, which describe the struggle of the Albanian highlands for the preservation of their settlement area and independence against the Montenegrins and Turks in the period between 1862 and 1913, including in particular the battle of Nokšić . In addition, readers get a deep insight into the patriarchal life, values and mythology of the Albanian mountain people, which was shaped by the Kanun . In some of the songs, Fishta himself appears at work. The book ends with Albanian independence in November 1912 and the London Ambassadors Conference .

In 1902, when Fishta worked for a while in a village in the mountains, he came into contact with the material for his greatest work. There he made friends with the 90-year-old Marash Uci , who himself had taken part in battles against the Montenegrins, told him about it and was later to be immortalized in the epic. Fishta wrote the main features of the work in the following years up to 1909, but refined it until the early 1930s. In 1905 the songs 12-15 appeared in Zadar under the title Te ura e Rrzhanicës (At the bridge of Rrzhanica) . The book was enthusiastically received in Albania. Fishta published expanded versions in 1912, 1923, 1931, and 1933 before the final version was published in 1937.

With the Lahuta e Malcís, Fishta continues the tradition of the orally transmitted heroic poetry of Northern Albania, which was usually performed accompanied by a Lahuta . A reference to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid can also be seen.

literature

Maximilian Lambertz : Gjergj Fishta and the Albanian heroic epic "Lahuta e Malsisë" - sounds of the highlands. An introduction to the Albanian world of legends . Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1949.
Robert Elsie : Introduction . In: Robert Elsie, Janice Mathie-Heck (Eds.): Gjergj Fishta: The Highland Lute - The Albanian National Epic . IBTauris, London / New York 2005, ISBN 1-84511-118-4 .

Web links

Commons : Gjergj Fishta - collection of images, videos and audio files

Biography on albanianliterature.net (English)
Literature by and about Gjergj Fishta in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Robert Elsie : Introduction . In: Robert Elsie, Janice Mathie-Heck (Eds.): Gjergj Fishta: The Highland Lute - The Albanian National Epic . IBTauris, London / New York 2005, ISBN 1-84511-118-4 .
^ Jorgo Bula: Albanian Literature . In: Genc Myftiu (ed.): Guide of Albanian History and Cultural Heritage . Sustainable Economic Development Agency, Tirana 2000, p. 141-152 .

personal data
SURNAME	Fishta, Gjergj
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Albanian Franciscan priest, poet and translator
DATE OF BIRTH	October 23, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fishta , Albania
DATE OF DEATH	December 30, 1940
Place of death	Shkodra , Albania

[elsie-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Robert Elsie : Introduction . In: Robert Elsie, Janice Mathie-Heck (Eds.): Gjergj Fishta: The Highland Lute - The Albanian National Epic . IBTauris, London / New York 2005, ISBN 1-84511-118-4 .

[guide-2] Jorgo Bula: Albanian Literature . In: Genc Myftiu (ed.): Guide of Albanian History and Cultural Heritage . Sustainable Economic Development Agency, Tirana 2000, p. 141-152 .