"On My Husband's Neck" – a circumstantial poem

"I had the opportunity to express my opinion in a short and concise manner on this writer (Ndre Mjeda – AP), who seems to me the greatest classical poet of the Albanian nation to date..." (Fulvio Cordignano, Hoepli Manuals(Milan, 1931, p.226-227)[1]

By: Anton Papleka

In a review of the poetry collection Juvenile to Honorable Mjedës, written by Gjergj Fishta and published in the newspaper "Albanian Post", in 1917, this assessment is also found: "... from beginning to end, this work is dominated by a pleasant melancholy, which gives even the smallest things a special interest and importance, although one would have to say that this melancholy does not always flow from the hearts as much as from the minds of the author."[2] According to the author of this review, the aforementioned weakness of Ndre Mjeda's poetic creativity is also manifested in her relations with real or potential readers, on whom she cannot have a great impact: "Indeed, it seems that this melancholy starts once from the author's mind, is traversed through the rays of philosophy and classical poetry, and then penetrates through the bandages of the Albanian language, but not so longing that the heart yearns for the author to sing on his sonorous lyre…”. (my emphasis – AP).[3] This assessment, made by one of the most authoritative personalities in the field of Albanian literature and culture of that period, has willingly or unwillingly contributed to creating an incorrect opinion about Mjeda's poetry. Such an opinion, apparently, has become a kind of cliché that has left its mark not only on the general public, but also in literary circles and scholars. In his important study "The Two Literary Schools of Shkodra", the astute analyst of the literary tradition of Shkodra, and even a lover of the author's work "Juvenilias"", Ernest Koliqi wrote: "Xanoni, Mjeda, Thaçi write and versify with a lofty tone and style... Their inspiration comes more from books, not so much from life."[4]

Since "Juvenile" and Mjeda's later publications are part of the living tradition, which is much longer-lived than many books that come out of print today, I thought it would not be without interest to bring some new argument to counter the incorrect opinion regarding the bookish spirit or the cerebral character of Mjeda's poetry. Not wanting to take undue credit for myself, I will specify that the counteraction, the attempt to put the truth in its place, begins at least as early as the thirties. In addition to the sympathy and admiration that the students or followers had for the teacher and the poet, This is also expressed by the stance of some critics, such as Filip Fishta: "He who has a heart feels Mieda's poetry."[5] The mention of the heart recalls the mind/heart dichotomy and gives the above conclusion a polemical character. The statement made in the 1917 review is presented in a different light: the sensitivity, the emotionality of the Midianite poetry is not related to its essence, but to the degree of sensitivity, to the receptive ability of its reader...

Anyone who has focused on the creativity of Ndre Mjeda has noticed that it contains rich and multifaceted information from history, mythology, ethnology, geography and the daily life of Albanians. Given his extensive erudition, the above author can undoubtedly be called an erudite poet. But is the erudition that is embodied in poetry, that is conceived in its tissues, harmful?! In one of his autobiographies, Jorge Luis Borges said: “If they asked me what has carried the most weight in my life, I would answer: my father's library. I happen to think that I have never actually left this library.”[6]

Living among books, being nourished by books, by the cultures of the West and the East, has not prevented the great Argentine from standing alongside the greatest writers of the 20th century, Proust, Joyce and Kafka, as H. Bianciotti writes in his essay ""The Librarian of Babel".[7]

Erudite or intellectualist poetry, as he himself calls it in a preface written in 1981, is one of the most fruitful researches and one of the trends that have most enriched contemporary poetry. In addition to Borges, great erudites have been several poets who have left deep traces in world poetry, such as K. Cavafy, T. S. Eliot, E. Pound, S.-J. Perse and others.

On a national level, Mjeda is close to the erudite writer Pjetër Bogdani, the author of "Sibyls", which are not only one of the peaks of Albanian poetry of all time, but may have rare peers in European and world poetry of the 17th century. In an article published on the occasion of the anniversary of Mjeda's death, his student N. Doçi commemorates the erudite and book-loving teacher thus: "I have never seen him return or come to school, through the streets of the Seminary, with Bogdan or Bud under his arm?"[8] I think there can be no more significant image, no more touching iconographic representation than this one for the scholar, poet, translator and teacher N. Mjeda...

It cannot be denied that, due to his extensive erudition, some of Mjeda's creations can be compared to those works that have been described as "cabinet creations". As has been said in the past, this has not prevented the creations with mythological and historical subjects from feeling the poet's heartbeat, his spiritual impulse. After stating that in Juvenile: "There is certainly no lack of art, nor "feeling" (my emphasis – AP), F. Cordignano insists further: “With all this prep I say, they flow from a fresh and living stone true and heartfelt poetry... "[9] (my emphasis – AP).

Although Mjeda's poetic creativity is not voluminous, it does not lack thematic diversity. In addition to sonnet cycles such as Scodra, Lissus, this creativity also includes poems conceived with material taken from the present, creations that have their origin in life facts. A text filled with deep experiences, caused by tense intimate and/or social situations, is considered Vaji and bylbylit: “In Nightingale Oil, a sharp longing trembles that sheds a strange light on the exiled youth in strange places and on the struggle that raged in his truly Albanian soul, impatient of choices of any kind, against the discipline and strong rules he accepted for granted.”[10]

Single The dream of life, about which Koliqi wrote that it is "the purest, most beautiful poem that blossomed in the gardens of our literature",[11] There are numerous observations from the reality of Albania at that time, deep insights into the inner world of the characters. There is no doubt that in the long poem "Dissolve them."[12] Thoughts and feelings of the poet who wandered in foreign lands have taken their place, especially those experiences related to his arrest and departure for exile, in 1902, with handcuffs on his hands.[13]

Inspired by life are also such moving lyrics as "Homesickness"",[14] ""Spring",[15] "Edge",[16] "Winter"[17] or "For an Albanian school closed by the Ottoman government (Korca 1902)".[18] The very title of the last poem proves that its origin was a concrete event, defined in space and time: Korça, year 1902.

Since I do not intend to make a catalog of the creations that Mjeda may have written, prompted by any fact or life event, in my study I will focus only on the lyrics entitled "On my husband's neck". As far as I know, it was first published in the magazine "LEKA", Shkodër, April 1936.[19] It was later included in the collection "Juvenile and other poems", prepared by M. Gurakuqi.[20]

I chose this text as a typical example of the poetry that European scholars have called "circumstantial poetry." According to the book “Conversation with Eckermann”, it turns out that the aforementioned concept was used by the German poet Wolfgang Goethe, on September 18, 1823.[21] If the formulation belongs to the above date, there is circumstantial poetry in the work of several poets of Antiquity such as Horace, Catullus, and Ovid.[22] In the Middle Ages, it is mentioned "The Anthology""Greek", which contains about five thousand creations by Greek authors.[23] Within the framework of French literature, circumstantial poems have been written by Du Bellay, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Eluard, Aragon, Francis Ponge, etc.[24] In Albanian literature, poems of this nature can be called: "The journey of Humayun"" by HZKamberi, fragments of the poem "Songs of Milosao"J. De Rades, "For the freedom of Venice"of Mr. Serembe, "Oh my, Shypni." by P. Vasa, "A withered flower or a dead girl" by N. Frashëri, "A flower in autumn" by Gj. Fishta, ""Oil" of AZ Çajupi, "Pope Christ was killed.""of L. Logori etc.

Researchers have explained that the term "circumstantial poetry" has two different, diametrically opposed meanings:

IAccording to the common understanding, by circumstantial poetry is meant a poem made to order, paid for by the client, as happened with the courtesan poets, who lived in royal courts.[25]After showing that Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavid did not give any help to Firdous, the author of "Shahnameh", Henri Massé writes: "The biographer Aruz says that as a reward for a simple quatrain, the sultan had ordered the poet Onsori's mouth to be filled with precious stones three times in a row...".[26]

IIIn the language of literary criticism, "circumstantial poetry" is understood to mean a poem born from a circumstance in the poet's life. It is in this sense that I have also used this term in my study of lyric poetry. "On my husband's death"". It seems clear that this poem has its origins in a real event, specifically in the agony and death of a real man, Ndre Mjeda's friend, who gave up his soul in the presence of the latter. That this friend was a historical individual is also reinforced by the Gj. S. beginnings, behind which the proper name of the lyrical protagonist is hidden. Although the finding of this proper name has nothing to do with the values ​​of the text under consideration, I believe that this will arouse interest for exegetes of the Mjeda work.

The lyrical publishers "On my husband's neck"in 1936 does not mean that this poem was written around this time. Its content leads one to think the opposite: that it must have been written many years ago, when the poet lived and studied in a foreign land. However, another alternative cannot be ruled out: as is not uncommon, the motif of this poem must have followed Mjeda for a long time, until the fortunate moment came when the external and internal impulses were synchronized. In other words, the embryonic sketch took its final form, after being elaborated for a long time in the head or on paper. In favor of the second alternative, one can mention the fact that this text is missing from "Juvenile" published in 1917. That it is not a creation of early youth, this is also confirmed by the absence of Turkishisms, to which Mjeda was free in the poems of the first period. The idea that there is a certain time gap between experiencing the event and putting the verses on paper is also suggested by the use of the past tense: "The night was dark / And above your head you were standing / When you raised your lingata / It melted a life you had desired; / You said: well, they won't want / One that so many friends hope for...".[27] In favor of the alternative that immediately after the event the poet would have made some kind of sketch or misspelling, speaks an irrefutable argument such as the presence in the text of a multitude of the most minute details, which would hardly have been remembered and would have escaped oblivion for years.

Regardless of which of the above submissions may be closer to the truth, one thing is clear as daylight: the author of the lyric "On my husband's neck"He was motivated by a concrete event, which he experienced deeply, because the man who took his life before his eyes was a fellow countryman and like-minded person: “And he says to me: O brother, one of yours / These hearts forever, / Strengthened by one faith, / Beat in this miserable life; / A goal, a spark / Of the heart: Albanian”.[28] Further: "With joy again, my Shkodra,/ You make me a son of Albania...".[29]

If the poetry of circumstances, practiced by court poets, was characterized by the poet's lack of sincerity, by mediocrity and pretentiousness, on the contrary, the poetry of circumstances, as Goethe conceived it, was "the most sincere, profound and humane poetry."[30]

1. Sincerity. The poetry of circumstance is more sincere, because the poet does not pursue grand, sensational themes. He uses those themes that everyday life gives him and aims to remain as faithful as possible to the facts of life.[31] Loyalty to life is inseparable from loyalty to oneself. In such cases, it goes without saying that the verses come from the heart, are spontaneous. The texts of the poetry of the occasion are short and concise. They cannot be reconciled with prolixity and prolixity, which brings to mind the proverbial saying of La Fontaine: “Long things scare me.”[32] There is no doubt that one of the main attributes of lyric poetry On my husband's neckIt is poetic sincerity, which is embodied not only in its content, but also in its form. In this very concise text, consisting of thirteen stanzas, a human life unfolds, and there are even meditations on his death and afterlife.

2. Depth. Since the poetry of circumstance follows everyday life step by step, one might get the impression that it is superficial. Researchers are of the opinion that this is not the case at all. The everyday event resembles a flash, which allows the poet's gaze to penetrate very deeply into himself and into things. The revealing flash, the encounters with everyday life, which are like an open door to the unknown, have been exploited by some great poets such as Baudelaire and the surrealists (A. Breton: Naxha, Communicating Vessels).[33]

Even the author of the lyrics On my husband's neck tries to reveal the essence of the phenomena, gives priority to vertical penetration in three different, interconnected and complementary directions: penetration into the life of the protagonist, penetration into the inner world of the lyrical subject and penetration into the tragic history of the Albanian people from the period of the Illyrian-Roman wars to modern times: O new April where Illyrians / Owned a day earlier / And the foreign nation did not extend / The sea to the Albanian land; / But free and powerful / The two-faced Albanian ruled…[34]

3. Humanity.According to scholars, the "circumstances" shed a special light on the poet and on other people. In the poem "The little old people”And“widow", Baudelaire's pity for the protagonists of his creations is highlighted, while in the poem "With your tent", Francis Jammes expresses his compassion for the old shepherd.[35]

Highlighting the features and values ​​of Mjeda's poetry, F. Cordignano specifies: "Two themes that he had close to his heart in his verses are those that belong to family and homeland; without neglecting the feeling of friendship."[36] These themes constitute the pivot of the lyric "On my husband's neck", where a pronounced humanistic atmosphere prevails, which is expressed both through Gj. S.'s love for his homeland, for the Albanian lands, for his unfortunate nation, as well as through the lyrical subject's plea for his friend exhausted by illness and threatened by death, for his fellow countryman and for the like-minded person who gives up his life with the word "Albanian" in his mouth: Standing like a stone on his head/ Look at that volume of sadness;/ When he, as if his soul had returned/ From such a journey,/ His eyes opened again,/ He said his last words: “Break up![37]

Circumstantial poetry trends

Circumstantial poetry tends to single out situations, objects, and characters from everyday reality that take on a symbolic character. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the words of a critic who said on this issue: “Essentially, for a symbolist as well as for a poet of circumstance there are no small symbols, there is only the interest we show in them.”[38]

The protagonist of Mjeda's lyrics becomes a symbolic figure, because his death is not simply a biological extinction. It is known that when a man who has worked his entire life for his people, to awaken their national consciousness, to free them from foreign captivity and to put them on the path of progress, closes his eyes, death cannot be absolute. In such situations, physical annihilation is opposed by moral immortality, the survival of the work or the important message left by the deceased: "You said: so they will not want/ To know how many friends hope for you/ A homeland hopes for knowledge/ And the map that shines in it;/ For that love and taste / That adorns its heart;/ And, a mind vetoes the most / Among writings and among assemblies."[39]

After the above statements, I would like to add that treating the theme of death and immortality only on the patriotic level would greatly narrow Mjeda's philosophical vision, would truncate the universal message of his poetry. Since ancient times, philosophers who have dealt with the problem of death have pointed out that it has a tragic character only on the individual level, because it marks the end of an individual, while in the philosophical sense, the one who dies does not disappear or annihilate, but remains part of universal matter.

An important trend of the poetry of circumstance is its intimate spirit, its warmth, and its focus on the sphere of intimate life.[40] Lyrics "On my husband's neck" can be considered one of the most vivid examples of the intimate spirit, which was discussed above. The magic mirror of poetry gives us the opportunity to see what happens even in the deepest recesses of the soul of the protagonist or lyrical subject. Their experiences are presented with rare plasticity: "And it was a little: I went to him with my hand / And they broke out in a cold sweat / When Lott, I killed him in amazement".[41]

The dangers of poetry of circumstance

To avoid any kind of overvaluation of the poetry of circumstance, scholars have also drawn attention to the dangers that threaten this genre:

1. The beauty of the season: Such a danger exists in those cases when the event is overestimated, when the protagonist of the poem is attributed qualities that he does not possess, when the style is overloaded with inappropriate and unnatural stylistic figures.[42]I am convinced that in the lyrics "On my husband's neck"The sense of proportion has been preserved, rhetoric and any other display of unnaturalness have been avoided. The experiences of the devout patriot have been given in a believable manner, without excesses, without an exaggerated and heavy style: "Without rejoicing again, my Shkodra,/ Who made me a son of Albania,/ And in the shadow of that hill, / Let us hope that Illyrians / May they leave their stones, and their blessings / Await me from where in my heart."[43]

2. Prosaism. Critics call this weakness a "visible danger, if the poet falls into the descriptive temptation, if he explains the circumstance at length."[44]Reading the lyric "On my husband's neck", it is immediately noticeable that Mjeda does not describe, he avoids the narrative element, he is very sparing in the information he gives the reader. I would even add that in this text he uses that literary procedure that P. Cittati calls the "technique of omission" (removal), while Mario Vargas Llosa has named "hidden element".[45] To escape from prosaism, from narrativity, the poet has been helped by the structure he has chosen and the lyrical monologue. As physical time, from the entire life of Gj. S., only the moments of agony are presented. Starting from these moments, as from an ideal point (the word comes, Borges' aleph), the reader captures with his eyes the entire life of the protagonist as well as the culminating moments of the history of the Albanian people.

First of all, the tableau that outlines the time of agony is masterful. The details that are included in it have psychological truth, dramatic tension. This makes it possible for these details to be transformed into discourse signs with a high semantic and emotional load, as happens in the following stanza: "But he, on the cross, breathed / He quickly raised his body / And his eyes remained straight ahead, / He raised himself from the bed / And a power shook him / He came at that moment again."[46]

In addition to the intensity of meaning and emotion, prose is also characterized by poetic form, in which the content of the text is embodied. The rhythm of the verses reminds one of the cries of a heart in its final throes, the gasping breath of one who is dying. This fact is reinforced by the frequent use of overstatement, of breaking the verses: “Where the great cannon raised its flag / Against the foreigner, the Albanian flag, and towards you, the breast / Of those taught under the yoke, it swung…”[47]

Opponent of a dry, narrative style, Mjeda confidently chooses and places stylistic figures in the right place. Through figurative parallelism, he compares day with life, night with death: "For me this life is ending,/ O brother, before the night ends...".[48] This parallelism leads us to think that the life of Gj. S. was a day, a light for his compatriots. Metaphor is a figure that gives great vitality to this text, greatly increasing its semantic load. As a true Renaissance man, Mjeda expresses his conviction that the light of civilization, the progress of a people are closely linked to the emancipatory role of knowledge and the arts: "A homeland hopes for knowledge / And a map that will enlighten you...".[49] In the moral portrait of the protagonist, Mjeda highlights his spiritual wealth, deep feelings, and open-heartedness: "For that love and taste / They adorn the heart...".[50] The thoughts of an intellectual aware of his obligations to his country and people resemble lightning flashes that flash in a sky of dark clouds: “And a mind vetoes / Among writings and among assemblies”.[51] Pure patriotism is a sacred fire that warms and encourages man to undertake great tasks and perform deeds of national importance: “A target, a spark / Of the heart: Albanian”.[52] In keeping with his training as a cleric, Mjeda envisions human death as a path connecting the earthly world with the afterlife: "It was released where the path of the deka was... ".[53] The most beautiful and original metaphor of this lyric is found in those verses where the days of human life are compared to the threads used by the weaver: "This smoke will be folded / Without being woven well and neatly..."[54] Such a passage sheds light on Mjeda's origin from the bosom of the village, where he had served for years as a simple priest. Only a poet who knew the life of the peasantry well could know what indi and tumi were. I do not think it is inappropriate to add that the above metaphor also has mythological connotations, because it reminds us of the Hours (Fati), the Wind (Çabej), which pulled and cut the thread of human life. For our author, nourished by classical Greek and Roman culture, the myth of Penelope's thread, the myth of the duel between Arachne and Pallas (Minerva) which is immortalized in "metamorphosis"of Ovid.[55]

Based on the mythological worldview is also the personification of the homeland as a human being: "A homeland hopes for knowledge...".[56] It is known that many scholars have considered the epithet as an excess of fat that weighs down and complicates the phrase or verse. We note that in this text, epithets are very few: "Without a kiss, just an exchange" / I saw you. with Albanian blood...".[57] In some epithets, a mythological subtext is also present: "They stand like a stone on their heads / Look at those who are filled with sadness...".[58] Reading these verses brings to mind the Mountain Fairies who stone Muji's in-laws and bride, the stoning of Rozafa walled in the foundations of the castle, the stoning of Niobe or the stoning of Atlas and Pineus's comrades, when Perseus shows them the head of Medusa... In addition to simple comparison, Mjeda masterfully uses Virgilian simile, which expands the spaces of the text, enriching it with historical and geographical information: “He was released where the path of the dead was / Above the Anatolian mountains / the mighty Skanderbeg / Like the rocks of Devoll, / Like the waves of the stream that the peak / Releases, and the rain falls across the field”.[59]

Convinced that emphasis and rhetoric damage poetry, the lyricist "On my husband's death""uses the exclamation only in those cases when it expresses a high emotional voltage: "And he says to me: oh brother, one of yours / These hearts forever / Strengthened by one faith, / Beat in this miserable life...".[60] Aware of the death that threatens him, the protagonist feels a great love for life, a deep pain for its being torn in half by the cruel scythe of death: "For me this life is ending / O brother, before the night ends…”. The feeling of patriotism is inseparable from respect for the history of our nation, from the desire to enjoy the beauty of Albanian lands: “O new April, where Illyrians / Owned a day earlier, / And the foreign nation did not stretch / The sea to the Albanian land…".[61] Before being a political testament, the testament of a true patriot is a testament of love, which not even death can violate: "Your eyes opened again,/ He said the last words: Albanian!"[62] Through the single rhetorical question contained in this text, the tragic fate of the exile is revealed, who is condemned to remain far from his homeland for life and death, surrounded by coldness, indifference, silence and oblivion. In this way, the exile suffers a double death: physical and spiritual: “Only among the data I would borrow / With the deku, o Shqypni?! "[63]

Symbols activated in the lyric "On my husband's neck" belong to the arsenal of poetry of our National Renaissance. One of the most typical is two-headed Albanian, which symbolizes Albania, freedom, the vital force of our people, its antiquity and identity: "But free and powerful / The two-branched Albanian language commands.[64] The symbols “bones” and “blood” mark the numerous wars that the Illyrian-Albanians have waged against various invaders. Despite all the losses they have suffered, the sons of Albania have managed to preserve their being, lands and culture: “Without a single kiss, I bathed you in the blood of the Albanian, without dancing on the dance floor, the barbarian's bones were buried...".[65]

The contrast between the heroic and glorious past on the one hand, and an unfortunate and humiliating present on the other, is one of the leitmotifs of the poetry of our National Renaissance: “You must have been a noble lady,/ that the men of the earth would call you mother./ You had many good things and prosperity,/ With beautiful necklaces and young sons…/…/ But today, Shqypni, tell me how you are?/ As if an oak tree had fallen to the ground…”.[66] This opposition, which is also present in Mjeda's work, appears in this text with found antitheses: "When the great cannon raised its banner / And against the enemy it shot / The learned under the yoke it swayed / It changed slavery into freedom…”.[67]

In his study of Mjeda, F. Cordignano also makes this observation from a keen observer: "Why should we believe that Mjeda does not base his poetry on the people, like P. Fishta, but only occasionally feels distant and wonderfully beautiful echoes from somewhere else?"[68] It is likely that one of these distant echoes could also be the personification of the stars in the following verses: “"May the gods who walked,/ Through the darkened streets,/ With tearful eyes, have departed.".[69] By focusing a little on these verses, anyone who knows our oral poetry will remember these rhapsody verses. "Nobody knows Omer"""Because it only took my way,/ They have left room for me to feel the oil."[70] Even if Mjeda did not know the above rhapsody at all, at least the personification of the stars in the lyric "On my husband's neck" is based on popular beliefs. It is known that the ancient philosopher Anaxagoras was the first to call the stars incandescent masses, whose nature was identical to that of terrestrial bodies: "Until that time, the popular imagination saw in them gods."[71]

The classical beauty of Mjeda's poetry is closely related to its formal perfection, which is evident in the field of stylistics and in that of metrics. About this rare master of Albanian poetry written in measured verse, Cordignano expresses himself thus: "Mjeda is the poet who has brought with completely blissful conclusions that pure stream of classicism in art which is the eternal expression of the aesthetic genius of man in the mastery of word and verse".[72] A model of Mjeda's poetic mastery can also be considered his lyrics. "On my husband's neck", constructed with six-line stanzas, with the ABABCC scheme. The rhymes are: alternated: "A homeland hopes for knowledge / The map shines in him;/ For that love and taste / He adorns his heart…”[73]; kissed: “And a mind is a strong one / Among writings and among assemblies”.[74] From a statistical point of view, it appears that the feminine rhyme predominates, which occurs 35 times, while the masculine rhyme only 4 times.

There is no barbarism in the text of this lyric, which, as I have said before, proves that it was written or reworked in the phase of poetic maturity of its author. The poetic syntax has obvious influences from classical Italian poetry or from some other European poetry. This syntax stands far from popular discourse or folkloric model. Speaking about the literary school of the Jesuits, E. Koliqi says: “They dreamed of a rich prose with pure language, without foreign words; a soaring poetry in a magnificent form according to those foreign examples that they had in mind and enjoyed without hesitation. Why? They entered and studied Albanian; the words of Albanian, not phraseology, which they found too humble and popular; they searched for rare words among the people; among old books, among dictionaries that were beginning to be published”.[75]

At the end of this review, I believe I can say with full confidence that the lyrics ""On my husband's behalf" is a poetry of circumstances. This lyric and the entire environmental work reject as unfounded the opinion of those who wanted to label Ndre Mjeda as a bookish, cerebral poet. After such a statement, I consider it necessary to add that for contemporary criticism the dichotomy is unacceptable. head/heart apo thought/feeling. The French poet and essayist Michel Deguy expresses himself thus about the relationship between poetry and thought: "Without thought, there is no poem; there is no going somewhere, no conduction, no meaning, no allegory, no "continuous creation", no transference, even no syntactic construction, no image, no sentence. The certainty that Homer is blind spoke of Greek art: it progresses through thought."[76]

Once again, the inevitable Goethe comes to mind with his term “Gedankenlyrik” = lyrical thought or meditative lyric. Despite this, every serious connoisseur of Ndre Mjeda’s work is convinced that “Gedankenlyrik” does not prevail in it. To characterize this poem, whose time has not faded either its beauty or its values, I will quote the words written by N. Doçi, in 1937: “You knew Dom Ndre when we were far from you, but there was nothing, the youth of vital Shkodra accompanied you, honored you, and to Shkodra alone, you gave it the most beautiful, melodious and sweet Albanian lyrical songs”.[77] (2002) / "ExLibris" Newspaper

_________________

[1] APPROXIMATELY, Shkodra, July 31, 1938, p.195.

[2] Fisher, Aesthetics and criticism, Tirana, 1999, p.129.

[3] Ibid., p.129.

[4] Ernest Kolici, Criticism and aesthetics, Tirana, 1999, p.26.

[5] The Light of the Light, Shkodra, 1931, p.595.

[6] Jorge Luis Borges Poetic work, 1925-1965, 1996, p.209.

[7] Borhes, poetry, Tirana, 2000, p.234.

[8] APPROXIMATELY, Shkodra, July 31, 1938, p. 195.

[9] Ibid., p.196.

[10] Ibid., p.196.

[11] Ibid., p.196.

[12] Change Mjeda; Juvenilia and other works, Tirana 1964, p.41.

[13] Ibid., p.5.

[14] Ibid., p.93.

[15] Ibid., p.100.

[16] Ibid., p.101.

[17] Ibid., p.103.

[18] Ibid., p.126.

[19] LEKA, Shkodra, spring, 1936, p.66-67.

[20] N. Mjeda, Juvenilia and other works, T.1964, p.137.

[21] A. Chassang, Ch. Senninger, La dissertation littéraire générale, Paris, 1992, p.15.

[22] Ibid., p.86.

[23] Ibid., p.86.

[24] Ibid., p.86.

[25] Ibid., pp. 86-87.

[26] Henri Massé, Firdousi et l'épopée nationale, Paris, 1935, p.89.

[27] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.66.

[28] Ibid., p.66.

[29] Ibid., p.67.

[30] A. Chassang, Ch. Senninger, op. and cit., p.87.

[31] Ibid., p.88.

[32] Ibid., p.88.

[33] Ibid., p.88.

[34] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.67.

[35] A. Chassang, Ch. Senninger, op. cit. p. 89.

[36] APPROXIMATELY, Shkodra, July 31, 1838, p.196.

[37] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.67.

[38] A. Chassang, Ch. Senninger, op. cit. p. 89.

[39] LEKA, Shkodra, spring, 1936, p.66.

[40] A. Chasang, Ch. Senninger, op. of cit, p.89.

[41] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.67.

[42] A. Chasang; Ch. Senninger, op. and cit., p.91.

[43] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.67.

[44] A. Chasang, Ch. Senninger, op. and cit., p.91.

[45] Luan Canaj, A universe in one syllable, Tirana 2002, p.88.

[46] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.66.

[47] Ibid., p.67.

[48] Ibid., p.66.

[49] Ibid., p.66.

[50] Ibid., p.66.

[51] Ibid., p.66.

[52] Ibid., p.66.

[53] Ibid., p.66.

[54] Ibid., p.66.

[55] Ovid, The Metamorphoses, Paris, 1966, pp. 155-159.

[56] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.66.

[57] Ibid., p.67.

[58] Ibid., p.67.

[59] Ibid., p.67.

[60] Ibid., p.66.

[61] Ibid., p.67.

[62] Ibid., p.67.

[63] Ibid., p.66.

[64] Ibid., p.67.

[65] Ibid., p.67.

[66] Albanian poets, Tirana, 1999, p.138.

[67] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.67.

[68] APPROXIMATELY, Shkodra, July 31, 1938, p.196.

[69] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.67.

[70] Legendary epic, Tirana, 1966, p.248.

[71] Greek thinkers before Socrates, Paris, 1964, p.143.

[72] APPROXIMATELY, Shkodra, July 31, 1938, p.196.

[73] LEKA, Shkodra, spring 1936, p.66.

[74] Ibid., p.66.

[75] E. Koliqi, op. cit., p.23-24.

[76] Literary Magazine, March 2001, p.47.

[77] APPROXIMATELY, Shkodra, July 31, 1938, p.195.