The unpublished manuscripts of Dritroi: "I am without gods." My chest is empty…”

The '90s were coming to an end and another end was in the air. Dictatorship, like a wounded animal, caused the last victims... But, it had lived long and the consequences and the graves it had opened were deep, perhaps incurable. The poverty of the people could no longer be covered. Spiritual poverty was equally painful. The prohibition of religious belief as early as 1967 had denied the Albanians to have hope, to believe beyond the tangible.

Although Dritëro Agolli believed in literature, he seemed to suffer from a lack of faith in God. This is what he writes in the notes kept between 1988-1990. "I am godless. My chest is empty." At the time, he was forbidden to say this openly, so he kept it secret in his notes, published by his daughter, Elona.

He had a sharp look. Journalism was his profession, but the journalist's eye also helped him in writing, in constructing events, drawing characters... It was the details that made the difference. And, from this observation and sensitivity, the works of Dritëro Agolli are so rich, with vivid colors, as if you were looking at life itself.

Dritëro Agolli had the opportunity to publish a lot in his life and to say his opinion in conversations and pages of the press, but it seems that Dritëro's notes have not been preserved. The daughter, Elona, ​​as she continues to rummage through her father's notes, occasionally comes across notebooks and such things and cannot resist the temptation to share them with others. Almost every day she publishes poetry and facsimiles of Dritëroi's notes, so much so that it seems as if he is present more than ever.

Yesterday she published some fragments of writings, which date before the fall of communism. Although he was a leftist in conviction, and had even headed the League of Writers and Artists for many years, a very authoritative body before the 90s, he had no difficulty in highlighting the issues. He encountered them wherever he went with the journalist's pad and took notes from what he saw or was told. Elona has called them "thagma of communism", because they were like that at that time and still remain. Even today, they take on an even more ridiculous and unbelievable character.

"Tags of communism in Dritëro's notes. The block marks on the first page 'Notes, 1988-1990'. Saved together with other small blocks: journalist's notes, travel notes, events for stories, aphorisms and sayings (of eyes brave enough to write and save) notes with curiosities from the international press or ATSH news, etc. ", writes Elona Agolli.

Through these notes, Dritëroi's concern is expressed for all kinds of topics, which had to do with life in the village, with culture, observations related to the everyday life of Albanians, with the lack of health culture... "In our country, one and a half million tooth tubes are spent annually . That is, half a pipe per year per capita. So little that it is not done!", Dritëroi writes in his notebooks.

As a devil, son of a peasant, who never denied the connection to his hometown and the land, Dritëro Agolli seems to have been worried about what was happening in the village. Even for him, it was incomprehensible how the peasant could be deprived of his right to the land, to produce, plant and harvest, to raise poultry in the yard.

The notes in his notebooks, written between humor and regret, prove this. While he greatly appreciated the work he did, gratitude he expresses through this aphorism: "The sun wakes up on the first drop of sweat", he wrote.

It was forbidden to keep turkeys in the village. One carried it secretly. The chairman of the council found out and went with two or three people to take it away from him.

- It's a brick. It's on eggs! - said the master of the house.

- There! You don't have to keep it.

He wanted it, he didn't want it, he stabbed it in their eyes and threw it away, since the clod is not edible. /Panorama/