To Dervishi, this sui generis writer

By: Ahmet Selmani

One of our intellectual, moral and national duties is undoubtedly the commemoration and honoring of important figures who have left a special mark and made a radical turn in the history of our culture. Perhaps the figure of the outstanding poet, prose writer, dramatist and publicist, Teki Dervishi (1943-2011) is like that.

Born on January 16, 1943 in Gjakova, right at the height of the Second World War, when our fate was once again put into question, he spent a very shocking and dramatic childhood, experiencing the many pressures and injustices that the regime did to him Yugoslav communist, when later, at the age of 17, he was arrested, convicted and spent several years in the infamous Goli Otoku prison.

Despite all the many blows and sufferings he experienced in his youth, Teki Dervishi still managed to form and emerge as a creator with a very avant-garde and postmodern concept and vision. His creativity was concentrated in the field of poetry with published books such as "Nymfa" (1970), "I varun me varge per Drunin e Blertë" (1971), "The sick house" 1978, "Thashë" (1981) etc. .; in that of prose with the books "High Stack" (1972), "Padrona" (1973), "Skedarët" (1974), "The Heresy of Dervish Malluta" (1981), "Palimpsest for Shower Kusari" (1993); in that of dramaturgy with the books "The Softener of People with Dark Eyes" (1979), "The Shore of Sorrow" (1985), "The Spring of Books" (1990), "The Exhumation of Pjetër Bogdanit" (1990), "The Border with atdhe" (1996), "Vojceku" (1996), "The bones come late" (2000), "Tomorrow we leave for heaven" (1999), etc., and in the field of journalism through articles and columns published in the Albanian press, separately in the newspaper "Bota sot" which he directed for years until he passed away on June 29, 2011.

Talking today about the creative and intellectual image of Teki Dervish means talking about a personality par excellence and complete, who did his best in the field of literary and journalistic creativity, pouring all his soul, skill and knowledge.

First of all, as a poet he appeared with a completely new and atypical spirit for our circumstances, overturning the classical and schematic genre and demolishing all the old and rigid clichés. This radical change made it extremely superior and radical, for the reason that it heralded a new literary era which seemed like an unprecedented discovery for readers in general.

Unaccustomed to this type of poetry, the dogmatic and socialist circles will not welcome him, they will even attack and lynch him in a Stalinist way, and especially with contempt and mischief, because he very smartly and intelligently, with an elegance intellectual and with an exquisite taste will challenge the outdated and anachronistic forms, first of all with the transformation of the structure of the genre that was bringing it to the reader, i.e. the unlocked and uncoordinated, inverted and recomposed endgame, as well as by means of broad poetic discourse compressed with figuration and piercing irony.

To prove that poetry is an expression of subjective loneliness, he identified it head on with his own rebellious self, speaking in the first person, as an articulator of the state he was in, traversing it vertically through inner insight and revealed the tragic proportions of the relevant reality. In fact, all of Teki Dervish's poetry is opposition and protest, dissent and revolt, so through figurative language he says:

I want to get out of this sick room
I want to run away... I want to run away
I do not love the father of the earth!

So, we are dealing with a very brave, subtle and bright rebellion, with which he lets us know that he was fully aware of where he lived, that freedom was only a painful utopia. Thus his poetic vision was amazing in the context of the time when he lived and created, because from today's distance that sick reality turned into a historical ruin and a sad and creepy memory.

Seen in general, Teki Dervishi focused his poetic thought on code or image, giving it a maximum load of meaning, as Ezra Pound would say. And this figurative language is striking and escalating metaphor, associative and tearing. It is open and closed semantics at the same time. We are simply dealing with a perfect poetic system which prompts new subtexts and subpoetics. This means that he freed the poetic language from frozen positions and enriched it with semantic multiplicity, as an artistic matter that moves and is carried away with special meaning.

In addition to poetry, also in the field of prose, Teki Dervishi proved his commitment and creative continuity, making an almost imperceptible transition from poetry to prose, or by merging one genre into another, as he did with the poetry that he dehumanized in all possible ways.

Undoubtedly, even on this plane, the thematic research extends to the social and existential spheres, where the individual and society present a paradox or fierce antagonism. Through the psychological and philosophical narration, he reveals the deep discrepancy that exists between them, the inner feeling of man and the social barriers that come before him. So it is the question of freedom that carries him through each situation and circumstance. We find this in the novel "The Heresy of Dervish Malluta" where a deep drama unfolds of the individual in relation to the society he belongs to, i.e. as a rather pronounced discrepancy which has its own ebbs and flows. Penetration into the ontology of the individual is the main goal of the author, because he was convinced that the external side did not match the internal side. Social reality was only a propaganda camouflage and a brainwashing myth, therefore the absolute truth was sought only within the soul of the individual who was the real hero, albeit with a completely dramatic and tragic fate.

In this context, we can also see the other novel entitled "Palimpsest for Dush Kusari" where it again highlights the individual in relation to society. In fact, the novel is about Kadri Kusari, one of the activists of the national cause after the Second World War, which he brings out of heavy oblivion by reconstructing his heroism and sacrifice from the beginning and transforming him into the hero of the novel as a prototype special. So, the author is guided by the impulse of rehabilitation, to present the individual as he is in time and space. Indeed, this is its metatext, the erased and rewritten palimpsest, where the hero emerges triumphant.

Also in the field of dramaturgy, Teki Dervishi proved the power and creative magic by transforming it as a genre, as a creative concept and as content. Through dramas such as "The softener of people with gloomy eyes", "The shore of sorrow", "The exhumation of Peter Bogdan", "The spring of books", "The bones that come late" etc., he brought the substance of our existence national and historical, touching the main nerve of the collective ontology in order to unfold its tragic image across time and space. In this way, it is worth saying that his dramaturgy is a deconstruction of tragic reality, unfolding of mysteries by means of poetic codes and subcodes. His dramatic discourse is intriguing and provocative, it takes you deep into things and phenomena to do a psychological autopsy. Through his characters, he creates the vivid image of what happens in difficult circumstances. And, in this way, he managed to create a new communicativeness with the theater spectator, embodying him with the tragic world in order to feel and understand his fate.

This means that Teki Dervishi, through his dramatic works, managed to transform the theater as a cultural and social institution, as an awareness-raising and emancipating spirit. Precisely because of Teki Dervish's dramas, Albanian theaters, especially in Pristina and Skopje, became attractive institutions for spectators. This is proven by his performances which did not leave the theater stage for years.

Undoubtedly, Teki Dervish's help is no less important in the field of journalism. We say this because his writings and columns were a real window for readers in general. Through his observations and intellectual worldviews, he proved a maturity and foresight by pointing out the issues in depth and distance, putting them in the ironic and parodic target, but also giving the alarm of the danger from them. The dramatic period that the Albanians went through was the main theme of his writings. He became the determiner of things, our suggester and adviser, the visionary and the irresistible prophet. Many things he predicted turned out to be terrifyingly accurate. And, as a result, his writings became very reliable, pragmatic and utilitarian, so they often served as a paradigmatic guide on a collective scale. Through them, he shook the conscience of Albanians, gave the escalating punch to mediocre and illiterate politicians. Therefore, his publicism will remain as a testimony of the relevant time, but even more as a historical and national value which will be read and studied in the future. He proved to be a publicist in the most intellectual sense of the word, because he saw further than others. It was a separate school from which many other intellectuals and publicists learned. And in this aspect, it deserves to be appreciated and respected in a decent way.

From all that we have highlighted so far, we can draw a conclusion about the importance of Teki Dervish's personality.

First, Teki Dervishi is a genuine and very important writer of Albanian literature. He emancipated it in all its forms: genre, conceptual, linguistic, poetic, philosophical, etc. Teki Dervishi brought the full modern and postmodern spirit to Albanian literature, removing it from dry narrative schemes and schematic rhetoric. He brought the creative experiences of Kafka, Joyce, Borges, etc. In fact, he is a typical postmodernist who appeared at a time when others were praising and eulogizing the socialist realism of the "glorious" leader who today boasts of having brought the spirit of postmodernism. He did not intend to descend to the level of the ordinary reader, but intended to create his own reader, to educate him aesthetically and to make him realize that the main thing in literature is art, not the subject it deals with.

Secondly, his presence in the literary, theatrical and journalistic life was a powerful pillar to maintain the essential communication between genuine values ​​and the reader as their perceiver. His ideas and concepts became the intellectual model for younger generations who often followed him almost epigonically. And as such it will remain forever, of course for those who have a sound taste and concept for art and aesthetics.

Thirdly, his determination, courage and gift to say things in all forms of writing shows his strong intellectual and creative perseverance and determination. So, we can read and understand Teki Dervish's personality in poetry, prose, theater, and journalism. Many times he knew how to deal with the same issues through verses, through narrative in prose, but also through journalistic writings. And in this respect he was equally successful.

Fourthly, Teki Dervishi deserves to take his rightful place in Albanian society. But, unfortunately, for us, the time distance turns into oblivion or disregard and not into re-evaluation or objective study. At the time when the president or the prime minister of Kosovo give recognition or decorations to people who have contaminated and polluted our cultural life with scumbags, Teki Dervishi and many others like him, have been left completely forgotten, ignored and sidelined almost hostile. This paradox is very ugly and unforgivable. But all this has a good side, it is temporary and will be dissolved together with the functional illiterates that have flooded everywhere in the Albanian society.

Fifth, since Teki Dervishi has already closed his physical life, this means that his creativity has opened the way of communication. He did as much as he could during his life, he was present and absent. But, from today's time distance let us understand that more than a writer of the present, he is a writer of the future. Its placement in the high order of cultural and national values ​​is slow, but extremely safe and impressive. Many educational, cultural, theater, etc. institutions deserve to bear the name of Teki Dervish. Teki Dervish's works deserve to be in every anthology and history of literature, etc. Teki Dervishi deserves to have a set of his works published. He is a sui generis writer who honors our national literature and provides perspective to it.