Lets start

Learn and explore the English language with topics such as poetry, stories, medical and business english, letter writing, essay composition...The "naki.newdiscussion.net "forum - is a new forum where you can discuss anything you want in English. Look for Penfriends and Penpals; ask, answer and discuss words, idioms, whatever...
Please be so kind all discussions must be relating to the forum rules ( no rude words and hate... )

Thanks so much!

Many Thanks,my colleague and indeed, true friends! Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more humans. A friend is someone who may often demonstrate reciprocating and reflective behaviors. Yet for many, friendship is nothing more than the trust that someone or something will not harm them. Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating on a consistent basis:
- the tendency to desire what is best for the other,
- sympathy and empathy, honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart
- mutual understanding.
As a member of this forume and as an admin I am going to select the Types of friendship as follow:

1.Soulmate
2.Pen pal
3.Internet friendship
4.Blood brotherhood
5.Companionate love
6.Intimate relationship
7.Love
8.Open relationship
9.Travelings and campings

Friendship Rules
One Friend Rules: It's usually easy to have fun when you have just one friend with you. This makes it not SO difficult to decide upon special things to do. Be sure to listen to your friend's ideas, do many of the things your friend wants to do (not just what you want to do), and remember to be polite always.
Two and Three Friends Rules: No groups are allowed! Remember that you must play with all your friends. You can't decide you want to be with one friend and ignore the other(s).
Lots of Friends Rules:
Groups can be a problem with lots of friends, too. Sometimes groups get together and whisper. The groups may act like they don't want to be with others. Maybe they'll call themselves the "cool" group which means that everyone else must not be "cool." It's okay, of course, if different friends talk with each other and do things together, but it's not okay if they are nasty to each other or tell others they can't be in their group. It's best to think of activities that everyone can do together. Keep in mind, however, that it's not your fault if some of the "friends" are being unkind to others. You must remember to be kind to everyone and especially to those who are being left out.
Best Friend Rules:
Although best friends can be so nice to have, they can be problems, too. Sometimes people who say they are best friends won't let others play with them. They might get together and whisper about others. This really hurts people's feelings. Sometimes people just say they are best friends so that they can tell others they don't want them around. That's not what best friends should be. Best friends should be nice to each other and to others also. One of the biggest problems of saying you are best friends with someone is that maybe you or your best friend won't want to continue being best friends. One of you might find another best friend. That really hurts the one who still wants to be best friends! So, Dr. Marsh suggests that you have lots of friends and not call anyone a best friend!
Things to always remember:
1.Be nice to everyone, especially those others might think are, well, you know, "uncool."
2.Include others when you are playing. If someone comes up and asks to join in, invite that person to be with you. If you're playing a game that only so many can play, say something like, "We don't have any more spaces for players now, but just stay with us, and we'll get you in during the next game."
3.Don't ignore others.
4.Be aware that you can hurt others by not paying attention to them. You may not realize you are ignoring them, so be really careful to think about ALL those who are around you.
5.Try not to whisper to your friends when others are around. Others will think you are talking about them, and they will be hurt, even if you are not talking about them.
6.Don't tell secrets. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead." That means that no one keeps secrets. If you tell a friend something unkind about another friend, chances are the one you spoke unkindly of will hear it and be very, very upset.
7.Talk positively about others. Think of the good things about others
8.Don't show off or brag in front of your friends.
9.Keep in mind that even when you are with your friends, your parents are still the bosses. You must always be respectful to your parents.

PS/ please add here any remark or any idea no one is perfect all together we may make theperefect one !

My friend

If I could catch a rainbow
I would do it just for you.
And share with you it's beauty
On the days you're feeling blue.
If I could build a mountain
You could call your very own.
A place to find serenity
A place to be alone.
If I could take your troubles
I would toss them in the sea.
But all these things I'm finding
are impossible for me,
I cannot build a mountain
Or catch a rainbow fair
But let me be...what I know best,
a friend that's always there!


If I could pull down the rainbow I would write ur name with it & put it back in the sky to let everybody know how colourful my life is with a friend like YOU!!!

To the one I love so much

Do you love me or not?
You told me once but I forgot
Tell me again and tell me true
So I can reply I Love You, too.

For all the angels I have ever meet
You are the one I can't forget,
If I die before you do
I'll go to heaven and wait for you.

If you aren't there by judgment day
I'll know you went the other way
To prove my love is so true
I'll accept hell just to be with you.

Together again

Together we have been
through everything,
some things have made us happy
and some made us bad.

No matter what has happened
through our tears, our mistakes,
you are always have been here
in my hearts before it breaks.

Through rain or sunshine
whether it may be wind or snow,
we've shared our mistakes
but love continued going more strong.

We've stayed thanks to God again in love
through mistakes we made,
whether they were right or wrong
we stay again in love for ever.

My love for you will never grow old
my heart for you will never feel cold,
I have told you things that no one else know
and let you in my heart no one else goes.

To forgive is supposed to be divine
I am not an angel,
But if I can't forgive
then I am not a human.

I forgive you all pains I caused
because you said: I Love You,
and the same i may say:
I Love you, too.

My Love

When it rains
you don't see the sun
but it is there...
Are we like that?
we don't see each other as often,
but we will always
be for each other.

Thanks Friend

And now I know
I'll never be Blue,
For I have found
a true friend in you.

Friend are people who care for each other
who share their secrets together
who talk on the phone
who play that's a friend

Written with pen sealed with a kiss
if you are my friend please answer me this
are we best friends or are we not
you told me once but I forgot.

so please answer this so I know
that I can always be there for you
my one and only best friend.

The true meaning of friendship and love

You will know when you have true friends
becuase they will know how to treat you.
They will be honest, loyal and true to you
in all they do.

They will not force or make pressure on you,
they will not tell the secrets you share
with them.

A true friend will love you for whom you are
no matter the cause.
A true friend will be there for you when
times get rough as they sometimes will,
in sorrow, in pain, in tears.

A true friend will be singing and laughing
with you,
not at you.

A true friend knows the difference between
friendship and love,
a true friend love's her friends for whom
they are,
But if you love someone you give him your
friendship too,
and just love him for whom
he is.

Sometimes love and friendship goes
hand in hand and will be
their best companions, but only if you knows
the difference in the meaning of a
a true friendship and true love,
because they can both be fragile
if you don't know how to
treat them right.

Just remember neither of them can
be pushed, pressured or forced
becuase they will for sure
say good bye to it all if they are

*Annika*

Love comes and goes (By Nils Ferlin)

Love comes and
love goes,
noone can interpret
its laws,
but you I want to
follow
in winter and spring.
In all days of
my life.

My heart is
yours,
Your heart is
mine,
and i will never
return it.
My happiness is
yours,
Your happiness is
mine,
and the crying is
mine
when you are
crying.

Second verse (free translation)

Love is
wonderful lasting
Surpress by nothing
in the world.
Roses burst open
from the hardest
soil
like the sun
over the darkest
fields.

My heart is
yours,
Your heart is
mine
and i will never
return it.
My happiness is
yours,
Your happiness is
mine,
and the crying is
mine
when you are
crying.

(Nils Ferlin (1898-1961) is one of Swedens most famous poem and lyric writters. before he begun writing poems did he write songs. Love comes and goes is one of his most beautiful songs. The song is very common on most weddings).

Pashko Vasa Shkodrani (1825-1892), born in Shkodër, Albania, was an Albanian writer, poet and publicist of the Rilindja Kombëtare.

From 1842 to 1847 he worked as a secretary for the British consulate in that northern Albanian city where he had an opportunity to perfect his knowledge of a number of foreign languages: Italian, French, Turkish and Greek. He also knew some English and Serbo-Croatian, and in later years learned Arabic.

In 1847, full of ideals and courage, he set off for Italy on the eve of the turbulent events that were to take place there and elsewhere in Europe in 1848. We have two letters from him written in Bologna in the summer of that revolutionary year in which he expresses openly republican and anti-clerical views. We later find him in Venice where he took part in fighting in Marghera on 4 May 1849, part of a Venetian uprising against the Austrians. After the arrival of Austrian troops on 28 August of that year, Pashko Vasa was obliged to flee to Ancona where, as an Ottoman citizen, he was expelled to Constantinople.

He published an account of his experience in Italy the following year in his Italian-language La mia prigionia, episodio storico dell'assedio di Venezia, Constantinople 1850 (My imprisonment, historical episode from the siege of Venice).

In Constantinople, after an initial period of poverty and hardship, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whence he was seconded to London for a time, to the Imperial Ottoman Embassy to the Court of St James's. He later served the Sublime Porte in various positions of authority.

In 1863, thanks to his knowledge of Serbo-Croatian, as he tells us, he was appointed to serve as secretary and interpreter to Ahmed Jevdet Pasha , Ottoman statesman and historian, on a fact-finding mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina which lasted for twenty months, from the spring of 1863 to October 1864. The events of this mission were recorded in his La Bosnie et l'Herzégovine pendant la mission de Djevdet Efendi, Constantinople 1865 (Bosnia and Hercegovina during the mission of Jevdet Efendi).

A few years later he published another now rare work of historical interest, Esquisse historique sur le Monténégro d'après les traditions de l'Albanie, Constantinople 1872 (Historical sketch of Montenegro according to Albanian traditions).

Despite his functions on behalf of the Porte, Pashko Vasa never forgot his Albanian homeland. In the autumn of 1877 he became a founding member of the Central committee for the defence of the rights of the Albanian people in Constantinople. Through his contacts there, he also participated in the organization of the League of Prizren in 1878. He was no doubt the author of the Memorandum on Albanian Autonomy submitted to the British Embassy in Constantinople.

Together with other nationalist figures on the Bosphorus, such as Hodja Hasan Tahsini, Jani Vreto and Sami Frashëri, he played his part in the creation of an alphabet for Albanian and in this connection published a 16-page brochure entitled "L'alphabet latin appliqué à la langue albanaise", Constantinople 1878 (The Latin alphabet applied to the Albanian language), in support of an alphabet of purely Latin characters. He was also a member of the Society for the publication of Albanian writing, founded in Constantinople on 12 October 1879 to promote the printing and distribution of the Albanian-language books.

In 1879, Pashko Vasa worked in Varna on the Black Sea coast in the administration of the vilayet of Edirne with Ismail Qemal bey Vlora (1844-1919). He also acquired the title of Pasha and on 18 July 1883 became Governor General of the Lebanon, a post reserved by international treaty for a Catholic of Ottoman nationality, and a position he apparently held, true to the traditions of the Lebanon then and now, in an atmosphere of Levantine corruption and family intrigue. There he spent the last years of his life and died in Beirut after a long illness on 29 June 1892.

In 1978, the centenary of the League of Prizren, his remains were transferred from the Lebanon back to a modest grave in Shkodra.

To make the Albanian language better known and to give other Europeans an opportunity to learn it, he published a 'Grammaire albanaise à l'usage de ceux qui désirent apprendre cette langue sans l'aide d'un maître', Ludgate Hill 1887 (Albanian grammar for those wishing to learn this language without the aid of a teacher), one of the rare grammars of the period. Pashko Vasa was also the author of a number of literary works of note. The first of these is a volume of Italian verse entitled Rose e spine, Constantinople 1873 (Roses and thorns), forty-one emotionally-charged poems (a total of ca. 1,600 lines) devoted to themes of love, suffering, solitude and death in the traditions of the romantic verse of his European predecessors Giacomo Leopardi, Alphonse de Lamartine and Alfred de Musset. Among the subjects treated in these meditative Italian poems, two of which are dedicated to the Italian poets Francesco Petrarch and Torquato Tasso, are life in exile and family tragedy, a reflection of Pashko Vasa's own personal life. His first wife, Drande, whom he had married in 1855, and four of their five children died before him, and in later years too, personal misfortune continued to haunt him.

In 1884, shortly after his appointment as Governor General of the Lebanon, his second wife Catherine Bonatti died of tuberculosis, as did his surviving daughter Roza in 1887. Bardha de Témal, scènes de la vie albanaise, Paris 1890 (Bardha of Temal, scenes from Albanian life), is a French-language novel which Pashko Vasa published in Paris under the pseudonym of Albanus Albano the same year as Naim Frashëri's noted verse collection Luletë e verësë (The flowers of spring) appeared in Bucharest. 'Bardha of Temal,' though not written in Albanian, is, after Sami Frashëri's much shorter prose work 'Love of Tal'at and Fitnat,' the oldest novel written and published by an Albanian and is certainly the oldest such novel with an Albanian theme. Set in Shkodra in 1842, this classically-structured roman-feuilleton, rather excessively sentimental for modern tastes, follows the tribulations of the fair but married Bardha and her lover, the young Aradi. It was written not only as an entertaining love story but also with a view to informing the western reader of the customs and habits of the northern Albanians. Bardha is no doubt the personification of Albania itself, married off against her will to the powers that be. Above and beyond its didactic character and any possible literary pretensions the author might have had, 'Bardha of Temal' also has a more specific political background. It was interpreted by some Albanian intellectuals at the time as a vehicle for discrediting the Gjonmarkaj clan who, in cahoots with the powerful abbots of Mirdita, held sway in the Shkodra region. It is for this reason perhaps that Pashko Vasa published the novel under the pseudonym Albanus Albano. The work is not known to have had any particular echo in the French press of the period.

Though most of Pashko Vasa's publications were in French and Italian, there is one poem, the most influential and perhaps the most popular ever written in Albanian, which has ensured him his deserved place in Albanian literary history, the famous O moj Shqypni e mjera Shqypni' (Oh Albania, poor Albania). This stirring appeal for a national awakening is thought to have been written in the period between 1878, the dramatic year of the League of Prizren, and 1880.



Published works

* Barda de Témal, (Paris, 1890)
* O moj Shqypni (1880)
* Esquisse historique sur le Monténégro d'après les traditions de l'Albanie, (Constantinopol, 1872)
* La vérité sur l'Albanie et les Albanais, (Paris, 1879)
* Bosnie et Hercegovine pendant la mission de Djevdet Effendi, (Constantinopol, 1865)
* L'alphabet latin appliqué à la langue albanaise, (Constantinopol, 1878)
* Grammaire albanaise à l'usage de ceux qui désirent apprendre cette langue sans l'aide d'un maître, London, 1887)
* Rose e spine (1873)

How to get throguh the day at work

Office Timetable
09.00 Starting time
09.30 Arrive at work
09.45 Coffee break
11.00 Check e-mail
11.15 Prepare for lunch
12.00 Lunch
14.45 Browse the internet
15.00 Tea break
16.00 Prepare to go home
16.30 Go home
17.00 Finishing time


Enjoy the day folks

*Annika*

Be That Friend

Well, your friends know what's right
and your friends know what's wrong
and you friends all know sometimes
it's hard to choose.

But the friend who helps you see
where the choices will lead
is the kind of friend
you never want to lose.

It's that friend who leads with love,
doesn't push doesn't shove,
just reminds you of the truth
you've always known.

Then does more than just talk,
takes your hand and start to walk
by your side along the road
that leads back home.

And this friend seems to see
all the great things you'll be
even when some things you do
prove him wrong.

But he always believes
that the real you he sees
is a champion he's simply
cheering on.

And the love that you feel
from a friend that's this real
is as powerful as anything
on earth.

For it lifts and it grows
and it strengthens and it flows
it's what allows a soul
to feel just what they're worth.

So many lonely souls are calling
and our brightest stars
would nit be falling,
if only they had a friend.

A real friend
one hopres to find
one true friend who's the kind
they can count on
for forever and a day.

Be that friend, be that kind
that you've prayed
you might find
and you'll always have a
best friend come what may.

(Michael McLean)

The Mountain

*We all have been given a
hill to climb.
*Each with his own way to the
top.
*Few fight boldly in the climb, others
just stay and give up.
*We all have been given our tools
to use.
*But sometimes they're just not enough.
*For some the going is hard, others get the
easy way up
*One thing is for sure and that's
everyone does find it rough.
*It has been said that a man climbs
higher when he¨s pulling up somebody
else
*We all have our breaks, we all
have our falls
*But the strong will make it
no matter the cause.
*So when you see your brother lose
his grip or you see your sister falling
*Just give him your hand or throw her
your rope and together your
burdens you're handling.
*We dan't do it alone it has been
proven.
*We all have our weakness and troubles.
*So help your brother and pull your sister
and together you'll fulfill your calling.
*Let's pull each other up to
the top.
*We'll be that much stronger
*For if you see a man on top
of the mountain.
*You can be sure he didn't fall
there!

It's A Small World

It's a world of laughter,
a world of tears;
It's a world of hopes
and a world of fears.
There's so much that we share
that it's time we're aware.
It's a small world after all.

There is just one moon
and one golden sun
and a smile means friendship
to everyone,
Though the mountains divide
and the oceans are wide,
It's a small world after all

(Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman)

Which was your best day so far? Was it your graduation day? Was it your last volleyball game your won. The last time you got a surprise from someone. Was it last year, last week or just simply just yesterday? As great as any of these days may have been at the time there are only one day that really qualifies and that is today. Today can be your best day so far it is up to us what we do with our day.

There will be moments in our life's which is being counted as our best days so far. If we add them together with every new things that comes along, such as our graduation day, summer break, a surprise from someone, our birthday, our children's birth, things we do together with our family, friends and everyone else. if we just add them together and at times when we look back we will see how much we have in our lifes to be happy for.

If we wake up in the morning believing this is going to be my best day so far then we have made a good beginning of the new day. There is only one day that is my best day so far and that is today. And i will add this new day of my best day so far to all of the others of my best day so far.
What we do with our day is up to us but it sure will give us so much more in return if we have a positive attitude towards everything. Its not going to be easy but it sure will make a huge different of our day by thinking this is my best day so far.


*Annika*

Each day have its worth. I have always foundet in myself a rule which one is never going to be changed and it is "you never will realise the dream you saw last night" and that for bad luck is more than true.
Maybe someone is born to have always pain and never a great time but human bin have written it by God and we can't change it.
My best day i haven't seen yet.

Well, My best day so far is the title of a book I read were the author talks about how he wakes up in the mornings thinking this is "my best day so far". It made me wonder if there is really such day. We all have our own definition of this thought " My best day so far".

I don't believe everyday to be my best day so far but some of the days I find something which brightens my day. It could just be a specific moment which consist in the daily work with my patients. The little girl with scoliosis who believes that when she wakes up her back will be straight again without the hump or the person I sit and hold in the hand to comfort him or her.
It could be the sparkling in the eyes of a child who just have learned how to cycle. It could be the moment when a sister, brother, parents or friends meet each other after a long time, the joy they feel. This is all moments that makes our days. But we all have our own definition believing what is our best day so far. Myself I can see glimps of such days from time to time but to say that everyday is "my best day so far"... I am not really there yet. But this sentence made me wonder what everyone else of you think of it. So please join in and share your thoughts of the sentence "My best day so far"

*Annika*

To a Poet

How did you catch my eye so suddenly,
Together with the wind, the flowers, the trees,
Together with the song, the river, the sea,
Together with hope, pain and laughter?
You caught my eye so suddenly
or were you there from the start?

by Ritu Petro

(from the volume Vargje të përfqluara, Tirana 1994, p.25. Translated by Robert Elsie)

Oh mountains of Albania

Oh mountains of Albania and you, oh trees so lofty,
Broad plains with allyour flowers, day and night I contemplate you,
You highlands so exquisite, and you streams and rivers sparkling,
Oh peaks and promontories, and you slopes, cliffs, verdant forests,
Of the herds and flocks I'll sing ut which you hold and which you nourish.
Oh you blessed, sacred places, you inspire and delight me!

You Albania, give me honour, and you name me as Albanian,
And my heart you have replenished bith with ardour and desire.
Albania! Oh my mother! Though in exile I am longing,
My heart has ne'er forgotten all the love you've given to me.

When a lambkin from its flock strays and does hear its mother's bleating,
Once or twice it will ive answer and will flee in her direction,
Were others, twenty-thirty fold, to block its path and scare it,
Despite its fright it would return, pass through them likean arrow,
Thus my wretched heart in exile, here in foreign land awaiting,
Hastens back umto that country, swift advancing and in longing.

Where cold spring water bubbles and cool breezes blow in summer,
Where the foliage grows so fairly, where the flowers have such fragrance,
Where the shepherd plays his reed pipe to the grazing of the cattle,
Where the goats, their bells resounding, rest, yes 'tis the land I long for.

by Naim Frashëri

(excerpt from O Malet' e Shqipërisë, from the volume Bagëti e bujqësija, Bucharest 1886. Translated by Robert Elise)

Naim Frashëri (1846-1900) is nowdays widely considered to be the national poet of Albania. He spent his childhood in the village of Frashër where he no doubt began learning Turksih, Persian and Arabic and where, at the Bektashi monastery, he was imbued with the spiritual traditions of the orient. In Janina (Ioannina), Naim Frashëri attended the Zosimaia secondary school which provided him with the basics of a classical education along Western lines. Here he was to study Ancient and Modern Greek, Frech and Italian and in addition, was to be tutored privately in oriental languages. As he grew in knowledge, so did his affinity for his antheistic Bektashi religion, for the poets of classical Persia and for the Age of Enlightenment. His education in Janina made of him a prime example of a late nineteenth-century Ottoman intellectual equally at home in both cultures, the Western and the Orintal.

Naim Frashëri is the author of a total of twenty-two works: four in Turkish, one in Perisan, two in Greek and fifteen in Albanian. In view of his sensitive position as director of the board of cecsorship of the Turkish Ministry of Education in which capacity he was occasionally able to circumvent the ban on Albanian-language books and publications imposed by the Sublime Porte, Naim Frashëri deemed it wise not to use his full name in many of his publications, and printed only a "by N.H.," "by N.H.F." or"by N.F."

The poetry collections for which Naim Frashëri is primarily remembered were also published in Bucharest. Bagëti e bujqësija, Bucharest 1886 (Bucolics and Georgics). is a 450-line pastoral poem reminiscent of Vergil (70-19 B.C:) and laden with the imagery f his mountain homeland. It proved extremely popular amonf Frash'ëri's compatriots and was smuggled into Albania in caravans. In it, the poet expresses his dissatisfaction with city life, no doubt from actual experience on the bustling banks of the Bosphorus and idealizes the distant and longed-for Albanian countryside. It is a hymn to nature in the traditions of European romanticism and yet one of earthy substance in which like Hesiod (8th cent. B.C.) in his "Work and Days", Vergil in his "Georgics" or the great eithteenth-century Lithuanian poet Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714-1780) in his somewhat less idyllic "Deasons", Naim Frashëri sings of the herds and flocks and of the joys and toil of agriculure and rural life. In the collection Luletë e verësë, Bucharest 1890 (The flowers of spring), he also paid tribute to the beauties of the Albanian countryside in the twenty-three poems of rich sonority. here the pantheistic philosophy of his bektashi upbringing and the strong influence of the Persian classics are coupled harmoniously with patriotic idealism- literary creativity serving the goal f national identity. The verse collection Parajsa dhe fjala fluturake, Bucharest 1894 (Paradise and winged words), published together with the spiritual essays Mësime, Bucharest 1894 (Teachings), evinced his affinities for the heroes of the past and for the spiritual traditions of the Orient, in particular for the Persian mystics. Istori' e Skenderbeut, Bucharest 1898 (History of Scanderbeg), is an historical epic of 11,500 verses which Frashëri must have written about 1895 in his last creative years and one which the author himself regarded as his masterpiece. it also constituted the poet's political legacy. Another work of similar proportions published the same year as the "History of Scanderbeg", is Qerbelaja, Bcharest 1898 (Kerbela), a Shi'ite religious epic in twenty-five cantos, which deals with the Battle of Kerbela in Iraq in 680 A.D. in which Husein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed, was killed. In contrast to the "History of Scanderbeg" , Qerelaja is a narrative epic devoid of a hero or principla character. Many elements of Naim Frashëri's religiosity are also present in Naim Frashëri's Fletore e Bektashinjet, Bucharest 1896 (Bektashi notebook), which is of major significance for our knowledge of the pantheistic but secretive Bektashi sect of dervishes. Frashëri hoped that liberal Bektashi beliefs to which ha had been attached since his childhood in Frashër would one day take hold as the new religion of all Albania. Since they had their roots both in the Muslim Koran and in the Christian Bible, they could promote unity among his religiously divided people. The Notebook contains and introductory profession of Bektashi faith and ten spiritual poems which provide a rare view into the beliefs of the sect which in the nineteenth century played an important
role in the survival of Albanian culture, in particular by the illegal distibution of Albanian books.

The significance of Naim Frashëri as a Rilindja poet and indeed as a "national poet" rests not so much upon his talents of literary expression nor on the artistic quality of his verse, but rather upon the sociopolitical, philosophical and religious messages it transmitted which were aimed above all at national awareness and i the Bektashi tradition at overcoming religious barriers within the country. His influence upon Albanian writers at the beginning of the twentieth century was enormous. many of his poems were set to music during his lifetime and were sung as folk songs. If one compares the state of Albanian literature before and after the arrival of Naim Frashëri, one becomes aware of the major role he played in transforming Albanian into a literary language of substantial refinement.

by Robert Elise.

Enjoy the reading

*Annika*

Ballad of the man the world did not know

Every morning he sent letters off to the whole world
With imaginary addresses and confusing messages
And on them he licked the stamps of his suffering
The man the world did not know.

He rose and bowed to present himself
With arms raised he cried out to his own idols
He loitered in train stations, anticipated friends who never came to see
The man the world did not now.

Every day at dawn he waited at the gate
For the postman to bring him replies
To his correspondence from someone in the far wide world
The man the world did not know.

Message after message, words and requests
Not a scrap of dust on his typewriter
Not even the spiders came to rest in the room
Of the man the world did not know.

And one day he stopped living, he had no more ink
His quill dried up, his typewriter fell silent
Who is this poor fellow? they said when they found him dead
The man the world did not know.

The funeral parlour buried him
And put on his grave a tombstone
Only one letter arrived at his address
The bill for the burial
Of the man the world did not know.

(Baladë për njeriun që nuk e njihte bota, from the volume Atleti i ëndrrave të bardha, Prishtina: Rilindja 1982, p. 17, translated by Robert Elise)

Balkan menu

Don't set the table, love
let's go out for dinner
We'll leave early
And come back late
Life here in Europe's changed
Come on, love let's go
Let's have some punch
At the Admiral Bar
And a coupe royale
At the Montreal sidewalk cafe
In Benny's pool room
We'll try a arom behind our backs
We'll have a cappuccino
At Marilyn's cafeteria
And a martini with olives at the Florida Club
Don't set the table, love
Let's go out for dinner
To the Miami Pizzeria
And have a pizza New Jersey
An escaloppe viennese at the Roma restaurant
And then go to Parma's
for a coupe macédonienne
And when it gets late
We'll go back home
To empty our bowels
In a Balkan latrine

By Eqrem Basha

[Meny ballkanik, from the volume Zogu i zi, Skopje; Flaka e vëllazërimit 1995, p. 31, translated by Robert Elise]

Eqrem Basha (b 1948) is among the most respected contemporary writers of Kosova in recent years. He was born in Dibra in the western Albanian-speaking region of what is now the Republic of macedonia, but his life and literary production are intimately linked to Kosova and its capital Prishtina, where he has lived and worked for the past three decades. it was in the early 1970's durong the only real years of freedom in Kosova, that Eqrem Basha moved to Prishtina to study language and litterature at the newly created Albanian-langauge university there. He later worked for Prishtina television as editor of the drama section, but was fired ofr political reasons during the Serb takeover of the media in 1989-1990. Basha is the author of eight volumes of innovative verse spanning the years from 1970 tp 1995, three volumes of short stories and numerous translations (in particular French literatur and drama). He is currently in the publishing industry in Prishtina. Eqrem Basha is an enigmatic poet. Perplexing, fascinating and difficult to classify in a literery sense, he succeeds in transmitting a certain mystique to the inquisitive reader. At one moment he seems cooly logical and shows an admirable ability to reason deductively and the next moment he is overcome by absurd flights of fancy into a surrealistic world where apparently nothing makes any sense. Basha has an urbane view of things and delights in the daily absirdities of life. Nothing could be more foreign to him than the inspiration many of his fellow poets derive from the rich folklore traditionsof the northern mountain tribes and verse of social commitment. His verse is light, colliquial and much less declamatoru than that of many of his predecessors.

(By Robert Elise)

Enjoy the reading

*Annika*

Eqrem Basha