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in this issue
A Healing Dawn
Ridvan DibraRidvan Dibra
12 poems
Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck
Ridvan Dibra was born in Shkodra where he went to school and graduated from the university in Albanian language and literature. He taught Albanian in the mountain town of Kukës from 1982 to 1987 and worked in his native Shkodra from 1988 to 1994 as a journalist. Since 1994 he has been teaching Albanian language and literature at the University of Shkodra.
Dibra is a leading figure of modern Albanian writing. He is the author of numerous volumes of innovative literature. Among them are: the poetry volume Thjesht (Simple), Tirana 1989; the short story collections Eklipsi i shpirtit (Eclipse of the Soul), Shkodra 1994; and Prostituta e virgjër (The Virgin Prostitute), Shkodra 1994; the novel Nudo (The Nude), Tirana 1995; the "parable" Vetmia e diellit (Solitude of the Sun), Tirana 1995; the short story collection Mjerimi i gjysmës (The Misery of Half), Tetovo 1996; the novels Kurthet e dritës (Traps of Light), Elbasan 1997; Triumfi i Gjergj Elez Alisë (The Triumph of Gjergj Elez Alia), Tirana 1999; Stina e ujkut (Season of the Wolf), Shkodra 2000; and Të lirë dhe të burgosur (The Free and the Imprisoned), Prishtina 2001; the "parable" Vëlla me centaurët (Brother with the Centaurs), Prishtina 2002; and the novels Triumfi i dytë i Gjergj Elez Alisë (The Second Triumph of Gjergj Elez Alia), and Email (E-Mail), Tirana 2003.
Oases
emptyOne day (not far away), there will come an autumn in which the oases there in the middle of the desert will feel superfluous and unneeded.
[Oazët, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.11]
The moral of the lamp
emptyMy fate is not unlike the moon's: I live at night (like the bats) and shine with a pale reflection. In view of this gift, people trust me with their most intimate secrets, forgetting, poor fools, that I am already disgusted by their trust and can hardly wait for a chance to reveal everything I know.
emptyAnd, believe me, I know a lot.
[Moral abazhuri, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.13]
The snake skin
emptyA snake sloughed its skin, draped it on an apple tree branch and slithered on its carefree way.
emptyA fox passed by first, sniffed and realized that the snake skin held no value.
emptyA wolf heard of the parched snake skin hanging about, but shunned it as it had no blood.
emptyMan took the snake skin and sewed a fine pair of gloves for his lily-white and innocent hands.
[Lëkura e gjarprit, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.14]
The lumps
emptyAfter a wonderful session of sex with your wife, during which everything has evolved in complete harmony and understanding and you demonstrated admirable self-confidence, a confidence you always have when you are carrying out the acts which conform to law and to the moral norms of the society in which you live; after an ideal reciprocal orgasm (i.e. both you and your partner coming at the same time) which you have not had for quite a while; and after several minutes of magic silence and a cigarette, which you always long for after sex; after all these things, you quite naturally feel you are in full harmony with yourself and the rest of the world and are ready to go to sleep, totally convinced that you have merited your rest.
emptySuddenly, a lump in the mattress irritates a part of your spine. You turn to one side. Another lump. You turn to the other side. Yet another lump. You roll around for minutes and hours on your half of the conjugal bed in a such an unfair battle with the lumps and are envious of your wife who is sleeping placidly on her side.
emptyLater, much later, just before dawn, when you are finally being overcome by sleep, you realize, as if in a dream, that the lumps are nothing other than your past.
[Gungat, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.15]
The peaks
emptyThere had to be a heavy snowfall and the subjugation of everything else under its smooth uniformity for people to notice the mountain peaks.
[Majat, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.19]
Sunsets
emptyAs opposed to beasts that react passively to sunsets, reactions which have taken on a wide variety of forms and manners, for example an increase in the intensity of love-making or inclinations towards the domestication of their savage nature, that is, as opposed to beasts that experience such magical moments as sunsets passively, mankind is becoming increasingly indifferent to them without being really convinced whether this indifference is dictated or feigned, even though he is certain that the sunsets will continue at regular intervals despite human indifference.
[Perëndimet, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.23]
Gravel
emptyThe gravel grinds sadly at my feet: white, smooth, looking just like the ideas in the brain of some mediocre being and, all the while, the cliff stands isolated beside it, spattered by the water from the river.
emptyI feel sorry for the cliff.
emptyThe cliff feels sorry for the gravel.
emptyWhat about you?
[Zajet, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.24]
A matter of essence
emptyYou have heard for a long time about the eternal glacial ice which, wedged in the folds of mountain peaks, defies the sun and seasons. You have heard tell of its purity and mystery, though you have never had occasion to see it for yourself. Finally, after much waiting and dreaming, an opportunity arises. Bathed in sweat on a jagged and exhausting slope, with your hands shivering impatiently, you scratch with your nails at the thick, frozen snow, endeavouring to reach its essence, its spirit. You pay no attention to the blood dripping from your lacerated fingers which is turning the snow scarlet, but dig with devoted and admirable will, inspired by the mystery of discovering the essence of things eternal, a discovery of which you have dreamed for ages and ages. Finally, your fingers come up against something soft, like a spirit, like the essence (you recently began to believe in the essence of things - in particular things eternal - it is soft, thus contradicting all the postulations made before you). You are so near to making the Great Discovery. A little further... a little further... and suddenly you freeze, as if struck by lightning. In front of you wriggle some fat, greyish and disgusting worms in the eternal glacial ice, right in the middle, where its spirit, its mysterious essence ought to have been. Could it be...
emptyBut today, you do not feel in a position to carry through with your reasoning.
emptyWorn out, you make your way down from the heights you had climbed with such effort, doubting the very existence of the essence.
emptyThe next day, you establish completely new relations with the things around you, and care no longer for their possible essence. You just observe them and, on very rare occasions, stroke them. Nothing more.
[Çështje thelbi, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.25]
The Titanic
emptyIt would have been completely forgotten like all the other things of this world had it not sunk after its by no means accidental encounter with a sly and cruel iceberg (which paradoxically still has no name).
emptyUnmerited is the praise heaped on the travellers who survived quite by accident.
[Titaniku, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.26]
The moon and the dog
emptyMy friend Stephen, whom I admire for his intelligence, culture, resolve, propriety, strength of mind and all the other characteristics for which people are admired nowadays, swears to me that he saw, with his own eyes, the summer moon barking at a mongrel. I at once recalled that a similar thing had happened to me a while ago (except that it was a pedigree dog and an autumn moon), but I was afraid to admit it for the simple reason that they would call me crazy, in view of the fact that people nowadays are convinced that it is always the dog who barks at the moon and not the other way around.
[Hëna dhe qeni, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.29]
On the love of scorpions
emptyAs opposed to human beings and snakes and other beasts that carry their poison in their mouths, the scorpions keep it in their tails, which means that one cannot consider them entirely responsible for the repercussions the poison might have, just as one cannot, for example, consider drivers completely responsible for accidents caused by their back wheels.
emptyIs this not a good reason to respect the scorpion in comparison with human beings and snakes and other beasts that carry their poison in their mouths?
[Nga dashuria për akrepët, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.30]
The old man and the ocean
emptyAn old man said farewell to the high mountain pastures and went down to have a look at the ocean which he had never seen. As he stood before that great watery expanse, he raised his head towards the heavens and, assuring himself that he was in the right country, said:
empty"What a mistake, oh Lord! Look how much corn could have been sowed here."
[Plaku dhe deti, from the volume Vetmia e diellit, Tirana: Eurorilindja 1995, p.35]
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