Gjergj Fishta

Gjergj Fishta

Gjergj Fishta
Born Gjergj Fishta
September 23, 1871(1871-09-23)
Fishtë, Dajç, Lezhë, modern Albania, then Ottoman Empire
Died December 30, 1940(1940-12-30) (aged 69)
Shkodër, Albania
Resting place Shkodër, Albania
Occupation Poet, writer, priest, translator, member of the Albanian parliament
Language Albanian
Nationality Albanian
Ethnicity Albanian
Citizenship Albanian
Education Catholic Theology

Gjergj Fishta (October 23, 1871 – December 30, 1940) was an Albanian Franciscan friar, poet, rilindas, and a translator. Notably he was the chairman of the commission of the Congress of Monastir, which sanctioned the Albanian alphabet. In 1937 he completed and published his epic masterpiece Lahuta e Malcis, an epic poem written in Gheg dialect of Albanian. It contains 17,000 lines and is considered the "Albanian Iliad".[1] Gjergj Fishta was the first[1] Albanian candidate for the The Nobel Prize in Literature.[2][3]

Contents

Biography

Born in Fishtë, Dajç (otherwise called Zadrimë), Lezhë, Albania (then Ottoman Empire), Fishta studied philosophy and Catholic theology in Bosnia. In 1902, he became the head of the Franciscan gymnasium in Shkodër. Fishta was under influence of Franciscan monks as a student in monasteries in Austria-Hungary, when he wrote his main work Lahuta e Malcis, influenced by the national epics of the Croatian and Montenegrin literature.[4] In Lahuta e Malcis, he substituted the struggle against Turks with struggle against the Slavs, propagating Anti-Slavic feelings.[5] In Soviet historiography he was referred to as "former agent of Austro-Hungarian imperialism" who took position against Slavic people and Pan-Slavism because they opposed "rapacious plans of Austro-Hungarian imperialism in Albania" and had a role in Catholic Clergy's preparation "for Italian aggression against Albania".[6]

Fishta participated and was elected for president of the committee in the Congress of Monastir (today Bitola in Macedonia, then Ottoman Empire) held in 1908. Participants of the congress accepted Fishta's proposal for the Latin Bashkimi alphabet to be the standard Albanian alphabet, rejecting proposals that the Arabic alphabet be used.[7]

He interpreted Albania in the conference of Paris on 1919. From the beginning of April 1919 to 1920, he served as Secretary of the Albanian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. At the end of 1920, he was elected to parliament by Shkodër, and in 1921 he became the Vice President of the Albanian parliament. In 1924, Fishta supported Fan Noli in his attempt to found a democratic system in Albania. After the establishment of the Zogu Regime, Fishta left willingly to go into exile in Italy in 1925/26, before he resumed his position as teacher and writer in Shkodër, where he died in 1940.

Through both his work as a teacher as well as through his literary works, Fishta had a great influence on the development of the written form of his native Gheg Albanian. Fishta worked moreover as a translator (of Molière, Manzoni, Homer, et al.).

Works

Fishta was editor of the magazine Hylli i Dritës (1913) and the newspaper Posta e Shypnisë (1916–1917).

References

  1. ^ a b "Gjergj Fishta: Gjuha shqype" (in Albanian). kosova.albemigrant.com. May 5, 2010. http://kosova.albemigrant.com/?p=18437. Retrieved January 31, 2011. 
  2. ^ Mërgim KORÇA (December 26, 2010). "At Gjergj Fishta, A ishte vërtet fashist, siç e akuzonte diktatura" (in Albanian). Gazeta Shqiptare Online. http://www.balkanweb.com/gazetav5/artikull.php?id=90950. Retrieved January 31, 2011. 
  3. ^ Çerçiz Loloçi. "Tereza, Murati dhe Ismail Kadare" (in Albanian: Kandidat për cmimin Nobel ka qenë njëherë edhe Gjergj Fishta, një klerik poliedrik, që pati edhe një mbështetje të fuqishme nga Vatikani, por nuk arriti ta fitonte. English: Gjergj Fishta, a polyhedric cleric, has been once a candidate for the Nobel prize, but he couldn’t win, despite having a strong support from Vatican). cercizloloci.4t.com. http://cercizloloci.4t.com/index_1.html. Retrieved January 31, 2011. 
  4. ^ Elsie, Robert "Gjergj Fishta, The Voice of The Albanian Nation" archived from the original on April 5, 2011 http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.albanianliterature.net%2Fauthors_classical%2Ffishta.html&date=2011-04-05. Retrieved April 5, 2011 "Fishta was not uninfluenced or unmoved by the literary achievements of the southern Slavs in the second half of the nineteenth century... the role played by Franciscan pater Grga Martic whose works served the young Fishta as a model... by the writings of an earlier Franciscan writer, Andrija Kacic-Miosic ...by the works of Croatian poet Ivan Mazhuranic... the Montenegrin poet-prince Petar Petrovic Njegos... His main work, the epic poem, Lahuta e Malësisë (The highland lute), ... propagates anti-Slavic feelings and makes the struggle against the Ottoman occupants secondary." 
  5. ^ Detrez, Raymond Pieter Plas (2005) Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang S.A. p. 220 ISBN 90-5201-297-0 http://books.google.com/books?id=TRttHdXjP14C&pg=PA221&dq=skanderbeg+slav&hl=en&ei=uvCZTem9H8rZsgbjoaSuCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=skanderbeg%20slav&f=false "... substitution of the central motif of the fight against the Turks by that of the fight against Slavs." 
  6. ^ Elsie, Robert "Gjergj Fishta, The Voice of The Albanian Nation" archived from the original on April 5, 2011 http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.albanianliterature.net%2Fauthors_classical%2Ffishta.html&date=2011-04-05. Retrieved April 5, 2011 "Great Soviet Encyclopaedia of Moscow, ...(March 1950): "The literary activities of the Catholic priest Gjergj Fishta reflect the role played by the Catholic clergy in preparing for Italian aggression against Albania. As a former agent of Austro-Hungarian imperialism, Fishta, ..., took a position against the Slavic peoples who opposed the rapacious plans of Austro-Hungarian imperialism in Albania. In his chauvinistic, anti-Slavic poem ‘The highland lute,’ this spy extolled the hostility of the Albanians towards the Slavic peoples, calling for an open fight against the Slavs."." 
  7. ^ Elsie, Robert "Gjergj Fishta, The Voice of The Albanian Nation" archived from the original on April 5, 2011 http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.albanianliterature.net%2Fauthors_classical%2Ffishta.html&date=2011-04-05. Retrieved April 5, 2011 "Great Soviet Encyclopaedia of Moscow, ...(March 1950): "the congress had elected Gjergj Fishta to preside over a committee... Sami Frashëri’s Istanbul alphabet which, though impractical for printing... a new Latin alphabet almost identical to Fishta’s Bashkimi alphabet..."." 

Sources

External links