Petro Marko

Petro Marko
Born November 25, 1913(1913-11-25)
Dhërmi, southern Albania
Died 1991
Albania
Occupation writer
Ethnicity Albanian
Notable work(s) Hasta la vista
Nata e Ustikës (English: Ustica night)

Petro Marko (November 25, 1913– December 27, 1991) was an Albanian writer. His best-known novel is titled Hasta la vista and recounts his experiences as a volunteer of the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. Petro Marko is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Albanian prose.[1]

Life

Petro Marko was born in Dhërmi, southern Albania in 1913. He started writing at the age of twenty and his first works were published in journals of the time with support from Ernest Koliqi his mentor. From March 1, 1936 he became the editor of ABC, a literary review which was banned by the monarchist authorities soon after.[2] In August 1936 he joined the Garibaldi Battalion of the Republican forces of the Spanish Civil War along with other notable Albanians like Mehmet Shehu, Asim Vokshi and Thimi Gogozoto.[3]

During the Spanish Civil War along with Skënder Luarasi, son of Petro Nini Luarasi he published in Madrid the Albanian newspaper Vullnëtari i Lirisë (English: Volunteer of Freedom), which was discontinued after two issues because of the military status of Madrid.[1] His best-known work Hasta la vista published in Tirana in 1958 was largely influenced by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. In 1940 after being repatriated from France to Albania he was arrested by the Italian army and sent along with 600 other prisoners to Ustica, an island of the Tyrrhenian Sea.[3]

In October 1944 he joined the forces of the Albanian National Liberation Front as a partisan. After the war he became editor-in-chief of the periodical Bashkimi (English: Unity), but was arrested again in 1947 by Koçi Xoxe, Minister of Defense and was released after Xoxe's downfall in 1949.[1] He died in 1991, while in 2003 President of Albania, Alfred Moisiu decorated him with the medal Nderi i Kombit (English: Honour of the Nation). In 2009 a square in Dhermi was dedicated to his memory and the ceremony was attended by Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.[4]

Work

Marko's best-known works are Hasta la vista and Nata e Ustikës (English: Ustica night) republished as Një natë e dy agime (English: One Night and Two Dawns). The latter is 380-page novel recounting the life of prisoners at the Ustica labor camp, where Petro Marko was also imprisoned.[3] Many works of Marko exhibit surrealist motifs and patterns such as his novel Qyteti i fundit (English: The Last City), portraying the end of the Italian occupation of Albania.

In 1964 a 204-page collection of tales he wrote in his early active years from 1933 to 1937 titled Rrugë pa rrugë (English: Road by Road) was published. Petro Marko. In 1973 his novel Një emër në katër rrugë (English: A Name at the crossroads) set in the monarchist era was published. The book was immediately banned because of its content and Marko lost his publishing rights until 1982.[1]

Sources