Shaip EMËRLLAHU, North MACEDONIA

Shaip EMËRLLAHU North MACEDONIA

Shaip Emërllahu was born in 1962 in the village of Trebosh near Tetova, North Macedonia. He completed his Philological Degree of Albanian Language and Literature at Prishtina University in Kosovo. He got his Master’s degree at Tirana University with a paper about “The Structure of the Poetry of Azem Shkreli”. He got his PhD in Literature in Tirana. He is a lecturer at the State University of Tetova. Director of the International Poetry Festival “Ditet e Naimit”, Tetova, he has worked as a journalist and culture editor for the newspaper “Flaka”.

Shaip Emërllahu has participated in international and national poetry festivals in Columbia, Ireland, Italia, Greece, Tunisia, Poland, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Bosna and Hercegovina, Montenegro, … He has been awarded with many national and international literary prizes.

He has published the poetry volumes “Pagëzimi i viteve” (Baptism of the Years) in the publishing house “Naim Frashëri”, Tirana, 1994, “Projekti i thyer” (Broken Project), Albanian Writers’ Association, Skopje, 1997, “Vdekja e paktë” (Little Death) in the edition “Flaka”, Skopje, 2001 and “Troja e kalit” (‘Troy of the horse”) in the edition “Ditët e Naimit”, Tetova, 2018. In 2001, “Akademia Orient – Oksident” in Bucharest, published in Albanian and Romanian his poetry book “Vdekja e paktë – Putina moarte”. In 2000, he published as a co-author the book about testimonies of the massacres in Kosovo “…edhe ne dëshmojnë / We witness”, publishing house “Ditet e Naimit” (in Albanian and English). In 2004, the Croatian PEN and the Croatian Writers’ Association published his bilingual Croatian-Albanian book with the title “Poezi”. In 2004, the publishing house “Feniks” in Skopje published his book with selected poems “Dvorski son”. In 2010, the publishing house ”La stanza del poeta” in Gaeta (in italien) his book “Stracci di vita” and thepublishing house “Ditet e Naimit” (in English) his poetry book “Life’s rags’. In 2014, his poetry book “Le marathon albanais” is published in French. In Japan, “Junpa Books” publishes his poetry with the title “Duet of Roads” (poetic dialogue with T. Aizu). In 2018, his poetry book “Life’s Rags” is published in Taiwan. This year his poetry book “Epal Tetovo/Apples of Tetovo” is published in “Kultura snova”, Zagreb (Croatia).  Cycles of his poetry are also published in Spanish, Hebrew, Swedish, Bulgarian, Arabic, Romanian, Ukrainian, Hindi, Turkish, Polish, Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian etc. His poetry has been included in several international anthologies

THE APPLES OF TETOVA

through the concerted centuries

Tetova pruned and watered

​​its own apple trees

 

like rock salt

you’ll want to burst

when you spot them turned rotten

from maggots

 

in the end

they’ve eaten so much

​​their teeth went numb

Tetova, 1989

REBORN AFTER THE VICTORY

For Azem Shkreli

in the turns bones take through history

verse-like and scattered

guarded steadily

in the psalm named Kosovo

the long-winded phoenix was reborn

eager after its victory

to make fun of his charming death

                                         in Illyrian

one portion of this victory

is reborn as Ali Podrimja

​​

Tetova, 25 May 1997

Ali Podrimja (born 1942) is a distinguished Albanian poet.

English version by Craig Czury and Elvana Zaimi- Tufa

PATHWAY OF ALBANIA

 

To Sadudin Gjura

 

he chased pathway’s sun

awkward thought

​he was his forgiven life

he rushed to leave behind

​​      all he had

he kept leaving

pathway’s sun

​​was a hand-width away

snow

​spread wide his tattered

dream

the way of walking

​listened to him through the spheres

Sadudin’s Grave, 14.X.1999

English version by Craig Czury and Elvana Zaimi- Tufa

TROY OF THE HORSE

The geography of the Troy running horse

​​​expands with bitten knifes

you break out

and your little mind doesn’t understand

how we bite the fish bait

when the shadows surround our bodies

with the Troy of the horse through and through

the foam of its mouth

fills our tables

nobody ruins their day, their fun

what remains from Troy

despite of the horse

​​with the whinny’s fraud

13 january 2011

​​

Translated into Albanian language: Belfjore Qose

WHERE ARE WE GOING

 

the tail-end of night

stayed to host crickets

 

the morning leaf

exploded in anger

 

where are we going now?!

1994

English version by Craig Czury and Elvana Zaimi- Tufa