A PLAY OF INNER PAIN AND SHAKSPERIAN
\nMONOLOGUES
\nThe well-known poet and writer Xhemil Byty\u00e7i, with his new
\nplay “Traces of a Silent Soul” dedicated to the profound crisis
\nof the Kosovar people, has further enriched his literary
\ncreativity. He has been dramaturgically treating the main topic
\nof long-standing issues up to the present day about the plight
\nand atrocities against the downtrodden Albanian people in
\nKosovo, where they fought for centuries to gain the freedom
\nand independence of their land. The play is full of shocking
\nepisodes, overwhelmed by violence and genocide against this
\npeople and their country separated from the mother land of
\nAlbania. Although this topic is of local reference, it definitely
\narouses global attention, as it is not based on fiction, but
\nrather on a very bitter reality. I began writing of this preface
\nby filtering and challenging the many difficulties of the
\nKosovar people with the hope that it will shed some light on
\nthis new play by the author and creator of Albanian literature,
\nProf. Dr. Xhemil Byty\u00e7i. The author has been publishing one
\nafter another his books of new poems, writings and plays. He
\nremains consistent and focused on dramatizing real events of
\nhis captive people. He composes and meticulously sculpts
\npositive characters carrying divine virtues in bravery and
\nglory.
\nRape is a most hideous thing that happened to Albanian
\nwomen during the war in Kosovo by Serbian military and
\nparamilitary forces. This inhuman filth darkens Drita\u2019s life
\nbreaking her harder than her husband\u2019s heart. The course of
\nrape happens to her while protecting her children in very
\ngrave circumstances of war by the two Serbian policemen,
\nwhere the childish peace of the little ones lived, that is where
\nthe forces armed to their teeth intervene. In front of the
\nchildren, their mother is tortured, while in the bedroom she is
\nalso raped. Drita remembers this ingesting it into herself with
\ndeep pessimism. She tries to protect her children in distress at
\ngunpoint. In the end, she finds the strength to survive the most
\ncritical stage during the war and is then deported to Albania
\nby Serbian forces.
\nDrita deeply experiences the Serbian indignities in analogy
\nwith the desire for a free and beautiful “paradise” life in
\nKosovo, while the “others”, let them not be, are the negative
\ncharacters, a crowd of killers like rabid beasts acting with
\nbarbarism and bloody horrors like bloodsuckers never satiated
\nwith Albanian blood, with the final goal of expelling the
\nKosovars from Dardania, their ancient ancestral land. The
\ndrama of the exodus of the innocent comes and is
\noverwhelmed by the Serbian forces, and this terrible exodus is
\ndescribed in detail in the play, namely the literary tragedy
\n“Traces of a Silent Soul”. The play is divided into six acts in a
\nseries of ready-made scenes completed with detailed
\nsequences, with slightly muted color and dim lighting,
\nepisodes in the shadows and in the dark accompanied by
\nsoundtracks of voices of legendary braves followed by
\nmourning, children’s cries, people’s screams and the sound of
\nchoirs coming from far away. Here we also have piles of ideas
\nand pains conveyed by voices of confessions about a new
\nrevival in Kosovo, better complementing the literary work and
\nraising the artistic level of the play. The play, namely the
\ntragedy, is dramatically summarized around itself through
\nstrong conflicts, providing opportunities to the directors
\nenriching and reconstructing the dialogues with even more
\nfantasy and artistic novelty. All are written to be red and
\nwaiting to be performed on theater stages on settings of
\ninterior and exterior decor constructions. The play “Traces of
\na Silent Soul” aims to artistically interpret the drama of
\ninnocent people, as well as the daily life in occupied Kosovo
\nuntil the end of the 20th century and in the first years of the
\n21st century. The episodes are experienced with pain, sadness,
\nrape and nightmares, ghoulish mass murders and other
\ninhuman murkiness. Here we also have acts of strong and
\nunyielding people, men and women fighting with
\ndetermination and bravery. The brave Albanians of the KLA
\nsurvive there protecting their lands like the precious rocks of
\nMitrovica. The fiction play, written with love and alertness,
\ncontinuously dramatizes the suffering and murders of the
\ninnocent crushed generation after generation by the bloody
\nhooves of the schizophrenic Serbian paramilitaries of
\nBelgrade. Policemen in black and heavily armed to the teeth
\ncharacterize the barbaric paramilitary police. The events are
\ncharacterized by murder, rape, burning of houses and
\ndepressing evictions. The execution of a child nailed by the
\nhands to a tree trunk by the infamous Serbian forces,
\nresembling the crucified Christ, is excruciatingly painful. This
\nis a psychologically burdensome description, which is deeply
\nand forever burdened in the heart of Drita Gashi, the main
\ncharacter of the play, who lived in harmony and happiness
\nwith Agim Gashi and their three children before things
\nchanged. In her community, she is noted for her participation
\nin mass activities in defense of human rights in Kosovo and
\nthroughout Europe, protecting young abused women. In the
\nplay, she is ignored by two Serbian paramilitaries who tie her
\nup, torture and disgrace her. They have the sadistic pleasure of
\nbeating and bleeding her badly, and while unconscious she is
\nraped by the paramilitary Dragan, the cruelest one. In tragic
\nmoments we see Drita overloaded while in the soundtrack her
\ninner voice is heard. Her monologue and inner pain resemble
\na Shakespearean soliloquy, as poignant interpretations of
\nextraordinary spiritual pains and whimsical deaths depicted in
\nan outstanding ways by the playwright Byty\u00e7i. There are no
\nmore terrifying pains than those of a spiritually and physically
\ncrushed mother, who kills the newborn baby in order to
\nresolve her drama. Morally trodden, she destroys the newborn
\nLiridon, gathering the strength to throw her offspring in a
\ngarbage can. Her soliloquy is rather elevated through screams
\nand dialogues in a situation of insanity, a very grave event. In
\ndifficult spiritual situations, she protects him, but at the same
\ntime she hates him, as the living being was emanated and born
\nfrom an impregnation with a loathed Serbian criminal. Dragan
\nwas nurtured ending up to living with criminal gangs of
\nBelgrade, who alienated and appropriated the Albanian
\nterritory of Kosovo as of 1912. Drita Gashi’s actions and
\nsoliloquy continue with vicissitudes and uncontrolled
\nsituations. The play carries and follows texts loaded with
\nsymbols of pain experienced by other compatriots in Kosovo.
\nThrough the high court conclusions, clarifying the
\ncircumstances under which the rape occurred, she does not
\nseek to defend herself for her actions, but is rather calling for
\na most severe punishment. On the contrary, in the judicial trial
\nby both sides her solid character is clear. On the other hand,
\nshe cannot accept self-defense as reasonable, but the court
\njustifies her self-defense plea by facts in the judicial trial from
\nboth sides, as the judicial trial drags on until the additional
\nfacts and circumstances are gathered for a trial.
\nHowever, at the last moment Drita ends her own life by
\nhanging herself in the dark and narrow premises of the prison
\ncell. In the continuation of the play, as if it were real, as
\ncreated by the author Xhemil Byty\u00e7i, Drita Gashi is typical for
\nthe women raped in Kosovo by the Serbian military and
\nparamilitary forces that carry heavy disorders in their own
\nseparate world to be tried and severely punished, but again
\nwithout a way out of themselves. The negative character of
\nthe murderous paramilitary, abuser and a most depraved
\nruthless Dragan, a murderous Serb who unjustly lived in
\nKosovo, is the most negative person as we see and hear him
\nact in several episodes culminating in hatred in the play with a
\nprofound and psychologically strong sense. Through his evil
\nideas, the counter-actions of Serbian paramilitary and criminal
\nforces, which represent the ideology of Belgrade’s leadership,
\nare composed in a literary form in the play. The focus is on
\nthe mass murders to make the people captive until Albanians
\nare all expelled through mass exodus from Kosovo with the
\naim of turning Kosovo into a Serbian land. People\u2019s lives
\nbecome unbearable, though it is as much difficult for the
\nSerbs of the Belgrade regime to carry out these unending
\ndreams as conquerors.
\nFrom crossing the border, the arrival of Kosovars in Albania,
\nsuch as the Gashi family to Hasan Dani’s family in Tirana,
\nwhich welcomes them with fraternal hospitality, is summed
\nup at a time as the diagram of the dramatization of events
\ntakes a somewhat calmer extension, with the necessary
\nlandings and movements of breath. But now the strongest and
\nmost unexpected blow occurs to Drita with her aggravated
\nspiritual condition as finding herself pregnant with the most
\nhated enemy as a representative of all her compatriots, while
\nHasan Dani is a small literary figure, but very benevolent in
\nthe play. He behaves well and is not only generous, but also
\npersistent in finding both women\u2019s husbands, Agim and
\nFatmir, KLA soldiers, who from the beginning were engaged
\nin the fight for the liberation of Kosovo. Drita\u2019s drama
\ncontinues and grows without breaking away giving and taking
\nmore painful spiritual proportions. In the most intricate
\nsituations, Drita’s drama moves to Gjakova to be arranged and
\nresolved, and when no way out was found, she decides to
\nhang herself, becoming a murderer and the most courageous
\nsymbol among young women and women raped by Belgrade’s
\nSerbian paramilitary oppressors. The pride of the Serbian elite
\nthrough the promoted “general”, who becomes negligible as
\nmuch as Dragan hates himself, as he is not respected even by
\nhis Serbian leadership that engaged them into these dirty wars.
\nHe chats with himself in harsh terms without finding a
\nsolution, as finally this criminal too, out of guilt, kills himself
\nwith a gun as the only way to end his most disgusting
\ncruelties. The literary drama cannot end without the
\nrepresentative of the centuries-old enemy also being punished.
\nDragan is afraid and wishes to be excused following the
\nNATO bombings in Serbia. He is no longer “brave”, because
\nno one cares about him. After the murders and rapes in
\nKosovo, he was praised and awarded to the rank of a general
\nthat served him nothing. And seeing himself cast aside,
\nmanipulated by the regime and despised, without any solution
\nof social status, he becomes so ridiculous that he decides to
\nkill himself and does so, a tragic end for him and others like
\nhim, but quite significant in the play.
\nApparently, in the international arena, the Serbian criminal
\nstate had planned this new ethnic cleansing in time being
\nprobably approved by the Western secret services. The
\nBalkans is a pit full of absurd desires and jealousies and
\navenging desires following a torturous and humiliating path
\nbroken and subjugated with tragic reverberations. Although
\nthe truth is that the quality of the designation “Land of
\nEagles” is attached to Albania, the playwright clearly breaks
\ndown the stupidity of the Serbs in Kosovo, surpassing the
\nNazis in the Balkan Peninsula. Their aggression has
\nsomething inexplicable, endemic. They rape women, kill
\nchildren, massacre young men in their extremely insane desire
\nfor the extermination of Albanians and ethnic cleansing of
\nKosovo. The Serbs are psychologically involved in ruling
\nwith an unbridled cynicism and ferocity in an unmatched
\ncannibalistic bestiality. They slaughter people in front of their
\nfamilies, mutilate children, rape adult women and girls, rip
\nopen their bellies when pregnant; men are killed next to
\nmothers and fathers and Albanian houses are set on fire. The
\ndeath commanded by the Serbian criminals is not equivalent
\nto the fierce defenses of the hearts of the Albanian people of
\nKosovo, because they have not killed anyone and only want to
\nlive in their homes. High morale should prevail over Serbian
\nbestialities practiced. There is no force or treaty that prevents
\nthe fighters of the KLA to defend their homeland. Xhemil
\nByty\u00e7i’s plays are close to William Shakespeare’s great
\ntragedies, which end with wars and foreign invasions. The
\nregime of Serbian criminals led by Milosevic was a pestilence
\nand the author of the play “Traces of a Silent Soul” boldly
\nreveals them so that the small Albanian people in Kosovo do
\nnot continue their miserable and humiliating journey, but
\nrecover once again from the plague of unspeakable Serbian
\ncrimes. This tragedy must be red carefully and then a play
\nwritten by a surgeon, who has accumulated horror scenes for
\nyears, must be played on the stage.
\nThe new artistic play written by playwright X. Byty\u00e7i is
\nundoubtedly his creative aura. Xhemil Byty\u00e7i\u2019s exercise of his
\nprofession in life and his living experience have served him in
\na detailed sculpting of the characters and his overall artistic
\nplays. They contain the most injuring episodes and the most
\nserious wounds in Kosovo that need to be healed. These are
\nepisodes that have strengthened and spiritually kneaded with
\nmore psychology and dramatization the life of literary
\ncharacters in Gjakova and around Kosova, where events
\ncommence and develop deeper than in the world. Through
\nnumerous and continuous works, Dr. Xhemil Byty\u00e7i is
\nmitigating himself quite well, becoming one of the most
\nbeloved figures among his colleagues in his country. Capable
\nand passionate with dedication in several professions,
\nespecially in medicine, he remains to be well positioned in
\nuseful literary creativity.
\nThe life tides and struggles within Drita, an educated woman,
\nare among the most severe. The court puts her on trial, but it
\nis impossible to punish her. It is the cruelty, the psychological
\nand physical tortures that she experienced by the Serbian
\nparamilitaries that put Drita in a spell. All this makes the
\nsituation more difficult and complicated for the jury and
\njustifies that the population has been covered with the blood
\nof the innocent. All this makes the situation more difficult and
\ncomplicated for the jury with justification that the population
\nhas been washed in the blood of the innocent.
\nDrita erases every kind of ideal from her heart, killing even
\nher own baby and depriving herself of her own body. These
\nplays written by the hand of a surgeon are very harrowing,
\nterrifying at once, so having them published is welcome. The
\nissue would be more welcome if a director decides to put
\nthem on a theater stage with the audience more directly
\ninvolved.
\nAstrit Tota
\nPainter and Stage Designer
\nNew York, August 2015<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This play is dedicated to all of the Kosovar women who were
\nmistreated, tortured, raped, and massacred during the war.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":4985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"product_cat":[49],"product_tag":[],"book_author":[202],"book_publisher":[186],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/4339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/4339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4549,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/4339\/revisions\/4549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"book_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_author?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"book_publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_publisher?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}