Ali Podrimja (28 August 1942 – 21 July 2012) was an Albanian poet. He was born in

Gjakova Gjakova, ) and Đakovica ( sr-Cyrl, Ђаковица, ) is the seventh largest city of Kosovo and seat of Gjakova Municipality and Gjakova District. The city has 40,827 inhabitants, while the municipality has 94,556 inhabitants. Geographicall ...

, at the time part of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

-controlled

Albania under Italy Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares l ...

(present day Kosovo). After a difficult childhood due to the death of his parents, he studied

Albanian language Albanian ( endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europ ...

and literature in

Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians an ...

until 1966. Author of over a dozen volumes of cogent and assertive verse since 1961, he was recognized both in Kosovo and in

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

itself as a leading and innovative poet. Indeed, he was considered by many to be the most typical representative of modern Albanian verse in Kosovo and was certainly the Kosovo poet with the widest international reputation. Podrimja's first collection of elegiac verse, ''Thirrje'' ("The calls", Pristina, 1961), was published while he was still at secondary school in Gjakova. Subsequent volumes introduced new elements of the poet's repertoire, a proclivity for symbols and allegory, revealing him as a mature symbolist at ease in a wide variety of rhymes and meters. In the early eighties, he published the masterful collection ''Lum Lumi'' ("Lum Lumi", Pristina, 1982), which marked a turning point not only in his own work but also in contemporary Kosovo verse as a whole. This immortal tribute to the poet's young son Lumi, who died of cancer, introduced an existentialist preoccupation with the dilemma of being, with elements of solitude, fear, death and fate. Ali Podrimja is nonetheless a laconic poet. His verse is compact in structure, and his imagery is direct, terse and devoid of any artificial verbosity. Every word counts. What fascinates the readers is his compelling ability to adorn this elliptical rocky landscape, reminiscent of Albanian folk verse, with unusual metaphors, unexpected syntactic structures and subtle rhymes. Ali Podrimja was member of European Art Center (EUARCE) of Greece. https://anatakti.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/paiania-poems/ On 21 July 2012, the French police informed the authorities of the Republic of Kosovо that Podrimja was found dead. Podrimja had lost contact with family members since many days. His premature loss is considered a loss for the Albanian art and literature.

References

Sources

Albanian literature from Robert Elsie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Podrimja, Ali Albanian-language poets Kosovan poets 1942 births 2012 deaths Writers from Gjakova Kosovo Albanians 20th-century poets Members of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo