Filip Shiroka

Filip Shiroka (1859–1935) was a classical Rilindja ( sq, Renaissance) poet.

Life

He was born and raised in Shkodër and educated there by the Franciscans. Among his teachers was poet Leonardo De Martino (1830-1923), whose influence is omnipresent in Shiroka's verse. In 1880 he participated as an irregular in the Battle of Ulcinj (1880). His earliest verse publication, ''All'Albania, all'armi, all'armi!'' ("To Albania, to arms, to arms!"), was a nationalist poem on the defense of Ulcinj, which was written in Italian and printed in the Osservatore Cattolico (''Catholic Observer'') of Milan in 1880. After the defeat of the League of Prizren, he emigrated to the Middle East, and settled in Egypt and, later, in Lebanon where, helped by then Governor Pashko Vasa, he worked as an engineer in railway construction. Elsie, Robert.
"Filip Shiroka"
. Shiroka became a member of a society named "Vëllazëria Shqiptare" (Albanian brotherhood) that was founded in Cairo during 1894 by Albanian expatriates.

Writing

Shiroka's nationalist, satirical and meditative verse in Albanian was written mostly from 1896 to 1903. It appeared in journals such as Faik Konitza's ''Albania'', the Albanian periodicals published in Egypt, and the Shkodër religious monthly ''Elçija i Zemers t'Jezu Krisctit'' ("The Messenger of the Sacred Heart"). Shiroka, who also used the pseudonyms Gegë Postripa and Ulqinaku, is the author of at least sixty poems, three short stories, articles and several translations, in particular of religious works for Catholic liturgy. His verse collection, ''Zâni i zêmrës'', Tirana, 1933, ("The voice of the heart"), which was composed at the turn of the century, was published by Ndoc Nikaj two years before Shiroka's death in Beirut.

Writing style

Shiroka's verse, inspired by early-19th-century French and Italian romantic poets such as Alfred de Musset (1810-1857), Alfonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), and Tommaso Grossi (1790-1853), whom he had read as a young man in Shkodër, does not cover any unusual thematic or lexical range, nor is it all of literary quality, though the latter assertion is no doubt valid for most Rilindja poets. Shiroka is remembered as a deeply emotional lyricist, and as one of linguistic purity, who was obsessed with his own fate and that of his distant homeland. Recurrent in his work, there is the theme of nostalgia for the country of his birth.

Be off, swallow

Farewell, for spring has come,

Be off, swallow, on your flight,

From Egypt to other lands,

Searching over hill and plain

Be off to Albania on your flight,

Off to Shkodër, my native town!

Convey my greetings

To the old house where I was born,

And greet the lands around it

Where I spent my early years;

Be off thither on your flight,

And greet my native town!

...

And when you come to Fush' e Rmajit,

Swallow, stop there and take your rest;

In that land of sorrow are the graves

Of the mother and father who raised me;

Weep in your exquisite voice

And lament them with your song!

For ages I have not been to Albania

To attend those graves;

You, swallow, robed in black,

Weep there on my behalf,

With that exquisite voice of yours

Lament them with your song!

References

Sources

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiroka, Filip
1859 births
1935 deaths
19th-century Albanian poets
20th-century Albanian poets
Activists of the Albanian National Awakening
Albanian expatriates in Egypt
Albanian expatriates in Lebanon
Albanian Roman Catholics
Albanian-language poets
Italian-language writers
People from Shkodër
People from Scutari vilayet
Sanjak of Scutari