Lasgush Poradeci | |
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.jpg) Portrait of Lasgush Poradeci byGeg Marubi, 1938 | |
| Born | Llazar Sotir Gusho (1899-12-27)27 December 1899 Pogradec,Ottoman Empire (modernAlbania) |
| Died | 12 November 1987(1987-11-12) (aged 87) Tirana,Albania |
| Pen name | Lasgush Poradeci[a] |
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| Nationality | Albanian |
| Alma mater | University of Graz |
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Llazar Sotir Gusho (pronounced[ɫaˈzarsɔˈtiɾguˈʃo]; 27 December 1899 – 12 November 1987), commonly known by thepen nameLasgush Poradeci, was anAlbanian philologist, poet, translator, writer and pioneer of modernAlbanian literature.[1] He is regarded as one of the most influentialAlbanian writers of the 20th century whose works are directly connected withRomanticism andRealism.[2]
Born in the small town ofPogradec on theLake of Ohrid, then in theOttoman Empire, he completed hisprimary education at an Albanian school and hissecondary education in Monastir (Bitola) and atLycée Léonin inAthens, subsequently receiving hisacademic education at the universities ofBucharest andGraz. He developed and maintained close liaison withAsdreni,Ernest Koliqi,Gjergj Fishta andMitrush Kuteli, all of whom became amongst the most outstandingAlbanian writers of that time.[3]
Poradeci is best remembered for his poetry collectionsVallja e yjve andYlli i zemrës inspired by the traditions and peculiarities of Albanian life. His style is characterised for its stylistic and technical achievement, its form and content as well as its engagement with nature,eroticism andphilosophy.[4][5] He notably translated several majorEnglish,French,German,Italian andRussian works intoAlbanian.[6][7]
Lasgush Poradeci was born on 27 December 1899 in the town ofPogradec at thewestern coast of theLake of Ohrid in what was then part of theOttoman Empire, nowRepublic of Albania.[1][2][3] In his native town he properly received his primary formal education at an Albanianprimary school and attended theRomanian High School of Bitola (Monastir) upon his completion from 1906 to 1916.
During theFirst World War, Poradeci's father, despite the tenuous relations between Albanians and Greeks in southeastern Albania at that time, directed him to Greece to continue his education, on the condition that he would not study at aGreek institution. He therefore attended theFrenchLycée Léonin inAthens until 1920. In Athens, he spent his last two years in a sanatorium for health reasons to which, despite his desperate financial situation, he was referred with the assistance ofSophia Schliemann.[1]
Although not completely recovered, Poradeci migrated toBucharest after one year and rejoined his brother. In Bucharest, he enrolled at theUniversity of Arts and entered the Albanian association for theAlbanian diaspora of Romania later being elected its secretary. It was in the city that he met his fellowsAsdreni,Mitrush Kuteli and numerous other Romanian poets and writers.[citation needed]
In 1924,Fan Noli awarded Poradeci a scholarship to continue his higher education abroad. He immediately left forBerlin, where he hoped to study underAlbanologistNorbert Jokl, and continued on to theUniversity of Graz whereas he attended the Faculty ofRomano-Germanphilology and finished adoctorate there in 1933.[citation needed]
In the 1930s he is purported to have had an affair with the painterAndroniqi Zengo Antoniu.[8]
Poradeci voluntarily returned to Albania the following year to teacharts at a secondary school inTirana. From 1944 to 1947, he subsequently became unemployed within a period characterised by the end of theSecond World War and the beginning of theCommunism in Albania. He lived with his wife in Tirana on the latter's meagre salary as a teacher. After brief employment at the Institute of Science, forerunner of theUniversity of Tirana, he translated literature for the state-ownedNaim Frashëri publishing company until his retirement in 1974. He died in poverty at his home in Tirana on 12 November 1987.[9]
Lasgush Poradeci was undoubtedly fascinated by the aesthetics ofnature. Visible in his poemPoradeci, he admired the environment of his beloved hometownPogradec at theLake of Ohrid which never ceased to fascinate and enchant him.[10][3] His poetic creations are based on the fourelements,earth,water,air andfire, which are the essential themes in his poetry. He further divided poetry betweenlandscape poems,love poems andphilosophical poems while all his poems are essentially meditative-philosophical.
Morning
Within the breast the dark heart sleeps:
The lake within the mountains' clasp.
Reflected far down in its deeps
The night is drowned with empty gasp.
I see the death, I see the pain;
Those eyes of hers, deep blue the shade,
Those eyes of hers that blink and strain,
Are stars that glimmer once and fade.
Beneath the surface, dawn's first ray
now gleams and hints at life to be;
Unseen, the daystar shrinks away,
A grain of sugar in the sea.
Look there! Look there! The day is born -
The water cracks - a pelican's beak
Has like a herald of the morn
Just pierced the sky in lightning streak.
He composed two extraordinary collections ofpoetry includingVallja e yjve andYlli i zemrës both published inRomania in 1933 and 1937 respectively.[1][3] His poetry is far away from beingRomantic and engaging compared to the poetry of theAlbanian Renaissance. It is characterised by deep thoughts, labyrinthine feelings and powerful universal ideas.
During the same period, he contributed verses to the Albanian weekly newspaperShqipëri' e re (New Albania). Other Poradeci works include "The theological excursion of Socrates", "About to", "Kamadeva", "Ballads of Muharrem" and "Reshit Collaku". The entire work that Lasgush Poradeci made was all about Pogradec, his birthplace.
Poradeci's complete works were published in 1989.
Poradeci was also active in translating several notable international literary works into the Albanian language.[6]
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