europeanpoetry - Jeton Kelmendi

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Lirizmi poetik i Jeton Kelmendit është jeta Iliro-Shqiptare, me një bukuri të shprehurit

Unë jam një shkrimtar prozaik, por e admiroj poezinë, artin e kompozimit ritmik – të folur ose të shkruar – dhe ajo është imagjinare, me pasione dhe edukuese. Interpretimi im për poezitë e Kelmendit mund të befasoj lexuesin, dhe ndoshta, edhe vete autorin. Megjithëse unë nuk jam një studiues i historisë Ballkanike, kame pasur gjithmonë interes në atë pjesë të Evropës, për shume arsye. Popujt e Ballkanit kanë kaluar një histori të vështirë, për arsye pjesërisht nga fqinjët e tyre të fuqishëm. “Balkanizim” do te thotë të ndash një shtet një territor etj, ne vende me të vegjël, të pasuksesshëm dhe konfliktual.   Kelmendi – poeti e kupton shume mire historinë tragjike të këtij rajoni. Krijimtaria e tij lirike është e butë dhe e trishtueshme. Vëllimi i tij “Si shkosh tek vetvetja” me kujton personat të cilët janë detyruar të kapërcejnë kufijtë gjate gjithë historisë. Sigurisht nuk kanë udhëtuar me trena luksoz, aeroplan apo automjete të shtrenjta për të kaluar kufirin. Madje akoma më keq, shume prej tyre kanë emigruar pa dokument identifikimi i cili është i nevojshëm për kalimin e kufirit. Gjatë tridhjetë viteve të fundit e gjithë bota ka ndryshuar në mënyrë radikale për shkak të dëshirës për të fituar më shume nga “demokracitë” e fuqishme kapitaliste perëndimore. Disa e quajnë si neo-liberalizm me një “kamuflim” post modernist, si rasti i kulturës së ndryshimeve ekonomike. Fjala “neksus” do te thotë, të lidhesh, të bashkosh, bashkim fuqish dhe mbledhje forcash, me fjalë të tjera – bashkim në mënyra të ndryshme.

Karl Marx shpjegoj se nen sistemin kapitalist, dhe formës së tij imperialiste, shkaktohet ajo që quhet “neksusi monetar.” Paraja dhe pasuria bëhen gjerat më të rëndësishme, dhe ndoshta arsyeja e vetme, që njerëzit me pushtet të bashkohen! Populli i Ilirisë dhe Shqipërisë nuk ka qenë në gjendje të ulet në poltronat e njerëzve të fuqishëm që bënin ligjin. Fuqitë perëndimore kane liberalizuar tregun duke lejuar sipërmarrësit (shumica janë korporata të mëdha kapitaliste) të trazojnë sa me shume të jetë e mundur një “shkatërrim krijues” Shumpeterian. “Tronditja dhe frika” e Milton Friedman, kapitalizmi shkatërrimtar është një forme për të berë luftë me vendet ku lideret e tyre nuk kane dashur te behen pjese e sistemit neo-kapitalisto- imperialist te fuqive perëndimore. Unë e kame lexuar dhe interpretuar këtë bibër duke u bazuar në një kontekst mbi te cilin ne sot jetojmë.

Nuk pretendoj që Kelmendi të bjerë dakord me mua! Këto poezi përfaqësojnë vështirësitë e një personi në lidhje me dëshirën që ka për tu kthyer përsëri në kohë kur vendi i tij ishte i zhvilluar dhe kishte drejtësi. Megjithëse kjo mund të jetë më shumë një dëshirë sesa një fakt konkret. Duke u kthyer brenda shpirtit, përsëri tek zoti, tek një e kaluar e magjishme, ose fillimi i mundshëm i të tashmes? Ndoshta për tu stabilizuar në neo-spiritualitetin në vend të neo-ekonomise dhe politikës që mund të ndihmojnë në këtë shpërndarje? Kthehet përsëri tek Zoti dhe Nene Tereza të cilët që të dy janë zhdukur? Një kthim në lulen e çelur të Gonxhes, si një Kalkute e vogël? Kjo është shumë e vështirë për të kuptuar se kur kapitalizmi global sekular nuk shikon drejt spiritualitetit vetëm kur do qe të shesë ç’do gjë - ç’do dite gjate gjithë viteve. Atdheu Shqipëri! Kelmendi ngjan me njerëz të tjerë, vendi i të cilëve nuk ka ecur mirë gjatë dekadave të shkuara, por shkon me tutje në histori ku deklaron se ka pasur një kohë në antikitet ku vendlindja e tij ka qenë me pushtet, me drejtësi dhe me shumë vlera trimërie. Ai i thotë lexuesve të tij se kaq shumë shqiptar, dhe njerëz të tjerë në Ballkan, u është dashur të shkojnë jashtë; sidoqoftë, ndoshta do te kthehen në një atdhe më të madh, më të mirë dhe më të sigurt. Lexuesi mund të mendoj se a është e mundur që të gjithë njerëzit që Kelmendi aludon do të gjejnë një atdhe të madh, duke pasur parasysh luftërat që kanë ndodhur së fundi. Përpjekjet e vjetra të fuqive perëndimore për të detyruar këtë rajon të marrë pjese në kapitalizmin global, e bënë të vështirë për të besuar se ëndrra e Kelmendit dhe shpresat e tij do të materializohen se shpejti!    Ai pyet ku është kufiri qe ndan trishtimin me Gëzimin? Ai gjithashtu pyet ku e kanë çuar të djeshmen time, ku është hija e vitit të kaluar? Autori ynë ka aftësi të lëviz nëpër kohë të ndryshme: kohë të largëta, antike, jo shumë larg, e tashmë dhe e ardhmja. Kjo ndoshta është forca e tij në lidhje me atë që ai prezanton përpara lexuesve kozmopolitan? Sot Zotërinjtë e botës nuk duan njerëz të zakonshëm me plot lëvdata për të mësuar si të bashkojnë lidhjet në kohë dhe hapësirë. Pa dyshim ata nuk e kanë dashur Marksin me iniciativën e tij për të mësuar njerëzit e kohës së vet të shikojnë pamjen e gjerë të botës, por vetëm një kolazh nga copa të ndryshme “fragmentesh të ndërprera.” Unë e admiroj iniciativën kurajoze të Kelmendi-t për të na ndihmuar të kuptojmë më mirë mendimet dhe shpresat e një poeti që jeton dhe punon në një shtet të caktuar, por njëkohësisht demonstron globalizmin e tij. Peter Tase ka bërë të mundur për në të lexojmë një libër Shqiptar me poezi në gjuhën angleze. Kjo i krijon mundësinë shumë njerëzve për të pasur njohuri rreth vendeve dhe ideve përtej botës anglishtfolëse.

Bravo Peter!

RICHARD A. BROSIO, Ph.D., University of Michigan

Professor Emeritus, Ball Sate University Lecturer and Visiting Scholar at

The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

Jeton Kelmendi duke lexuar poezi te Azem Shkrelit, ne amfiteatrin e Besnik Lajçit, ne Rugove, ne aktivitetine "Kolonise Kodra" te Organizuar nga Syle Mujaj

Video Jeton Kelmendi duke lexuar poezi

Préface

La poésie de Jeton Kelmendi est pareille à un jardin très secret, riche en fleurs rares et jalousement protégé par des hauts murs. Dans ce jardin débordant d’amour se promène le cœur vibrant du poète. Cœur très parcimonieux en paroles. Ce que ce cœur dit est triplement filtré par une intelligence en constant éveil. Sous le vent d’or et la rosée de jade, il n’exprime que l’essentiel.

Dense, serrée, compacte, sa poésie évite soigneusement tout ornement, toute adminicule. Point d’atours inutiles, point d’attifets qui distraient. Ces vers contiennent une musique discrète, pure, calme. Sous le voile pudique des phrases, simples et claires, se cachent des tristesses têtues, des blessures profondes, des foyers d’amour, des cendres d’acrimonies et de détestations mal éteintes.

Kelmendi affectionne l’ellipse, cette figure si illyrienne, qui aime omettre un ou plusieurs éléments nécessaires à la compréhension du texte pour produire un effet de raccourci, de choc, de frappe. Elle oblige le lecteur à s’attarder sur les vers pour rétablir ce que l’auteur a volontairement passé sous silence. On y rencontre la variante la plus brève de l’ellipse, la brachylogie, figure rhétorique qui a en aversion de répéter un mot déjà employé, surtout si ce mot est un verbe. L’ellipse poétique chez Kelmendi va jusqu’à l'agrammatisme afin de produire un effet particulier. La phrase, réduite à ses lexèmes, conserve son sens grâce aux intonations, comme dans les monologues intérieurs ou les impressions fugitives.

La poésie mondiale se doit de compter avec ce jeune poète enthousiaste aux ressources qui semblent inépuisables. A 31 ans seulement, Kelmendi a publié bon nombre de recueils et d’essais, traduits en plusieurs langues, et a obtenu des récompenses littéraires internationales de la plus haute importance.

Athanase Vantchev de Thracy Le 30 juillet 2010

The word symbolic and art of contrasts

Ndue Ukaj, Sweden

Poetry is the most universal form of poetic communication where ideas and figures fulfill the poetic harmony and intention. They walk side by side and build an Olympus of perceptions and feelings for the beautiful and the ugly, for the amiable and useful, for the tragic and happiness. In most beautiful forms the poet, like an oracle inspired creates perceptions to his own universal perceptions through his language as a poetic specialty. This universal form of communication of the message of the artistic word, eternity of ideas, in harmony with the poetic system functionalizes the multifold esthetic and idealistic forms. Through perceptions and particular world the poet descends the circles of hell, searches with the sense of the creator through the purgatory constantly aiming for the road to Paradise, to the eternity where the Poetic Art melts with a series of lecturing proceedings using numerous tropes and metaphors, symbols and comparisons, contrasts and paradoxes always in function of realizing a literary catharsis. And, these poetic characteristics are found in Jeton Kelmendi’s poetry in his collection “Breath” which the poet is presenting for the English-speaking reader. As Horace said in his “Poetic Art”, “poets should bring something useful or entertaining, or say amiable and useful things”, Kelmendi’s poetry mingles in itself original poetic features bringing the amiable and useful to the reader with a cultivated style and dense language of depicted symbols never burdening his poetry. His poetry, lyrical discourse, or “an inner mimesis of poetic sound and images aimed at becoming a thematic modus: (Northrop Frye) in Kelmendi’s poetry as well. This thematic modus featuring his poetics is built of elaborated figures through sweet verse of an internal rhythm and impulsive tonality often filled with interjections or some single letter carrying expression – elements that give his poetry a specific and original poetic dimension.

Jeton Kelmendi belongs to the younger generation of the Albanian literature, a generation that has experienced the most tragic mess in the Balkans and which is today moving alongside contemporary trends of literature carrying over their should a bitter past which Kelmendi brings to life through his rich imagination and dynamic poetic discourse. During this period he has debuted with several very qualitative collections of poetry highly assessed by both critics and literary public. His collection of poetry “Fryma” (“Breath”) offers to the poetry-lovers a poetic universe of Albanian literary tradition, a beautiful set of poetic word, rich in existential themes as its poetic pivot with multifaceted expressive forms and nuances mingling with other themes and motives. His poetry communicates with the past, present and future. Above all, it communicates with the being of literature as one may read in the poetry “A word measuring trial” where poetry wages its own battle: “Somewhere amidst the light’s darkness/ Someone is missing the word”. This model of poetic of poetic discourse is articulated by Kelmendi in his next poem “Our arrival on parchment” where fatherland and poet identify first of all by a joint call on the insecurity and paradoxes which a misty future brings about as his country, and the Balkans generally, remain regions of paradoxes and continued stirrings, horrors that are most of all felt by artists. Therefore the author cries out: “They seem as dreams and realities/ Water and bread of anti-human” (My tomorrow code). And, this philosophy of creation remains a poet’s curiosity in order for him to understand “Where the border crosses/ Between sadness and joy/” (Drama, First Act), for the fact that this border, poetic by all means, plays an important role in this poetic collection through a contrast of ideas, figures and poetic symbols in order to transform sadness and joy into art. And, also for the fact that thus “Lyrics had its shadow bone whitened/ While waiting for the rites of dust”, and the song beings its powerful life.
Kelmendi’s poetry is characterized by a specific perception of beauty beneath of a sub layer of perceptions for its numerous categories: the beauty that the art of poetry brings, for the girl and love, for the country and history, like in the poetry “A Moment”, where the poet using symbols and comparisons, through concise lines, rhythm, synthesizes the most beautiful forms of lines: “If I were rain/ Tonight/ I’d accidentally drip/On your cheek/But/A slow dripping drop/Looking at you straight”. Generally, Kelmendi’s poetic verse is laconic with emotional and semantic expressivity. Its poetic structure is built over paradox as a particular feature. Through it the poet preserves the substance of the idea aimed at the eternity of word with inspiring poetic calls. The dominant poetic discourse of this collection is deeply lyrical. The typos of themes and motives go around a national pivot, woman and love, mediation about art, artistic word. The poetic communicates sadly with history, as for example in the poet “Illyrian”, in the lines: “It surpasses all/For the sake of the word”, as his country cannot be measured with any form, and the next line of connotative meaning closes a century-old cry: “My fatherland of God that gave me my name”. This, above all, for the fact that the poet’s Winter remains a mad codex. Fatherland topics are formed through forms of pain in the poetry “Morph” with lines: “Neither thirst nor hunger/ In the plain of a word/ Fatherland/ How many pastured and drank… How much silence assailed/ Disgust infuriated us for you nostalgia”. One of the very interesting poems is the one dedicated to Ibrahim Rugova, where the poet sings passionately to the president’s figure, artist and highlander, the symbol of Albanians for decades, and model of writer: “Dream on? And pray for Dardania/ A winter of solitude has fallen… Everything came with the tear? Grand Year/ Day of departure” (Winter of Big Departure, to Ibrahim Rugova). Kelmendi’s poetry is an associative one. It both evokes perceptions and creates. The poet walks on with his verse in order to understand the corners of the world; he is at the edge of paradoxes even when perhaps “an evil hour has set” (After recognition), and his carries in his soul the power of poetry in order to challenge and hence bring triumph for the word: “Tell me something about the smokeless fire/ From now on/ Your coffee awaits us/ And my line of shiver” (After recognition). More powerfully, this poetic tendency is articulated in his highly values poem “Madam Word and Mister Thought”, where the poet contemplates about the philosophy of creation with a modern poetic affinity of transformation of thought from paradox to contrast and from contrast to an amiable symbol: “I’ve spoken/ Somewhat differently/ Madam/ But I say/ Don’t get me wrong/ After all these are words of a poet”. Kelmendi’s poetry is consolidated; his verse is free and paradox of thought and contrast of idea become pinpointing features of the lyric: “A time a day came/ so awkward so happy/ Its white and back no one knew” (A bit of history). Or, in another interesting poem “For the amiable glass” where Kelmendi creates outstandingly beautiful lines in a concise style and realized with emotion and inspiration, creating poetic expressivity that reminds one of the great poet Omar Khayam and his emblematic lines of wine and love: “Drink it man/ Your own glass/ The red amiable wine/ Drink it drunkardly/ Bottoms up/ Never leave/ A drop/ To the verse/ Written lonesomely/ Anyway/ You’re not sober, man”. He cultivates this same model of speech in a number of other poems, because love, or ‘the beauty of beauties’, the lass as its personification represents a special topic within the topes and motives underlying the collection: “Tonight the autumn night may be saturated/ The moon fell over the window/ With her goods/ The verse/ I’ll write for you” (Ten and Ten in Tirana). This poetic rhythm develops through powerful gradation in his other two poems, “Whisk” and “Her dream”. Randomly viewed, this collection offers beautiful poetry, an inspired art, where the reader may find basic components of literature, the useful and amiable (Horatio), “It is not clear to me/ Whether to speak or keep silent/ Lyrical like the magic of Helen” (A moment for admiration). The reader has in his hand a book with a beautiful poetic structure, a poetry fed by powerful contrasts permeating him and his poetic being throug
h stormy and tragic years part of which was the author. Translated by Avni Spahiu

Romanian Opinions on Albanian Literature
“Bread of the Verse” and “Water of the Word”

Jeton Kelmendi is a good constructor of verse impressing through his ability to find the symbolic, imagination and metaphor of an authenticity and fragility which can rarely be found and only in authors gifted with a talent, where he finds the plain of the word, silence body, word wounds, the whitewashed bones of the lyric, etc.. His anthology is the shore of exile, self-exile of every modern man and at last of one’s country in which, although infrequently, letters continue to arrive. And, together with them, the secret and magic murmur of poetry.
Florentin Popescu (Buchurest) Romania
Some time ago, the Romanian readers were surprised to meet with another true poet – from the many, valued and interesting, original and beautiful poets of Kosova – a blessed yonder which beyond the known historical injustices proves to be a literary space continuing its affirmation an imposing itself increasingly in the universal concert of the lyrical world. The name of this poet is Jeton Kelmendi, and his volume, translated into Romanian by Baki Ymeri, carries a title which is not only suggestive but also burdened with a sentimental and symbolic: How rarely we receive letters.
Jeton Kelmendi had his debut at the age of 21, in 1999, with his volume, Century of Promises, meaning that the poet allows us understand that, at least through his title of the book, had a mature and entirely conscientious vision of the meaning of the bard and a disturbed century in which he was destined to live. By the way, it should be pointed out that Jeton Kelmendi has proven to be extremely inspired by the fact of his later volumes with potentially ‘polemical’ and inciting titles such as: Beyond Silence (2002), If it were Midday (2004) Give me Little Fatherland (2005), Where do Arrivals Go (2007), Lady Word (2007), and How Seldom They Come (2007).
The volume that gives us an opportunity to express our thoughts and impressions on paper is an anthology of selected anthological values from his entire work carries a title bearing a modern figure on loan from the poet’s most inspired poems. We say this not by accident at this Bucharest presentation that this is indeed an inspired title as it in fact holds in itself an entire lyrical universe. That is a universe that individualizes the author giving shape to an incomparable personality both in the Kosovar and European poetry.
By risking the possibility of having to ask for an excuse if we point out an already known truth – that man is his poetry, and that poetry is the man himself, we are saying that Jeton Kelmendi expresses himself directly, sincerely, and without the tam/tams in the torments of the literary figure which would otherwise betray him at once. Jeton Kelmendi is in fact distinguished with his entire being in the agitated times which we all experience – a poet of love and the pen, of contemplation against the passing of time and human condition. And, if we can summarize in a single word all of his creativity we do not know which would be the best suited: Simplicity, Sincerity, Secrecy, Whisper, Testimony? We do not know as the author has something of all of that.
The author’s wish is to communicate to the others something of his own world filled with golden spirit. A simple testimony made for his love from which gurgles a generalizing value, like in the poem “Word surpassing silence”: ‘Yesterday I learnt/ how to keep silent/ Speak little/ I am full of sadness breath/ Through tired eyelashes/ Of you eyes/ I’ve walked towards you long ago/ To speak in silence/ Tell your story/ And mine/ And I thought/ To tell you/ That you are/ The bread of verses/ Water of words/ I am for you/ The most sought for song/ An old-living!’. We see here some kind of an abruption of perspective, the poet pronouncing in the finale a most suitable imagery as a most suggestive comparison of feeling in the sound of an “old-time” melody wrapped up on its perfume and nostalgia.
In this sense, contemplation and longing mingle with the condition of “waiting” and melancholy of the moment in which if the ‘roads lead to exile’ one could hardly find anyone. Someone stuck between darkness and light ‘suffering from the word’ against an unexpressed, dreamed song felt and much awaited. We do not know how the poet presented himself in his first volumes as we had no way of knowing, but here he comes out as an inspired bard and fine ‘constructor’ of verse impressive through his ability to know how to find the symbol, imagination and metaphor of an originality and softness which we meet but rarely and only in talented authors, where he finds his word’s field, body of silence, word’s wounds, whitewashed bones of lyrics…
“How rarely letters come”, the poet says. And, by this we understand, in fact, the anxiety to see a 20th century man ranking amidst the tides of life as a loyal soldier of humanity, estranged by sincere sensitivity, experiences and beautiful sentiments, but also by a quiet and romantic past from which every one of us maintain a piece in our own selves. To these – and not only to these – Jeton Kelmendi consecrates a good part of poems and also to his love viewed as some kind of an exile from the sadness and follies of the modern world – a very interesting fact (in Romanian: fapt foarte interesant), and which cannot pass unnoticed by the reader as a lover of poetry sharing, without doubt, the guilt with the poet.
Jeton Kelmendi’s anthology appears to us rather as a ‘color stain’ in the lyrical context practiced today in the world. It is the bank of exile, self-exile of every modern man and in the same time the place in which, although rarely, letters still arrive. And, with them comes the secret and enchanting murmur of poyetry. (Bucharest, April 30th, 2008).