It was not difficult for me to understand that after three or four days staying in 92’s DP that many things that was coming, would be a miserable repetition of the past. The old regime had timely reaped the old elite and what was created after the year ’44 and later in the 90’s, when the regime was over, was materially bad and psychically destroyed. It remained, according to my thoughts, that needed to be asked for help to those who still had authority. Firstly I begged Berisha to put Jusuf Vrionin at the top of the government, to understand that the last thing must be something serious…
It was an useless effort. Not only Berisha didnt’t want to do that, but firstly Vrioni himself, that knew a little more than us that what would be benefited from the democratic revolution. During the emmigration in Germany, where I went after a long time staying on Democratic Party, my frinds begged me to make a newspaper. Ismail’s help was needed, which I did not know physically. He answered me immediately and for several years published without taking any fee from it.
The same thing did also Dritëroi. He didn’t only published the most of interviews or articles to the Konica’s predecessor, but he devoted his book “Tështimat e lirisë”.
Publishing the letters with Ismail is not only related to the reason for showing the continuity of this effort that began with Information Day and continues with Konica.al … Today, more than then, I am convinced that more than what we call official opposition and that has been rotting for a long time, we must look back one more time at the moral authorities and the people who are ready to sacrifice for the country’s recovery. This is a screaming necessity in a country that is suffering the consequences of a bad and devastating behavior in every sphere of life and economy of twenty-five years since the fall of the communist regime.
CORRESPONDENCE….5 February 1993,Sarbryken
Mr.Ismail Kadare,
At a meeting with you in Paris last summer (we were together with P. Zogaj in the Tota family car), I told you that for our Albania the situation is the same as “The Vicious Year”. You will have to find out more clearly that a few days later you were there.The bad thing is that this tragedy is being played without the heroes of Shestan Verdha. And if weapons threats, the hordes of armies, are missing, a strange trade like that of Spaniards with Indians is booming. This means that the best government in the world comes to Albania after some years will need tenfold money to repair something. If I would speak with the language of your books, the intellectuals, even the most honest ones, because of the struggle for existence, are in the position of your character who was found on a corner with a self-scratch throat, then tried all night to make the poem.For others, the left and right fight to form the party has turned the press into a scaffold, which the people reads with the pleasure of commenting on the futboll championship.And in one word, if I would compare the time of Shestan Canta with the present, I would subdivide one of the dialectal founders of a story that turns into a farce.
Sometimes I thought these are the difficulties that will be eliminated from the development of economic relations, patriotic feelings, etc. that will help the revival process, but that seems to me again impossible. There are no longer the conditions where even the most pure nationalist calls are put in the ears of man. It seems that the personal interest, to which Balzac’s Gobsek is speaking, is really the only real feeling. On the other hand, to ascertain the image of the generation of Hanconts (for me, along with the “Bad Year” are your best books) in an open Albania where the winds of Europe are blown, this is impossible . No kind of feeling can redo Albania. You know better than me that this is a war that does not make weapons, but another kind of war that makes people get away as soon as possible from the country that is called Albania. It was long lasting, but I had not had any contact with you, so I thought to compensate something.
Dear sir,
I followed with attention and admiration your efforts for the homeland , I disagreed with the concept of my “friends”, writers and politicians who think that you are not speaking.The effort to help one or the other party is today in Albania as well as denying yourself, on the other hand, their concept of the help you should give to me, is the concept of trade people who see the genius as a piece of meat where they all come around licking their lips to cut a good piece.
Personally I believe that intellectuals and great people should be compared to the Einstein Box, the first group of politicians and leaders who are dealt with after death by just a second playwright of engineers, prominent doctors,etc. They live a little longer. On the third come the people that with their ideas inspire next generations, at the same time I have followed closely the efforts of great patriot Rexhep Qosja, but his calls will continue to remain in the desert as an idealistic call. For a long time the great Sami parliament will be just a dream to us, but can be realised something practical.
It is possible that you see my idea as romance. However this may be, it would be better than thinking something worse. I come from a very poor family. My father worked in the marshes, my mother was a cleaner. By the joke of a 65-year-old grandfather who escape in ’45, poor illiterate, uncomplicated, but scared, because he came to the villages of Kolonja from those Albanian villages that todaybelong to Greece, in the struggle for food went into contradiction with the neighbors and the site “Ibanzen’s Cabin” was destroyed so much as he escape, my brother and I didn’t finish the high school, despite all the good results.
For my good luck, in Lushnja, where I lived, there was a good man named Skender Çarçani. He had graduated in the universities of Italy and France, possessed 7-8 languages and played great chess. So I completed a part of the culture. In the ‘Revolutionary Mess’ of ’90 I saw very soon that power would be gained by the ambitious communists, but without power at Enver Hoxha’s time.
Like my father says, poor, three-class villagers, who divide people into denim or graceless (not another definition), again in Albania would win the graceless. I started in Germany, where I live in Sarbrucpen, for 2 years. I attend Hagen University for economics and law, work in a hospital, and sometimes play chess, even in tournaments, where I win even the first prices even with great people.
These would be enogh to fill something in life. I do not care about politics, I care about the physics and the laws of nature, loving without bounds dialectics, I try to find happiness by exploring her opinion that the laws of the nature of society and thinking go the same way and are the same, but only that change the dress but only metaphysical rival says that for the same law we have three different. However, this attempt has filled me with a variety of hunger in the fields of nature sciences. It also has convinced me that a truth can be sustainable if it is equally proven in the three areas mentioned by Dialectics.
I read in several languages. Life for a long time in Albania in its dregs has taught me to discern people and their ambitions. And above all, I am an Albanian from Colonia. When I listen to the songs “Mbeçë, more shokë, mbeçë” or “pashë një ëndërr e me llahtari, dola majë Gramozit shtira në dylbi, pashë tërë Kolonjën e djegur bërë hi”, I cry. I want to scream and go to Albania to grab by the throat those miserable people who sent the Albanian’s livestock to exhchange them with Greece rags, in the name of free trade.
I want to scream when I see 300,000 Albanians who, because of the poverty, are humiliated by changing the names for a loaf of bread and a bag of rags in Greece.After saving the money for two years from the chess job, I sent to Albania all the materials needed for an independent newspaper. This newspaper will not serve any party, because for me they are all the same. I dream that what the patrioti Rexhep Qosja can not achieve with living people can be done in an independent newspaper. I will use all the forces that bad people don’t write.
The newspaper was entrusted to Ilir Zupa, after I first received the opinion of Dritoroi, that is my friend. I do not want to make money. What I earn here is enough. If newspaper makes money, let’s take poor students to continue school that they denied me. But I want that there write our patriots and our luminated minds, I will write even by fax prof. Rexhepi, but I do not know hid address. I would be happy if you write or collaborate there when you find some free time. Driteroi promised me. Even if you do not agree, help me with any suggestions. I believe that with your help you will accomplish something from the parliament of the elders whom the great Sami mentions in His work.
7 February 1993,Paris
Dear Mr.Nazarko,
Thank you for your letter. She gave me the pleasure I always get when I hear or read Albanian wisdom and clarity at this time when spiritual madness unfortunately want to become possessive in that country. I was particularly impressed by the fact that you, despite having felt deep despair and perhaps a bit more pessimistic than you must be, however, you are looking to do something, so you hope for something. I will wholeheartedly support the magazine or newspaper you are thinking to publish. Send me the address and possibly any of her requests – for example: an interview and be assured I will answer promptly. Once again, I thank you for your intelligence and nobility.
Friendly, Ismail Kadare
10 March 1993,Sarbryken
Mr.Ismail Kadare
It is pointless to say how pleased I was from your answer. Please, Sir, punish the mistakes that are often due to unequal friendships. I will try to justify your faith. I am 34 years old, I have suffered a lot and I hope to be cut off from the empty provincial pride that comes from the premises you know best.
The newspaper is called “Information Day”. It will be published 2 times a week, with 8 pages, and it has the right of supplements ( it can be published every day with 2 pages) to keep the actuality of news. It has its center on “Hodo Bey” street (somewhere between Hotel “Arbana” and “Studenti” town). To keep your correspondence safe, you can write Ilirian (Zhupës) to the office of the Human Rights Committee, located on the boulevard “Dëshmorët e Kombit”. The newspaper may begin in March. I would pray for a symbolic greeting for the first issue of the newspaper.
I would urge you to send a letter with recommendations to make the trip work. This is important. I thought we needed all-over two independent newspapers across the country. If “Koha Jonë” gives a kind of example, a newspaper in Tirana could have grounds for being national. There was a word in your letter that I did not understand (please send me any request for it, for example, if you are likely to be an Interview). So is it so please say in your Ilirian letter.
Dear Sir,
The newspaper is equipped with relatively good tools against others. Few petrol for few roads (this is about the astronomical prices that go to us). And if I trust Zupa for honesty, means, and some natural talent, “in the practical struggle he will remain the poet who sings only for the river of his village. Illyrian has been licensed for publishing houses, newspapers and magazines.”He intends to improve our finances by publishing the books of our distinguished writers in Albania and Kosovo. This idea is for me unknown and far from my interests. I think for a long time in us no one can with honestly earned money can enter serious contracts. Second, even the great Balzaku who genuinely constructed anabasic thought at the end was obliged to build a house to escape the nails of creditors and police.I would dream of building a “steering council” where to attend You, Dritaroi, prof. Rexhepi. This would outline the newspaper and at the same time be the best financial aid. Yes I know the best creditor, Gobsek, . He did memorisation not give a loan to a man who was incapable and obeyed for his honesty. And this most rightly – as he said – the obliged person can be damaged more often than the creditor.
I still have to hope for more frequent writings from personalities in the initial period. I would be happy, sir, to know your opinion on this matter.
Meanwhile I understood your suggestion (magazine or newspaper). I know the strengths of the magazine, (because of the long time between the two numbers there is the possibility of correcting yourself and others). But because it will take a long time for our ambulance trader to build a quiet restaurant, so that our intellectual elite does not go to the former museums just because the coffee is cheaper, but because our villagers ( 70 percent of the nation) will need time to ri-love the land and not to “occupy” the city as a bridegroom or to ecape to the West (not to buy horse but toe-boots) – I thought to make a newspaper.
Forgive me, Sir, for the long letter and for the “discourtesy” of the expression. Perhaps this has been the only thing that has alleviated my suffering there in my childhood, perhaps that I call the only method for them and the fact that I am blessed with your letter.
Respectfully,Nazarko.
20 March 1993,Paris
Dear Mr.Nazarko
I had no reason not to respond to your second letter, but the heavy work has forced me to be usually rude and rarely answer the letters I receive. Otherwise, I would have to forsake the writer’s work by winning the courtesy of a polite man as a reward.
I have the impression that those who write me, in a silent code, have understood this, and most of them, to free me, apparently, from a conscientious assassination, do not forget to underline that they do not expect an answer. (Please do not take this as any suggestion or any indirect reprimand). Your letters have been to me a pleasure, what happens to people who, for various reasons, I value them, and enter without any doubt in their ranks.
I send it to you as a greeting – the greetings you asked for, as for the “Stamp” interview, it was a mediocre conversation, and I would prefer an interview with You for your newsletter instead.
Wishing you all the best, Ismail Kadare
PS: If I do not answer any of your letters, do not think I am not waiting the letter from you with the same interest.
25 March 1993,Sarbryken
Mr.Ismail Kadare
Very loved and honoured sir,
I did not enjoy the answer to your letter. Two hours later, the night emergency (car) sent me to the hospital for a temperature of 40 degrees and stomach ache. They kept me three days with serums and decided to operate me.
The basic evil was that a chess tournament took place in Saarbrueck and Viktor Korchnoi, one of the greatest chess figures was there. I escaped the hospital by night and played the tournament. I was happy as a bad boy. Sir, that my old “weapon” escaped from the biographical wars with party instructors, made me look a good person.
German newspapers wrote that a ghost from Albania was pulled from the operating room on the podium of victory leaving in the second place the Korçnoi great. However, this “bravery” I paid with 7 other days of suffering. But I’m fine now.
Your Greeting and that of Prof. Rexhep sent me. According to the accounts, the first number had to go out, yes You know how “beautiful” things go to us. So Illyrian asked me for 10 days time, ie, this coming week. There was also organized a meeting of journalists and intellectuals in various fields.
I was in reality and a small quarrel with Ilirian because he sees the newspaper platform as its exclusive right. But I did not let go of these things. I’m afraid the party ideologues will put it in the bag. I emphasized that only the Publishing Council can do the line.
Meanwhile, the situation there is very bad. The cleaning campaign started as early as ’45. The President, and as if to have the goodwill to repair something; is surrounded by small bandits to remember Tarle’s book about Napoleon … the little Parisian merchants laught when they heard he was unbreakable.
Thank you once again for the attention you devoted to me.
With respect,
Shpetim Nazarko
While Dritëro Agolli, in honor and respect for the contribution given by the Information Day newspaper, devotes his book titled “Tështimat e Lirisë”.
I dedicate this book with love to my friends, to Nazarko brothers, to Shpetimi and to the Mentor, that with warmth and human behavior have been the incentive to publish onr part of my publicity on the pages of their patriotic newspaper “DITA Informacion” which remained for me the most precious.
Correspondence with Kadare published in the newspaper Information Day.
