Albanian Authors

Dhori QIRIAZI

Oh, first love

Oh, first love, oh spent youth,
If only your sweet breeze would come back to us once more...
Why did you come when we knew nothing of love,
Why were you gone when we burned with the flames of passion?

[O dashuri e parë, from the volume Poezia shqipe, Tirana: Naim Frashëri 1974, p. 6, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and first published in English in An elusive eagle soars, anthology of modern Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993, p. 68]

The leafy acacias are disrobing

The leafy acacias are disrobing
And hoarfrost has covered the fields,
The road is now deserted
Where we first met one another,
The withered leaves linger in sorrow
Blown by the wind.

No more will we meet on that road,
The sad acacia will fall silent,
Will tremble in the north wind
And whiten under the flakes of snow,
And yet it will remain alive
To await us evermore!

The wind blows, the acacias are disrobing!
And rain beats against the windowpanes,
The wind blows and the body shudders,
The road is now deserted...
But feelings do not fall like the leaves,
No, feelings will not wither like leaves.

[Po zhvishen sallgamet plot fletë, from the volume Poezia shqipe, Tirana: Naim Frashëri 1974, p. 8, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and first published in English in An elusive eagle soars, anthology of modern Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993, p. 69]

I have noticed...

I have noticed: whenever a storm rages,
The poor little birds cower and tremble,
Only the eagles spread their wings to the wind...

[Kam vënë re..., from the volume Poezia shqipe, Tirana: Naim Frashëri 1974, p. 101, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and first published in English in An elusive eagle soars, anthology of modern Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993, p. 70]