Sejfullah MALËSHOVA
BIOGRAPHY
The forced marriage between Albanian literature and Marxism-Leninism
was firmly cemented from the start with the founding in October
1945 of the Albanian Writers' Union. Initially, responsibility
for cultural policies in post-war Albania was conferred upon
the poet Sejfulla Malëshova (1901-1971), who used the penname
Lame Kodra. Originally from the Përmet region of southern
Albania, Malëshova spent a good deal of his life abroad.
Most of the verse of this self-styled rebel poet was written
in exile and was published in the now rare volume Vjersha, Tirana
1945 (Verse). He had studied medicine in Italy and in 1924, at
the age of twenty-three, became Fan Noli's personal secretary
in the latter's democratic government. With the overthrow of
Noli, Malëshova fled to Paris and from there, inspired by
the October Revolution, he continued on to Moscow where he studied
and later taught Marxism. In the Soviet Union he joined the Communist
Party (1930-1932) but was subsequently expelled as a Bukharinist.
As minister of culture in the communist-controlled provisional
government, Malëshova followed a relatively liberal and
conciliatory course in order to encourage the reintegration of
non-communist forces into the new structures of power. He was
not one to condemn all prewar writers such as Gjergj Fishta as
reactionaries, nor was he in favour of a total break with the
West. Malëshova soon became the spokesperson of one of the
two factions vying for power within the party. With the backing
of the Yugoslav communists, however, the faction of his adversary
Koçi Xoxe (1917-1949) gained the upper hand by early 1946
and Malëshova fell into disgrace. At a meeting of the Central
Committee on 21 February 1946, Malëshova was accused of
opportunism and right-wing deviationism and was expelled both
from the Politburo and from the Central Committee.
Strangely enough, Sejfullah Malëshova survived his fall.
This left-wing idealist who had once been a member of the Comintern
was interned in Ballsh for two or three years and spent all his
later life in internal exile as a humble stock clerk in Fier
where, for years, no inhabitant of the town dared speak to him.
His only social contact was to play soccer with the children.
Whenever anyone approached he would pinch his lips with his fingers,
signifying the vow of eternal silence which ensured his survival.
Sejfullah Malëshova died on 9 June 1971 of appendicitis
in unimaginable isolation. Although everyone in town knew his
poems by heart, no one dared to attend his funeral. He was buried
in the presence of his sister, the gravedigger and two Sigurimi
agents. |
Albanian Literature in Translation
Classical
Authors (19th - early 20th centuries)
