Fatos ARAPI
BIOGRAPHY
Fatos Arapi (b. 1930) from Zvërnec near the port
city of Vlora, is the author of philosophical verse, love lyrics
and poignant elegies on death. He studied economics in Sofia
(Bulgaria) from 1949 to 1954 and worked in Tirana as a journalist
and lecturer in modern Albanian literature. In his first two
collections, Shtigje poetike, Tirana 1962 (Poetic paths),
and Poema dhe vjersha, Tirana 1966 (Poems and verse),
he made use of more modern verse forms than did his contemporaries
and set the course for a renewal of Albanian poetry after years
of stagnation. Child of the Ionian
sea, Arapi has never lost his fascination with the sparkling
waters of the Mediterranean, the tang of the salt air and the
intensity of light on the southern coast, all of which permeate
his verse. His true poetic vocation can be glimpsed in the creation
of an equilibrium between the harmony of the waves and the rhythmic
impulses of his being. Fatos Arapi is the author of over
25 books. Since the fall of the communist dictatorship in particular,
he has published numerous volumes of verse and short stories,
and remains a leading figure of contemporary Albanian literature. |
Albanian Literature in Translation
Modern
Authors from Albania (late 20th - 21st centuries)
