Fishta, Gjergj

FISHTA, GJERGJ. - Albanian Franciscan and poet, b. in Zadrima on 13 Oct. 1871, d. at Shkodër on 30 Dec. 1940. In Bosnia he attended courses in philosophy and theology and, ordained a priest at Shkodër, he taught literary subjects there in the schools of the College of the Order, of which he was subsequently provincial for Albania. He was also a deputy and, in 1921, vice president of Parliament. He took part as secretary of legation in the Paris Conference and, in 1930, in the Inter-Balkan Conference of Athens. Member of the Academy of Italy from 1939.

To the labors of the sacred ministries and to political activity he joined the cult of poetry, rapidly becoming popular among his people, whose genius he succeeded in interpreting effectively. He cultivated epic poetry (Lahuta e Malcì [The Lute of the Mountain]), a poem in thirty cantos, a celebration of the struggles waged by the Albanians against the Montenegrins), lyric poetry (Mrisi i Zănavet [The Abode of the Muses], of patriotic content), satire (Anzat e Parnasit, against the European chancelleries), and drama (L'Albanese civilizzato; L'Albanese civilizzato, melodramas in three acts). In Valija e Parricit are contained lyrics and dramas of religious subject. He translated Manzoni's Sacred Hymns. His art unites primitivism and Romanticism with singular representational effects.