SCHIRÒ, GIUSEPPE. – Sicilian-Albanian writer and poet, b. at Piana dei Greci on 10 Aug. 1865 and d. at Naples on 17 Feb. 1927. From his earliest childhood he began composing poetry in Albanian, writing the short poems Shanderbeg and Kruja and translating from Greek the odes of Anacreon and other poems by ancient and modern authors.
His passion was Albanian. In 1887 he published the Rapsodie albanesi and the journal Arbri i Rii, acquiring an excellent reputation among Italian and foreign Albanologists. To this first phase of activity, characterized by the exclusive use of the Italo-Albanian dialect, belong the Archivio, a collection of popular literature, the idyll Mili e Haidhia, and Te Dheu i Huaj (“In the Foreign Land”), original short poems with a folkloric background. He subsequently published some songs collected in Scutari d'Albania (1894), I Canti della battaglia (1897), and Canti popolari d'Albania (1901). When the chair of Albanian Language and Literature was established in 1900 at the R. Istituto Orientale of Naples, he became its teacher and later also its director, remaining so until his death. He was thus able to deepen and broaden his knowledge of the Albanian language in all its dialectal varieties while composing his many works in prose and verse. In 1904 he published the journal La bandiera albanese in Albanian and, in Italian, the substantial volume Gli Albanesi e la questione balcanica, providing extensive documentation for the establishment of an Albanian state friendly to Italy. From 1912 to 1914 he was sent by the Italian government on a mission to Albania, and through his extensive knowledge and expertise made possible the orientation of Albanian policy toward Italy. Among his principal works: Canti sacri delle colonie albanesi di Sicilia, Napoli 1907; of these songs, which became popular, a large part was composed by S. himself. He contributed regularly to many Italian and Albanian periodicals. Along with other works, the poem Kthimi (“The Return”), which completes the cycle of Te Dheu i Huaj, remained unpublished (his portrait is reproduced at the V. ITALO-ALBANESI).