Feature: Albanian Poetry in Translation

With the Two Lines Launch Party fast approaching, we’re whetting our poetic appetite with some Albanian poetry. In the newest Two Lines issue–issue 22–Wayne Miller and Anastas Kapurani reveal excerpts from their beautifully crafted translation of Albanian poet Moikom Zeqo’s Zodiak collection of poems.

Born in 1949, Zeqo lived the majority of his life under the oppressive regime of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. Until the dissolution of communism in the 1990s, many of his poems were banned because they challenged government ideology.

But Miller and Kapurani are not the only translators of Zeqo’s poetry. Their collaborative effort mirrors that of the many elementary and middle school students who have similarly taken on the momentous task of translation as part of the Poetry Inside Out program. Here is another of Zeqo’s poems–“Cili?”–followed by student translations into both English and Spanish:

 

Cili?

Jam njeriu pyll,
njeriu zog,
njeriu det,
dhe njeriu peshk.

Cili i ngjajshëm si unë
do më qëllojë me shigjetë?

Cili—me thoni
më ka futur në rrjetë?
Who?

I am the human forest
human bird
human sea
and human fish.

Who like me is going to shoot me
with an arrow?

Who—tell me who—
trapped me in the net?

—Lakevionia, 5th grade PIO student
¿Quién?

Yo soy una selva human,
Pájaro humano,
mar humano
y pez humano.

¿Quién, como yo
me va a tirar una flecha?

¿Quién, me diga,
me va a atrapar en la red?

—Estefanía, 5th grade PIO student

 

If you’re in the Bay Area this Wednesday, March 11, stop by the Two Lines launch party at Viracocha in the Mission and get your copy of Two Lines 22 with admission, which includes Wayne Miller and Anastas Kapurani’s translation of Zodiak!

photo credit omniverse.us