Forbidden languages
The battle of Kosovo Polje, which took place on June 15, 1389, saw a coalition of Christian Balkan peoples and the Ottoman army clash. This confrontation ended with the death of Sultan Murad I - replaced by his son - and that of the Serbian leader Lazar Hrebejjanović, whose people maintained the memory through an epic cycle that continued to spread by word of mouth, access to writing was quickly reduced to only monasteries during the occupation to come. The story, which became cultural heritage, was transmitted in many forms, secular or religious, until the nineteenth century, which was brilliantly explained by Miodrag Popović in his book Kosovo, histoire d'un mythe : essai d'archéologie littéraire
, translated into French by Non lieu editions in 2010 but unfortunately since then out of print.If the Kosovar identity, due to the important movements of population, was bound to evolve, this should not make us forget the poets who crossed the borders to practice their art under other skies, like Mesihi, born around 1470 in Pristina but died in Istanbul in 1512. A poet of the "Diwan" and a favorite of the vizier Ali Pacha, he had acquired the reputation of spending more time in taverns than at his desk. His works have nevertheless remained famous, notably his Song of Spring, which was considered the first Turkish poem to be disseminated in the West thanks to an anthology produced by Sir William Jones (1746-1794). The 15th century also saw the birth of Suzi Çelebi around 1460 in Prizren and Celalzade Salih Çelebi in 1493 in Vučitrn. The former is the author of a long epic poem of 15,000 verses (of which 2,000 have survived intact), Gazavatnam Mihaloglu, written after his military experience, the latter was inspired by several expeditions - Belgrade or Rhodes for example - and composed elegies to the glory of the great vizier Ayas Mehmed Pasha. Finally, in the following century, let us mention Asik Çelebi (1520-1572) who established a "tekzire" on Ottoman poets: Mesairü's-suara
. This work, which looks like a biographical and bibliographical dictionary, is precious because it contains information on 427 poets, their works, but also their way of life, their habits and their customs. The seventeenth century, meanwhile, will be marked by a man who went backwards: he offered his first cry to Albania around 1630, but breathed his last in Kosovo in 1689, a country to which he remained intimately linked because he took part in the resistance against the Ottoman Empire. The Catholic faith guided Pjetër Bogdani's life, and it was this faith that led him to write what is recognized as the first book in Albanian, Cuneus Prophetarum(The Cohort of Prophets), published in Padua in 1685. In the following century, Tahir Efendi Jakova (1770-c. 1850) was also carried away by his religion, Islam, to engage in letters. He is associated with the current of "bejtexhinj", those poets who used the Albanian language by using a derivative of the Arabic alphabet. His most famous work, Emni Vehbije, originally published in 1835 in Istanbul, was adapted into Latin characters in 1907. Finally, the 19th century ends with the birth of Shtejefën Gjeçovi in July 1874 in Janjevo, which he left relatively early to settle in Albania. It was in the heights of the country where he lived, among the tribes that he rubbed shoulders with as a priest, that he collected the folklore heritage, transcribed the themes of the oral tradition and initiated himself into archaeological research. As a sign of the times and the strong tensions that only worsened with the 20th century, he was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in 1929.From the middle of the 20th century to the present day
Albanian, which was forbidden to be written during the five centuries of Ottoman occupation, remained clandestine when Kosovo was granted to Serbia. It was not until after the Second World War that literature in this language began to develop in earnest, thanks in particular to a magazine, Jeta e Re(New Life), co-founded in 1949 by Esad Mekuli (1916-1993), who was also the author of collections of poems(For You in 1955, The New Light in 1966, etc.) and translator. He received the support of Adem Demaçi (1936-2018) who, in addition to his work as a writer, became a politician, for which he spent many years in prison. Born in the first half of the twentieth century, we could also mention Enver Gjerqeku, poet of the intimate who became known with Our Bone, published in 1966, but also with The Delayed Greening, Awakened Sounds, Sparks of the Lighter Stone, and many other works, or his fellow citizen Din Mehmti, also born in Gjakova but a year later, in 1929, who discovered European poets during his studies in Belgrade and was nourished by them for his publications in the 1980s(Neither on earth nor in heaven in 1988, Happiness is a swindle in 1999, etc.).).
Finally, as for Serbian literature, in 1930 one of its most eminent representatives was born, Vukašin Filipović, on August 30, in Pristina. When he completed his thesis on Borisav Stanković in 1964, he was already far from being a neophyte, having already published two novels - Traces, in 1957, acclaimed in Sarajevo, and Steep Coast in 1961 - and seen some of his plays performed(Dark Room and Snow and Fire). He became a teacher, continued to write essays, was editor-in-chief of the magazine Stremljenja(Aspirations) from 1965 to 1979, and then served as president of the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts. Vukašin Filipović was also instrumental in the establishment of the newspaper Jedinstvo, which was founded in 1944, and the founding of the eponymous publishing house in the early 1960s. It was there that another Serbian-speaking Kosovar, Lazar Vučković, began publishing, who - although he tragically drowned in 1966 when he was not yet 30 years old - is still much admired for his poetry
If the era lends itself to abundance, it can be noisy from a political point of view, Anton Pashku (1937-1995) then decides to isolate himself to develop his own universe, largely inspired by Faulkner and Kafka. Modern before his time, he baffles critics and audiences on stage(Syncope, 1968) and in his novels(Oh!, 1971). The publisher L'Espace d'un instant has translated his play Fièvre from Albanian and published it in French. This play features three mountaineers, lost in the mountains, who in their delirium will relive the events of April 1939. This is a unique opportunity to apprehend an unclassifiable work that flirts with the absurd but can be considered as uncompromising, a political approach that Rexhep Qosja, whose novel Death Comes to Me from Those Eyes (Gallimard editions) had also caused much ink to flow
Although we must also mention Rifat Kukaj (1938-2005) who explores the imagination of children's literature and Azem Shkreli (1938-1997) whose fame as a poet ( Boulzat in 1960 to Oiseaux et pierres in 1997) propelled him to the presidency of the Association of Writers of Kosovo, the publications are willingly interested in the history of Kosovo, as evidenced by the many novels that Nazmi Rrahman, born in Podujevo in 1941, devotes to it, or the poetry of Ali Podrimja(La Flamme volée at Arbre à paroles, Défaut de verbe at Cheyne). For the philosopher Ukshin Hoti (1943-1999), this path will rhyme with numerous imprisonments and a dark disappearance, a fate that will resonate with that of Teki Dervishi(Au seuil de la désolation, éditions L'Espace d'un instant). The war and its consequences have indeed an impact on the course of those who are interested in literature, the poet and journalist Darinka Jevrić (1947-2007) will have to resolve to exile, while the writer Eqrem Basha will stay several times in France. His prose is discovered in French by Fayard(Les Ombres de la nuit et autres récits du Kosovo), by Voix d'encre (L'Homme nu) and by Non lieu(La Ligne de fuite). Flora Brovina will be doubly distinguished, on the one hand for her humanitarian commitment as she will be elected woman of the year by UNESCO, on the other hand for her poetry, rewarded by the Tucholsky prize of the Swedish Pen Club in 1999
To conclude, while Sabri Hamiti evolves in the theatrical field(La Mission, published by L'Espace d'un instant) and Nijazi Ramadani devotes himself to poetry and visual arts, the next generation seems to be assured by a new generation that is exported beyond the Kosovar borders. Thus, the works of Jeton Neziraj are well known to the French public who can afford a reading thanks to the editions L'Espace d'un instant. Not hesitating to confront the thorny issue of independence, the playwright born in 1977 excels in Flight over the Theatre of Kosovo, to put the absurd at the service of a profound quest for meaning, or to evoke exile in Peer Gynt of Kosovo. With the same first name but a year younger, the journalist Jeton Kelmendi publishes mainly poetry, translated into no less than twenty-two languages. In French, his collections Comme le commencement est silencieux and L'Âge mythique are offered by L'Harmattan.
