Thursday, May 30, 2024

Dreams of Suffering, a Poem by Dr. Abdeljabbar Choukri


There is no way out of complaining
Except seeing existence smiling
There is no solution of crying 
Except wiping the tears
There is no outlet of sadness 
Except to fill the soul with joy
There is no collapse of despair
Except you cling to hope
There is no way to get rid of depression 
Except by indulging in laughter
There is no pleasure in life 
Except the giving of love
There is no no and no 
And there is except, 
Except and except

But in a moment of the time
I go to embrace the night 
I complain to it  my worries
I Bring back my memories 
From the past since my childhood
I find nothing only fluctuations in feelings
I find nothing only fluctuations in behavior
I find nothing only fluctuations in promises

I Remember when l was a child
My mother tells me Arab stories
One Thousand and One Nights
About Shahrayar and Scheherazade
About the enchanted palace
About Beauty of princess and the Beast

I find myself navigating 
In my mother's stories in Arab tales
She talks to me and talks to me 
until I fall asleep in deep sleep

- Dr. Abdeljabbar Choukri 
(Psychologist, Sociologist, Poet and Novolist)
Casablanca/Morocco 

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Three Poems by Irena Dragoti

Absence of Mother

Evening is coming: I catch my breath
a branch of basil, or a little menderz
hide under the pillow
to sprout dreams with longing wings
from the Motherland,
for Mother...
Her shadow is white on my hair;
absence like a good cough,
lasts three months
and repeated four times.
Memories are signs,
that the past has chased me away.
I undid the fetus from the girl.
I live it divided between two sunsets.
I surrendered to the drying up of prayers.
My mother was taken hostage
from thought,
that I didn’t win all the battles
to keep him alive.
Wherever I open the leaves, mother’s grave
it is the chain that keeps me connected to the roots.
I am not the ideal daughter...

Invisible

In this big city without a center
the walking beauty
tiptoe, on the empty streets
it is not news...
She is like a shooting star
the day for the sun,
without any desire in the arms.

How did I know?
That beauty here is not presence
but a whirl in the orbits of the self;
an unspoken word knows how much...
It is a mist that hangs in the sky
hide the roads,
wear the light...
... conveyed by missing eyes
and until the desire for the parade dies
don’t ask him where he was...
I’m sorry, about the roads.

Damn World 

The dead sleep
the last sleep.
With the tombstone, time knocks.

The living do not speak
and at the edge of the dilemma
the neuron of oblivion, knocking on the bed.

The wise measure
with skin tone
a lost battle, bottom line.

The fools don’t stop
with the power of emptiness.
They overcome courage, without being afraid of fate.

Humanity sees obliquely.
It is the age of retreat;
the twenty-first century, the devil’s march.

And the world burns;
he lost his words
under the wet palate...

The world is dams;
how close his age is ?!
Let me rest, I’m embarrassed.
- Irena Dragoti
Lushnje


Irena Dragoti, poet, was born and lived in Lushnje, where she finished high school. She completed her university studies at the Faculty of Education Sciences in Elbasan, at “Aleksandër Xhuvani” University. She practiced the teaching profession for 22 years and then moved to Michigan, USA. She works more on lyrical poetry and finds herself in free verse. The first volume of poetry was “Fleeing season” and after it “A month of time” and “Escape to the pole”. She has in process her fourth book. She has also written essays and literary criticism. She has published poems, essays and poetry cycles in newspapers inside and outside the borders of Albania, such as: Exlibris magazine, Tirana Diplomat, Observer Cult, Nacional, Autunis Poetry, Telegraf supplement, Hejza, Gazeta Dielli, World Literature, Pen Craft, Literary Gazette, Hejza etc. For Irena, poetry is life itself in the written version, it is her freedom.

Monday, May 27, 2024

Two Poems in Spanish by Estela Voscoboinik

Ensueño (A Vincent Van Gogh)
Titilan los astros
en alas
de estrellas,
envuelven la noche
solitaria
en un lienzo
de luciérnagas;
vibra una marea
de nubes
con pincel de cometas;
cielo infinito
en sueños coloreados
por cipreses erguidos
y azuladas candelas.
Titilan los astros
en alas
de estrellas,
resguardan la luna
en armonía
de olivares
de ondulada tibieza.

Luz de mar

Al costado
de la luna
sueñan espigas
de ámbar;
por la orilla clara,
camino descalza,
sobre aromas
de lavanda;
encuentro tus ojos
en el umbral sereno
de una mirada
cálida.
Brillan candelas
por el sendero azul
de una noche
solitaria;
palpita una sonrisa
en los trinos
del agua mansa.
Al costado
de la luna
sueñan espigas
de ámbar;
florecen caracolas
por la huella
silenciosa
de gaviotas
de cielo,
sobre el rumor
dorado
de la espuma blanca.

- Prof. Estela Voscoboinik
Derechos reservados


Autora: Prof. Estela Voscoboinik
País: Argentina
Profesora de Castellano, Literatura y Latín.
Escritora. Poeta.
Mención de Honor y Manción Especial ICL 
Mención de Honor en el Segundo Concurso Nacional de Poesía " Dr. Hernaldo Arrieta", SADE San Francisco.
Simposios de Estudios clásicos y mitología grecolatina.
Antologías y Revistas poéticas, nacionales e internacionales (RAIAL; AZAHAR; Universo Literario Uruguay; I'm Different but I'm like you, Indonesia, entre otras).
Festival Internacional Arte Ahora, Cabra, Andalucía, España.
Ciempoesía+ Puente de palabras, Ciempozuelos, España.
Macrofestival Málaga la bella, 2023.
Participación en la sección cultural del Diario El Sol, Concordia, Entre Ríos, Arg.
Poeta Destacada de APREINT (Agencia de Prensa Internacional), Barcelona, España.
Participación en el Primer Encuentro Literario Virtual Nacional de Poesía SADE San Francisco, Córdoba, Argentina, 2024.

Saturday, May 25, 2024

The Literary And Artistic And Cultural Magazine ORFEU Publishes a Poetic Anthology, First Volume


In the first volume of poems "Poetic Anthology - I -" with poems selected from the literary, cultural, artistic magazine Orfeu - Kosovo, 35 authors are included, including 23 authors from all over the Albanian space and diaspora, as well as 12 foreign authors translated into Albanian by Irma Kurti and Angela Kosta. The authors' poems have been selected by the staff of orfeu magazine: Dibran Fylli, Angela Kosta and Irma Kurti. The poems included in the first volume of this anthology have been published in Orfeu Magazine and the website Orfeu.AL from the first issue of its uninterrupted publication until the recent issue 17. The selected poems were read by Orfeu's regular readers, based on the "Most Read Posts" section, of which he added up to 750 readers in a month. Therefore, on the basis of these data, the editorial staff has succeeded with dedication to select the most widely read poems by these authors that have been presented in Volume I - of this poetic anthology with national and international authors. The literary, cultural and artistic magazine ORFEU is the only magazine in Kosovo that publishes the poems and creativity of authors from all over the world, including literary, cultural and artistic creations of foreign authors in any foreign language in the appropriate section "International Poets". ORFEU magazine is conceived, founded and directed by Dibran Fylli, Director, Editor-in-Chief, Academic, Director, Actor, Poet and Writer. The staff is made up of national and international authors who are already illustrious and rich in literary values. On the pages of the paper Orfeu and Orfeu.AL, national and intercontinental personalities, writers, painters, musicians, actors, historians, etc., have participated and distinguished themselves. Most foreigners are not only authors and winners of many prestigious awards they are also publishers of magazines and newspapers, so Orfeu is now recognized by many foreign media in every corner of the globe. We invite everyone.

All readers to take in their hands the First Volume of poems in which you will find wonderful verses about: patriotism, women and their rights, love for everything that surrounds us, the expression of true and pure feelings towards the person we love, the beautiful flowers of nature, nostalgia for the homeland, unexpected aspects of life and much more...We wish you all a good reading and we gladly welcome you with your creativity to our magazine ORFEU and ORFEU. AL


DIBRAN FYLLI was born in Açarevë in Skënderaj, Kosovo, in 1956. Dibran graduated from the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana as a director film. Dibran was one of the first members of the (UCK - KLA) army and participated in many battles in which he was seriously wounded in the Battle of Llapushnik on 8 May 1998. Dibran is the founder of the UCK - KLA's Hamëz Jashari Military Art Company, screenwriter and organizer of the commemorative event "He is Alive" (1999), "The Days of Enlightenment" (2000) now "The Era of KLA" (March 5, 6 and 7, known as "THE NIGHT OF FIRES"), Head of the "Hamëz Jashari" Military Artistic Corps of the KLA and TMK (1998-2002). He was also the creator, screenwriter and Director of the National Traditional Festival "Let's Sing to Freedom" (Kline 6, 7 and 8 June), dedicated to the emblematic Commander of the KLA Mujë Krasniçi - Kapuçi; author and screenwriter of the artistic program "He is Live" part -I- and - II.

So far, Dibran has published 26 literary, historical, scientific, editorial, and chronological works.  He is the winner of numerous literary awards, author, screenwriter and director of over 40 documentary films, as well as several feature films and short films; Dibran has participated in 3 International Film Festivals. He has played many major roles in feature films, comedies, and television series. He is currently a member of the Writers' League of Kosovo (LSHK), a member of the Albanian American Academy of Sciences and Arts in New York (AAA), Founder, Director and Editor-in-Chief of the literary cultural magazine ORFEU and the Orfeu website. AL (2022) 


ANGELA KOSTA was born in Elbasan (Albania) and has lived in Italy since 1995. She is a translator, essayist, journalist, literary critic, publisher and promoter. She has published 14 books: novels, poems and fairy tales in Albanian, Italian and English. 
Angela Kosta translates and writes articles and interviews for the newspaper "Calabria Live", Saturno magazine, Alessandria Today Magazine, the international magazine "Orfeu:", the newspaper "Nacional", Gazeta Destinacioni, Perqasje Italo - Shqiptare, the magazine "Atunis", she collaborates with the magazines: "International Literature Language Journal (Michigan), Wordsmith International Editorial (Florida), Raven Cage (Germany), Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, etc. Angela Kosta has translated 150 authors into bilingual: Italian - Albanian and vice versa and has promoted over 500 poets in various national and international literary magazines as well as translating the books of poems by 3 Albanian and Kosovar authors. He has also translated the poems of important italian classics, nobelists and many other famous authors. 

Angela Kosta is Vice President of the South Korea Writers' Association, Vice President of the Tamikio Dooley Writers Choach Organization, Ambassador for Culture and Peace in the Organization no profit in: Bangladesh, Poland, Morocco, Canada, Algeria, Egypt, Mexico, Romania, India, etc. She is also a member of the Writers' League (LSHASH) and BSHBSH - Italy, AAA (America), Greece, Poland, Hungary, Mexico, Romania, Croatia, India.

Angela Kosta has been translated and published in 30 foreign languages and foreign countries. In 2024 alone, it has been published in 98 national and international newspapers and magazines, with: poems, articles, interviews, books, reviews, etc. She has received numerous awards from various magazines and newspapers. Angela Kosta has been the Person of the Month on the covers of the following magazines: International Literature Language Journal, (Michigan), Saturno Magazine (Italy), Wordsmith International Editorial (Florida) and Literary Magazine (Barcelona), Elitè Magazine (Liban)


IRMA KURTI is an Albanian poet, writer, lyricist, journalist and translator naturalized Italian. She has won numerous awards and recognitions in Italy, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, the USA, the Philippines, Lebanon, China, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. In 2020 she received the title of Academician and Honorary President of WikiPoesia, the poetic encyclopedia. In 2021 she was awarded the "Liria" (Freedom) award by the Italian-Albanian Community in Italy. In 2022 she was awarded the title of Mother Foundress and Dame of the Order of Dante Alighieri of the Republic of Poets. In 2023 she was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Universum Academy Switzerland. She is a jury member of several literary competitions in Italy. She is a translator at the Ithaca Foundation in Spain. She has published 29 books in Albanian, 25 in Italian, 15 in English and 2 in French. She has translated 20 books of poetry and fiction by different authors, as well as all his works published in Italian and English. Hers books have been translated and published in 16 countries.

[Prepared by Angela Kosta - Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator]

Friday, May 24, 2024

Astrit Lulushi : Writer of Recognized International Talent

By Maria Teresa Liuzzo
(Director of the International Culture magazine LE MUSE - Italy)
 
A writer of recognized international talent, a multifaceted, versatile and sensitive person, with an intense interiority, whose talents he knows how to express through an unspeakable docility to the moments that emanate inspiration. / Crumbs of dreams / I don't know where the day is born / and where the evening dies. / Fill the sky with tears and words / like the sea that goes and then returns. / I close my eyes when / the wind caresses me with your hands / I kiss your caress and embrace your pain. An ideal that stands between metaphysical experience and reality in the concreteness of what his writing suggests. The essential and primordial elements of nature are captured, such as the sun, the sky, the sea in its symbolism that evokes mystery and depth, and multiplicity with languages ​​and meanings that refer to aesthetic thought almost to a catechesis of beauty, of the sublime; as an ultimate goal it spreads in the light of creation of which being is a part and coincides with the immensity that the beauty of its art and the infinite mystery summarizes. A demanding beauty that merges with the divine that meets domestic, everyday beauty that can be read, understood, codified in the literacy of a hidden truth; a beauty that provokes the emotion of reason with the fruitfulness that it also suggests to anthropology and philosophy in its various and articulated streams of theoretical reflection. A reflection that places itself between the ideal as a metaphysical experience and the real in concreteness. Love is capable of creating poetry in the most unexpected moments, poetry envelops it in a silent pain that becomes catharsis, perhaps because the pain must be mourned before it can be overcome. The splendor was realized by flickering the shadows on his face, on his features as a man. His word burns perhaps because he has something that others don't have. His verse is precise and impeccable, in that painful silence that I picked up like a rose in the immensity. The choices of the Writer Astrit Lulushi are made with caution and meditation. All you need to do is identify with his words, ultimately live them. We waste precious time that could make our real life a different existence. It's like throwing dice and trusting fate, making our existence a game of chance. You can win, enjoy or cheat. No one knows what will happen next, as no one can predict the future or have a preliminary appointment with destiny. But the Writer emerges victorious. By struggling and suffering he found himself. He crossed the ''dark'' night and traveled towards different and certainly better horizons. Nothing is lost when you truly live. In his verses there is a sleepless night of pain left under the skin, which has served over time to make him know the direction of the wind and to find himself in a place of the heart that he had not foreseen, which has allowed him to discover the sea where there is no 'And. Because it is inherent in the eyes and in the heart. We know that when someone or something (poem) pays attention to us it brings us back to life. Those who are not in love with beauty, justice and wisdom are incapable of thinking. - The equation is not good for the wind in love among the ears. ''And I like to be silent because I want / again and always to listen to you''. It is enough to focus our gaze on the deep roots that resemble erotic natures and give us the sense of the infinite. The aim of this great Artist is not to persuade, but to make people reflect, have passion and honesty for the reason that distinguishes us from the beasts. The word is a body that transmits desire, perdition, madness like a breathless race that fills the lungs with air. The word supports us, it becomes love. It is wisdom that generates harmony woven from the melody of a divine song. The word allows us to express moods and feelings to be expressed, at times, with the difficulty of revealing the intensity and powerful strength of love. The love that allows one to go outside of oneself, yet revealing a minimum of what love itself induces one to feel. I looked for a ''YOU'' to complete my ''I''. In ''Tu'' I feel joy and emotion together with sensations that find an echo in a transfiguring and almost cathartic dimension of myself. You accompany me in the fulfillment of this profound human and interior experience together. You can get close to the truth but not possess it in full. Perfection does not exist. It's like the lie that was crafted to perfection. Everything that is perfect is dead, as finished when reality becomes narration because writing listens to your words and loves you as you are. Astrit Lulushi has been a writer since the beginning he unintentionally builds the myth of himself. Here it is preferable to remove his characteristics, since, if on the one hand it is the writer who feels the false writer is different from himself, on the other hand there is the recognized artistic genius, master of 20th century prose and bringer of a style which in its brevity and incisiveness represents the most significant and innovative expression of the 20th century and beyond. His is an extraordinary style for its ability to evoke with a few words, a few strokes, the hidden reality, the reality that the reader can intuit through the text, the reality hidden within each of us, the one we don't usually look at, the one we are afraid to confess, the one we don't repeat to ourselves when we are alone for fear that someone might hear us. That reality where we know little about ourselves and history because without it our everyday life would be meaningless. He is therefore the singer of our unacknowledged self, the singer who says the things that neither we nor others have the courage to say. The Writer describes the blood of war, of nature, of wounded animals, of flagellations, of genocides, which from a psycho-dynamic point of view is nothing other than internal discomfort and tormented suffering. We find a somewhat desperate life mechanism which is that of the tunnel and on the other the sublimating mechanism of his literary work in which the desire to fly and to be able to perpetuate oneself beyond the destruction of the physical body is expressed. A writing that goes beyond the contingent and in the particular sense of Astrit Lulushi must be projected beyond time and space. His writing also has the ability to attract female beauty to the highest degree because if it word cannot be possessed cannot be loved. Even in this dialectic between the power of possessing and the impotence of reality, the drama of the double is played out. In this, the overcoming of internal discomfort is not overcome through mechanisms of self-destruction, but it is through an internal push that mechanisms of sublimation are received. In fact, this extraordinary person has well overcome this long critical phase because writing has become his woman, his support, someone in which to reflect himself; even a thought can be considered the entity of a friendly voice, so as not to die alone with no one beside you. Certain phenomena have crossed the writer's life and retain a part of themselves. A clarifying process that will ensure that each of us can reach ''that enlightened place'', which can guarantee us a place in the human sphere. Prose and poetry then increasingly become witnesses of the time, taking a stand on the most significant global problems. Writing becomes news that records the event and its memory (war, repression, attacks), takes on new registers: the sarcasm of indignation, the invective of protest, the prophetic tone, the rhetorical questioning. The word becomes turgid, excited, eloquent, bordering on political-religious oratory. In him the need to shout his belief is too alive and bursting, and like a new Savonarola, he expresses his fiery condemnation. His is a message of peace, of justice as an instrument capable of transform Society and give a new course to History, far from the experience of hatred that divides in the name of a God who should be there but is not seen. Every word of Astrit Lulushi is a work that opens up to a universal global vision. His writing is also painting. In it, an ego shines through, at times irrational, which escapes to sink into its ''inner dawn'' and offer us cosmic images immersed in abstract atmospheres. Precious icons that tell the meaning of the human and the divine in an expressive, extraordinary language (his alone), which we could define for its uniqueness: ''metamorphosis of the non-limit''. If we looked at the images upside down we would see a glass of hopes that give each work a great lyrical significance. This great series of apocryphal and imaginative episodes tend to represent man's disorientation in the face of the total epiphany of the Sacred, his immense and abysmal wound - A revelation of Sacredness which, as in Pasolini's Theorem, exposes all fears, the cowardice and hypocrisies of human beings. A writing therefore, that of Astrit Lulushi, which increasingly becomes a witness of the time, taking a stand on the most significant world problems. In Lulushi the topos is the organic and rational theorization both in philosophical writings and in novels. The conclusion is that if the evil (malaise, anguish, discomfort) cannot be eliminated, it can however be counteracted through denunciation, protest, condemnation of violence and war, of social injustice, all factors that generate the ''mal de vivre'' and, in extreme cases even through suicide. An attentive and rapt look could lead us to talk about a theology of beauty that emanates from the observations of its concepts. And I add, referring to hermeneutics, epistemology, axiology: Astrit Lulushi, is beyond the Platonic hyperuranium! A man who doesn't like the spotlight and the only quality he recognizes is modesty. As Augustine of Hippo says: ''Enter yourself, there you will find the light''. Despite the human drama we perceive there is also a reality made of dreams. Often in silence the word is violated but absence makes presence. The mystery of the other is welcomed. Another dimension is discovered, the one that managed to complete us. Because whoever has a heart as big as our writer Astrit Lulush cannot help but possess an immense soul.

[Astrit Lulushi]


[Maria Teresa Liuzzo]

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Night, a Poem by Emmanuel Mettles

Lights are off to slumber.
Weary are the lives.
I stop here, 
I stop here,
Stop! 
Here, under this last lamp post.
Seeking the beginning of night.

No one passes by,
No one passes by.
Except an old wood cutter from an ancient tale.
 He cut no woods,
He hushed a cry,
" I cut the heads,
I cut,
I cut!
The heads of a thousand silver firs!

Late fisherman's call is trudging towards the hill,
For fisherman is late,
Late and lost his skiff.
And his shack kept awake!

The path wriggled beneath the night,
Tales of the footsteps evansce.
No tales to be told,
No tunes to be sung..
No tunes to be sung..

I wish for a star,
A tiniest, speck of distant light..
A crumb of laughter,
A dropful of morrow, 
A mo,
A mo to dine on death!

© Emmanuel Mettles
Kerala, India 


Poetess Emmanuel Mettles was born and brought up in  Kerala State, India. She is Post Graduate in English, Sanskrit and Human Psychology. Presently she is working in Telangana State, India, as a Psychological Counsellor. She is a multilingual poet  who writes in English, Telugu and Malayalam languages.Her poems are published in many prominent periodicals. She is a co-author in as many as 48 anthologies published in India and abroad. Her latest book,  in her mother tongue,  Malayalam( Veyil Varavukal - Beaming Sunlight) is on the way.

She was awarded the title  BLOSSOMING POET - 2019 at HYDERABAD POET CONFLUENCE in 2019. And the
following are few more other awards and laurels she received in recent times.
1. KABI RABINDRSNATH TAGORE AWARD 2020.
(ARPITA FOUNDATION- BRINDAVAN)
2. MADUSOODAN DUTTA EXCELLENCE AWARD ( INDO UNIVERSAL VOICES OF POETRY)
3. Suryodaya Excellence Award ( S.L.F ODISHA)
4.EVERYCHILD CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE (Indo Universe Voices of Poetry, W.B)
5. Certificate of Excellence (Oxygen Pen)
6. International Ambassador of Peace Award(World Literary Forum for Peace and Human Rights)
7.Purnakumbha Award(Biswa Sahithya Samithy, Telengana,)
8. Telengana Sahitya Akademi Award ( Govt.of Telengana).

She is the Founder of  a global literary platform namely The HaVen International which run seperate platforms for uplift of literature in languages English, Malayalam and തെലുഗു. (HaVen Malayalam, HaVen Telugu, HaVen Furnace (poetry review) and The HaVen International) Furthermore, Ms Emmanuel Mettles is functioning as Advisor, Admin and Vo-ordinator in many literary platforms.
She is the advisory general of a global lietrary platform, Suryodaya Literary Foundation. (Odisha, India)
She is a vibrant and live wire activist of violations against children and women.
She is also a renowned translator, columnist, critic and orator too.
Books published are
1.The Solo Traveller( English)
2.Ummu Chinnu(English)
3.Veyil Varavukal( Malayalam)
4.Sthreetha( Malayalam- a regional language of India)

Monday, May 20, 2024

Two Poems by Astrid Lulushi 

Translated and interpreted by Maria Teresa Liuzzo (LE MUSE-ITALY’ s International Art and Culture Editor)


The Destiny 
 
The’s no point in stopping 
in the shade  of a tree
And complaining about life’s tragedies 
Not even take the side of the good 
or the bad because  
with the passage of time 
one could be more miserables 
than the other. 
We are born and die alone 
no one take about our martyrdom
 
Some lucky peole have aunts 
who welcome them 
like their neighbors 
when they are alone.
The rain unleashes  its wrath 
on the houses , on the trees, 
on the thoughts scouring them
The belly becomes even more violent 
with the weak and the righteous 
as the storm does with 
the clouds if the wind is against it
 
The evil is who has never known misery
The pang of hunger
The heart felt cry of a child
The desperate mother’s prayer
He’s the one who never 
has wished for anything 
he did not already have 
I’ve never been lucky, 
let the sadness be mine alone, at least

Beyond Patience  
 
Time passing is a cancrenous river
The bodies are fossils 
of those who have despoiled
the people  depriving them of all rights
 
They are sharks and jackals 
disguised as helpless
Man the son of the world 
watched and was silent by day
and was  blinded by night  
 
BURGOSA was killed 
because he wanted 
to dream a better future 
to be free as  God created him 
whatever his dream was.
Those like him, instead 
have been destabilized
Frustrated like horses 
by their beast
 They slaughtered them to shreds.
Experience teaches us not 
to trust anyone but often  too late we 
have to believe in something 
or someone to live 
otherwise we will never be able 
to distinguish right from wrong 
 
Most people are good  
believe in family and live 
as best they can .
Bad people exist and will always exist
Because evil never kills itself
You meet them on your way 
suffering will be your lamp 
and enlightens you 
it will make you sure
you can know the healty fruit 
from the sick one. 
So that you can live your life 
in freedom and with joy 
with love.

Only in this way 
will you find happiness  
you who have alwys lived 
as a prisoners
you will be able 
to savor the taste of freedom
 
Always stay on your guard 
against the vultures every thing 
that is beatyful can something 
be deadly life deceive us 
and we can’t do anything
too many people love violence 
and violent sports
 
He slows when he sees a car overturned 
on the edge of the ravine 
as in were a scene from a movie.
The same people love the box 
for no reason at all
They ignore that in the violence 
of the blows
There is also the courage
 of the challenge.
It is tge defeca that surrenders to victory without reaching death
Perhaps the most important thing 
would be for a warrior to have a heart 
inside the chest. 
If this were the case 
every man would rise 
from hope and embrace peace.
A man’s strenght of flight beyond patience 
where others have failed.
It is the light that makes you see 
beyond that dream, 
that no one can see but you
Sometimes people 
don’t want to understand
they don’t have eyes 
to see and they get lost 
in the darkness of life 
like a rootless tree.

© Astrit Lulushi

Friday, May 17, 2024

Why did I love you?, a Poem by Fadwa Attia


Why did I love you? 
Why?
I loved the sky in your eyes
I loved our memories together
I loved everything that brought us together
You became my home and my family
You became everything to me
My view of the world changed
After we loved each other, I changed. 

You became my whole life in a long night 
You became a dream for all of me
One night he comes to me in a dream
A lover I loved
and we were together through thick and thin
Our memories are endless
our dreams are relentless
We have become lovers in the sanctuary of love
and we will remain lovers in the sanctuary of eternal love
Our love never ends no matter what happens
eternal love never dies.

- Fadwa Attia
Egypt

Monday, May 13, 2024

Artist Endri Beqo And His Love for Art : Angela Kosta

Endri Beqo was born on 08 January 1988 in Tirana. In 2010 - 2015 Endri graduated from the University of Arts of Tirana in the field of sculpture and graphics. He has participated in many different activities in the category of cartoon art in portraits and illustrations, published books, articles and newspapers. Also, Endri has participated in numerous events including those from the Municipality of the capital.
Endri participated in the competition "Info Network" in which he won the second prize with the theme: "Europa".
He has also won international awards at various festivals.
In August 2015 - 2016 -2017, Endri received international awards at the Kosovo Festival of Comics and Cartoons at the Gallery "HAMAM" in Prizren as well as other awards in: Macedonia; In September 2023, he was awarded in Prishtina with the Special Award of the Association of Cartoonists "Kragi" with the theme for "Mother Teresa" and in the city of Ferizaj at the hithi cartoon association festival when he received the award "For High Artistic Values".


From 2017 to 2022 he has participated in two festival exhibitions in Turkey. 
His career began in January 2016 when he opened the first personal exhibition on the topic "Social Cartoons" at the Youth Center Gallery, and then in December 2019 he followed up with the opening of the Personal Exhibition on the topic of "Earthquake Tragedy in the City of Durres" which was organized at the Gallery of Destil Hub. 
In 2022, Endri presented to the art lovers with two other personal exhibitions, with the themes for Covid-19 at the "GAT Gallery". Endri Beqo has also published his book, a catalogue of his work over 10 years of cartoons in the "Gallery Expres" and "Gallery Bunkeri."
Endri has also participated in graphic novels organized by the Ministry of Culture in their 6th editions (2015 - 2021), and also by the Ministry of Culture. In March 2017, he organized the exhibition "Strip Art Al" featuring 12 works of graphic novels among 14 artists more thematic and stories of today. 
Endri has also participated in 13 other collective galleries in the group in five countries of Albania.

In October 2017 he was part of the festival of "Comics Showroom Macedonia Veles" where he produced the graphic novel. He has also worked on story boards of stories as television sponsor advertisements and media, as well as competitor on the show "TU SI QUE VALES".
In 2013-2014 he worked with several parts on the show "Fiksed Fare" on Top Channel with some animations.
In 2016 he participated in two animations at the National Center of Cinematography with cartoon (QKK) as well as in 2023. 

In September 2016 he participated in the festival "Pegasi" in the city of Saranda with two short political cartoons, in which he won the "Pegasi" prize.  In 2019 - 2022 he participated in "Street Artists" from the Municipality of Tirana. In October 2019 it was part of the Biennale International Exhibition in Gjilan. In 2020 - 2022 were organized two editions "Competition of the International Cartoon Biennale" by Niko Nikola in the city of Pogradec and Tirana, attended by 70 countries of the world with the theme: "Where the world is going", there Endri received the Special Prize where he presented and reflected the portrait of artist Agim Sulaj. In 2023, he was included in the exhibition entitled "Framed" Graphic Novel at the Agimi Art Center.

Endri Beqo has also collaborated with the well-known director and actor Bujar Kapexhiu. In 2013, Endri participated in collaboration with his stylist brother in Florence - Italy in a clothing theatre and cartoons.

Besides all these mentioned above, for 7 months Endri reflects his art as a professor in the course for young children in the painting branch at the Center "ZojArt" Academy".
Here's what he tells us about it: 
This is the third exhibition organized by "ZojArt" Akademy in which there are many talents with golden hands and minds with varied colors in the realization of their works that I mention below: Mei, Chloe, Jera, Alsea, Lura, Una, Liel, Noelia, Mabel, Kristel, Iris, Arvid,
Arjeli, Arla, Hera, Vesa, Sia, Altrea, Henry and Tiara. We greet them with goodness as they bring 43 works in the art of painting in the "Kalo Gallery" realized in composition with figures, landscapes with technical colors and pencil. We dedicate this exhibition to "People with Different Abilities". I especially congratulate Arisel Cenaj for his art with sculptures that brought beauty to the Kalo Gallery. All this personally makes me as a professor have a lot of energy with them and their positivity that fulfill the activity of art just when everything good works very well especially when it is worked with heart and love. That's why I want to i thank the Director "ZojArt" Akademy" Xhoj Jakaj not only as a leader but also for supporting everything she has done over the years with her heart and great love. This is also the pleasure of parents when they see the results and the positive atmosphere of the exhibition. I am also happy to have worked with them trying to do my best. We feel really pleased that we got this far. I can't even thank the Gallery Kalo for the invitation made by Ardiana Shehi. Thank you all hoping and wishing we have such exhibitions again with other and new works and emotions.

[Prepared by Angela Kosta Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator]

Four Poems by Tarana Turan Rahimli

I AM A WOMAN  
 
I'm not an artist, 
but I know colors that many artists don't.
The color of love, the color of longing, 
the color of pain...
 
I'm not a composer, 
but I hear sounds 
that every composer doesn't hear.
The sound of separation, sadness, hope.
 
I am not a gardener, 
but I know the fragrance of 
months and days like flowers.
My life is decorated 
with a fragrant garland of bright emotions.
 
I am not an artist, 
I am not a composer, 
I am not a gardener...
I am a woman, 
created by God at an auspicious hour.
in my eyes, in my heart
is God the light of love
 
I AM NOT THE ONE IN THE MIRROR 
 
It ran, looked, familiar face,
followed a piece of life.
I looked around for myself.
I'm not the one in the mirror.
 
It was ice statue in the stone mirror,
Frozen ice looking in the mirror.
My eyes are spring, summer, winter in the mirror,
I'm not the one in the mirror.
 
Luck it was my mirror reflects my luck
shows me a golden bed.
My God, what a happy shows 
I'm not the one in the mirror.
 
My shots were numerous,
My eyes don't even smile.
The mirror can't look at me
I'm not the one in the mirror.
□ 
 
I WAS SO QUIET

What place was this?
Who sent me here?
The giants saw the way
They made me travel a hundred miles.
 
They didn't hear what I heard
They didn't suffer enough.
They left no space in me
Say, where did I hide me?!
 
They took my spring like winter
They were confused as to what I did.
They knew I was quiet
They pushed me against the wall.
 □
 
IF YOU WROTE LETTER 
 
You wrote a letter,
No fragrance, no breath.
In one of the lines
No sound of your heart
 
You wrote a letter,
It was cold-blooded.
Warm but saying no word
How did you send it?
 
You wrote a letter,
Feeling, emotionless.
My mind was restless 
I stayed sleepless.
 
You wrote a letter,
As the blind's staff 
scratches the ground.
As engraver wrote 
on his headstone...!
□ 
 
© Tarana Turan Rahimli
Azerbaijan
terane.turan@gmail.com
(English translation by Anit Roy)


Biography:
Assosiate Prof. Dr. Tarana Turan Rahimli is an Azerbaijani poet, writer, journalist, translator, literary critic, teacher, academic, is an active member of the International Literary Agency in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Philippine, Kazakistan, Italy, Oman, Belgium, USA. She is a doctor of philological sciences, Associate Professor, author of 9 books and more than 500 articles. She is the editor and reviewer of 25 monographs and poetry books. Her poems and prose works have been translated into 35 languages. The work has been published in more than 45 Western and Eastern countries. Her poems were published in Azerbaijan, England, Italy, Spain, USA, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, China, Oman, Turkey, Russia, Romania, India, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Mexico, Greece, Morocco, Kosovo, Japan, Venezuela and in other countries. Including her poems and articles have been published in many international sites around the world, on periodicals and in anthologies. Prominent poets and literary critics of 15 countries wrote articles about his poetry, and his interviews were published in 27 countries. He has been awarded with more than 50 international awards and 300 honorary degrees and diplomas.

Tarana Turan Rahimli was born into an educated family on February 20, in 1970, in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, author of 9 books and more than 500 articles. Two books were published in Turkish, one in Italian, and six in Azerbaijani. During 1977 and 1987 she studied at the secondary school number 48 in Baku and at the secondary school number 1 in the city of Barda. In 1990 she entered the faculty of philology of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University and graduated from University in 1995. Just during the studentship years (1991-1994) she worked at the newspaper “Ganj muallim” (Young teacher) of ASPU, after graduating the university she worked as the responsible secretary of that newspaper (1994-2000) , then she became editor-in-chief ( 2000-2007)  of that newspaper.  Meanwhile,  during 1996-1997 she was the responsible secretary of the newspaper “ Zaman” ( Time) , in 1999 she was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Azerbaijan fighters”,  during 2007-2008  she became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “ Tahsil problemleri” ( Educational problems). She worked at the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University for 33 years and had a scientific career path from laboratory assistant to associate professor. In 2004 she defended candidate of sciences on the theme of “Creative activity of Kamal Talibzade”, and got the degree of candidate of philology. In 2021, he defended his dissertation to receive the scientific degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences. She researches in the field of Azerbaijan literature, literature of Turkey, The literature of Bati Trakya, Russian literature, Japanese literature, the literature of western countries,  Azerbaijani literary critic. For many years, she gave lectures on the history of Azerbaijani literary studies, literary relations, literature of Western countries, literature of East Slavic peoples, Japanese literature, modern Azerbaijani literature, literature of Turkic peoples at Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University and Baku State University. 

Since 1992 she is the member of Azerbaijan Ashugs Union, (on poetry), since 1994 she is the member of  Union of Azerbaijani writers, since 1998 she is  the member of the Council of Constitutor of World Young Turkish Writers , since 1999 she is the member of Union of Azerbaijani writers , since 2007 she is the member of  well-known honorable organization in Turkey - Cyprus Balkan Eurasia Turkish Literature Organization. She is the staff member of academic journal of “History and thinking” of Turkish World Studying Organization. 

She is the founder of literary unities as “Qar Chicheyi” ( Primrose)  and “Addimlar” ( Steps)  ( ASPU), like the member of Union of World Young Turkish Writers she took an active part in compiling and publishing the poetry Anthologies titled as “Qar Chicheyi” , “Addimlar” and “The voice of Turk”.
Including she is engaged in writing poetry and prose, literary criticism, publicism and translation. Her scientific works were published in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Italy, Iran, Chile, Russia, England, Cyprus, Romania and other countries.She was the participant of a number of international symposiums, conference, and literary events. 

In Turkey her two books “They will recognize me from my love” (Izmir, 2013,) “The poem that I didn’t write to you” (Ankara, 2013) have been published. Including her monograph “The decent follower of the Great generation” about Kamal Talibzade, the eminent literary critic, Academic of Azerbaijan ( Baku, ADPU publishing house, 2002), the poetry collection  of “The Whisper of Grief” (Baku, ADPU publishing house, 2007), textbooks titled as “The creative problems of literature and literary critic” (Baku, “Europe” publishing house, 2009), a scientific book titled as “From the literature to eternity” (Baku, YSEQ publication, 2015) have been published. In 2017 the monograph “The Azerbaijani prose and criticism” (Baku, “Science and Education” publishing house, 2017) was published and awarded with the honorary decree of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan. In 2018, the book “Purple Clouds /translations from world poetry/” (Baku, ADPU publishing house, 2018) was published. She is book "Ho amato persino la pietra" was published in Italy in 2023 by "Cuscino di Stelle" publishing house with the translation of Claudia Piccinno.

She translated the poems of about 200 world poets from Turkish, Russian and English into Azerbaijani. In 2024, he translated the poems of the Italian poet Claudia Piccinno into Azerbaijani and published this translated book in Azerbaijan called  "Sessiz haray".
She has been awarded with more than 50 international awards and 300 honorary degrees and diplomas.

Awards:
2009 - "Scientific Book of the Year" IX Baku Cultural Prize of the National Book Day of Azerbaijan,
2013 - "Service to the Turkish World Award" at the International Baku Meeting of the World Young Turkish Writers Union;
2014 - International "Akif Samad" Award of the Union of Activist Artists of Turkey;
2016 - International Rasul Reza prize of Azerbaijan Writers' Union;
2016 - International Literary Festival prize of the Pablo Neruda Cultural Center in Italy;
2016 - "International golden bridge" literary prize of Bari Aldo Moro University in Italy;
2016- International Mikayil Mushfig Award in Azerbaijan;
2016 - "Honorable Service Award" of Kirkuk Cultural Association;
2017-Winner of "Veliero" International poetry competition in Terra Melissa, Calabria, Italy.
2018 - "World Literature Prize — 2018" of the Writers' Union of World Nations in Kazakhstan;
2019 - "Golden pen" award of the Writers' Union of Kyrgyzstan;
2020 - Diploma of winner of "Ossi de Seppia" International poetry competition in Italy;
2020 - Gujarat Sahitya Academy Award in India;
2020 - "Turan Union" medal of Central Asian "Yangi Ovoz" Writers Union in Kyrgyzstan;
2021 - "Iva Bogdani" International Award in Kosovo;
2021 - International literary award of the World Poetry Brotherhood in Texas;
2022- International Gazi Nazrul Islam Jubilee Award of Sahitya Pata in Bangladesh;
2022 - "Golden heart" international poetry prize of the World Academy in Romania;
2023 - Humanism and creativity in Syria International cultural forum award;
2023 - "Excellence in Art" award of the Hispanic World Writers Association in Mexico
2024 - 1st place prize of the International Poetry Competition "Ossi di Seppia" in the commune of Taggia in Italy.
...And so on.

THREE POEMS BY IRIS CALIF

"THE IRIS FLOWER OF YOUR HEART" "IN THE ISRAEL MOON OF MY LIVING HEART THE HUMAN UNIVERSAL IRIS FLOWER OF WORLD OF PEASE...