Astrit Lulushi : Light of Wisdom, an Article by Maria Elena Mignosi Picone

 

[Astrit Lulushi]

[Maria Elena Mignosi Picone]

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asks Philip in the Gospel of John. And Jesus came. And we ask ourselves: “Can anything good come from Albania?” And Astrit Lulushi came. And Astro shone. The light of wisdom.

His life wasn't easy. Far from it. "I've never been lucky" (Fate), he confides. Even worse: "I've been savagely abused by life" (Aria). He suffered immense pain. Sadness accompanied him from a young age throughout his life. "At least let the sadness be mine alone" (Fate).

He never had youth. And this was due to human wickedness. And not just any people, but heads of state. He experienced the bitter taste of dictatorship: “They had stripped us of our identity” (Farm). “…the traumas we suffered find no rest, / in a monstrous historical scenario.” (Farm). He tasted the gall of cruelty. Depriving a child of his childhood, like depriving a young person of his youth, are horrendous crimes because they deprive human beings of love, of joy, which are the air that makes them live and grow. “In their veins there was the strength of life and the lion's roar, / on faces ravaged by despair / night fell and evening never came.” (Farm).

But there is something that, even in the harshest and most suffocating oppression, remains free, and can fly like a seagull over the sea. It is thought. "I wander with thoughts like a bee among flowers" (In the Mirror). This, precisely, was what young Astrit Lulushi relied on, and thought was his salvation. He nourished it with study. He discovered the beauty of knowledge, he loved wisdom boundlessly. And his wisdom was pure because it was imbued with faith, the Catholic faith to which he remained anchored throughout his life.

For the Greeks, philosophy was the love of wisdom. And it's not for nothing that Astrit Lulushi defines the poet as "The Master among philosophers," as "...he establishes justice.../ His wisdom and power embrace nature and humanity." (The poet's words).

Wisdom is truth, and the poet, who is a singer (“His spirit is that of a singer”) (The poet's words) presents it by cloaking it in the beauty of musicality. “The poet retains the gems of his words. / A treasure he leaves to his loved ones, his acquaintances, writers, and his readers.”

And his poetry is born from life: “…with drops of his own blood / he mends and embroiders the words / hanging from the thread of life.” Thus in the poet, life and music, art and truth merge.

And he doesn't keep all this for himself but offers it generously to others for the edification and happiness of the human soul. "...poetry is free. / Everyone should be happy." (Aria)

Astrit Lulushi's verses reach a height of poetic intensity. An example: "At the end of a country road, / a timid puddle appears / where the moon drowned / pale as dawn / and violent as a slap / the rain came." (The Pond).

His style is clear, limpid, and crystalline like spring water. His verses flow fluidly and easily, sometimes in the darkness of a broken and grieving spirit, sometimes in the brightness of the sun, the sun of wisdom.

Human wisdom is the reflection of divine wisdom. The image of a mirror or a pond in which he is reflected often recurs in him. And our Astrit is the mirror of God's wisdom. His words are those of Jesus, his thoughts, his works are those of Jesus. The Son of God wanted to assimilate him to himself. Until the crucifixion. "... the man falls asleep / and was beautiful even in death" (The Pond). Not only in death but also in resurrection to a new life. "He was lost and alone in the eternity of time / while a new warm wind blew from the sea." (The Pond).

In her faith, Astrit Lulushi sees the hand of God in the events of life. She senses it in human history, in encounters, in love. Here, the beloved and the lover are united by Him, as if predestined: "But I already know that we existed before the world. / Our names were engraved in the clay." (Opportunity).

And this also applies to those unions that have already vanished, for one reason or another, here on earth, but are willed by God and destined for supreme, timeless happiness. "Perhaps we will never meet / but we will always love each other / because it is your heart that beats in mine."