After about half a century of oblivion, for the first time, a commemorative event was organized in Shkodër dedicated to father Gjergj Fishta, one of the luminaries of our national culture. During the first recital with Fishta’s works, after forty-five years, the actor was momentarily stuck in the recitation, but immediately and spontaneously he was helped by the hall, which still remembered “Lahuta e Malcis” (“The Highland Lute”) by heart. The Franciscan father Gjergj Fishta (1871–1940) was a poet, playwright, prose writer, esthete, publicist, lecturer, senior cleric, and politician. He directed for a long time the press of the Franciscan order and the cultural and educational activity of this order. He is one of the greatest figures of Albanian literature of the first half of the 20th century. Until the Second World War, he was exalted as the national poet of Albania, while after 1944 he fell into oblivion, which lasted for 45 years in a row. (In the photo: Gjergj Fishta)
Text: Robert Elsie, History of Albanian literature, “Dukagjini”, Pejë, 2001, page 304.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjergj_Fishta
Graphic processing: AHCF
