Albania will mourn on Tuesday and Wednesday Ismail Kadare, a literary giant who used his pen as a weapon against dictatorships. A “monumental voice” that is dying, but who leaves behind a powerful and free work.
On July 2 and 3, all flags in the country will be at half-mast, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced. Wednesday morning will mark the time of the national tribute to the hero of Albanian letters, with ceremonies at the opera. While public radio and television will play funeral marches.
Ismail Kadare “is now on the pedestal of eternity, and no words come to me,” Mr. Rama had said earlier in the day, in homage to the “greatest monument of Albanian culture.”
“I thank him for the extraordinary pleasure [qu’il nous a offert] to travel in a world of events, characters, emotions, which he brought to life with the ease of a magician. And for the bitterness he provoked in the mediocre and the jealous with his resounding success,” added the Prime Minister, repeating the message published for the birthday of the man who died without having received the Nobel Prize for Literature, for which he had nevertheless so often been considered.
Published in dozens of languages, Ismail Kadare nevertheless found success in the 1970s, placing Albania on the world literary map.
“He is the author who resized literature and the entire Albanian society, thanks to his works published in the midst of darkness, and also after. But even though he has left this world, his mission does not end,” explains Persida Asllani, head of the literature department at the University of Tirana.
Reacting to his death, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti praised an author who “from the darkness of dictatorship” was able to be “the glimmer of creativity, freedom, genius. He was forced, like many of his compatriots, to live under the yoke of political and artistic constraints. And yet, he knew how to find a way to illuminate, to question, and to laugh.”
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani mourned “the loss of a monumental voice, a treasure that only comes once in a generation.”
– Honor and privilege –
“Ismail Kadaré has been considered for several years as one of the greatest writers of our time. It is an honor to have had the privilege of publishing his work,” wrote the French publishing house Fayard on X. “The painful echoes of his words still resonate today,” Fayard added in a statement.
This work, rich in some fifty works – novels, essays, short stories, poems, plays – translated into 40 languages, was partly written under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, who, until his death in 1985, mercilessly ruled a hermetically sealed country.
Kadaré’s words had succeeded in crossing borders.
“With his brilliant style, he brought history to life, he was able to tell the truth about what happened during communism – but not only. And not only in Albania because he was also a great connoisseur of the region and the Balkans,” says Katerina Hysenllari, a 24-year-old student, on the streets of the Albanian capital, Tirana.
“What is written on the Pantheon in Paris: To great men, the grateful homeland, is also true for Kadaré,” adds Shezai Rrokaj, a language professor at the University of Tirana. “This great genius taught us to know our literature and to appreciate the art of writing.”
A figure in this small country of 2.5 million inhabitants known for its crystal clear waters, its ancient sites and the sulphurous reputation of some of its cartels, Ismaïl Kadaré became in 2005 the first winner of the International Booker Prize for his entire body of work, the organisation recalled on X.
His death “is a loss for Albanian literature and for world literature. But writers are subject to other laws: a writer leaves us only physically, his work remains for centuries,” assures Zylyftar Bregu, 41 years old and passionate about literature.
French politician Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur (Paca) region, linked to Albania through his mother, praised “a passionate man of letters”.
“He leaves us the legacy of his powerful works,” wrote M. Muselier on X. “His pen will have been tirelessly fueled by his commitment to freedom: his words resonate this morning.”
