JETON KELMENDI

JETON KELMENDI

PEJA AT FIVE IN THE MORNING

For my father

The city is asleep;

People and the night were sleeping

Silence was taking a break

From the exhaustion of the previous day;

Just in this way, the morning unraveled in Peja

The city was descending at five in the morning.

On April 12,

Not every dream is easy to share.

Someone dreams of spring,

And someone else was closing everything

All stories and desires for himself,

To sleep from now on without dreams

I have also been asleep

Even dreaming,

I saw my dad going away

Into the forest,

Even though it seemed early to go to the mountains;

My dad,

Has always been an early bird

But this time, it was very early

He was awake,

To pass over the bridge that connects

This world with the other one.

In Rugova

Men die with pride

Because nature has trained them,

My dad always used to repeat this,

When he spoke about his family members,

They did all the work

Of life,

Then marched over the hearts

And became eternal.

I remember dad,

Every time he did his work

That he had allotted for himself,

Was delighted

And happy all day

Was walking;

It was Friday,

And my dad

Silent as never before,

Ready in all his dreams,

Entered in the sleep without dreams,

A free fatherland

He left it behind,

Although his country had many lingering challenges,

His sons were close to him:

This is how he closed his eyes,

Without looking at the green spaces of spring

Father.

Oh, Spring

This gorgeous season,

Always takes the meaning away from rhetoric,

But this time it took

My father,

With more longing,

With more memories, more stories

Everything will be multiplied,

Only suggestions will be less

Because our father is not here anymore.

June 12th, 2013, Prishtina

LOVE IN A WAR TIME

Sometime I want them to happen

Differently

These things

For example, I wish a heavy fog surrounded me,

Until the border is easily

Passed,

To pass there first of all

Where a few months ago

I saw a girl

With curly hair,

Only seeing her

And later dreaming about her,

I fell in love.

But in the end,

This is war, and we don’t

know the future

Every day fighting with death

These stories that

Someone or another

Fell for freedom,

Or other news,

Such as the enemy

Was destroyed

These are daily routines.

Perhaps

That he desires love

In a war time,

That friend will think you are stupid

But even in the fiercest firefights

A soldier will never stop thinking about love

I have experienced it in myself.

In a time of war

God knows

When the end might come,

Perhaps

Neither time has space for love,

Time has its toll

But, what if everyone would plant

Death,

Who would be harvesting

Love?

A poet thinks

that the greatest loves

Are born in times of war,

Perhaps,

Perhaps, by exceeding the imagination

Of a biblical story,

Or

Even the most illustrious stories

Of Lorca and Hemingway,

Simply

Love is another war,

It’s an infinite war

Even the longest war

Se çdo luftë tjetër,

But its weapons are

Something else:

Heart, Soul and Sex.

I came myself

And went

Right to the center of stage.

There is war

You looking at it, day after day

Life is becoming even more boring:

this is how it started

My mind was confused,

While

With happiness I was ready

For a little more love.

Is this a dream or an anti-dream?

Today

I am sure if someone

Would ask,

But, surprisingly

It happened

99 times and I have been able to die

The 99th time.

Without war,

How the time of love begins

Cannot be imagined,

Only that there is love and war.

Late at night

The moon has forgotten

To come outside,

A soldier has returned, departs

In other front lines;

In a time of war, when there is love

War continues…

Ah soldier, o soldier.

November 1999, sometime in the War of Kosov

ABBREVIATION DISTANCE

Overnight tonight

The happy day of tomorrow,

Beyond tomorrow

Again another night,

I'm closer to you.

I and you dream each other

And so time is going,

We count it

Days and nights.

We look forward to each other

As we run away from ourselves,

So the time is looking at us

As it measures our distance

Day and night.

There lives, you and my thoughts

Here, me and your thoughts

Who is counting the days,

Tonight, we are one night closer

Closer to thoughts

How everybody should be

How does it look,

You and me, my dear

We have a world

Completely different.

Brussels, 20 June 2012

JETON KELMENDI

Prof. Dr. JETON KELMENDI: Poet, player, publicist, translator, publisher and a professor of university and academic. Born in the city of Peja, Kosovo (1978), Jeton Kelmendi completed elementary school in his birth place. Later he continued his studies at the University of Pristina and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Mass communication. He completed his graduate studies at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, specializing in International and Security Studies. He finished his second master degree in diplomacy. Kelmendi did a PhD in the “Influence of media in EU Political Security Issues”. He is professor at AAB University College. He is active member of the European Academy of Science and Arts in Salzburg Austria. For many years he has written poetry, prose, essays and short stories. He is a regular contributor to many newspapers, in Albania and abroad, writing on many cultural and political topics, especially concerning international affairs. Jeton Kelmendi became well known in Kosova, after the publication of his first book entitled: “The Century of Promises” (“Shekulli i Premtimeve”), published in 1999.  Later he published a number of other books. His poems are translated in more that twenty-seven languages and published in several international Literature Anthologies. He is the most translated Albanian Poet and well known in Europe. According to a number of literary critics, Kelmendi is the genuine representative of modern Albanian poetry. International critics and poets wrote for him a lot of article, considering him as great European poet. He is a member of many international poetry clubs and is a contributor to many literary and cultural magazines, especially in English, French and Romanian Languages. The wisdom of his work in the field of Literature is based in the attention that he pays to the poetic expression, modern exploration of the text and the depth of the message.  His Genre is focused more on love lyrics and elliptical verse intertwined with metaphors and artistic symbolism. Currently resides and works in Brussels, Belgium and in Pristina, Kosovo.