JETON KELMENDI

 

Like That She Wanted One Night

 

She wanted to lower the letters down

to transcend my words

and became a verse in poetry

 

She ignored the way

leading the event to the point

in the rites of belief in triumph

before the feet of patience fell

 

take me out of poetry

said: I am narrow here

between commas

 

so, writing is alive

let me walk through it

to reach the end

in the end it's you

 

and then I climb

together to the fire

where I am burning for you.

 

In The House Of The Soul

 

Spirit

is populated with desires

multiple

for human as a being,

for life in general

 

Spirit

is inhabited only by the good

innumerable

for you as a bite of memory

for me that I drink thoughts

as wide as the glass empties me

impossibility

I drink with you

 

and if the science sleeps

let it sleep

laid the past

cover with the future

candle

ignited memories

 

like that it is in the house

of the soul.

 

I’m Waiting For You

 

I’m waiting for you

beyond my possibilities

in the nowhere’s somewhere

 

the wait continues

if the arrival and departure make sense

and are reasonable

 

I meet you

in the pages of closed books

and the titles of forgotten poems,

I seek you

through the many thoughts, when

the absence comes forth,

and thusly

you overcame all my waitings

 

We walk together

through unknown streets, that

only I see in my dreams

that’s how I wait for you

even when someone else waits for you

it is still me doing the waiting

 

I don’t talk about you anymore

my thoughts are spent,

it’s been enough

all those times I waited

at the beginning of myself

for you to pass by.

 

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

Even to share with a friend

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

Than any other war

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

 

-        In Albanian, we call a “girl” a young lady.

 

Acad. Prof. JETON KELMENDI PhD. Poet, player, publicist, translator, publisher, 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 thirty-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 articles, considering him as great European poet. He is a member of many international cultural institutions, poetry clubs and is a contributor to many literary and cultural magazines, in different Languages around the world. 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.