TIRANA, January 8 – Two hundred years ago, the poet and scholar Gavril Dara Jr was born. He became one of the most prominent figures of Albanian Romanticism and a leading voice in the Arbëresh community in Italy.

On this jubilee anniversary, the National Library of Albania honored his work. The library highlighted excerpts from his masterpiece, “Kënga e sprasme e Balës” (Bala’s Late Song), which is now part of the digital collections. This work, built on folk epic traditions and Romantic sensibility, forms a cornerstone of Albanian national poetry.

Gavril Dara Jr (1826–1885), the Arbëresh scholar who contributed the epic-lyrical poem to Albanian literature, also worked in linguistics, philosophy, and archaeology. He was born on January 8, 1826, in Palac Adriani, Sicily, into a distinguished Arbëresh family.

He received his early education at the Arbëresh seminary in Palermo. Later, he earned a doctorate in law. He published his literary masterpiece, “Kënga e sprasme e Balës” (Bala’s Late Song), in 1906.

Gavril Dara Jr passed away on November 15, 1885.

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