Dritëro Agolli was an Albanian poet, writer and politician.

Agolli was born on the 13th of October 1931 to a Bektashi peasant family in Menkulas in the Devoll District and finished high school in Gjirokastër in 1952. He studied in Leningrad in the Soviet Union, and wrote primarily poetry, but also short stories, essays, plays, and novels. He was head of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania from 1973 until 1992. He later studied at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Leningrad and took up journalism upon his return to Albania, working for the daily newspaper Zëri i Popullit (The People’s Voice) for 15 years. Agolli was also a Member of the Albanian Parliament.

Agolli first attained success as a poet of the soil. His early verse collections were “I went out on the street”, Tirana 1958, “My steps on the pavement”Tirana 1961, and Mountain paths and sidewalks, Tirana 1965.

As a prose writer, Agolli first wrote the novel “Commissar Memo”, Tirana 1970, translated into English as “The bronze bust”, Tirana 1975. Agolli’s second novel, “The man with the cannon”, Tirana 1975 translated into English in 1983 etc. After these two novels of partisan heroism, Agolli produced his satirical “Splendour and fall of comrade Zylo”, Tirana 1973.

All in all, Agolli’s strength in prose lies in the short story rather than in the novel. Sixteen of his short stories were published in English in the volume: Short stories, Tirana 1985. One early collection of tales, “The noise of winds of the past” Tirana 1964, had the distinction of being banned and ‘turned into cardboard.’ The author was accused of Soviet revisionism at a time when the party had called for more (Maoist) revolutionary concepts in literature and greater devotion to the working masses.

In terms of genres, Dritëro Agolli’s creativity is diverse. His most notable poetic work is “Mother Albania” (1975), where the image of the Motherland is created with heroic traditions, with the many difficulties encountered on its way and with the determination to face every obstacle and enemy. In a series of poems, Dritëro Agolli reflects the heroic spirit of the period of the National Liberation War.  Dritëro Agolli has also published many stories and novels from today’s life.

Agolli was head of the Albanian League of Writers and Artists from 1973 until 1992. In the early 1990s, he was a member of Parliament for the Socialist Party of Albania. He also founded the Dritëro Publishing Company and published new prose and poetry.

Agolli wrote throughout the 1990s, a plethora of poetry: “The time beggar”,Tirana 1995, “The spirit of our forefathers”, Tirana 1996, “The strange man approaches”, Tirana 1996, “Ballad for my father and myself”, Tirana 1997, Midnight notebook, Tirana 1998, and “The distant bell”, Tirana 1998. Among volumes of prose are: the short story collection “Insane people”,Tirana 1995; “The naked horseman”, Tirana 1996), and “The devil’s box”, Tirana 1997.

Dritëro Agolli has been a prolific writer throughout the nineties, a rare voice of humanity and sincerity in Albanian letters. He passed away on 3 February 2017 in Tirana, at the age of 85.

The Moon Over The Meadow Poem by Dritëro Agolli

Like a title the moon hovers over the meadow,
Like a title that rises from a poem of love,
And in such a fair meadow did I once stand waiting,
I patiently hoped that you’d come with me, too…

This evening I watch it in that tranquil meadow,
Observe as it sets in the wet dewy grass,
And ask myself, plunged both in thought and in wonder
How oft has that title been penned and erased.

How oft’s it been written and razed do I ponder,
Much as the titles have changed in my verse.
And through my grey hair does the wind blow and skitter,
As love, now departed, is flitting elsewhere.

/k.s/