Kristoffer Leandoer, poet, writer, translator and also a former member of the jury for the Nobel Prize in literature, was the next guest on Prime Minister Edi Rama’s “Flasim” podcast.

As the husband of Sweden’s ambassador in Tirana, Elsa Hastad, he recently lived in Albania, where he also wrote some poems inspired by our country’s landscape, especially the Dajti mountain.

The Prime Minister presented Leandoer as an atypical character, due to the fact that he is completely unknown in Albania.

“It is atypical due to the fact that we are used to talking with ambassadors, for ambassadors, while the character who is with me is the husband of an ambassador. The reason for the invitation is because the ‘companion’ of the Swedish ambassador is a writer, a deep connoisseur of letters and an author who, during his stay here, also wrote poems that were inspired by Albania”,Rama said during his presentation.

To the question of what it is like to leave Albania, Leandoer answered that this is the only country that I miss now.

“I pride myself on never looking back. I pride myself on being absolutely not nostalgic and not at all sentimental. I pride myself on living in the present, but to be honest I can say that this is the first place we leave that I already know I will miss,” he said.

He said that the best things about Albania are the Albanians.

“What I will take with me when I return home is that the best things about Albania are absolutely, without any hesitation, the Albanians. There is no discussion. The mountains are fantastic, the food is excellent, the vineyards, the sea, the birds and others, but for me it’s the Albanians. Very often this surprises Albanians. You are warm people, people who like to have fun, you are smart and you are fun to be with,” he said.

/k.s/