On the 110th anniversary of the extraordinary personality of the Albanian language and culture, Vedat Kokona, the National Library of Albania and the National Book and Reading Center, opened the exhibition “Vedat Kokona on the 110th birth anniversary “.

The director of National Library, Piro Misha, the director of the National Book and Reading Center, Alda Bardhyli, translators and writers Diana Çuli and prof. Edmond Tupja appreciated the figure of Vedat Kokona, singling out the importance of such activities as the best way to remember and convey to the new generations the print and legacy that these rare personalities have left in Albanian culture.

Family members, friends, writers, translators, researchers, lecturers, and book lovers took part in the opening ceremony.

This exhibition displays the journey of creativity and the dense activity of Vedat Kokona, as a writer, translator and lexicographer. The beginnings were at the age of 16 in magazines and newspapers of the 1920s-30s, such as: “Illyria”, “Ora” /The Hour/, “Vatra” /The fireplace/, “Diana”, “Minerva”, “The Albanian Effort” etc., with poetry his first “Elfet”, published in the newspaper “Ora”, in 1929, or the novelette “The Last Prayer”, published in the newspaper “Vatra”, in 1933, which was also the winner of the first literary prize.

The exhibition describes the publications of the first works “From Tirana to Stockholm, travel impressions” (1935); ” Light and Shadow” (1939) and “April Seven” (1943). His first effort in translation brought the French writer Victor Hugo into the Albanian language, published in the newspaper “Illyria” in 1934, a contribution that would continue to bring the most important names of world literature into Albanian, such as: Victor Hugo, Pierre Corneille, Voltaire, La Fontaine, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Jean-Baptiste Racine, Ivan Turgenev, and others.

His contribution in lexicography through the drafting of bilingual French-Albanian dictionaries, occupies also a special place in the exhibition.

The exhibition will stay open to the public for several days.

/a.p./