TIRANA, July 2 /ATSH/ Albania is in national mourning today and tomorrow in honor of the writer and academic Ismail Kadare, who passed away on Monday at the age of 88.
The government announced July 2 and 3 as days of national mourning, meanwhile flags in state and public institutions will fly at half-mast.
The public homage and the state ceremony will be organized in the premises of the National Theater of Opera, Ballet and Popular Ensemble, on Wednesday, from 09:00 to 11:00 and from 11:30 to 12:30. A Special State Commission has been set up for the organization of the homage and the state ceremony, under the auspices of the Prime Minister.
Ismail Kadare, the historical leader of Albanian literature for more than seven decades, was a member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania; member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France; external member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, external member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Montenegro.
Ismail Kadare was born in Gjirokastra on January 28, 1936. The city of his birth followed him forever wherever he lived and wrote, in the West and in the East, becoming an inseparable part of his creativity in all phases of life. With a literary opus that contains over 70 works, in all types and subtypes of literature, essays and journalism, countless in reprints, Ismail Kadare has been and will be the leader of the country in the history of Albanian literature.
The Academy of Sciences has expressed its condolences, stressing that the Academy of Sciences, Albanian literature and its balance, the Albanian language and its speakers, European and world literature have been left inconsolable after his death.
Albanian literature will sadly miss a master, European literature will physically miss the spokesperson of a nation and a region; our civilization will miss the pronouncer of great words.
Ismail Kadare is the most important writer of Albanian literature from the beginning and throughout the five centuries of its life. His work is a pillar of Albanian literature.
Kadare’s literature has internationalized Albanian culture on a European and world scale. The languages in which his literature has been spoken are over 50 and the number of titles published and republished beyond his native language is over 1500. His work is studied in universities within the history of European and world literature. A new branch has already been added to the science of Albanology, that of Kadareologists, researchers and translators of his work. Under the influence of this new branch, the place of the Albanian language in universities has also expanded, with the opening of new departments and units from Japan to the United States of America, from France to Russia. Today, Kadare’s work is translated and studied even in some countries where there were restrictions.
Ismail Kadare will remain a moral authority for the Albanian people, an institution of creativity and thought, a fundamental reference for his life. The work he has created is related to essential issues of the Albanian and Balkan worldview, the interaction of cultures and civic values of the region, the evolution of historical and cultural identities. It is a window of primary importance to recognize the psychoses and complexes of the peoples of Southeast Europe, their true aspirations.
His name and work will be eternally present in the lives of Albanians and the whole world.
/sm/
