Kolec Traboini – writer and publisher

• Gjon Buzuku
• Frang Bardhi

• Ernest Koliqi
• Filip Shiroka
• Gjergj Fishta
• Lazer Shantoja
• Martin Camaj
• Migjeni (poetry)
• Migjeni (prose)
• Ndre Mjeda
• Pashko Vasa

• Gjekë Marinaj
• Kolec Traboini
• Ridvan Dibra

— Reference of Traboini colorful Work: http://traboini1.blogspot.com/

In Albania:
1975 Bachelor of Journalism, University of Tirana, Albania.
1975-1991 scriptwriter for Kinostudio Albafilm Tirane. My work included writing of scripts for documentary films.
I recived 1-st National Price for the film “Asdreni”, 1976, first for the film “Keshtjella e Kengeve” (The Castle of Songs), also won the best Film of the Year 1990 for the film “Deshmi nga Barleti” (Witness from Barleti) – a war history of 1468-1478, in my hometown Shkoder, North Albania.

In Greece:
1991-1995 immigrat in Athens-Grecce, worker and later Publisher and Editor of “The Egnatia” newspaper in two languages, Albanian and Greek.

In USA:
I moved to USA on July 1995. For over than three years, I published a non profitable Albanian Buletin as a contribute to the new Albanian Immigrant Community in Boston.

Free-lance Author:
I have authored several books, which have been published, such as “Petalet e Bajames se hidhur”, 1973 (trans. Leaves of Wild Almonds), “Balada e largesive” 1995 (Ballads from Afar), “Rapsodi Ushtore” 1995 (Rhapsodies reverberate-Satiric poems), “Gjurme ne histori” 1995 (History’ Tracks), “Katerkendeshi i mundimeve” 2001 (Quadrangle of Fatigue), “Mos vdis dashuri” poems 2002, (Don’t die our love).

Boston, May 2, 2002

WHERE ARE YOU GOD?!

Kosova, 1998

In difficult desperate situations
we raise eyes towards the sky
and cry
Oh God!
We don’t know if this is a revolt or a call for mercy
But, despite he horrible state of affairs,
hope always remains
as a ragtag faded flag
in the frigid heart of Old Lady Europe
as a skull of a horse at Waterloo.
I join with the pain and the hope
with damnation and hate
with love and mercy
with the aspiration and fate of every human being
there in the depths of the black well
of human hell.

Despite living in a free world
our spirit is broken by the darkness
broken by this tyrannical and hypocritical century
that does not feel remorse
in the face of massacres against humanity
in the face of slitting the angels’ throats
in the face of the blood streams and the splitting
of the skulls
in front of tanks that smash the fragile bones
of doves

Faced with the Middle Ages’ darkness
rising out of the
Balkan trenches
to wipe out and annihilate a nation.
With eyes towards the sky in revolt
do I have the right to say
now that man has fallen:
Where are you oh God?!

— K. Traboini, Boston, August 13, 1998

Translated by:
Ferhat Ymeri
Kent – Washington

This poetry has been published on the Anthology of the International Library of Poetry, 1999 – page 108, under the title “OF MEMORY’S BLESS”, on the section of the writers from USA and other authors from the world.

RACISM AND INTOLLERANCE IN THE SHADOW OF THE ACROPOLIS

I would like to remind all the contributors of the discussion on” racism and intolerance” that what our college Alush Kola has stated is nothing when compared with the reality of what has happened to the Albanian emigrants in the Greek territories. Such a long and endless discussion over the words of Mr Kola who has his own point of view, seems to me more like a passionate attempt to defend Greece than to discuss the ethics of discussion on this list. When I talk about Greece and Greek politics I am in no way referring to the Greek People , for which I have the greatest love and respect, but to certain sectors of its society which are responsible for the aggressiveness in Greek Politics. It is not racism to hate and denounce the destructive, violent and genicidal policies of political sectors of a state, but it is racism when you feed a people with hate towards another.

I would like to ask some of you if you know history in detail or even with approximation. Are you aware of the human fate of entire communities in Greece, which does not recognize any ethnicity except for the Greek?
Do you know that there are Turks in Ksanth whose ethnicity is not recognized? Are you aware that there are hundreds of thousands of Arvanites (ethnic Albanians) to whom the right of Albanian schooling has been denied and who are not even allowed to form clubs, while due to indirect attacks from the media they have stopped declaring their identity?

Do you know that on new year’s eve of 1993 , while the world was celebrating the coming of the new year, the Greek police forces, engaged in a witch hunt, where chasing down Albanians emigrants during the night under the eyes of their sensational cameras?

Let us ask the Albanian embassy in Athens how many Albanians were killed by the police , and how many disappeared without a trace. They are in the thousands. Let us look through the pages of the Greek newspapers “Elefterotipia”, “Tanea”, “Kathimerini”, “Apogjematini”, “Athens News” and others to find the terrible facts of how the Micotaki government has promoted racism. You have not seen ,and could not even in dream, the heads cut open, the burnt bodies of 18 year old boys, the adolescents killed by Greek landlords in black watered canals in Crete, and therefore you feel indignation with the words of Mr. Kola.

I who write this to you , love the Greek People for their spiritual values of the simple people, for the beauty of their culture and all other things, for their marvelous poetry a part of which I have translated in the Albanian language for the newspaper for emigrants which I directed, but I could never forget the suffering of the Albanian emigrant, the chases, the killings, the public beatings the groups of 30 to 50 people tied together in the streets of Athens , reminiscent of the methods of medieval times, which I have witnessed during my sad 5 years stay in Greece.

And if I continue to ache in my soul for the lost and the murdered of my People (for which each of you should hold a minute of silence in your soul), this, sirs. Does not mean that I am a racist or intolerant. I have lived through racism and intolerance during the 5 years which I have lived In The Shadow of the Acropolis.

KOLEC TRABOINI
5 years emigrant in Greece
Boston, September 17, 1997