{"id":181,"date":"2014-11-16T16:41:36","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T15:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/go\/en\/?p=181"},"modified":"2020-09-28T08:15:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T06:15:32","slug":"pashko-vasa-1825-1892","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/pashko-vasa-1825-1892\/","title":{"rendered":"Pashko Vasa (1825-1892)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">[ <a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/pashko_vasa\">Pashko Vasa n\u00eb shqip<\/a> ] &amp; [ <a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/culture\">Culture<\/a> ]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/pashko_vasa\"><b> O Shqipni, e mjera Shqipni<\/b><\/a> &#8211; the original in Albanian<br \/>\n<a href=\"#uka\"><b>O Albania, poor Albania<\/b><\/a> &#8211; translated by Uk Bu\u00e7papaj<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read also<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/gjon-buzuku-meshari-1555\/\">Gjon Buzuku<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/frang-bardhi-1606-1643\/\">Frang Bardhi<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/images\/histori\/pashko_vasa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"10\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/ernest-koliqi-1903-1975\/\">Ernest Koliqi<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/filip-shiroka-1859-1935\/\">Filip Shiroka<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/gjergj-fishta-in-english\/\">Gjergj Fishta<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/lazer-shantoja-1892-1945\/\">Lazer Shantoja<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/martin-camaj-1925-1994\/\">Martin Camaj<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/migjeni-1911-1938-poetry\/\">Migjeni (poetry)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/migjeni-1911-1938-prose\/\">Migjeni (prose)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/ndre-mjeda-1866-1937\/\">Ndre Mjeda<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Pashko Vasa<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/poems-by-gjeke-marinaj\/\">Gjek\u00eb Marinaj<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/kolec-traboini-writer-and-publisher\/\">Kolec Traboini<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/ridvan-dibra-in-english\/\">Ridvan Dibra<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>BIOGRAPHY<\/b><\/p>\n<p>One figure from northern Albania who played a key role in the Rilindja culture of the nineteenth century was <strong>Pashko Vasa<\/strong> (1825-1892), also known as Wassa Effendi, Vaso Pasha, or Vaso Pasha Shkodrani. This statesman, poet, novelist and patriot was born in Shkodra. From 1842 to 1847 he worked as a secretary for the British consulate in that northern Albanian city where he had an opportunity to perfect his knowledge of a number of foreign languages: Italian, French, Turkish and Greek. He also knew some English and Serbo-Croatian, and in later years learned Arabic. In 1847, full of ideals and courage, he set off for Italy on the eve of the turbulent events that were to take place there and elsewhere in Europe in 1848. We have two letters from him written in Bologna in the summer of that revolutionary year in which he expresses openly republican and anti-clerical views. We later find him in Venice where he took part in fighting in Marghera on 4 May 1849, part of a Venetian uprising against the Austrians. After the arrival of Austrian troops on 28 August of that year, Pashko Vasa was obliged to flee to Ancona where, as an Ottoman citizen, he was expelled to Constantinople. He published an account of his experience in Italy the following year in his Italian-language La mia prigionia, episodio storico dell\u2019assedio di Venezia, Constantinople 1850 (My imprisonment, historical episode from the siege of Venice).<\/p>\n<p>It is no coincidence that this historical biography bears a title similar to that of the famous memoirs of Italian patriot and dramatist Silvio Pellico (1789-1845), Le mie prigioni (My prisons), published in 1832. In Constantinople, after an initial period of poverty and hardship, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whence he was seconded to London for a time, to the Imperial Ottoman Embassy to the Court of St James\u2019s. He later served the Sublime Porte in various positions of authority. In 1863, thanks to his knowledge of Serbo-Croatian, as he tells us, he was appointed to serve as secretary and interpreter to Ahmed Jevdet Pasha, Ottoman statesman and historian, on a fact-finding mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina which lasted for twenty months, from the spring of 1863 to October 1864. The events of this mission were recorded in his La Bosnie et l\u2019Herz\u00e9govine pendant la mission de Djevdet Efendi, Constantinople 1865 (Bosnia and Hercegovina during the mission of Jevdet Efendi). About 1867 we also find him in Aleppo. A few years later he published another now rare work of historical interest, Esquisse historique sur le Mont\u00e9n\u00e9gro d\u2019apr\u00e8s les traditions de l\u2019Albanie, Constantinople 1872 (Historical sketch of Montenegro according to Albanian traditions).<\/p>\n<p>Despite his functions on behalf of the Porte, Pashko Vasa never forgot his Albanian homeland. In the autumn of 1877 he became a founding member of the Komitet qendror p\u00ebr mbrojtjen e t\u00eb drejtave t\u00eb komb\u00ebsis\u00eb shqiptare (Central committee for the defence of the rights of the Albanian people) in Constantinople. Through his contacts there, he also participated in the organization of the League of Prizren in 1878. He was no doubt the author of the Memorandum on Albanian Autonomy submitted to the British Embassy in Constantinople. Together with other nationalist figures on the Bosphorus, such as hodja Hasan Tahsini, Jani Vreto and Sami Frash\u00ebri, he played his part in the creation of an alphabet for Albanian and in this connection published a 16-page brochure entitled L\u2019alphabet latin appliqu\u00e9 \u00e0 la langue albanaise, Constantinople 1878 (The Latin alphabet applied to the Albanian language), in support of an alphabet of purely Latin characters.<\/p>\n<p>He was also a member of the Shoq\u00ebri e t\u00eb shtypuri shkronja shqip (Society for the publication of Albanian writing), founded in Constantinople on 12 October 1879 to promote the printing and distribution of the Albanian-language books. In 1879, Pashko Vasa worked in Varna on the Black Sea coast in the administration of the vilayet of Edirne with Ismail Qemal bey Vlora (1844-1919). He also acquired the title of Pasha and on 18 July 1883 became Governor General of the Lebanon, a post reserved by international treaty for a Catholic of Ottoman nationality, and a position he apparently held, true to the traditions of the Lebanon then and now, in an atmosphere of Levantine corruption and family intrigue. There he spent the last years of his life and died in Beirut after a long illness on 29 June 1892. In 1978, the centenary of the League of Prizren, his remains were transferred from the Lebanon back to a modest grave in Shkodra.<\/p>\n<p>Though a loyal civil servant of the Ottoman Empire, Pashko Vasa devoted his energies as a polyglot writer to the Albanian national movement. Aware of the importance of Europe in Albania\u2019s struggle for recognition, he published La v\u00e9rit\u00e9 sur l\u2019Albanie et les Albanais. Etude historique et critique, Paris 1879, an historical and political monograph which appeared in an English translation as The truth on Albania and the Albanians. Historical and critical study, London 1879, as well as in Albanian, German, Turkish and Greek that year, and later in Arabic (1884) and Italian (1916). The Albanian edition, Shqypnija e shqyptart (Albania and the Albanians), was published in Allfabetare e gluh\u00ebs\u00eb shqip, Constantinople 1879 (Alphabet of the Albanian language), along with work by Sami Frash\u00ebri and Jani Vreto.<\/p>\n<p>In this treatise designed primarily to inform the European reader about his people, he gave an account of Albanian history from the ancient Pelasgians and Illyrians up to his time and expounded on ways and means of promoting the advancement of his nation. Far from an appeal for Albanian independence or even autonomy within the Empire, Pashko Vasa proposed simply the unification of all Albanian-speaking territory within one vilayet and a certain degree of local government. The possibility of a sovereign Albanian state was still inconceivable. He never lived to read Sami Frash\u00ebri\u2019s above-mentioned treatise \u2018Albania &#8211; what was it, what is it and what will become of it?\u2019, printed twenty years later, in which the concept of full independence had finally ripened.<\/p>\n<p>To make the Albanian language better known and to give other Europeans an opportunity to learn it, he published a Grammaire albanaise \u00e0 l\u2019usage de ceux qui d\u00e9sirent apprendre cette langue sans l\u2019aide d\u2019un ma\u00eetre, Ludgate Hill 1887 (Albanian grammar for those wishing to learn this language without the aid of a teacher), one of the rare grammars of the period.<\/p>\n<p>Pashko Vasa was also the author of a number of literary works of note. The first of these is a volume of Italian verse entitled Rose e spine, Constantinople 1873 (Roses and thorns), forty-one emotionally-charged poems (a total of ca. 1,600 lines) devoted to themes of love, suffering, solitude and death in the traditions of the romantic verse of his European predecessors Giacomo Leopardi, Alphonse de Lamartine and Alfred de Musset. Among the subjects treated in these meditative Italian poems, two of which are dedicated to the Italian poets Francesco Petrarch and Torquato Tasso, are life in exile and family tragedy, a reflection of Pashko Vasa\u2019s own personal life. His first wife, Drande, whom he had married in 1855, and four of their five children died before him, and in later years too, personal misfortune continued to haunt him. In 1884, shortly after his appointment as Governor General of the Lebanon, his second wife Catherine Bonatti died of tuberculosis, as did his surviving daughter Roza in 1887.<\/p>\n<p>Bardha de T\u00e9mal, sc\u00e8nes de la vie albanaise, Paris 1890 (Bardha of Temal, scenes from Albanian life), is a French-language novel which Pashko Vasa published in Paris under the pseudonym of Albanus Albano the same year as Naim Frash\u00ebri\u2019s noted verse collection Lulet\u00eb e ver\u00ebs\u00eb (The flowers of spring) appeared in Bucharest. \u2018Bardha of Temal,\u2019 though not written in Albanian, is, after Sami Frash\u00ebri\u2019s much shorter prose work \u2018Love of Tal\u2019at and Fitnat,\u2019 the oldest novel written and published by an Albanian and is certainly the oldest such novel with an Albanian theme. Set in Shkodra in 1842, this classically-structured roman-feuilleton, rather excessively sentimental for modern tastes, follows the tribulations of the fair but married Bardha and her lover, the young Aradi.<\/p>\n<p>It was written not only as an entertaining love story but also with a view to informing the western reader of the customs and habits of the northern Albanians. Indeed the rather strained informative character of this prose fable is one of its major artistic weaknesses. Bardha is no doubt the personification of Albania itself, married off against her will to the powers that be. Above and beyond its didactic character and any possible literary pretensions the author might have had, \u2018Bardha of Temal\u2019 also has a more specific political background. It was interpreted by some Albanian intellectuals at the time as a vehicle for discrediting the Gjonmarkaj clan who, in cahoots with the powerful abbots of Mirdita, held sway in the Shkodra region. It is for this reason perhaps that Pashko Vasa published the novel under the pseudonym Albanus Albano. The work is not known to have had any particular echo in the French press of the period.<\/p>\n<p>Though most of Pashko Vasa\u2019s publications were in French and Italian, there is one poem, the most influential and perhaps the most popular ever written in Albanian, which has ensured him his deserved place in Albanian literary history, the famous O moj Shqypni (Oh Albania, poor Albania). This stirring appeal for a national awakening is thought to have been written in the period between 1878, the dramatic year of the League of Prizren, and 1880.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3><strong>Oh Albania, poor Albania<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Oh Albania, poor Albania,<br \/>\nWho has shoved your head in the ashes?<br \/>\nOnce you were a great lady,<br \/>\nThe men of the world called you mother.<br \/>\nOnce you had such goodness and such wealth,<br \/>\nWith fair maidens and youthful men,<br \/>\nHerds and land, fields and produce,<br \/>\nWith flashing weapons, with Italian rifles,<br \/>\nWith heroic men, with pure women,<br \/>\nYou were the best of companions.<\/p>\n<p>At the rifle&#8217;s blast, at lightning&#8217;s flash<br \/>\nThe Albanian was always master<br \/>\nIn battle, and in battle he died<br \/>\nLeaving never a misdeed behind him.<br \/>\nWhenever an Albanian swore an oath<br \/>\nThe whole of the Balkans trembled before him,<br \/>\nEverywhere he charged into savage battle,<br \/>\nAnd always did he return a victor.<\/p>\n<p>But today, Albania, tell me, how are you faring now?<br \/>\nLike an oak tree, felled to the ground!<br \/>\nThe world walks over you, tramples you underfoot,<br \/>\nAnd no one has a kind word for you.<br \/>\nLike the snow-covered mountains, like blooming fields<br \/>\nYou were clothed, today you are in rags.<br \/>\nNeither your reputation nor your oaths remain,<br \/>\nYou yourself have destroyed them in your own misfortune.<\/p>\n<p>Albanians, you are killing your brothers,<br \/>\nInto a hundred factions you are divided,<br \/>\nSome say &#8216;I believe in God,&#8217; others &#8216;I in Allah,&#8217;<br \/>\nSome say &#8216;I am Turk,&#8217; others &#8216;I am Latin,&#8217;<br \/>\nSome &#8216;I am Greek,&#8217; others &#8216;I am Slav,&#8217;<br \/>\nBut you are brothers, all of you, my hapless people!<br \/>\nThe priests and the hodjas have deceived you<br \/>\nTo divide you and keep you poor.<br \/>\nWhen the foreigner comes, you sit back at the hearth<br \/>\nAs he puts you to shame with your wife and your sister,<br \/>\nAnd for how little money you are willing to serve him,<br \/>\nForgetting the oaths of your ancestors,<br \/>\nMaking yourselves serfs to the foreigners<br \/>\nWho have neither your language nor your blood!<\/p>\n<p>Weep, oh swords and rifles,<br \/>\nThe Albanian has been snared like a bird in a trap!<br \/>\nWeep with us, oh heroes,<br \/>\nFor Albania has fallen with her face in the dirt.<br \/>\nNeither bread nor meat remain,<br \/>\nNeither fire in the hearth, nor light, nor pine torch,<br \/>\nNeither blood in the face, nor honour among friends,<br \/>\nFor she has fallen and is defiled!<\/p>\n<p>Gather round, maidens, gather round, women<br \/>\nWho with your fair eyes know what weeping is,<br \/>\nCome, let us lament poor Albania,<br \/>\nWho is without honour and reputation,<br \/>\nShe has become a widow, a woman with no husband,<br \/>\nShe is like a mother who has never had a son!<\/p>\n<p>Who has the heart to let her die,<br \/>\nOnce such a heroine, and today so weak?<br \/>\nThis beloved mother, are we to abandon her<br \/>\nTo be trampled underfoot by the foreigners?<\/p>\n<p>No, no! No one wishes such shame,<br \/>\nAll dread such misfortune!<br \/>\nBefore Albania is thus forlorn<br \/>\nLet all our heroes perish with rifle in hand.<\/p>\n<p>Awaken, Albania, wake from your slumber,<br \/>\nLet us all, as brothers, swear a common oath<br \/>\nAnd not look to church or mosque,<br \/>\nThe faith of the Albanian is Albanianism!<\/p>\n<p>From Bar down to Preveza<br \/>\nEverywhere let the sun spend its warmth and rays,<br \/>\nThis is our land, left to us by our forefathers,<br \/>\nLet no one touch us for we are all to die!<br \/>\nLet us die like men as our forefathers once did<br \/>\nAnd not bring shame upon ourselves before God!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999;\">[O moj Shqypni, ca. 1878, translated from the Albanian by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elsie.de\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Elsie<\/a>, and first published in English in History of Albanian literature, New York 1995, vol. 1, p. 265-267]<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a name=\"uka\"><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Vaso Pasha<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3><strong>O Albania, poor Albania!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>O poor Albania wearing patches!<br \/>\nWho&#8217;s thrown your head into ashes?<br \/>\nOnce you were o mighty fair lady,<br \/>\nMother of men fighting so bravely;<br \/>\nyou&#8217;re rich in blessings and nobility,<br \/>\nFine girls and young lads: What a property!<br \/>\nYou had many sheep and plenty of land,<br \/>\nyou had silver weapons and guns in hand;<br \/>\nYour man so daring and your woman so tender,<br \/>\nOf all your friends, you were the best!<br \/>\nWhen bullets were falling like autumn rain,<br \/>\nAlbanian valour never poured in vain:<br \/>\nHer sons fought the battle and often died,<br \/>\nFor liberty which proved to be their pride!<br \/>\nIf your warrior gave his pledge of honor<br \/>\nHe was the hero of fierceful battles<br \/>\nand never threw mud on glorious banners!<br \/>\nBut today, Albania tell me how you are?<br \/>\nOnce a high tree, but now a broken car;<br \/>\nThe world is trampling her feet on you,<br \/>\nand none utters sweet words of your Dew!<br \/>\nOnce you were like a snow-covered mountain,<br \/>\nA flowered field you were, but now only a fountain<br \/>\nwith neither water, nor fame, nor a good name,<br \/>\nyou ruined them and for this you are the blame!<br \/>\nAlbanians! You&#8217;re killing each-other without mercy,<br \/>\nyou divided into a hundred groups: it&#8217;s no fancy;<br \/>\nSome assert to be religious and other to be honest;<br \/>\nOne claim to be Turkish, the other to be Latin,<br \/>\nSome call themselves Greek, the other Serb,<br \/>\nBut we are all brothers, o poor wretched birds!<br \/>\nReligions has provided you with apples of discord,<br \/>\nTo ride on your back freely and make your life short!<br \/>\nThere comes the foreigner and occupies your hearth<br \/>\nyou are given money and then begin to forget<br \/>\nAncestor, their advice, blood and honest pledge,<br \/>\nthus your wear the yoke of a ruthless invader<br \/>\nBecoming obedient preys once and for ever!<br \/>\nWail your sword and weep your guns everywhere<br \/>\nFor Albania is caught in trap like a hare!<br \/>\nLet valour has fallen down on the ground!<br \/>\nShe is so poor and totally starving,<br \/>\nShe doesn&#8217;t have fire or light and is blinding,<br \/>\nHer face is pale and she got no friends,<br \/>\nHer pain is severe and perhaps never ends!<br \/>\nUnite you lasses, come close you women,<br \/>\nLet your pretty tearful eyes speak,<br \/>\nand cry your hearts out for Albania&#8217;s poor,<br \/>\nShe&#8217;s empty, nameless and devastated, for sure;<br \/>\nShe&#8217;s like a widow abandoned for ever,<br \/>\nShe&#8217;s like a mother without children so ever,<br \/>\nWho&#8217;s so ruthless as to let her pass away?<br \/>\nShe is too brave, but she is so ill today,<br \/>\nShall we allow the iron heel to kick her face?<br \/>\nShe is our beloved mother and deserves no disgrace.<br \/>\nNo, No Nobody is ugly enough to love such shame,<br \/>\nOnly rascals could involve in this dirty game;<br \/>\nBetter die fighting on her glorious behalf,<br \/>\nthan watch her die and burst into a bloody laugh!<br \/>\nArise you Albanians, from sleep arise,<br \/>\nUnite around each-other and open your eyes,<br \/>\nLeave aside religion and break the chains:<br \/>\nAlbania is yours, do away with her pains.<br \/>\nThe land lying between Tivari and Preveze,<br \/>\nWhere the sun sparkles down bright hot rays,<br \/>\nIs ours t&#8217;was our ancestor&#8217;s as well,<br \/>\nNone can touch it, we&#8217;ll send him to hell<br \/>\nLet us die manly and never kneel down<br \/>\nAnd tell GOD we abhor shame and being undone!!<\/p>\n<p>The English translation by <b>Uk Bu\u00e7papaj<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ Pashko Vasa n\u00eb shqip ] &amp; [ Culture ] O Shqipni, e mjera Shqipni &#8211; the original in Albanian O Albania, poor Albania &#8211; translated by Uk Bu\u00e7papaj Read also: Gjon Buzuku Frang Bardhi Ernest Koliqi Filip Shiroka Gjergj Fishta Lazer Shantoja Martin Camaj Migjeni (poetry) Migjeni (prose) Ndre Mjeda Pashko Vasa Gjek\u00eb Marinaj [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-literature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854,"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shkoder.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}