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Poetry

I am leaving you Europe

By Gëzim Hajdari
Translated from Italian by Patrick Barron
In the following poem, Hajdari evokes Halil, the mythic character of the cycle of Albanian epic narrative poems (the Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors); Jutbina, a borderland between Albania and ex-Yugoslavia; and Bjeshkët e Nëmuna: the Cursed Mountains, as the northern Albanian Alps are called.
Listen to Gëzim Hajdari read "I am leaving you Europe" in the original Italian.
 
 

I am leaving you Europe, corrupt old whore.

Your ruins no longer enchant me,
your mirrors and abysses have misled my exile,
wounded my wretched body of the East
in front of false petrified altars.

Good-bye Europe of walls, drowned voices and watery tombs.

My castrated homeland forced me to leave,
your eunuch saints abandoned me under the rain,
a foreigner.

Tomorrow, at dawn,
I will leave on the first ship across the Tyrrhenian,
from the port of Circeo,
accompanied by the fatal songs of the Sirens,
towards the Southern Cross
without looking back.

Unknown wayfarers await me in faraway deserts,
warriors of ancient tribes, belly dancers;
I will steal young girls from the courts of borderland kings,
like Halìl di Jutbìna of the mountains Bjeshkët e Nëmuna,
to offer them in marriage to my lord
and give life to a new race.

I will set fire to the old worn out languages,
shake off identities, citizenships and motherlands;
I want to live my life in prison,
far from my books,
with honest bandits and outlaws.

Goodbye Europe of blood spilled in the name of murderous borders
and bloodied flags.

Tomorrow, at dawn,
I will leave on the first ship across the Tyrrhenian,
from the port of Circeo,
accompanied by the fatal songs of the Sirens,
towards the Southern Cross.

 

Bonus: Gëzim Hajdari reads his poem ”I am leaving you Europe” in Albanian. 

 
 

 

From Delta del tuo Fiume. © 2015 Gëzim Hajdari. By arrangement with the author. Translation © Patrick Barron. All rights reserved.

English Italian (Original)

I am leaving you Europe, corrupt old whore.

Your ruins no longer enchant me,
your mirrors and abysses have misled my exile,
wounded my wretched body of the East
in front of false petrified altars.

Good-bye Europe of walls, drowned voices and watery tombs.

My castrated homeland forced me to leave,
your eunuch saints abandoned me under the rain,
a foreigner.

Tomorrow, at dawn,
I will leave on the first ship across the Tyrrhenian,
from the port of Circeo,
accompanied by the fatal songs of the Sirens,
towards the Southern Cross
without looking back.

Unknown wayfarers await me in faraway deserts,
warriors of ancient tribes, belly dancers;
I will steal young girls from the courts of borderland kings,
like Halìl di Jutbìna of the mountains Bjeshkët e Nëmuna,
to offer them in marriage to my lord
and give life to a new race.

I will set fire to the old worn out languages,
shake off identities, citizenships and motherlands;
I want to live my life in prison,
far from my books,
with honest bandits and outlaws.

Goodbye Europe of blood spilled in the name of murderous borders
and bloodied flags.

Tomorrow, at dawn,
I will leave on the first ship across the Tyrrhenian,
from the port of Circeo,
accompanied by the fatal songs of the Sirens,
towards the Southern Cross.

 

Bonus: Gëzim Hajdari reads his poem ”I am leaving you Europe” in Albanian. 

 
 

 

From Delta del tuo Fiume. © 2015 Gëzim Hajdari. By arrangement with the author. Translation © Patrick Barron. All rights reserved.

Vado via Europa

Vado via Europa, vecchia puttana viziata.

I tuoi ruderi non mi incantano più,
i tuoi specchi e i tuoi abissi hanno ingannato il mio esilio,
ferito il mio mesto corpo dell’Est
davanti ai falsi altari impietriti.

Addio Europa di muri, voci annegate e tombe d’acqua.

La mia patria castrata mi ha costretto ad andare via,
i tuoi santi eunuchi mi hanno abbandonato sotto la pioggia,
come straniero.

Domani, di buon’ora,
partirò con la prima nave del Tirreno,
dal porto del Circeo,
accompagnato dai canti mortali delle Sirene,
verso la Croce del Sud
senza voltarmi indietro.

Nei deserti lontani m’aspettano viandanti sconosciuti,
guerrieri di tribù antiche, danzatrici del ventre;
ruberò fanciulle dalle corti dei re di confini,
come Halìl di Jutbìna delle Bjeshkëve të Nëmuna,[1]
per donarle in sposa al mio signore
e dare vita ad una nuova stirpe.

Incendierò le vecchie lingue arrugginite,
mi scrollerò di dosso identità, cittadinanze e patrie matrigne;
voglio trascorrere i miei anni in prigione,
lontano dai miei libri,
con banditi onesti e fuorilegge.

Addio Europa del sangue versato in nome dei confini assassini
e delle bandiere insanguinate.

Domani, di buon’ora,
partirò con la prima nave del Tirreno,
dal porto del Circeo,
accompagnato dai canti mortali delle Sirene,
verso la Croce del Sud.

 


[1] Halìl: personaggio leggendario dell’epos albanese; Jutbìna: territorio di confine tra l’Albania e l’ex Jugoslavia; Bjeshkët e Nëmuna: le Montagne Maledette, così vengono chiamate le Alpi albanesi del nord.

 

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