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Contemporary Verse from Albania

Thanks to Manos who drew my attention to the online literary journal, transcript. The latest issue is on Albanian poetry. Here, a sample from Parid Teferiçi.
In a Country as Small as This One
The Albanian Leviathan is a sardine. The sitting rooms where men gather are
tins of sardines. Truth, in order to find space there, has to be folded in two
and then folded again.

In a country as small as this, so small that you could easily
draw it on a one-to-one scale on this packet of cigarettes, you
don't know where and how to sit or support yourself: on the
throat of your neighbour, or on the buttocks of the other
fellow's wife.

Seated, huddled around the coffee table, how can you greet
anyone without jabbing someone else with your elbow? How
can you pay a compliment without deafening someone?

We can see one another in our spoons, and we are warped.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The theory of relativity.
5:21 pm
Anonymous said…
Any idea why the RSS feed stopped updating since the "A New and European Reality" post on October 4th?
3:29 pm
olli said…
Hi. I've checked the feed and it seems to be working normally.
1:34 pm
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