DR. MUJË BUÇPAPAJ - ALBANIA
Poet Mujë Buçpapaj was born in Tropoja, Albania (1962). He graduated from the branch of Albanian Language and Literature, University of Tirana (1986).
In the years 1991-1992, he studied for two years for feature film script at Kinostudio "Alshqiperia e Re", Tirana, today "Albafilmi" (considered as post-master's studies), as well as completed many other qualifications of the cultural spectrum in country and abroad. Mujë Buçpapaj is a Doctor of literary sciences with a thesis on the survival of Albanian poetry during the communist censorship, defended at the Institute of Linguistics and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Albania. He is one of the founders of political pluralism and the free press in Albania (1990) and a journalist for many years in the most popular newspapers in Tirana. He is the head of the literary and cultural newspaper "Nacional", the "Nacional" Publishing House and the Studies and National Projects.
In the years 1991-2005 he was co-founder and journalist of the first opposition newspaper in the country after 50 years of communist dictatorship "Rilindja Demokratike" and founder of the newspaper "Tribuna Demokratike."
In the years 2005-2009 he was the director of the
International Cultural Center in Tirana, while in the years 2010-2014 he was
the Director of the Albanian Copyright Office in Tirana. After the year 2014
and onwards, he took charge of the "Nacional" Publications and the
"Nacional" newspaper.
Currently, he is also a lecturer at "Luarasi" University in Tirana, where he teaches the subject of Academic Writing.
Buçpapaj is one of the most prominent exponents of contemporary Albanian poetry with the greatest national and international success, respectively published in several foreign languages and honored with several prestigious international awards from Greece to the USA and one of the most prominent managers of culture in the country. Drafter of cultural policies.
He is the organizer and leader of many international
conferences held in Tirana on the problems of art, literature and copyright.
He is the author of many study books on literature and
poetics, but also of hundreds of journalistic writings, criticisms, essays,
studies including those on regional problems, national security as well as on
the management of art in market conditions, cultural policies and national
strategy. of culture. He is known as one of the strongest public debaters on
the problems of the Albanian transition, regional political developments, and
democracy as a whole. He is the founder of the newspaper/magazine
"Nacional" and its director. He lives, works and creates in Tirana,
together with his wife and two daughters.
THE PROMISING MAN
Man
Had fallen like a spot of sunshine
Near periphery
Of afternoon
He had lit a farewell fire
To warm with sadness
Dark deceit of destiny
The illuminated man
This thing of falling metaphors
Took the roads returning
To the world
Without bringing about change
The Promising Man
Didn’t like to die
In his fleshy Shadow
The Promising Man
Is no way
Man
Man
In no way
Descriptions the book:
Mujo Buçpapaj poetry gives readers haunting glimpses into war-tor Eastern Europe as well as hope for peace in his homeland. Like T. S. Eliot, he mixes memory and desire, juxtaposing newborns hidden in forests and the cries of children with reminiscences of love and apple tree branches and rain'. (Susan Rushin Adams)
Link the book:
The Quiet Triumph of Mujë Buçpapaj’s Poetry
Mujo Buçpapaj's poetry is revolutionary; it is nourished by intelligence, conciseness, and abstraction.
By Sulejman Mato
There are poets who enter the literary scene with great fanfare, seeking attention and media coverage at all costs. And then there are others who quietly build a literary career, indifferent to the media’s hunger for promotion. Mujo Buçpapaj belongs to the latter category—poets who deliberately distance themselves from publicity and the limelight. Even the title of his latest book, The Invisible Victory, seems to encapsulate the message and essence of his poetry—poetry that awaits the day it will be truly understood and revealed as an unknown, unassuming value, standing in opposition to contemporary anti-values.
Mujo’s poetry doesn’t clamor for attention; it moves you with the simplicity
of its radiant metaphors.
Those who have followed Buçpapaj’s poetry over the years will notice how, true
to his nature, he has built an ascending spiral—both in form and content. The
themes he addresses in this book span a wide range of time and space.
They begin in his microcosm—his childhood and birthplace—and resonate outward
into the macrocosm, engaging with major contemporary issues, a reflection of
the author's intense life and travels over the past decade.
If in his early poems, such as those in I Have My Face in the Rocks,
one could feel the raw nature of northern epic mixed with a sensitive spirit
new to life, then the hallmark of this new book is its emotional intensity and
unity of contemporary modern style.
This poetry asserts itself as part of the best world poetry, especially
reminiscent of the American tradition.
It must be said that Buçpapaj’s poetry is no longer easily understood—unless
one possesses the necessary knowledge and preparation. It is elite poetry,
outside familiar literary frames and clichés. This did not happen by chance. It
required time, knowledge, experimentation, culture, and awareness—demands that
aim to touch virgin and universal zones of poetry.
A book of over 120 poems, all connected in a visible unity, where surprising
metaphors spark light and emotion.
The world was small
With two green feet
At the window
Of water
And the damp wood of the planet.
The years of democracy not only matured and strengthened the author, but also placed him before life’s toughest trials—even at times before the bullets of a dark world.
In one such moment, writing from the white hospital halls, the author addresses his mother:
Dear mother!
It's too late now
And the wounds are heavy on me.
In this pavilion of horror
Hope has not abandoned me.
But you, light a wooden fire
Over this desolate world;
Pray for me in Albanian
Because I am alive
And I don't want to be lost.
Though his poetry is tied with emotional threads to his native village, its
people, the epic northern landscapes, greenery, rains, and the sea, each poem
is marked with the place where it was written—not only Tropoja, Lukova, and
Tirana, but also New York, Washington, Paris, and elsewhere.
This mixture of places and times is vividly reflected in his verse. It is
precisely this movement through different times and places that has created the
poetic substance of this book.
Among the most beautiful poems, I would highlight a few: Portrait of the Wind, Prekaz 1999, Letter to My Mother, Endless Analogy, After This Long War.
If we don’t return
Once again to Tpla
Light a fire for my dead.
If I truly return
Upon the open wounds of summer
The beds of rain will fall
In the village.
Buçpapaj entrusts the secret of his poetry to the metaphor—this queen of
infinite visions.
The well-known American poet and essayist Dana Gioia writes: “Poets are often
scholarly beings and every true poem enters with much intelligence and knowledge.
But intelligence cannot give life to a poem when emotion or imagination is
missing.”
Buçpapaj’s poems generally abide by this principle; they are a harmonious blend
of lived material and intelligence, emotion and imagination. Though at first
glance his poems may seem hermetic and difficult to grasp, their intellectual
content does not overshadow their emotional and imaginative essence—qualities
that only a uniquely gifted creator can harmonize.
The sea holds a special place in his poetry. The life of a northerner by the
waves of the Ionian Sea has undoubtedly left deep marks in his memory and in
his verse.
Children Emerge from the Sea, written recently, is one of the most
beautiful poems in the book. Such works embody what can be called a poet’s
modern cosmos:
Children emerge from the sea with water on their heads
……………………..
Children emerge from the sea
Like August from summer
With the sun of evening sinking.
Behind them follow the salty wings of rain.
Poetry fed by intelligence, conciseness, and abstraction—these are the
hallmarks of modern verse.
Often, in the effort to move away from traditional literary molds and to renew
the narrative form of poetry, such poetry risks becoming a slave to “the art of
intelligence at its highest use.”
But Buçpapaj’s poetry does not suffer from this. On the contrary, it can serve
as a reference point for contemporary criticism, as what is happening in our
poetry today echoes what took place in American poetry 50 years ago.
Some of our poets—Moikom Zeqo, Petraq Risto, Agron Tufa, and Mujo Buçpapaj
among them—aim to universalize poetry through intelligent abstraction.
I have experienced both types of poetry—closed and open. These two forms do
not exclude each other.
Driven by the desire for contemporary relevance, the universalization of poetry
has intellectualized the arts, detaching them from traditional descriptive
folklore. Today, poetry stands before the dilemmas of imposed change.
In this regard, literary criticism can only illuminate or raise awareness—it is
incapable of leading the process.
It is the poets themselves—like Mujo Buçpapaj with his talent and literary
experience—who will revolutionize contemporary poetry, bringing it closer to
the new reader. In this respect, Buçpapaj’s poetry is revolutionary, drawing
the attention not only of readers but also of our literary criticism, which
currently lags behind.
Every era brings its novelties.
The 1960s liberated poetry from rhymes and cantilenas, giving rise to free
verse.
The 1980s further enriched this trend.
Poets of the 2000s, if we are to classify them this way, lean toward postmodern
poetry.
The form with the greatest impact in American poetry over the last decade is
the breakdown of poetry-prose boundaries.
Prose poetry is the richest form of free verse because it can carry enormous
emotional weight.
Poets today are facing a serious challenge: to rebuild new relationships
with the lost reader.
This concern is also present in the poetry of Mujo Buçpapaj.
I believe that poets like Buçpapaj feel this responsibility and have found the
key to this success—at both the European and global level.
