Valentina Saraçini

Today I want to look at Valentina Saraçini, an Albanian from Kosovo [she lives there, she was born in Macedonia.] Her poem "E Ngrohur" [The Warmed] is a standout. It appears in her volume Dreaming Escape, translated by Erica Weitzman, Flora Ismaili and Rudina Jasini--you can buy it here and reference the digital proofs copy here. There is a review here, and an overview and review here.

Saraçini has an excellent sense of language, idea and the self. She has this incredible way of accessing the past, with the same tone of older periods, almost Kalevala-like [you can read the Finnish epic here].

THE WARMED                                          E Ngrohur

Mimosas are not                                          Nuk janë mimozat

Harbingers of the new season                     Lajmëtaret e stinës së re

Just tiny suns of spiky leaves                      Veç se djej të vegjël gjetheve gjilpërore

A little warmth for the winter spirits            Pak ngrohtësi shpirtrave dimërorë

Sleepy in the mountaintops                          Përgjumur majave

My little harbinger sun                                 I vockëli dielli im lajmëtar

My lunar soul                                               Shpirti im hënor

I love her lines in "Trungu" [Tree Trunk] as well:
[...]

They are leery of your layered anxieties                                   Druajnë nga ankthet tua palë-palë
They gauge the golden silence of your earth                           Nga toka jote heshtjen flori masin

You are leaded                                                                               Ti je me plumb
The leaden pain of centuries                                                       Dhembje plumbosur shekujve
The silver-white heads of brides’ mothers                                 Argjend zbardhur kokave të nënave nuseve
And you a broken branch where no fruit ripens                       Dhe je degëkëputur pa pjekur frutat

[...]