2016, which was declared by the Ministry of Culture as the Year of Kadare, coincides with the 85 th anniversary of Dritero Agolli, a well-known Albanian poet, writer, politician, and former president of the defunct Albanian League of Writers and Artists. Devolli national and cultural association has launched several activities that will take place throughout the year. Recently, the association organized an event in honor of Dritero Agolli which took place at Agolli’s hometown in Menkulas, Devoll District near Korà§a.
The event, which was opened by Vasil fundo, was attended by several figures, teachers, lecturers, researchers, publicists, professors, academics, Agolli’s relatives etc.
Well known for his satirical Splendour and fall of comrade Zylo (1973), Commissar Memo (1970), which was translated in English as The bronze bust in 1975, The man with the cannon (1975), and The belated pilgrim (1993), Agolli unique style and usage of figures of speech is what distinguished him from other fellow writers of his generation.
“For poets of my generation, an age of disappointments and dilemmas has dawned, an age in which to re-evaluate what we produced, without forgetting or denying those fair and humane values we brought forth. But the fortress of ideas and ideals which we believed in, some of us completely, others partially, has all but collapsed, and in its walls burn the fires of our dreams. Those fires have awakened a different type of verse…” according to a postscript by Agolli.
Among other well-received works of Dritero Agolli are The time beggar (1995), The spirit of our forefathers (1996), The strange man approaches (1996), Ballad for my father and myself (1997), Midnight notebook (1998), The distant bell (1998), Insane people (1995); The naked horseman ( 1996), and The devil’s box (1997).
