American flag flies in US Capitol Hill

By Kastriot Myftaraj

Enlightening the art of diplomacy to grown-up Besiana

Ismail Kadare is among the Communist hyenas.

I wouldn’t have a grudge against the appointment of Besiana Kadare, the daughter of Ismail Kadare, to the post of the Albanian Ambassador to UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific, and Cultural Organization), with its HQs in Paris, who until now has carried the duties of UNESCO’s charge d’affaires in the Albanian Embassy in France, if it did not ring in my ears the poem of Ismail Kadare, “Enlightening the books to little Besiana,” published first on “November” magazine, in early 70’s, and later in his book of poems, titled “The Time,” published in 1976. In this poem, Ismail Kadare reveals the conversation at his home library with Besiana, the recent appointed Ambassador. Ismail Kadare writes in the poem:

“Yet you insist, however, something has got to be torn,

Indeed, every library has something to be torn into pieces,

Here at the nook lie locked some hermetic poets,

Seems fair, somehow, you deal with them,

As time goes by, you learn new words and flourish, 
They do quite the opposite by forgetting words,
Your age, for now, allows you to cope with these poets,                 

I step aside,                 

And you act!”  

Hermetic poetry is a form of western poetry in the 20th century, which originated in the 19th-century from French symbolism. Some of the greatest poets of the 20th century belong to this hermetic poetry. It is extremely horrific that a poet like Ismail Kadare is suggesting to his child to tear the books of other poets into pieces. This is a twofold crime, an assassination of art and poetry by Ismail Kadare through the misuse of a child, and the cultivation of the barbaric acts within the child- the act of tearing books.

I often recall listening to the poem recited on radio and television during the Communist dictatorship era. Moreover, at concerts organized by the school, the superiors would often appoint a student to recite this poem. It’s clear: communist dictatorship propaganda cared more about this poem for some reasons that I will further explain. Communist dictator Enver Hoxha banned books during his rule and publicly denounced Albanian and foreign writers and poets as well as their books. But Enver Hoxha never spoke of tearing, or burning books- at least not publicly.

The dictator knew that the West would tend to describe the wilderness of his barbaric dictatorship with the Ottoman heritage environment where Enver Hoxha was born and raised, consequently the whole country as well, so he tried to create the impression to the foreign visitors as a man being polished by the best western culture. Therefore, paradoxically, it served at Enver Hoxha’s convenience that the number one courtier poet and writer, Ismail Kadare truly was, has written a poem in which he calls for tearing books. Practically Enver Hoxha would say to the Albanian people and the whole world; you must first look to what the greatest intellectual of the country wants from me, to tear books; thenceforth you come and blame me for what I’m doing! When the greatest intellectual of the country boasts himself of asking his daughter to tear the books of western poets, it means that he requests from me, the leader of the country, to arrange burning books on the street plazas! You know, when the state burns and tears books, subsequently it increases the number of heads to be executed, so you understand, my prominent writer and poet is demanding I should cut more heads!

Relevantly, it was Enver Hoxha’s calculus. Unquestionably, Enver Hoxha ordered his propaganda machine to repeat frequently to Albanian people the Kadare book-tearing poem, however he did not organize laceration and books burning. Enver Hoxha did not ask Ismail Kadare to write a poem of tearing western books. Ismail Kadare wrote it in his zeal to distinguish himself as the guardian of the communist dictatorship. Kadare suitably played the character of a Pol Pot in a Stalinist regime. Enver was a Stalinist, but not a Pol Pot. At that time, the tearing and the burning of books was publicly done by the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. Besiana of the poem, whom once was advised by her father to tear the books of the hermetic poets, today has become the Albanian ambassador to an international organization, which contains the preservation and development of the world culture at the core of its mission, includes safeguarding of books. Accordingly, she has become a cultural diplomat. If we would paraphrase the title of her father’s poem, it is “the time” to give a  "cultural enlightenment on diplomacy to a grown up Besiana?"

Now, is it proper for Albania to appoint ambassador to UNESCO precisely the person, whose name became synonymous with the anticultural phenomena of book tearing? Don’t we have the right to ask for reassurances from the Albanian government that Besiana has abandoned the book-tearing practice? To be at peace, should Besiana, at least today, say sorry for the poem for which she once felt proud of? Shouldn’t Ismail Kadare apologize for the poem at least now that his daughter has become ambassador to UNESCO? It is clear to all that Ms. Kadare was appointed to that position merely because she is the daughter of Ismail Kadare.

A French poet Isidore Duccase, Count of Lautreamont (1846-1870), who had a great influence on hermetic poetry as well as on the predecessors of the French Symbolism, said: "The water of a whole sea wouldn’t be enough to wash up a drop of an intellectual blood.”

Vilson Blloshmi and Genc Leka were hermetic poets 

executed by the communist fire squad in 1977, in Albania.

By setting his little daughter to rip up the books of other poets, Ismail Kadare has triggered intellectual bloodshed. For that, the whole "sea water" of the laudatory hymns of his local and foreign aficionados is not enough to wash this crime of his. Her Excellency Ambassador Besiana Kadare goes to UNESCO holding the record of a person who in her childhood is misused in committing a crime. I think Besiana Kadare doesn’t have to agonize from this; she doesn’t deserve to suffer from it. Therefore she should speak out about this episode in relations with her father like Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana, spoke out about her father.

Ambassador Besiana Kadare should address her father with an open letter where she rebukes his misuse of her by putting her to tear the books of other poets. Matured Besiana needs to do this publicly, for she has been made widely known for tearing books, thanks to her celebrated father. Ismail Kadare must then respond to his daughter with another poem: “Apologizing to Besiana for pushing her to tear books in her childhood." Ismail Kadare of course should seek forgiveness from all of us who were mentally violated by his poem when we were school students.

It is not accidental that Ismail Kadare wrote the poem “Enlightening the books to little Besiana,” just when he was dying as a poet. His book of poetry "The Time," published in 1976 was virtually his last book of poetry. Since 1976, when he published the volume of poetry "The Time," Ismail Kadare has not published any new book of poetry. The book "The sky has no shape," published in 2005, is the summary of 100 selected poems, and in it are only 33 new poems, which were not published in his previous books until 1976. In the 231-page book, these 33 poems written in the period from 1976 to 2005 occupy only 62 pages. It’s not in vain that the title of the book "The sky has no shape" is taken out of one of his poems:

  

“The sky has no shape,

Like idiot’s brain.”

Apparently, with this book, Kadare claims that after 1976, his brain was without form, in terms of poetry; it is not a poet’s brain any longer. When Kadare sensed the dying poet inside him, in an act of sadomasochism, he pushed his little girl to rip up the books of other poets.

 

The American flag flies in Capitol Building in honor of the communist writer Ismail Kadare 

Washington, DC 2015