RUDOLF MARKU Comments

A short poem by R. Markus: Arithmetic One times one Is not even two. What number would you get With me times you? ['Aritmetikë', translated by Robert Elsie, first published in English in 'An elusive eagle soars', anthology of modern Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993]

Another poem by R. Marku: Moment I climbed one day up into the mountains, the mountains of Tropoja, To the dizzying heights I had never seen before. Sculptor, when you set to carving with your chisel, Do not strike hard, for I am within the rocks! ['Moment', translated by Robert Elsie]

Rudolf Marku (born 1952) was born and raised in Lezha, Albania. He graduated from the University of Tirana in 1968 and taught school for some time. Marku worked for a number of years as editor of the Tirana literary newspaper Drita (The light) where he introduced many new and previously ostracized writers to the Albanian public.

In the autumn of 1991 he was appointed head of foreign cultural relations at the Albanian Foreign Ministry and served at the Albanian Embassy in London.

Marku's first volume of verse, entitled Shokët e mi, Tirana 1974 (My friends) , led to his banishment to the countryside. It was followed by Rruga, Tirana 1977 (The road): Sërishmi, Tirana 1982 (Once again): Udhëtim për në vendin e gjërave që njohim, Tirana 1989 (Voyage to the place of things we know): and Vdekja lexon gazetën, Elbasan 1995 (Death reads the newspaper) . Marku has translated Thomas Eliot, Ezra Pound and W.H. Auden into Albanian.