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| Cover of the "Polyphony, the memory of the voices of the earth" book in Italian language |
After the publication in the Albanian language, Ermir Nika's research work on the Albanian polyphonic lyrics was published in several languages, English, Russian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. This publication is now part of the edition of SAPIENZA publications.
"I did not expect this success of the book. But I knew something that the world needs this uncovered piece of scientific study and information. The success started with an article that I published in the "Polis" magazine of the European University and a literary publishing agent in Germany met me and told me that the article is of great interest, if you can have it as part of a work or if you can turn it into work, please send it to us", says the author of the publication, Ermir Nika.
The study "Polyphony, the memory of the voices of the earth" is a long-awaited success, after the persistent work he did during the isolation from the Covid 19 pandemic.
"I was at work and it had been a while since the pandemic and we were all closed. I was locked up for 24 hours. I worked with all my strength because the free time gave me the freedom to continue working as never before, but also a pleasure because I had to listen to lyrical folk songs from time to time", says Nika.
The work for the book is a dedication to the recognition of tradition and that precious arsenal that constitutes our national identity and especially for poets of lyrical polyphony.
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| Ermir Nika |
"I had a kind of obligation to see that these centers of cultural heritage should also be touched by our generation. And they need to be touched and treated with the optics of contemporaneity even by our generation. We are more concerned with the tradition and the form of interpretation and an unintentional injustice has been done to the poets of polyphony, and there I have extensively covered the polyphony poets Lefter Çipa, Maliq Lilëm, Lefter Haxhina, Zaho Balili, Neço Muka, and many others. An anthology of poets of Albanian isopolyphony should be made. You left them in oblivion and we didn't even include them in an anthology. This is one of the indicators of irresponsibility, to leave out the poets of polyphony... Meanwhile, Dritëro AgolIi in the publication "The soul of the Grandfathers" (Shpirti i GJyshërve) has taken a very emancipatory step in this direction, having collected all the songs of Toskeria, the 400-year-old songs in one publication", says researcher Ermir Nika.
"Although there are a large number of advisors in the Presidency, no one has been up to the task. Where an artist like Mariana Leka, who deserves it, receives the title of the great master, there she goes to receive the title "Great master and a party-goer. These phenomena should not exist. These completely invalidate presidential authority. I have not seen Maliq Lila, Zaho Brahimi and others receive a high title, or many Albanianologists who know Albanian with dialects and sub-dialects have not been appreciated by the Presidency. Unfortunately, the part of "tallava" (word used in Albanian to describe ignorance and vanity) has been raised in craftsmanship even in cultural institutions, which do not react when a "tallava" artist goes and is decorated in the highest institutions of the state", says researcher Ermir Nika to Albanian media.