Mitrush Kuteli (Dhimitër Pasko), writer, economist, literary critic, translator, and folklorist, was born in Pogradec. He attended the Romanian commercial secondary school in Thessaloniki and attended higher studies and graduated from the Academy of Economic Sciences in Bucharest (1931), where he received the title of “Doctor of Economic Sciences” (1934). In Romania, he worked as a bank clerk and director and wrote and published several works on the economic and financial problems of Albania and the Balkans (1932-1938). In 1942 he returned to Albania. In 1944, together with Vedat Kokona and Sterjo Spasse, they published the biweekly “Revista letrare“ (“Literary Magazine”) in Tirana. Right after liberation, he worked at the State Bank. He is one of the founders of the League of Writers. In the years 1947-1949, he spent two years in political prison. Then he worked as a translator at the “Naim Frashëri” publishing house. He made his name as a storyteller with the collections “Netë shqiptare” (“Albanian Nights”) (1938), “Ago Jakupi e të tjera rrëfime“ (“Ago Jakupi and other stories”) (1943), “Kapllan Aga i Shaban Shpatës“ (“Kapllan Aga of Shaban Shpata”) (1944). In these years, he published the folkloric collection “Këngë e britma nga qyteti i djegur“ (“Songs and shouts from the burning city”) (1944), as well as the poetic volume “Sulm e lot” (“Attack and tears”) and the book of pamphlets “Havadan më havadan“. After Liberation, he published the children’s books “Pylli i gështenjave” (“The chestnut forest”) (1958), “Xinxifillua” (1962) and “Tregime të moçme shqiptare“ (“Ancient Albanian Tales”) (1965) – a collection of ballads and folk legends masterfully retold. With his special style and the original way of telling, he created a school of Albanian storytelling, mainly studying the type of narrative. The main place in the prose of Mitrush Kuteli is occupied by the representatives of the smallness of the village and the city, who fight for the protection of the land and honor, emigrants who suffer in and abroad, brave rascals who rebel against social injustices, bravery and the rough, the poetry of childhood and longing for a dreamy past, the fascinating nature, the life of the hometown and the surrounding provinces, often presented through a picturesque ethnography. He passed away in Tirana, in 1967. (In the photo: Mitrush Kuteli)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1429.
Photo: © https://gazetavatra.com/dhimiter-pasko-mitrush-kuteli-schriktar-perkthyes-dhe-ekonomist-i-shquar/
Graphic processing: AHCF
