Guljem Deda, a prominent translator, passed away on April 12, 1994, in Perugia, Italy. Born in Shkodër in 1915 into a notable intellectual and patriotic family, he graduated from the University of Padua in 1937 with a degree in literature and philosophy. His thesis was on the language of Cuneus Profetarum (The Band of Prophets) by Pjetër Bogdani, for which he received top honors. Returning to Albania, he taught Albanian language and Greek and Latin literature at Shkodër’s high school until 1939. In 1942, he founded and directed the youth-focused magazine Balli i Kombit until 1943. Following the establishment of the communist regime, six of his family members were executed. Arrested in December 1944, he was sentenced to five years of hard labor, with property confiscation and loss of voting rights for “crimes against the state.” Released in 1950, he was sent to work at the Tarabosh quarry. In 1954, he was arrested again and, with 50 other intellectuals from Shkodër, interned in Shtyllas camp, where they worked on the Vjosë-Levan-Fier canal. Later, he was isolated in Kuç camp in Vlora, where he began translating Lodovico Ariosto’s epic poem L’Orlando Furioso. Despite harsh conditions, he completed the 40,000-verse masterpiece in Albanian after 17 years of dedication.Deda spent almost his entire life in prisons and internment camps, and in 1990, he moved to Italy, frail and exhausted from his long hardships. (In photo: Guljem Deda)
Text: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Victims of Communist Terror – Vol. II, “West Print,” Institute for the Study of Communist Crimes and Consequences, Tirana, 2013, p. 68.
Photo: © Institute for the Study of Communist Crimes and Consequences
Graphic Processing: AHCF
