On April 10, 1917 , Maria Antonia Braile, the first Arbëresh writer to publish literature in the Albanian language, a collection of poems entitled “Këngët”(“The Songs”), passed away. She was born in San Demetrio Corone (Calabri). She had a short life, 1894–1917. Braile poetry is simple and melancholic. Those few poems she wrote were published only after her death by her brother, Salvadore, who was also a poet, but they were very different from her. Maria Antonia Braile not only holds historical significance; undoubtedly, she wrote a little and was also a minor poetess, but she stands out for her subtle and refined lyricism. One of the poems that stood out was “Tek e keqja sëmundje”(“In the evil disease”), clearly autobiographical, which describes her suffering from the disease that is taking her life in the flower of youth and where she feels the thirst for life and the anxiety of death. Also worthy of attention are poems in a popular spirit with rhyming distichs dedicated to the First World War. In a feminine lens, she sees war as the reaper of new lives and not at all in a dimension of glory or heroism. (In the photo: San Demetrio Corone, Calabria.)
Text: Center of Studies and Publications for Arbëresh
Photo: © https://www.wikiwand.com/sq/Sh%C3%ABn_Mitri_%28Itali%29
Graphic processing: AHCF
