On April 12, 1922, Spiro Dine (1844–1922), folklorist, follower and collaborator of Thimi Mitko, died in Egypt. He was born in Vithkuq, Korça. He participated in the National Renaissance movement, helping to organize and coordinate the activities of the Albanians of Egypt. He wrote poems with a popular spirit that are permeated by the feeling of love for the homeland and freedom and hatred for the Ottoman conqueror. Since 1866, when he went to Egypt, at the instigation of Thimi Mitko, he set to work collecting folklore material. Some of the collected materials were given to Thimi Mitko, who published a part of them in “Bleta shqiptare” (“Albanian bee”). In 1908, Spiro Dine published in Sofia the work ” Valët e detit” (“The waves of the sea”), where, in addition to folkloric materials, he also summarized his own poetic creations and those of some other compatriots. Folkloric materials of the book include: folk poems of bravery, laments, love songs, customs and wedding songs, satirical poems , toys, proverbs, riddles, fairy tales, etc. The work covers a wide range of the most important folkloric publications of the Renaissance. (In the photo: Spiro Dine)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 485.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Dine
Graphic processing: AHCF
