Ndre Mjeda, a poet, patriotic and democratic activist, and clerical scholar, passed away in Shkodër. He was born in Shkodër to a poor family descended from the village of Mjedë in 1866. He attended his first lessons in Shkodër and was later sent for secondary and higher theological studies in several European countries. Initially, he taught at a religious high school in Croatia. Ndre Mjeda returned to his homeland in 1899 and was appointed parish priest in various villages. He became associated with the patriotic movement from an early age. In 1901, together with his brother, Lazër Mjeda, he founded the Society “Agimi” (“Dawn”), which created an alphabet and published a series of books for schools based on this alphabet. Due to his patriotic activities, the Ottoman authorities arrested him. In 1908, at the Congress of Manastir, he was elected a member of the commission for drafting a unified Albanian alphabet. During the flourishing period of the “Democratic Movement” (1920-1924), Ndre Mjeda participated in the political life of the time and was elected as a deputy. After the failure of the June 1924 Revolution, he retired from political life and worked as a simple priest in Kukël. In his later years, he was a teacher of the Albanian language in Shkodër.
Ndre Mjeda began his poetic activities early on. The well-known romantic poem “Vaji i bylbylit” (“Oil of the Nightingale”) was written in 1887. This work concludes with a call for Albanians to rise up and win their freedom. In addition to creations imbued with elegiac notes, Ndre Mjeda also composed poetic works that treated patriotic themes in the spirit of Renaissance war poetry, such as “Liria” (“Liberty”) (1910-1911). In this poem, the uprising of the highlanders of Northern Albania in 1911 resonates, highlighting their resistance and fervent aspiration for social justice and land. In his famous poem “Andrra e jetës” (“The Dream of Life”), through poignant poetic imagery, the author reveals the tragedy of poor mountaineers living in the grips of hardship, as well as the profound misery and ignorance into which they were born. The spiritual world of the poem’s characters, along with their feelings and thoughts, is conveyed with sparse means and great skill. Ndre Mjeda also contributed to the field of linguistics, with his work encompassing grammar, lexicology, and philology. He is among the first Albanian linguists to study and transcribe works of old Albanian literature. (In the photo: Ndre Mjeda)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1747-1748.
Photo: © https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ndre_Mjeda
Graphic processing: AHCF
