Andreas Zarbalas ( el, Ανδρέας Ζαρμπαλάς, sq, Andrea Zarballa, 1942) is an
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...
n-born
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
poet and journalist.
Biography
Zarbalas, was born in the village of Llazat near
Sarandë
Sarandë (; sq-definite, Saranda; el, Άγιοι Σαράντα, Ágioi Saránta) is a city in the Republic of Albania and seat of Sarandë Municipality. Geographically, the city is located on an open sea gulf of the Ionian Sea within the Medi ...
, in southern Albania. He initially worked as a Greek language teacher in local schools. He graduated from the teacher's academy of
Gjirokaster.
At 1968 he started to write poems in the literary column of the newspaper
Laiko Vima
''Laiko Vima'' ( el, Λαϊκό Βήμα, "People's Tribune") is a bi-weekly newspaper published in Gjirokastër, that serves the local Greek communities in Albania. It was founded in 1945 and was the only newspaper printed in the Greek language ...
, which was the only printed media allowed to be published in Greek language, in
communist Albania
The People's Socialist Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë, links=no) was the Marxist–Leninist one party state that existed in Albania from 1946 to 1992 (the official name of the country was the People's R ...
(1945–1991). He mainly composed poems in free verse.
During 1970-1990, he composed several poems, but due to strict censorship by the authorities of the People's Republic of Albania he decided to bury them in order to avoid persecution.
[ Those works were published after the restoration of ]Democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...
(1991).[
With the collapse of the communist regime in Albania that year he became one of the founding members and the first President of the local Greek political and cultural organization '' Omonoia''. At the following elections he got elected as a representative of Omonoia in the ]Albanian Government
Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, where the President of Albania is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Albania the head of government in a multi-party system. The executive power is exercised by the Government a ...
.Ανδρέας Ζαρμπαλάς
. Comsio online magazine. (Greek)
Zarbalas published his first poetry collection ''We insist'' ( el, Επιμένουμε), in 1981. Moreover, with his collection ''101 poems for a handful of earth'' ( el, Ποιήματα για μια χούφτα τόπο, 1992), written in 1972, but unpublished until 1991, Zarbalas became a key figure among the Greeks in southern Albania. He used free verse as a symbol of free spirit. Zarbalas used many traditional elements with a metaphoric and allegoric approach.People's Republic of Albania
The People's Socialist Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë, links=no) was the Marxist–Leninist one party state that existed in Albania from 1946 to 1992 (the official name of the country was the People's R ...
he managed in several cases to avoid censorship and to promote the distinct ethnic identity of the local Greek element by using allegory.[
]
References
1946 births
Albanian people of Greek descent
Modern Greek poets
People from Finiq
Living people
20th-century Greek poets
Date of birth missing (living people)
{{Albania-writer-stub