Heinrich Heine in Albanian Literature

Those who wrote about and introduced Heinrich Heine into Albanian literature and culture are the following distinguished Albanian intellectuals, researches and scholars: Javer Malo, Nexhip Gami, Vehbi Bala, Perikli Jorgoni, Pertef Kruja, Robert Shvarc, Petraq Kolevica, etc. However, no all-embracing articles or papers in English or German were written about Heinrich Heine’s presence, popularity and influence on Albanian literature. Therefore, through qualitative and comparative literature methods this article attempts to illuminate the presence, popularity and impact of Heine’s poetry on the poems of some of the most popular Albanian writers and poets, such as: Çajupi, Konica, Noli and Poradeci by focusing on the main similarities and differences of Heine’s poems with those of the aforementioned Albanian poets. The paper demonstrates and proves that it is beyond doubt that the poems of the aforesaid Albanian poets share strange and interesting similarities and a kind of concordance with the topics, motifs, messages and style of Heine’s poems and that he influenced those poets in different ways and to various degrees. The themes and motifs of politics, patriotism, social injustice, longing for motherland, freedom, brotherhood, nature, enthusiasm, love, hate, pain, sadness, disbelief, tradition, anticipation of future, dreams, etc. best connect the poems of Albanian poets to Heine’s.