2020.11.29.
Alongside the Rivers
Versions: #1A fugitive, exiled,
crippled and exhausted,
I grieve endlessly, hopelessly,
Alongside the Elbe, alongside the Spree.
How far we got, and how little it mattered,
Woe the country, the wretched people!
Alongside the sea, yet unwashed,
Alongside the light, yet unseen,
Alongside the table, yet starving,
Alongside knowledge, yet ignorant,
Naked and incognizant,
Their body and souls, fully demolished.
How the beggars humiliated us,
The merchants, and the lords!
How the outlanders crushed us,
How the usurers smothered us,
How they cut us, how they wounded us
How they made a mockery of us,
Under the heel of aggression,
Alongside Vjosa, alongside Buna.
I wail and burn, disheartened,
Crippled, and disarmed,
Neither alive, nor yet departed,
I await a sign, await a light,
I wait for days, wait for nights,
Oh how I've dried out, how I have diminished,
How I've been blinded, and how I've grown older,
Far from the hearth and from labor,
Alongside the Rhine, alongside the Thun.
Twisted, distraught,
Writhing and flickering,
I dream endlessly, hopelessly,
Alongside the Elbe, Alongside the Spree.
And a voice comes/emanates from the river,
It roars, awaking me from my slumber,
To tell me that the people are rising,
That the tyrant is petrified,
That the storm is gathering, waiting,
Vjosa bloats, Buna overflows,
Seaman and Drin become red,
Beys and landlords begin shuddering,
Knowing that after death, life with shine
As the sound of the battle horn thunders.
Rise and denounce,
Reap and revolt,
Peasants and workers,
From Shkodra to Vlorë!
This drug and this dream
Makes me a son, makes me fearless,
Gives me hope and gives me strength,
Alongside the Elbe, alongside the Spree