Opinions on the poet

…The happiest poetic moments of Lulzim Tafa happen only when times and plans get confused and intersected, when the poet sings to the apple tree rooted deep in his memories that has survived the horrors of the destructive war together with the poet. When reading this Kosovo Albanian poet, one gets a feeling of reading Jacques Prevert…

(Abdulla Sidran, Sarajevo – Bosnia and Herzegovina one of the most popular Bosnian writers)

….The verses of the poet from Kosovo, Lulzim Tafa are emotions as sharp as a sword, they are harsh, but brilliant. This poet fascinates both, when singing to love and when singing to freedom…

(Daniel Marian, Romania Literary scholar)

…Lulzim Tafa’s balance between form and substance has not been disturbed, while symbolism, the varieties of meanings, cannot be said to be lacking. The author seeks to speak to the universe created through the identity embedded in verses, configuring it without pressure, without insisting in expression, and free of any poetic background and constrains, but very often with well targeted warning nuances carved in memory…

(Marius Chelaru, Romania Literary scholar)

Lulzim Tafa’s poetry clashes at times on our walls where smile has lost its sense and we keep following its traces in vain. God knows what is going to happen to that smile that is relentlessly to get hold on us, as we are continuously losing the ground under our feet. This poet is distinguished by his intellectual courage as well as the manner of articulation differentiating him from other Albanian poets, where poets often lose their direction and get trapped in words, thus making this poet one of the most interesting poets our literature has today.               

(Ali Podrimja, Kosovo One of the greatest Albanian poets)

… From the moment of the publication of his first book of poems, Lulzim Tafa has masterfully unmasked the Serbian invasion and genocide against the people of Kosovo, the violence exercised on Kosovo’s culture, religion and literature. This literature – including Lulzim Tafa’s style – is an original form of expression that has enchanted many scholars and anthropologists. Lulzim Tafa, through his outstanding poetry is regenerating the sleepy history of an ancient people…

(Peter Tase, USA Literary Scholar)

… For Lulzim Tafa, the world and the connections, the world and individual contacts make up the necessary boiling material, along with his courage for creativity. It is due to this reason that his poetry is not conveyed but it is experienced, and everything begins from a case, a motivation and a cause. The author is thus supplied by order with a non-stop program of the world, and on his shelves one can find everything. He is considered as an “irreparable” poet, lured by the world he lives in, and which he transposes with a special affection in his poetry. This is, at the same time, his faithful profession, where the poet never puts a “full stop” to his verse …

(Monika Muresan, Romania Literary Scholar)

…Lulzim Tafa belongs to the vitalist, neo-romantic, exalted poets. He has proven to be a subtle psychological analyst, at times nourishing a persuasively sarcastic humor…

(Lucian Gruia, Romania Literary Scholar)

…In his poetry, the poet Lulzim Tafa constantly endeavors to describe his two interconnected worlds: the inner world filled with memories, feelings and dreams, and the outside world, the real one (the truth). For this purpose, in the poetry of Lulzim Tafa two original and effective tools have been put in place to express the poetic substance: frames and “comparison of wars”…

(Daniel Lion – Literary scholar)

…Lulzim Tafa is an Albanian poet from Kosovo, whose style differs from other Balkans poets. His poetry intertwines the lyrics with the epic and the dramatics in equal dimensions. The author constructs the stylistic figures and poetic expressions, over the paths that can be considered as the boundary of the homeland of poetry, at least, with a step that breaks through the dream gate, beyond which the muses pour into their hive, the honey of the heavens of speech…

(Inger Lalander – Literary scholar)

Tafa’s poems are a testament, engraved by nails and language (just as the great Greek poet Jergos Seferis engraved his poems) from life, from the land of Kosovo, but applying to all countries and peoples. In Lulzim Tafa’s poetry, the darkened freedom speaks, a powerful geyser pouring out from the poet’s heart. These poems are a call from the deep space where it lives, and which is iconic and archetypal at the same time. They are a faithful and safe guardian of iconic acts, conveyed by Tafa onto his time. This poet, the preacher of hope, carries the sun through the darkness of time. This is how I saw all this while reading his poetry. Such privileges and honors do not happen frequently. This introductory word of mine is a modest gift to Tafa, to his poetry and to the overall Albanian poetry, which, I’m sure it will be a great European and world discovery.

(Mirash Martinovic, Montenegro Literary scholar)

Lulzim Tafa brings to the poetic experience of Kosovo and contemporary Albanian literature a distinctive, postmodern, meticulous spirit – from parody to quakes of the traditional that are equally important to all literatures that have reached maturity. Lulzim Tafa is a poet who is not afraid of anything, his “battlefield” is the language, and as we know, poets are unbeatable … the poet, Lulzim Tafa is truly a bold, talented, but at the same time disinclined  to folkloric mythomania which always attacks the poems of some Balkan peoples. As for Tafa, just as for all great poets, poetry is “the miracle of the world and the power of gods” in face of which everything sinks to oblivion.

(Jevrem Brkovic, Montenegro one of the most popular writers in Montenegro)

The poet, Lulzim Tafa writes in a sensitive way, from deep experience, sincerely, warmly … His thoughtfulness and sensible attitude is transformed and streamed into almost every poem of the book, where the two main female protagonists Teuta and Ajkuna (Una) represent the main pillar, like fire and flames, but also breathing, longing, dreams, pleasure, memories … Tafa transforms dreams. He dresses and undresses metaphors, recognizes and immortalizes them, he weighs and measures the time and space, the world and the century … He cares for and observes the path of light, always observing the dark side, balancing it as a balancing instrument and almost at the same time between the life of a dog and a man the same, enjoying the fruits, but also the curse of the creation and the craft of the writer.

(Hristo Petrevski, Macedonia Literary scholar, Head of the Writers’ Association in Macedonia)

The poet Lulzim Tafa possesses the talent to transfigure the reality into a special lyrical record, in the confessions of rain and shadow, of life and death, of the lost love, but especially of the hope that the pain will be altered through love and faith in the morning of the existence of another future. Love is one of the pillars of author’s poetry, but also life and death, love having the strength to turn the time into echoes of filling in the desert in the hearts of some, an oasis of fruit and permanent dreaming. Lulzim Tafa possesses the knowledge to understand the secrecy of the dew drops in the tranquility before the dawn, as well as the bell sounds warning of the upcoming events.

(Ion Deaconescu, Romania University Professor, poet, Head of the International Academy “Mihai Eminescu”)

Lulzim Tafa’s poetry sounds like an intelligent conversation with the reader. To put it bluntly, it is a poetry that captivates you with the emotion it transmits, as well as its linguistic expression. It’s easy to read but difficult to erase from your memory.

(Agim Vinca, Kosovo University Professor, poet)

The poetic asceticism for the untold, collective guilt and suffering, seen in the context of the intimate epic, is one of the most highlighted values of Lulëzim Tafa’s poetry in the book “A few more words to say.” The irony and paradox for exhibitors, disciplined and linguistically rationalized, complement the collective experience, which seems to be set in a mysterious harmony. This fragility is not the truth, but the passion for the truth, which is intended to be said in two words, but in fact, it is not said, or will ever be told except through poetic art, yes, as in the hushed but alarming poetry of Tafa.

(Ibrahim Berisha, Kosovo University Professor, poet)

In the verses of Lulzim Tafa, the fulfillment of the aspired ideal is reached: to enjoy the beauty. Hence, the structuring of sensitivity, ideas, motives, topics, etc., as if they are a combination of visions in the prelude of a poetic anxiety, in which the poetic expression system relies on confronting the real with the unreal world, explaining the essence of life through the essence of poetry.

(Sali Bashota, Kosovo University Professor, poet)

Tafa’s lyrics are distinguished by the extreme economizing of words, through the language play, without which there is no literature – it tells a lot and conveys messages of all times. His poetry has unbelievable abilities to communicate with the contemporary reader. We are convinced that it will communicate with both Albanian and foreign readers.

  (Salajdin Salihu, Macedonia University Professor, poet)

A rebellious spirit, witty irony reaching sarcasm, the natural outbursts we encounter rarely in Albanian poetry are the traits that permeate the poetry of Lulzim Tafa, who manages to bring down the boundaries between epic and lyrics, meaning that at times it shows a lyrical epic and especially an epical lyrics, in what can be called love poetry.

 (Rrahman Paçarizi, Kosovo University Professor, poet)

Lulzim Tafa occasionally constructs stylistic figures and interesting poetic expressions in the context of a number of variations that are related to his option. Lulzim Tafa provides us with innovation and quality, while his book enriches the foreign reader with legendary characters and current ideas. He presents a healthy lyrical spirit of fresh air in the content of literature. Characters, places and events are followed by the reader with special curiosity.

  (Laura Rushani, Literary scholar)

Poetic creation of Lulzim Tafa is so powerful and so deep and at the same time a shocking phenomenon in the modern Albanian literature.  His verses are overwhelmed by a profoundly humanistic philosophy and are overly stinging against the behavior of those who benefited at this time of commotion. This time where commotion, intrigue, exploitation, selfishness, ignorance, and all other evils prevail, the poet calls on the “holy rain” to cleanse the conscience and announces the birth of the era of democracy and respect for human rights…

  (Ile Demiri, University Professor, Literary scholar)

Lulzim Tafa creates an interesting poetry which witnesses the power of the personality. If anyone asks God for courage or power, God does not give him the courage or power, but the opportunity in which the person must discover whether he has courage and power. The enemy in his verses turns to God for help, but in vain, because God does not help the wicked but the victim.

 (Baki Imeri, Romania, Translator, scholar, poet)

In this form of poetry, I have done the reading as if reading the reality of time. Thus, Tafa purposely emphasizes the idea of repeating the topics. In brief, this deliberate repetition is read as time or days of the week repeat themselves, but the events change.

  (Jeton Kelmendi, Belgium University Professor, poet)

The meditative depths of Lulzim Tafa appear with verses in a multitude of colors with moods, sometimes like fresh-breeze aquarelle, and occasionally with gloomy monochrome metaphors. Lyrics and drama interact by countering each other. Meanwhile, the messages are laconically intertwined with masterful engraving.

  (Shyqri Nimani, Albania University Professor, Painter – Academician)

Lulzim Tafa makes the art of the possible, politics an art of literature through poetry figures: allegory, irony, satire, metaphor, symbol, comparison, epithet, paradox etc., which he distributes, a little, in poetry titles and more in verse. But these are not the figures that make this poet interesting, nor do they end his discourse.

(Berat Armagedoni, Kosovo Literary scholar)

The lovers of poetry will find in the verses of Lulzim Tafa the realistic qualities of the modern lyric: above all: warmth, grief, melancholy, directness, criticism, melody … The rich and picturesque language also represents a creative quality of the poet whose emotionality and tenderness is also a quality, emotionality and mildness arising from sincere excitement and dreams, all in accordance with Dionysus’s joy and lamentation. Thus, the individuality connects to the collectivity, and the local to the universal, thus gaining the broadest aesthetic importance, the poetic vision, and the rich metaphor of the expression.

 (Dr. Milutin Djurickovic, Serbia, University Professor, Poet)

Lulzim Tafas’ poetry from the semiology point of view touches the heart: it is in the permanent mode of exploring, so it asks the same from the reader.   In other words, even what looks like a love poem, it is not (necessarily) (only) love poetry. Tafa’s verses are obsessively nourished by the motives of blood, thus directing it to own experience of illogical madness of war but also reminding us how and how much the poetry can be universal, even when it points to a very concrete period of a tragic reality. Tafa’s poetry is a detailed reconstruction of that reality, disturbed reminiscence against the universal pamphlet. Each of his poems is an enigma of blood episodes of history, and which the reader unfolds to puts in place pieces of historically proven events.

(TINA LACO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, University Professor, Literary scholar)

Lulzim Tafa is the poet who leaves open the possibility of multifaceted interpretation. His selected style of writing implies that he does not impose himself to the reader. Rather, he leaves the reader to freely enjoy his poetry and then through the plurality of interpretation to judge in his own way.

 (XHEMAIL PECI, England Literary scholar)

Lulzim Tafa views the world as a blessed and eternal gift. He knows how to decipher the internal light of words. His words shed light, because they are the eternal light of the Albanian soul. Lulzim Tafa gives priority to the elegance of poetic discourse. The poet is the owner of spiritual experiences in the context of manifested feelings. The author surprises us with the depth of describing moments and experiences. His verses look like neo-Romanticist pearls of postmodernist values that do not overlook the stately gender of the classic variant. Occasionally, the poet’s revolt is provoked by the fierce and relentless manifestation of the capitalism of the jungle which stains the traditional, moral and normal values.

 (Lucian Gruia, Romania Literary scholar)