Erotic, Sexual Words and Meanings in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' in Albanian translation

• Author: Fatmir Ramadani
• Position: University of Graz
• Pages: 67-72

Vol. 3 No. 2

July 2017

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

67

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

Erotic, Sexual Words and Meanings in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in

Albanian translation

PhD (C.) Fatmir Ramadani

University of Graz

Abstract

The Albanian reading public had to wait for three hundred years to be introduced to the works

of one of the greatest writers of English literature, William Shakespeare, in their mother tongue.

The translation of Shakespeare’s works into Albanian started in the second decade of the 20th

century. We distinguish three periods of the Albanian translation of Shakespeare’s plays. The

fi rst phase, from 1915 to 1928, is known for the translation of Bishop Fan Noli, the head of

Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Boston, USA. The second phase from 1955

until 1982, during the totalitarian regime world literature was strictly censored by communist

propaganda, with only three o cial translators of Shakespeare’s works, Skënder Luarasi,

Vedat Kokona, and Alqi Kristo. Third period, from 1990 to the present, with an increasing

number of translators of Shakespeare’s works, such as Refi k Kad a, Perikli Jorgoni, Qezar

Kurti, Mihal Hanxhari, Napolon Tasi, Pashko Gjeçi, Kristaq Traja etc. William Shakespeare

has made frequent use of erotic and sexual words, meanings and connotations in his tragedy

Romeo and Juliet. Most of them are missing in the fi rst Albanian translation. But the second

translator has noted all of them in the footnotes of his translation. In this paper I will focus on

these sexual and erotic words and references in the “Romeo and Juliet” and their translation

in Albanian language by two translators, the fi rst translation of Alqi Kristo some 70 years ago,

and the second translation by Refi k Kad a in 2014. Political infl uences, evolution of Albanian

language over the last decades, are some of the main reasons to suggest that Refi k Kad a’s

translation should be used as more complete and be er translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy

in Albanian language.

Keywords: William Shakespeare, translation, Albania, erotic.

Introduction

The translation of Shakespeare’s works into Albanian started in the second decade of

the 20th century. The Albanian reading public had to wait for three hundred years to

be introduced to the works of one of the greatest writers of English literature, William

Shakespeare, in their mother tongue. Since the very beginning politics seems to have

guided and determined the translation of Shakespeare’s works into Albanian. “The

fi rst Albanian translator of Shakespeare’s plays, Bishop Fan S. Noli, the head of the

Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Boston, USA, was politically motivated

to translate the four tragedies Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar.” (Kad a, R.,

(2009) “William Shakespeare in Albania”, LCPJ, p. 37).

There are already two translations of Romeo and Juliet. The fi rst translation was done

almost 70 years ago by Alqi Kristo. The second was done in 2014 by Refi k Kad a.

Until October 2014 it was the only translation of “Romeo and Juliet” that existed in