Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, commonly known by his pen name Migjeni, was an Albanian poet and writer who lived from October 13, 1911, to August 26, 1938. He is considered one of the most important writers of the 20th century. After his death, he was recognized as a major influence in Albanian literature between the world wars.
Migjeni’s writing style changed over his lifetime. He began by writing romantic stories about revolution but later focused on realistic stories that showed the struggles of poor people. His works, such as "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread," "The Killing Beauty," "Forbidden Apple," "The Corn Legend," and "Would You Like Some Charcoal?" described the suffering of common people and the lack of care from wealthy individuals.
After World War II, the communist government in Albania controlled the publication of his works. Many of his writings from the 1930s had not been published fully before this time.
Biography
Migjeni was born on October 13, 1911, in the town of Shkodër, which is located on the southeastern shore of Lake Shkodër. His last name came from his grandfather, Nikolla, who was born in the Upper Reka region. Nikolla moved to Shkodër in the late 1800s, where he worked as a bricklayer. He later married Stake Milani from Kuči, Montenegro, and they had two sons: Gjergj (Migjeni’s father) and Kristo. Nikolla was one of the people who signed the agreement to create the Albanian Orthodox Church in 1922. Migjeni’s mother, Sofia Kokoshi (who died in 1916), was born in Kavajë and studied at the Catholic seminary in Scutari, which was run by Italian nuns. His maternal uncle, Jovan Kokoshi, taught at the Orthodox seminary in Bitola. Milosh, Migjeni’s brother, had a sibling who died as an infant and four sisters: Lenka, Jovanka, Cvetka, and Olga.
Some scholars believe Migjeni had Serb ancestry and suggest his first language was Serbo-Croatian. However, Migjeni’s cousin, Angjelina Ceka Luarasi, wrote in her book Migjeni–Vepra that Migjeni was of Albanian origin and spoke only Albanian as his first language. She also stated that the family descended from the Nikolla family of Debar in Upper Reka and the Kokoshi family. Angjelina explained that the family used many Slavic names because of their Orthodox faith.
Migjeni attended an Orthodox elementary school in Scutari. From 1923 to 1925, he studied at a secondary school in Bar, Montenegro (then part of Yugoslavia), where his sister Lenka lived. At age 14, in autumn 1925, he received a scholarship to attend secondary school in Monastir (Bitola), also in former Yugoslavia. He graduated in 1927 and then enrolled in the Orthodox seminary of St. John the Theologian. There, he studied Old Church Slavonic, Russian, Greek, Latin, and French. He continued his education until June 1932.
On June 17, 1932, Migjeni’s passport listed his name as Milosh Nikoliç. Later, on May 18, 1933, a decree from the Minister of Education, Mirash Ivanaj, changed his name to Millosh Nikolla. A revised birth certificate dated January 26, 1937, also listed his name as Millosh Nikolla.
Career
On April 23, 1933, he became a teacher at a school in the village of Vrakë or Vraka, seven kilometers from Shkokër, until 1934 when the school closed. During this time, he also began writing short stories and poems.
In May 1934, his first short story, Sokrat i vuejtun apo derr i kënaqun (Suffering Socrates or a Satisfied Pig), was published in the magazine Illyria under his new name, Migjeni. This name is made from the first two letters of his full name: Millosh Gjergj Nikolla. In the summer of 1935, Migjeni became very sick with tuberculosis, a disease he had caught earlier. He traveled to Athens, Greece, in July 1935 to seek treatment, but the disease was common in the wet, coastal areas of Albania at the time. He returned to Shkodra a month later, but his health did not improve. In the fall of 1935, he moved to a school in Shkodra and began publishing his first important poems in Illyria.
In a letter dated January 12, 1936, written to a translator named Skënder Luarasi in Tirana, Migjeni wrote, "I am about to send my songs to the printer. You once promised to help me find a publisher, like 'Gutemberg,' so I want to remind you of that promise." Later, Migjeni was transferred to the mountain village of Puka and became the headmaster of a school there in April 1936.
The fresh mountain air helped him feel slightly better, but the poverty and hardship of the people in and around Puka were very difficult. Many children came to school without shoes or food, and school often stopped because of diseases like measles and mumps. After 18 months in the mountains, he had to leave his teaching job to seek medical help in Turin, Italy, where his sister, Ollga, was studying. He arrived in Turin before Christmas and hoped to study at a university after recovering. However, treatment for tuberculosis improved only a decade later. After five months at a sanatorium near Turin, Migjeni was moved to a hospital in Torre Pellice, where he died on August 26, 1938. Robert Elsie wrote that Migjeni’s death at age 26 was a great loss for Albanian literature.
Migjeni chose the name Mi-Gje-Ni, which is made from the first two letters of his first name, father’s name, and last name.
Migjeni first wrote short stories, publishing about 24 of them in magazines between 1933 and 1938. However, his poetry had the greatest impact on Albanian culture. His collection of poems, Vargjet e Lira ("Free Verse"), was printed in 1936 by the Gutenberg Press in Tirana but was later banned by the government. A second edition in 1944 removed two poems, Parathanja e parathanjeve ("Preface of Prefaces") and Blasfemi ("Blasphemy"), which were considered offensive, but it included eight new poems. The main theme of Migjeni’s work was suffering and hardship, reflecting the difficult life he saw and lived.
One of his poems, Rezignata ("Resignation"), describes a world filled with sorrow, tears, and struggle. He wrote, "We show our comfort only in tears… Our inheritance from all these years is misery… Our world is a tomb where people are forced to live like snakes."
According to Robert Elsie, Migjeni’s poetry showed a deep awareness of social problems and despair. Earlier poets often wrote about the beauty of Albania’s mountains and traditions, but Migjeni focused on the harsh realities of poverty, disease, and suffering. He wrote, "I suffer from the child whose father cannot buy him a toy… I suffer from the sick suffering from all the diseases of the world." His poem Rezignata paints a bleak picture of life, filled with darkness, tears, and struggle. Nature in his work is often described as autumn, a time of decay.
Some of his poems, like Të birtë e shekullit të ri ("The Sons of the New Age"), Zgjimi ("Awakening"), Kanga e rinis ("Song of Youth"), and Kanga e të burgosunit ("The Prisoner’s Song"), express strong political ideas in a left-wing style. These works are considered early examples of socialist poetry in Albanian literature, even before the communist period from 1944 to 1990. However, Migjeni was not a political poet in the traditional sense. He lacked the optimism and political involvement of other writers.
Migjeni was influenced by the ideas of the 1930s, a time when Albanian intellectuals were interested in Western ideas, and when communism and fascism were clashing in the Spanish Civil War. He was also influenced by some right-wing ideas, as seen in poems like Të lindet njeriu ("May the Man Be Born") and Trajtat e Mbinjeriut ("The Shape of the Superman"), which reference the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. To a friend who was a Trotskyist, Migjeni said, "My work has a fighting spirit, but for practical reasons, I must hide my true ideas. I cannot explain everything to the groups; they must understand it themselves."
Migjeni also criticized the Church, which he believed ignored the suffering of people. His religious education and training for the Orthodox priesthood may have influenced his views, but he often wrote about the hardships of life and the failures of institutions to help people.
Legacy
Elsie writes about Migjeni's legacy: "Although Migjeni did not publish any books during his lifetime, his writings, which were shared privately and in newspapers at the time, were quickly successful. Migjeni helped create modern literature in Albania." However, this literature was soon stopped from growing. The same year that the book Free Verse was published, Stalinism became powerful in Albania, and the People's Republic was declared.
Many people have wondered what Migjeni might have contributed to Albanian writing if he had lived longer. This is uncertain, because Migjeni's unique voice, which expressed real social concerns, likely would have faced the same dangers as other talented Albanian writers in the late 1940s, such as being sent to prison or executed. His early death has at least kept his work untouched by later events.
Because Migjeni died so young, it is hard to fully evaluate his work. His writing is generally admired, but not everyone agrees. Some people have found his writing style unsatisfying, and the variety of his poetry is not enough to call him a great poet.