The branches of the oak tree and its bark

Have their own alphabet

Because those who are there understand

The path was paved with blood…

Dashnim Hebibi, a renowned poet and journalist from Kosovo, shares his poetry

Dashnim Hebibi, PhD, a journalist, poet, moderator, and publicist from Presheva, was born on June 12, 1976 in Vranjë, a city that was once full of Albanians, a few kilometers from Presheva, near the Red Apple Region. As a young man, he began writing about these regions, such as Presheva, Medvegja, and Bujanoc. After completing primary and secondary school in Presheva, he immediately turned to higher education. Dashnim Hebibi graduated from the Faculty of Journalism in Tirana (1995-1999), and during his studies he wrote for many Albanian written media of the time, meeting various personalities. He has also completed several postgraduate studies, such as the Diplomatic Academy and Crisis Management in Tirana and in 2011 he completed his Master’s Degree in Diplomacy at SEEU – Tetovë. Dashnim graduated from the International Academy of Criminalistics with the well-known Mr. Avi Bleier, in Tel Aviv, Israel. He worked for several years as the diaspora editor for the “Bota Sot” daily newspaper, editorial office in Zurich; he worked as a correspondent at the Macedonian Television, editorial office in Albanian, for three years in a row from Switzerland. He has edited and redacted many papers, always as a freelance journalist. Until February 2010, he was the director of the ‘Albanian Media Center’ (the only media center of the Albanian Diaspora), as editor of the ‘Kosova e Re’ News Agency, as an information window for the Albanian Diaspora. Dashnim Hebibi is widely recognized among the Albanian diaspora for his great contribution to the integration of Albanian society. He has participated in various events related to his homeland, both in political, cultural, sports and social aspects. He published the Diaspora Newspaper ‘AMC Press’, ‘Kosova e Re’ throughout the Albanian diaspora, but for financial reasons he had to discontinue it. He also wrote several patriotic songs for our most prominent singers, such as Arif Vladi, etc. He also collaborated with TV Diaspora-RTK for the Swiss edition. He was also a correspondent for TVM, the Albanian language editorial office, during the war in Macedonia, where Mr. Hebibi had daily reports from the Albanian diaspora. Hebibi was also the initiator of the first Albanian Library in Switzerland, specifically in Zurich in 2002. Dashnim has also participated in many organizations for the benefit of the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland, and has also received numerous recognitions from associations operating throughout the Albaniandiaspora, such as the Albanian Teachers and Parents League in Switzerland and Germany. He also worked as deputy editor-in-chief of the “Plisi” Monthly Magazine, which was published in Switzerland. He spent no less than two decades in this profession. His writings are published in many media outlets in his homeland and abroad. He is currently the Director of the Helvetic Scientific Institute of Southeast Europe based in Switzerland. On 24.03.2023, he successfully completed the third cycle of doctoral studies at the Faculty of Contemporary Social Sciences, Study Program: Political Science at SEEU of North Macedonia. He has also published several scientific papers in various scientific journals. He also runs the Albanian Media Center in Switzerland, SAM24.info.

His published works include: ‘A Hundred Hours of Travel’ (collection of poems); ​‘Hidden Moon’ (collection of poems); ‘Time with Many Holes’ (prose);​ ‘Reading the Earth’ (poetry); ​‘Kosovo, a Mother Fire’ (collection of poems); ​‘Dialogue with the Stone’ (poetry, Albanian-German); ​‘The Aristocracy of the Spirit’ (poetry, Albanian-English); ​‘16 Bullets of the Word’ (collection of poems); ​‘Interviews in Transition I’ (summary of interviews); ​‘Interviews in Transition II’ (summary of interviews); ​‘Interviews in Transition III’ (summary of interviews); ​‘Interviews in Transition IV’ (summary of interviews); ​The Monography of the Humanitarian Association ‘Medvegja’ entitled ’30 Years in the Service of the Nation’; ​The Monography of the Humanitarian Association ‘Presheva Valley’ entitled ‘10 Years for the Nation’; “Inspiring Women of the Albanian Diaspora”, part one and two, and many others.

Story of the Oak of the Red Apple Country

I have been inside an oak tree

At a very young age

There I felt something special

A dream of roots

A dream of spreading branches

My pain is sufficient to me

I don’t need whispers

I will suffer the necessary suffering of life

My time has this direction

My window is open with all the travelers of light

Presheva is my same land

They call it the Red Apple Region

Like Kosova, the same

Like Ilirida, the same

Like Ulqin the same

Like Shkup, the same

Like Çameria!

The branches of the oak tree and its bark

Have their own alphabet

Because those who are there understand

The path was paved with blood

A lot of pain has been endured

There is the oak tree

There will be the branches

Because the sun is Illyrian

Even today

I have the same wound of time

And the same pain…

***

The Red Apple Province is ours

The province in the heart of Albanian Nation

With its capital city, Presheva

Protects the stone of memory

Guards the stone of morning

Make a fist with your hand

Don’t forget, put it in memory

The blood of the brave does not melt

If we don’t hold ourselves

The crops will be devastated

Freedom must be witnessed

In well-being and construction!

I have Presheva as the main song of my heart

Albanians in the flag

The main song in poetry

Spirit of the land in that ethnicity.

***

In Zürich Platz

There, I feel my silent word

That weighs like a stone on the language of exile,

The silence that speaks with the voice of the fields of Presheva,

With the sigh of the mountains that bear the scars of war.

In “Zürich Platz”,

My steps knock on the pavement

As if they were verses carved in stone.

I am writing an epitaph for myself,

For the tear that carries memories

Of a homeland that calls out among foreign languages,

Of a time that has not stopped its shooting.

In “Zürich Platz”,

The sight of children in Preshevë

Comes like an echo amidst the noise of the city.

The flowers in the gardens of old houses

Bloom

To see life,

To testify that mother Xhevahire

Waters them with memories,

As if to keep an entire world alive in their roots.

In “Zürich Platz”,

I stopped a few moments ago,

To meet family, friends, comrades and loved ones.

I met my brother, I called Jeton,

And he saw me through the eyes of a difficult time.

Together with my brother,

We have the same wound,

The same pain,

The same love for the future of a region

That remains a longing and pain in the chest of a nation.

At that moment of conversation,

The shadow stood at our feet,

Listening to our words and writing them on the asphalt.

We, by gasoline (car), measured the kilometers,

The same as the morning pennies for coffee,

As if to measure how far we have come,

How far we have left.

Time comes,

With its roots as the shadow of history.

It follows us, speaks to us,

Reminds us that we are there, between two worlds,

Separated by borders,

But never by heart.

(Translation by Jeton Arifi -Prishtina)