Irma Kurti

Biography

IRMA KURTI is an Albanian poet, writer, lyricist, journalist, and translator and has been writing since she was a child. She is a naturalized Italian and lives in Bergamo, Italy. All her books are dedicated to the memory of her beloved parents, Hasan Kurti and Sherife Mezini, who have supported and encouraged every step of her literary path. Kurti has won numerous literary prizes and awards in Albania, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Philippines, Lebanon and China. She was awarded the Universum Donna International Prize IX Edition 2013 for Literature and received a lifetime nomination as an Ambassador of Peace by the University of Peace, Italian Switzerland. In 2020, she became the honorary president of WikiPoesia, the encyclopedia of poetry. In 2022, she was nominated as the Albanian ambassador to the International Academic Award of Contemporary Literature Seneca of the Academy of Philosophical Arts and Sciences, Bari. That same year, she was awarded the title of Mother Foundress and Lady of the Order of Dante Alighieri by the Republic of Poets. She received the Grazia Deledda medal and diploma of merit from the National Committee of WikiPoesia on the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian poet. In 2023 she was awarded a Career Award from the Universum Academy Switzerland. She also won the prestigious 2023 Naji Naaman's literary prize for complete work. Irma Kurti is a member of the jury for several literary competitions in Italy. She is also a translator for the Ithaca Foundation in Spain. Irma Kurti has published 29 books in Albanian, 25 in Italian, 15 in English, and two in French. She has also translated 20 books by different authors, and all of her own books into Italian and English. Irma Kurti is one of the most translated and published Albanian poets. Her books have been translated and published in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, Turkey, Kosovo, the Philippines, Cameroon, India, Chile, Serbia and Colombia.

Samples

WITHOUT A HOMELAND What are you looking for on the shore, shreds of memories or broken shells? Seagulls to distant lands have flown, abandoning thus their only love nest. Just like you, who in a foreign land tried to build with difficulty a roof. Although from there, the cold, the rain, nostalgia, and memories penetrate, too. Nothing has remained, even that door you opened in the dream of first love. It was rusty, now it has been replaced with a more beautiful and modern one. You’ve changed also, you’re a sky full of clouds, hard to recognize yourself— a sensitive soul, very often deluded; a sad poetess, left without a homeland. Taken from “Without a homeland”, Transcendent Zero Press, USA, 2019. THE TULIPS In the green park where you walked, the emotion overwhelms me, like a hurricane. The many tulips I see there, their beauty kills my soul. For hours you would have watched them. In a hushed tone you would have told me, “I’ll take a picture of them,” with a camera in your hands. You would have admired the colors and would have said, “They’re so nice!” I can no longer contemplate them because these tulips make me suffer. Now that you’re no longer with me . . . A CLOUD I often wish I didn’t exist so I wouldn’t feel pain and suffering, wouldn’t see the ones I love so much leave quite suddenly. I’d like to be transformed into a cloud, fall in love with the night, be inebriated with profound peace, kiss the pale, transparent moonlight.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.