Kasëm Trebeshina

• Name — Kasëm Trebeshina • Born — 8 August 1926 • Birthplace — Berat, Albania • Died — 6 November 2017 • Place of death — Ankara, Turkey • Occupation — Writer • Language — Albanian • Genre — fiction, nonfictionshort story, poetry • Notable Works — Mekami, melodi turke; Odin Mondvalsen, Stina e Stinëve etc.

Kasëm Trebeshina was born in Berat, originating from Vinokash in the region of Përmet, born to Hysen Vinokashi and Hatixhe Sanxhaktari. He was born in his mother's house in the "Murad Çelebi" neighbourhood in Berat, because Vinokash was burned by the Greek andarts during the First Balkan War and the family settled in the plain of Myzeqe. He finished elementary education in his birthplace and continued high-school in Elbasan, he left school in order to join the resistance movement, due to his brother being arrested by the fascist authorities. In 1942 he joined the National Liberation Movement during the World War II, during which he was injured badly in February 1944. He fought in the region of Myzeqe and Mallakastër, after the injury he served in Vlora. At this time Trebeshina committed two controversial murders: one without trial and one behind the back. In the last days of the resistance Trebeshina was proposed to join the Department for People's Protection (Albanian name-sake of OZNA), but he did not accept. He continued in the serving as a military officer, being banished at 8 January 1948. During the years 1945-46 he served as assistant judge of Bilbil Klosi in some political cases. In 1945, the communist dictator Enver Hoxha gave him the rank of First Captain, next to Kadri Hazbiu, Teme Sejko and Nesti Kerenxhi. After the war, he studied at the A. N. Ostrovsky Theatre Institute in Leningrad, but did not remain long. According to Edmond Cali and Nuri Dragoj he left the Ostrovsky Institute due to political quarrels However archival sources have shown he left it due to his desire to return to the Albanian People's Army. After he wrote a letter to Enver Hoxha, he left the Party and later the League of Writers and Artists. He was firstly arrested in 1953 and condemned with three years, yet served only 11 months of his sentence. From 1955 to 1962 he did not work, and refused the jobs offered to him. Although aware that Trebeshina was not working, the communist authorities who in other instances persecuted what they referred to as "parasites", took no measures against him, nor did they pressure him to work. Due to this behavior, in 1962 the authorities finally decided to send him to internment for 5 years, a sentence which he didn't serve in full. Afterwards was interned in Vlorë, Gramsh and Shijak. Then in 1965 he returned to Tirana, where he started a job at the National Library and afterwards at the Naim Frashëri Publishing House as a reviser. He was relocated to irrigation works and since 1975 he stayed jobless according to his investigative file compiled by the Sigurimi. Trebeshina himself said during an interview that he spent 13 years in prison. Some sources claim he was imprisoned for 17 years. However, contrary to what his biographers claim, archival evidence proves that by 1981 he had been in prison for only 11 months. He had also been 2 and a half years in internment. Afterwards he was not released from prison until 1991. Some used to view Trebeshina as one of the voices of dissent during the post-World War II era in Communist Albania, claiming that got him arrested three times and proclaimed by the regime as a madman. After the infamous 1997 riot in Albania Trebeshina fled from Albania and migrated to Istanbul, Turkey. • Illustration — Grave of Kasem Trebeshina and his parents

Although the majority of literary works were written in accordance with socialist realism norms, one of the works that escaped these normes was Kënga Shqiptare (Albanian Song), in five volums, as well as other realist novels of Trebeshina. He wrote the novel "Mekami", in the narrative "Kukudhi", the short novel "Kisha e Shën Kristoforit: Legjenda e Kostandinit dhe e Doruntinës", the novel "Rruga e Golgotës", short novel "Odin Mondvalsen" and the short novel "Hani i Begomires". It is clearly expressed in the memuaristic essays in the volume "Dafinat e thara", in the historical novel "Këngë shqiptare" and the novel "Tregtari i skeleteve", perfect example of intertextuality.

His novel Odin Mondvalsen was translated into German by Hans-Joachim Lanksch, published in Klagenfurt in 1994. His memoirs-essays Dafinat e thara (The dry laurels) were translated in Italian (Allori secchi) by Edmond Çali, published in Rome in 2007. Furthermore his novel Pylli - Evandri dhe Nausika (The forest) was translated in French by Anne-Marie Autissier and published by L’Espace d’un Instant editions in 2011.