Poem - Meant to be! by Hussein Habasch - KURDISTAN

Meant to be!
by Hussein Habasch - KURDISTAN
 
It was all meant to be!
That Bes and Lucilla came to Tirana airport. That we set off, after Margherita joined us,
to a marathon journey through the beautiful cities and towns of Albania.
We had to avoid entering the traffic jams of the capital and take our way to the wonderful city of Durres.  
We said hello to its tall palms and elegant statues, and then crossed its bridge- suspended over the wound of the sea like a bandage.
It was all meant to be!
We had to go to the city of Kavaja
And we had to get our coffee there.
We had to take some pictures in front of its old mosque
- Oh, its vaults arched like the eyebrows of a mythical woman 
Maybe I will meet her in the city of Korca.
We had to cross rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys, forests, and beautiful landscapes to reach the great city of Berat.
We had to be impressed by the houses in the neighbourhoods of Mangalem and Gorica- lined up on the shoulder of the mountain as chambers of paradise.
We had to book a hotel- a floating necklace of clouds at the neck of the slope and the cliff.
We had to make our way up to the castle, perched like a crown of eternity over the head of the city.
We had to enter the heart of the castle and meet its wonders and anecdotes.
We had to reach the farthest point of the castle and overlook the Osumi River and its bridge uniting Berat in one heart and one soul.
We had to dine in a popular restaurant and then take a night tour of the narrow alleys and streets calling the feet of passers-by with enchanting charm.
We were meant to greet the creations of the icons artist Onufri and his son Nikolla, and we had to remember the outstanding fighter Margarita Tutulani as well.
We had then to bid farewell to the city and in the morning continue our wonderful journey through the towering mountains of Tomori.
We had to come to the town of Belsh, the quiet town in the lap of the lake named after it.
We had to give warm greetings to the statue of the legendary commander, Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, who shook the throne of the Ottomans for twenty-five continuous years, tirelessly!
I was meant to take a photo of him for future memory
And another photo of Bes, leaning on his shoulder
as if leaning on the shoulder of the whole history!
We had to stop in Elbasan, with its colossal busts of the legendary Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, Lekë Dukagjini and Adem Jashari, and take a break under the thick beard of the mountain.
Thenceforth, we will drink our coffee and move to other dreams and other hopes in other places.
We will suddenly find ourselves on the shore of the magnificent Ohrid Lake,
and I would not control myself; I will open my arms wide and fly above it - a huge bird without wings, but with a loving heart and two lungs of feathers!
Just in a few minutes, we will then reach Pogradec, the city whose sides smell of roses - their fragrance flowing from its cheeks.
We will walk the path of the dreamers on Lake Ohrid, embracing the shade of its trees and contemplating the fishermen's boats bobbing on the surface of the lake.
Bes’ surprise for us is just a breath afar!
Here stands the statue of the great writer Mitrush Kuteli, and a few steps away the statue of the great poet Lasgush Poradeci stands tall, luring the gulls of poems into his traps.
Here Bes will talk about Poradeci with unparalleled enthusiasm and will not hide his great love for his poems that sparkle like rare jewels in people's hearts and on their tongues.
Here Bes will enthusiastically read one of his poems, engraved on one of the marble chairs surrounding him!
Here he will translate it for us with love, and we will applaud him with great admiration.
We will complete the dream and continue our journey to the city of Korca, where the poets and friends are.
In Korca, we will read poetry and fill the taverns with music, dance and beauty.
In Korca, I will finally meet the legendary woman I told you about in the beginning!
The woman, who gave spring from her green dress to the city.
The woman, who with her eyelashes erected a monument of butterflies in the heart of the city.
The woman, who with the wine of her lips made the cherry blossoms bloom early in the city's gardens.
That wonderful woman who, if she laughed, the whole city laughed...!
Then laugh, Legendary Woman
laugh
laugh
please laugh so that we can follow the dream and write poems with the ink of your laughter.
Thank you Bes
Thank you Lucilla
Thank you Margherita
Thank you Legendary Woman, the one who rose from imagination and lived in an imaginary house.
And I boundlessly thank you poetry
You that lead our steps to the beauty that still exist in this world.
 
Notes:
*Bes is Besnik Camaj, a poet from Kosovo
*Lucilla is Lucilla Trapazzo, a poetess from Italy
* Margherita is Margherita Parrelli, a poetess from Italy
*A legendary woman is a woman who may be real or imaginary.
 
Albania/ Germany 
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Hussein Habasch
KURDISTAN
 
Hussein Habasch is a poet from Afrin, Kurdistan, born in 1970. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany. His poems have been translated into English, German, Spanish, French, Persian, Uzbek, Albanian, Russian, Romanian, Italian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Vietnamese, Nepali, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tajik, Bengali, Turkish, Berber (Amazigh), Bosnian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese, Greek, Mandarin (the language of Taiwan), Tzotzil (the language of the Mayan peoples of Mexico), Dutch. His poetry has been published in more than 200 International Poetry Anthologies and his books include: Drowning in Roses, Fugitives across Evros River, Higher than Desire and more Delicious than the Gazelle's Flank, Delusions to Salim Barakat, A Flying Angel, No pasarán (in Spanish), Copaci Cu Chef (in Romanian), Dos Árboles (in Spanish), Tiempos de Guerra (in Spanish), Fever of Quince (in Kurdish), Peace for Afrin, Peace for Kurdistan (in English and Spanish), The Red Snow (in Chinese), Dead arguing in the corridors (in Arabic) Drunken trees (in Kurdish), Boredom of a tired statue (in Kurdish), Flor del Espinillo (in Spanish) A Rose for the Heart of Life, selected Poems (in English), Olvido (in Spanish), La harde de cerfs meurt de soif (in French), Jibîrkirin (in Kurdish), Los Kurdos Y Dios (in Spanish), A Rose for the Heart of Life (in English and Bengali) and Stones in Exile (in English). He has participated in many International Poetry Festivals including: Colombia, Nicaragua, France, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Morocco, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kosovo, Macedonia, Costa Rica, Slovenia, China, Taiwan, Cuba, Sweden, New York City, Sarajevo, Greece, Albania, Cyprus, Uruguay, India, Rockport (USA), Indonesia, Italy, Poland and Serbia. He has won several awards: The International Best Poet Prize 2016 awarded in China by the International Poetry Translation and Research Centre, the Journal of the World Poets Quarterly (Multilingual) and the Editorial Board of the Chinese Poetry International, the Great Kurdish Poet Hamid Bedirkhan Award, awarded by the General Union of Kurdish Writers and Journalists (2022), the International “Bosnian Stećak” Award for Poetry, awarded by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Writers Union (2022), the Bangladesh Kathak International Literary Prize, awarded at the World Thinkers’ and Writers’ Peace Meet in Calcutta, India (2024), he has also been rewarded with a honorific price at the Safi International Poetry Forum in Morocco (2024), he was invited as a featured international poet to read at Walt Whitman's birthplace in Huntington, New York, for the "Walking with Whitman" program (2025) and a special award and honor from the AFRIN Fine Arts Festival 2025 in Germany.