In memory of the poet Jorgo Papingji (1942-2024)

Jorgo Papingji (1942-2024) Poet "Great Master" He was born in Vlora on June 10, 1942. A great name, author of many songs from both light and popular music. In elementary school, after finishing the 4th grade, he started to deal with poetry and writing, contributing his creativity to the two school newspapers, one with humorous themes and the other more serious, especially in the field of poetry by set his name from the main ones. His poetry found its way into notebooks and intimate blocks of poems with the first lines about love, for any friends who asked him to exchange messages with the side of the line, in a way that does not exist anymore. His first publication will be in the periodical "Zeri i Rinise", a cycle of poems. From that time on, poetry and verse were never separated. Jorgo Papingji has completed his higher studies in exact sciences (mathematics-physics) and has been a passionate teacher and principal in several schools in Tirana and elsewhere, but the song grabbed him in its light arms and pushed him towards a bold dream . The rhythms of music took him with them, making what he considered a "second job", dealing with song lyrics, become his first and define his own individuality as a man, as a poet and as an artist, with a wide audition of emotional meeting points in the aesthetic time-space of the Albanian world. His first collaboration as a lyricist was with the famous composer Aleksander Lalo in a sensational song for its time, with the title "A ta fshij apo ta gris", a song for children that evoked many positive reactions. With the composer A. Lalo, the respected poet Jorgo Papingji had a long and very productive collaboration, thanks also to the common artistic tastes to convey songs with a wide flow of messages and emotional charges. The first text presented by Papingji is at the XIII Song Festival at RTSH, again in collaboration with the composer Aleksandër Lala. However, that song was built and structured on a poetic love text, had no trace of the drums of the time and was free from propaganda and agitational clichés. The song was titled "When we are together" and it was a romantic hit, sung with a rich vocation and high sensitivity by the two singers, Liljana Kondakçi and Luan Zhegu. At this festival, the song based on his text received the 3rd prize, which was a great encouragement for the poet on his way. Since that day and until now, Papingji has not been separated from the presentation at these festivals, where it has won seventeen prizes, four first prizes and the others second and third. As one of the most impressive aspects of his work in creating texts, Papingji will be remembered for his work in Children's Festivals, that dedication and that passionate feeling, which made the poet trace children's games and build texts on them, that would be sung by the little ones and become hit songs, which would circulate throughout Albania, in kindergartens, schools, social-cultural environments, recreational environments, beaches, swimming pools, at toys and wherever they carried out their activities the children. In these texts, a fable perceived from the children's world prevails, from the rites of the games, on which the edifice of words and music is built in accordance with the rhythm and liveliness of these games. It was enough to remember the song "Hapa dollapa" that the author has built on the fable of the game kukafshehtas, where the text and music, the tempo of the game and the tempo of the song work in one, sung with passion and chastity by the little ones. In his debut at Children's Song Festivals, Papingji participated with 512 texts and was evaluated by the artistic juries of the time with twenty-six prizes. Papingji's contribution is just as great with his poetic debut with popular song lyrics. In fact, many of Papingji's lyrics belong to the folk songs of central Albania, but all of administrative Albania, the entire Albanian world, Kosovo, Chameria, etc., are part of his artistic commitment, to give us pearl lyrics, which they have had and continue to have. to have an extraordinary affinity with the art lovers of the Albanian folk song. His texts for icon singers of Albanian folk music such as Hafsa Zyberi, Bik Ndoja, Luçie Miloti, etc. are points of reference for the spirit of the living and inexhaustible folk muse, which is the very soul of the genetic and psychoentic identity of a nation. The lyrics of the songs for the Dibrans who settled in Tirana, for the Skrapalians, for the elders of Kavaja, etc., are just some of those dozens and hundreds of lyrics that have had and continue to have a wide audience among lovers and fans of folk songs. Jorgo Papingji is a poet with a wide range of points of view, with a warm and spontaneous lyricism, with vivid and fresh figures, with multifaceted messages, originating from the text and subtext, with a great wealth of images, states, experiences and meeting points , which make his poetry independent, even outside the musical structures, a special poem and with a long extension in time, stripping it of all externalities, with which the poetry of many of his contemporaries was filled , at a time when the exterior defined art and poetry itself, as a dogmatic illustration of reality. Papingji does not illustrate but discovers, does not call but moans, screams and loves with all the power of his soul, broken into thousands and thousands of brilliant verses, worthy of any serious world anthology. Papingji's lyricism, the sharpness and finesse of the details, the deep tempo and surprising intonations, both rhythmic and compositional structures, the almost shocking simplicity with which he conveys to us great truths, both human and national, as well as universal, make an inimitable poet, a powerful voice of new Albanian poetry, not in terms of age, but in terms of the modern and traditional filters at the same time, with which he operates in his long and irreversible poetic journey. More than four thousand song lyrics have circulated since then and until now with the author Jorgo Papingji, making his name a beloved name for people, who are so connected to the song and the poem that accompanies it, identifying the author of these texts with the warm and frank messages that originate from the depths of the poetic heart. The famous poet passed away on March 21, 2024 ______________________ Albanian cinematography in activity since 2013 Reference: News and information collected from various online Albanian newspapers.