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| Marc Chagall, I and the Village, 1911 |
This is Bora Mici's original Albanian to English translation of a poem in a children's collection of poems by the Albanian poet Moikom Zeqo. As you will easily understand, because the style is very direct, the poem is about how humans will try to draw utility of everything, even living things, exploiting them until the end. It reminds me of Giovanni Verga's story about the donkey of San Giuseppe (La storia dell'asino di San Giuseppe in Italian) in which a donkey, who starts out strong and healthy, is subjected to various amounts of onerous labor by different owners and keeps getting sold from one farmer to another for lesser and lesser values until no one can get anything out of him any longer. This kind of mentality shows that we think of people and animals as commodities too and use them for our personal ends and gains, and that this tale is as ancient as the world. What would happen if we started treating sentient beings as ends in themselves? I think we have evolved to improve on this matter but we are still in a logic of reification and commodification of time and attention and what we consider food. I believe it is good for people to devote themselves to work and useful things because it gives their life meaning, but no one's labor should be exploited unfairly.
The leather on the drum
tells its
story:
Once a donkey
I was
in life’s glory
The master on my back
put
a load
When I could not walk
the whip
blowed
From fatigue I died
and collapsed
on the road
So the master
skinned
my coat
The drumsticks beat
the drumroll
plays
Now the donkey
Like a drum
Brays
Does suffering
turn
into cheers?
The master
won’t forget
the fable he hears:
He won’t give up
the merchandise
will try all his breath
in life
as in death
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