About Preç Zogaj and his poetry/ Beautiful things are difficult to read

2026-05-15 10:58:00, Kulturë Luan Rama

- Notes on the volume of poetry "Sin Sees Us in Every Mirror"

Beautiful things are difficult to read because they force you to look inside yourself, and we are not always ready for what we will find there.

If 40 years ago, in the volume "The Unfinished", Preç Zogaj invited us to live in a "roofless house", where love was an open and unprotected horizon under the sky, today, with "In every mirror, sin sees us", he shows us that the walls of that house are filled with mirrors.

This is his extraordinary evolution: from open lyricism that sought unconditional freedom, to mature reflection that dares to look within oneself.

What was once an "unfinished house" is now a temple of conscience, where sin and love are seen eye to eye, with the same sincerity that Preçi has maintained in every verse of these four decades of creativity.

If I had to characterize Preç Zogaj's poetry in three words, I would choose: lyricism, melancholy, and reflection.

While Preçi himself, in Albanian poetry today, we can consider him without any doubt: an authority, reference, and model.

These two triads are not simply descriptions, but two levels of the same phenomenon.

The first is related to the internal structure of his poetry, while the second is related to the way it is placed in Albanian poetry.

In this combination, Preç Zogaj's poetry appears as a space where human experience is given to us as a quiet process of awareness.

Lyricism is the “form” or “medium.” It is concerned with the expression of subjective feelings, the music of verse, and the beauty of language.

Melancholy is the "color" or "spirit." It is the subtle feeling of sadness, longing, or loneliness.

For Preç Zogaj, this union means that he sings of sadness in a very beautiful and elegant language. It is not a heavy sadness that suffocates, but an aesthetic sadness, where pain turns into art through lyrical verse.

Reflection in Preç Zogaj appears as the consciousness that accompanies emotion. While lyricism and melancholy are pure feelings, reflection is the moment when the poet stops, analyzes, and draws a philosophical conclusion about life or himself.

In his poetry, reflection is found in the relationship with time. He does not grieve that time is passing, but reflects on what is left behind. The poet often speaks to himself as if he were another, analyzing mistakes, failures, and spiritual growth.

Poetry thus becomes an act of consciousness, where aesthetics and ethics touch each other.

So what is Preçi in Albanian poetry today?

Preç Zogaj is an authority, a reference, and a model.

It is an authority, not from fame, but from the way it makes us read and understand poetry.

It is a reference to lyrical authenticity, consciousness, and poetic evolution, where feeling and thought are held in balance.

And he is a model, as in his poetic journey we see how a poet is built with artistic honesty.

In conclusion, Preç Zogaj's poetry can be read as a conscious lyricism, where melancholy is not surrender, but a refined sensitivity to absence, and where reflection turns emotional experience into meaning.

In this poem, the word is not just an expression, but a way of seeing.

There are many writers.

Fewer poets.

Poets with even fewer works.

Preç Zogaj is one of them./ CNA