Small Poem in Albanian
Couplet by Naim Frashëri (1846 - 1900)
Since it has been too long since I have published anything, while I am busy learning a couple of languages (namely Azeri and Albanian), I thought I might as well render a translation of a two-line poem (a couplet) that appeared in the learner that I am currently using for learning (modern standard) Albanian.1
The original poem, as it appears in the textbook:2
Ai që hiqet i madh dhe mbahet rëndë
E ka mendjen e vogël e të lehtën si pendë
My -free (in more than one way)- translation:
He who pretends to be of import and weight
Has a mind that is small; its feathery lightness a certain trait
The learner in question is Albanisch Intensiv: Lehr- und Grammatikbuch mit einer CD der Texte und Dialoge im MP 3-Format, by Pandeli Pani, second revised edition (2009, Wiesbaden)
It is highly probable, however, that the couplet penned by the 19th Century intellectual and patriot Frashëri looked quite different orthographically, as the standard orthography has been fixed no earlier than the early 1970s. The spelling of the couplet has probably been adapted so as to be in accordance with the contemporary rules.