ASCENT IN MODERN POETRY
By Timo Mërkuri
It has been some time since the poet Fatmir Terziu "baptizes" his poetic creativity in the "flow" of philosophy and psychology like this last poem "Victim number one".
I - Philosophically, this poem describes the helplessness and loss of identity in an uncaring society, reflecting on the challenges and difficulties people may face in today's society. The poet expresses the feeling of anxiety and paranoia through personifications and metaphors, emphasizing the impact of these emotions on our lives and the use of a luxury car as a mask to hide these feelings. The poet appears disillusioned with society and its circumstances, which have changed him and made him feel like a usable and worthless object. The line "finally they made us pray only for the heart" is very shocking in its testimony, being a very beautiful line. The pain from something beautiful is too great, because at the same time it is the most hopeless.
We must admit that the fact that the author is an Albanian intellectual who emigrated to London where he has been living for several years has helped him to "study" through his own experience and observation of the London environment to discover and compare social phenomena of the two societies, which are time and social distance from each other. This is precisely the reason why the poet Terziu has been appearing for some time with "philosophical" and "psychological" type poems, which surprisingly are very close to Albanian readers, regardless of their place of occurrence.
II - In psychological terms, the poem describes the state of sadness and helplessness, reflecting feelings of hopelessness and dissatisfaction with oneself, society, and life. The poet expresses a sense of separation from himself and reality, while personification and metaphors help describe this psychological state.
The metaphorical expressions "shoot us like horses in the legs" and "finally made us pray only for the heart" represent the feeling of losing the meaning of life, as well as an incomprehensible sense of annoyance from possible social relations. The metaphor of "self-consumption" represents the idea that society shows little or no interest in the feelings of individuals and instead encourages them to focus on improving their material wealth.
In the lines "the speed of paranoia remained tenfold above every other emotion within that voice" a metaphor for the paranoia of following others is presented, which turns the individual into a creature that cannot stop itself from falling into the tent of materialism.
The most shocking part of the poem is at the end, when the poetic figure claims that he is one of the "number one victims" affirming the sense of collapse and loss of self-confidence. Even the use of personification "in a shell of extreme anxiety and strangeness" also describes the feeling of losing awareness of who you are and what you want in this world, helping to create a deep and sensitive image of the emotions experienced by the characters in the poem.
II - Artistically, the poet uses small rhymes and short lines, which make it easy to read and understand. The use of metaphors and figures of speech creates a clear and deep image of the character's sensitivity and turmoil in the poem. The poet uses a sad and "fallen" tone, which helps to create a sensitive atmosphere of the poem, using simple words, but which should be read carefully in the context of the verse in particular and the entire poetic text.
III - The poem "Victim number one" by Fatmir Terziu, apart from the social and philosophical-psychological aspect, shows us that our poet Fatmir Terziu is climbing the ranks of European modern poetry, carrying on his back a load of Albanian woes, which are they make it difficult, but at the same time they highlight it in this ascent.
Saranda, on 23. 04. 2023
