Tirana

“Although we have been separated for half a century, I am yours and you are mine.” The emblematic sentence that Martin Camaj would say at the end of his life in a telephone call to Albania, serves as a paradigm of his return to his homeland.

Under the title "Traces of the Word", the writer and Albanologist was commemorated with a scientific conference on the 100th anniversary of his birth. The publisher Bujar Hudhri, who has brought the complete work of Martin Camaj in one volume, not only as a tribute to the author who remained denied as long as the communist system was in power and long after it because of his mentality, but as a tribute to the work and ideas of the writer who sought freedom and left behind a work that is its anthem. Hudhri's message is also meaningful for Camaj's country, not as a concession, but as a merit.

At the scientific conference organized by the Academy of Sciences and the "Luigj Gurakuqi" University, researchers focused on various aspects of his work, from his studies as an Albanologist to his volumes as a writer. While Evalda Paci focused on his work with the Buzuku Meshari, Arben Prendi spoke about the layers of the novel "Dranja".

Born in Shkodër, Camaj would flee the country to Yugoslavia, after being arrested by the repressive structures of the communist regime. He divided his life in exile between Italy and Germany, where he not only documented and studied the Arbëresh, but also Albanian culture in general and the language, the language that he cultivated and perfected as a writer without having any readers. He lived in Germany until the fall of the regime, and his literature met the Albanian reader late, without letting the writer enjoy the fruits.