Gjokutaj – Shehu, Merita

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European Scientific Journal (European Scientific Institute)

European Scientific Journal61Lyrics of traditional weddings in GjirokastraMerita Gjokutaj – ShehuUniversity “Eqrem Cabej”, Gjirokastra, AlbaniaGjirokastra, as a typical Albanian city, has established its traditional profilethrough folkloric values which have an indisputable role along with itsarchitectural structure. The work of Tasim Gjokutaj, a well known Albanian writerand scholar, “Lyrics of traditional weddings in Gjirokastra” has been instrumentalto the outline of this profile. It is particularly this source which has helped theauthor in coming up with conclusions on broad and extended basis. As theauthor mentions:” Through this study we create a generally precise perceptionabout life and mentality of traditional Gjirokastra people, about social-psychological values he represents, tastes and his artistic inclinations”. Thisconceptualized way and the final conclusions reached have given a scientificbasis to this study. It has influenced a full study of lyrical genres in order to givean overall evaluation about it. The notions which permeate the whole work are:traditional wedding - Gjirokastra - lyrics.Gjirokastra, as a typical Albanian city, has established its traditional profilethrough folkloric values which have an indisputable role along with itsarchitectural structure. The work of Tasim Gjokutaj, a well known Albanian writerand scholar, “Lyrics of traditional weddings in Gjirokastra” has been instrumentalto the outline of this profile. This work is the first monograph which focuses onlyrics of Gjirokastra traditional weddings. This monograph, which comes after aseries of general and partial studies, treats special aspects of Albanian weddinglyrics and various problems related to wedding rites. It gives a valuablecontribution to painting the folkloric portrait of the Albanian wedding.It is necessary to mention that it is not a purely folkloric study, but also anethnologic one. The syncretic character of folkloric creations has stimulated theauthor of this study to undertake a complex analysis of Gjirokastra weddinglyrics, viewed as being    closely connected with the rites, geography andEuropean Scientific Journal62ethnography of the folkloric zone under study. While making this analysis, theauthor has used not only studies related to folklore, but also ethnographic andhistorical ones. The author has traced the ethnographic source found in theverses of Gjirokastra wedding songs, which is not solely to the wedding rite, butto life in general e.g. architectonic background, ornaments, toponyms, lexicalnuances that present the colors of the traditional Gjirokastra life.It is particularly this source which has helped the author in coming up withconclusions on broad and extended basis. As the author mentions:” Through thisstudy we create a generally precise perception about life and mentality oftraditional Gjirokastra people, about social-psychological values he represents,tastes and his artistic inclinations”. On the other side, the study witnesses anelaborate and thorough exploration of the folkloric material, which has beenrealized not only by finding recourse to the respective publications, but hehimself, has recorded the lyrics of the songs in special cases or  weddings.The long time expansion assured a full completion of wedding lyricsrepertoire as well as enabling the observation of its evolution. The thing whichcatches our attention is the way of his conceptualizing the work in three parts:a- The ethnographic and sociolinguistic aspect.b- Social psychological aspectc- Artistic aspectThis conceptualized way and the final conclusions reached have given ascientific basis to this study. It has influenced a full study of lyrical genres in orderto give an overall evaluation about it. The notions which permeate the wholework are: traditional wedding - Gjirokastra - lyrics. Moreover, this structural wayhas added to these study particular ethnographic, social, psychological andartistic values. Concerning the ethnographic aspect, Gjokutaj has intended to approachon two different points of view, firstly on a broad angle and later from a narrow angle.Through a broad viewpoint, the author has tried to analyse the relationshipbetween Gjirokastra traditional wedding lyrics and the rites of its ceremonial. The oraltransmission by the elderly people as well as a considerable number of lyrics collectedby him or others, reveal that different rites of Gjirokastra traditional wedding have hadspecial songs related to them and they served as illustrations. Among them we canEuropean Scientific Journal63mention lyrics of such rites as: the night of the henna, the day of the baklava, the rite ofshaving, the bride leaving her house and her arrival in the groom’s house, the rite of weehours in the groom’s day.  Besides, these lyrics related to peculiar rites, the ceremonialof Gjirokastra traditional wedding has been conducted to the accompaniment of a rangeof rich lyrics which sang to general events like love, conjugal relations, beauty and bridevirtues, changes caused in the family by the new couple cohabitation etc. In a figurativeway, lyrics of these weddings have a solid part, immovable, similar to the atom’s core.They also have a movable part similar to elements circling the core. The lyrics illustratingspecial rites would play the role of the core, while lyrics of universal motifs would havethe role of the movable elements.  “From the observations made in a number of weddingsin Gjirokastra, as he mentions in his notes- observations started by 60-s, being intensifiedduring ’70-80-s,  it results in   that:  lyrics illustrating special rites tend to fall into disuse.There have considerably survived only lyrics where descriptive tendency has beenreplaced by the focus of universal reflection motifs like: the youth separation, the drama ofdeparting from the hearth and home”. Lyrics that generally tend to survive in thepresent ceremonial, composing the movable part of the repertoire, have droppedout of the folklore being characterized by an archaic trace and related to ratherconservative mentalities, archaic lexicon etc. Naturally, the artistic value of eachlyric has played the main role in the selection of this group.Through a broad observation it has been studied the ethnographic material whichis found in Gjirokastra traditional wedding, not on the outer aspect as rite illustrations, buton the inner aspect concerning the data about the surroundings, architectonic values,ornaments, sociolinguistic elements like barbarisms and dialecticisms which if analyzed indetails shape the color of time and place, particularly the color of the traditional Gjirokastra.Though slightly painted, in Gjirokastra traditional lyrics, there are created images of city lifeas well as lyrics which present the country life. It is nearly the same conclusion we reachafter investigating the verses concerning ornaments, everyday life etc. Combing theethnographic city elements with the country elements is not coincidental, but it is related toa range of historical, economic and demographic factors. These are also cultural factorswhich have given to the spiritual living of the traditional Gjirokastra the civic profile of acountry background. Among these factors, it is mentioned the position of Gjirokastra by themain roads, the type of administrative and trading city with an inconsiderable artisanEuropean Scientific Journal64products, its being   a centre of administrative divisions throughout the centuries, theperiodic migration of country people to the city, dominance of polyphonic songs for along time, as the single way of singing. The narrow view includes somesociolinguistic investigations which appear to have visible connection to certainethnographic realities. The linguistic elements investigated in the sociolinguistic planehave been searched in phonetics, morphology and particularly in the lexicon.We mostly give precedence to distinguishing some elements which divert from thenorth dialect, as a part of provincialism or regionalism about Gjirokastra city and its peripheralareas. Barbarisms, Greek words and especially Turkish ones are studied in two groups.First, those which are characteristic mainly of this city and rarely or never found in thedialects of other cities or regions. Secondly, this is a considerable group- barbarisms foundin the traditional Albanian dialect, especially in cities. Sources of barbarisms are numerous.Attention is paid especially to some of them, which for the mentality of the time created apoetic vocabulary layer. This phenomenon has been injected in folklore by the poems ofbejtexhinj, known to be transmitted orally as recited verses or generally as songsaccompanied by the folk orchestra.Anyhow, compared to the folklore of the cities like: Berat, Elbasan and Shkodra, theinfluence of poems on the traditional wedding lyrics has been little and as a result thenumber of Turkish, Arabian  and Persian words maintaining the function of a poetical layer isalso small. By ’30 -s this traditional lyrics lacked the tendency towards the lexical purity oftoday.While carrying out this ethnographic analysis we have regarded the nature of thegenre: lyrics that focus on the feelings sometimes lose or fade the reflective function, oftenmimetic, in some cases they transform the situations, details, atmosphere etc in the name ofbeautifying or other functions characteristics of the oral creation.In the second part of the study efforts are made to investigate theGjirokastra traditional wedding lyrics on the socio-psychological plane. Thisorientation has been determined mainly by two factors: the accentuatedcollective character of the wedding and the great changes it caused not only inthe couple’s life, but also in that of the patriarchal family. Seeing the Gjirokastratraditional wedding lyrics on this plane of its significance, we notice somephenomena which at first sight seem paradoxical. For example, one of the mainEuropean Scientific Journal65functions of the marriage, which is also stressed in the main formula ofcongratulating of the ceremonial: “may the couple live a happy life”, is almost notmentioned at all in these lyrics. It is about the birth and well upbringing ofchildren. Different transmitters and also ethnographic testimonies by Durham,Çabej lead us to think that here we are dealing with a taboo subject: it has beena custom that the future birth, post partum period and the newborn baby are notto be slandered, not to be praised. Also when the baby was born used to be even“sworn at” by the female visitors so as not to cast the evil eye on it.Another paradox we notice while investigating the Gjirokastra traditionalwedding lyrics is the perfunctory at mention made on the economic aspect ofmarriage bond. In everyday life these aspects played an important role, becausethey were related to the future way of living of the couple, but also becausemarriage served, among other things, to establish relationship of support andcooperation between the two families. In the rare cases that the economic factsare mentioned, their real importance is not treated of but they are rather seen asa function of underlying such an attitude as: “dear girl don’t be sad, because youwill be happy where you are going; we, both sides are from renowned families”.Economic relationships, more like gifts, occupy a more important place in thelove lyrics which sings to relationships out of wedlock. The almost unimportantplace that the economic motives occupy, may have been caused by a number offactors among which less debatable seem to be the natural tendency of the lyricsfrom the inner world, from the feeling leaving aside the material world. The socio-psychological plane is characterized by another paradox, among the parents ofthe couple, father and father in-law are respected more, whereas the mother andmother in-law are frequently made fun of. The above mentioned paradoxbecomes more perceptible, when we juxtapose it with a fourth: more attention ispaid to the bride, whereas the groom compared with her emerges as asecondary character. So, in one case male takes precedence, in another female.Reasons of these paradoxes may be different. Among those we have discussed,such as the dignitary role of man in the family, singing of a good part of lyrics bywomen in a womanly environment, the tendency to poeticize beauty and youth,strength and vitality as ethical, esthetic ideals for the couple etc.European Scientific Journal66The paradoxes listed above sound as such because they clash with facts,norms, and customs of everyday life. The voices heard in these lyrics arevarious, we hear the bride speaking, the groom, their friends, mother, father, weddingguests, mother in- law, sister in-law, sister etc. etc., but in most of the cases we face animaginary conversation, that is why we say that the community’s voice is the one thatprevails.The variety of these real and imaginary voices is the source to a richpsychological material a fact, which creates situations similar to that of a dialogue thatbecomes noticeable when sung in groups that alternate one another. The community inmost of the cases professes to speak in the name of the bright, of the groom, of themother, of the father etc. etc. Keeping in mind this fact, makes it more comprehensiblethe reason why it is given such an immense place to the motif of alienation in this lyric.This motif includes the transformation from girl to mother, father – brother - relative,mother in law – father in law – sister in law – kinship, son – mother, peers etc. The motifof alienation and other above mentioned motifs, bring to this lyric a wealthy social andpsychological matter (content) they filling it with a sense of reality and survival as theyare a phenomenon of an almost universal illumination. This is the reason why in this partof the study there are so few details characteristic only to the traditional Gjirokastra. Mostof them present imageries of the traditional Albania or of the traditional Balkan society ingeneral.In the third part of the artistic layer in wedding lyrics research, the author isfocused on two feasible features: in its spectacular and emotive character. By thespectacular character, we mean a magnificent ceremonial that attracts one’s attentionwith its beauty and it presupposes the relationships similar to that of actor – spectator,though sometimes these relationships lie within the same individual. The spectacularcharacter of this ceremonial derives from its solemn nature, from the lack of real artisticlife as well as from the contribution of a considerable number of bearers who are part ofthe same ceremonial.Wedding solemnity in Gjirokastra was also fostered by the fact that the role of thechurch, mosque and the state was almost inconsiderable in marriage celebrations,contrary to what happened in nearby rural areas. So marriage in Gjirokastra was alsocelebrated by the Cadi, the Imam or the church. Lack of real artistic institutions, lack ofEuropean Scientific Journal67electronic media etc, contributed to the further increase of the spectacular character ofweddings.The highly stressed emotive character of the traditional wedding of Gjirokastra isrelated to the fact that its ceremonial would mark a dramatic event of a wide illumination.In fact, the celebration in solemnity of the couple’s wedding would deeply bring into lightthe joy of the family, of the kinship and of the community as well as it would bring intolight the drama of the girl’s separation from her maternal house, the slight sadness of thechange from boyhood into manhood for the groom etc. In a spectacular and solemnatmosphere, the above mentioned and other lived experiences have shown thetendency to initiate the phenomenon of projection which is nothing more than thepsychological tendency of individuals to incarnate themselves, their own past or futureinside heroes of a book, of a movie, of a spectacle, ritual or ceremonial act, etc. In thisway, females starting with young girls up to old women had the right to be perceivedwithin the image of the bright, the mother and the mother in law, etc.It can be easily perceived that both the spectacular and emotive character ofGjirokastra’s traditional weddings have through centuries marked an important sourceof artistic values.However, in this last part efforts are made to approach the traditional weddinglyrics of Gjirokastra region no longer from outside; from its relation to rituals, from theextent of its reflection to an ethnographic reality or to a range of traditional socio-psychological phenomena, but to approach it from the inside, from the poeticimmanent values it transmits.In order to reach this inner approach, which nonetheless remains within thelimitations of a test, we are based on the theory of the multi-layer character of thepoetic work; a theory which as a rule distinguishes three main layers:  the layer ofthe sonorous units, the layer of comprehensive units and the layer that illuminatesthe world of work.Research in the sonorous layer of this lyric presents it as a problematicone; it is hard to speak in terms of rhythm accuracy, for example in cases whenthe folkloric synchronization is not held; which means the word is separated fromthe melody. This fact results as completely natural, if we bear in mind that as a rule,both the number of syllables and the number of rhythmic stresses do not match in aEuropean Scientific Journal68sung or oral lyric mentioned for study reasons. From the typological point of view,stylistic figures of the traditional wedding lyrics of Gjirokastra are mainly proved to befigures based on similarity despite the fact that this similarity is linguisticallymaterialized or implied.We see the third layer; the layer of the world of works in the traditionalGjirokastra wedding lyrics, as a research object of only humoristic and satiricnature of songs; so it has been intended only for the discovery of the comicworld, leaving apart all the rest. Humoristic songs have helped us create a moreconcrete imagination of the unique features and colors characteristic ofGjirokastra’s weddings.It is a pleasure for me to stress that the traditional colorfulness of this lyric, ofa “labe” basis in essence, has provided me with a special pleasure, the pleasure ofmeeting and satisfying my nostalgia with our grandfathers, grand-grand fathers andtheir obsolete world, but highly loved and respected.The research of Tasim Gjokutaj represents in this way, not only a simple descriptivework but also a general one. The effort to emphasize his fondness to preservationand renovation of these values is one of his greatest merits as an expression ofdialectical historical development determined by inner and outer factors.

LYRICS OF TRADITIONAL WEDDINGS IN GJIROKASTRA

European Scientific Journal, ESJ

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LYRICS OF TRADITIONAL WEDDINGS IN GJIROKASTRA

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