Mirela Leka Xhava (Albanian – French) was born in the city of Elbasan, Albania. She was passionate about literature since childhood, being published from time to time in various magazines and newspapers. She graduated in Albanian Language and Literature at « Aleksander Xhuvani » Elbasan University. Until 2002, before immigrating to France, she worked as a librarian at the city’s University Library, where she was also a member of the League of Writers of Elbasan.
Her poems have been published in prestigious magazines and newspapers in Albania, Kosovo, England, Canada, USA, Belgium, Bangladesh, India, Tunisia, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Dominican Republic, Holland as well as in France, on French online literary sites, etc. She is active in literary salons and fairs in France, as well as contemporary literature, where she won the «Diplôme d’Honneur at the 24th Printemps des Poètes -Sartrouville France».
Her works have been published periodically in the literary magazine Poètes Sans Frontières «Florilège» – Dijon, in the Canadian Anthology of Literary Poetry in defense of children «Ethics and Global Education», the International Anthology of Poets for Peace – Tunisia, in the Anthology «Paris Window» volume 2 Poetry, in the Anthology «Confessions» India, in the Anthology of Atunis Galaxy Poetry-Belgium etc.
She was a finalist of the Mediterranean Poetry Festival-Rome 2022. Semi-finalist of the competition Mili-Dueli Bosnie-Herzégovine. Received the VerbumlandiArtAps International Award of Excellence Citta del Galateo, for foreigners – Milan 2024, etc.
She has recently been accepted as a member of the Association of French Poets.
Literary works:
«I don’t want winter in my eyes» (poems) 1999
«Les fleurs de la rue Montesquieu» (Flowers of Montesquieu street) – Publishing house
«ADA» Tirana 2022 in (Albanian-French)
«Traveler with the south wind» (poems) in Albanian – Lulu.com 2024
«Le voyageur des vents du sud» -translated into French – Lulu.com 2024Mirela Leka Xhava is working on the latest books of the poetry series and currently lives with her family in Bordeaux, France.
In the evenings, in the middle of the sea, a lonely fisherman
Cast nets to catch fish
Under the watchful eye of the sirens of legend.
The cigarette goes out at the bottom of the sea, a cough of shells
Some splashes floating on the salt water
Fluttering of seagulls.
Long Night, Fisherman, Hidden Mermaids, Sea
Dawn returns the expected whiteness, towards the earth
Seagulls prefer the shore…
The white paper
Calm sea, nothing disturbs the silence,
Nor light foam of waves,
Where the seagulls dance
And sit gracefully behind the ship’s mast.
Not even ships are visible on the horizon,
No fish, no fishermen?!
It resembles *Courbet’s painting
The paper ship
Distant mirage
On the shore with empty eyes, I follow
The white sheet…
*Gustave Courbet – French painter, sculptor of the 19th century.
Sahara
At the peak of August, the sand burns the walk to the shore
It is far from the coast, and further from the sea.
While I put my toes deep in the sand,
Start the journey to the center of the earth
To create the green oasis,
To plant apple trees,
Palm trees, and white lilies
To build a sandcastle.
And why do you know?
That the storms of the Sahara
They have to tear it down without mercy.
At the peak of August, the sand burns the walk to the shore
It is far from the coast, and further from the sea.
Poetry in this post: © Mirela Leka Xhava
Published with the permission of Mirela Leka Xhava