[1] At 1968 he started to write poems in the literary column of the newspaper Laiko Vima, which was the only printed media allowed to be published in Greek language, in communist Albania (1945–1991).
[2] During 1970-1990, he composed several poems, but due to strict censorship by the authorities of the People's Republic of Albania he decided to bury them in order to avoid persecution.
[1] With the collapse of the communist regime in Albania that year he became one of the founding members and the first President of the local Greek political and cultural organization Omonoia.
Moreover, with his collection 101 poems for a handful of earth (Greek: Ποιήματα για μια χούφτα τόπο, 1992), written in 1972, but unpublished until 1991, Zarbalas became a key figure among the Greeks in southern Albania.
[2] Though literature was strictly censored by the regime of the People's Republic of Albania he managed in several cases to avoid censorship and to promote the distinct ethnic identity of the local Greek element by using allegory.