Gjergj Fishta (pronounced [ɟɛɾɟ ˈfiʃta]; 23 October 1871 – 30 December 1940) was an Albanian Franciscan friar, poet, educator, rilindas, politician, translator and writer.

He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century, particularly for his epic masterpiece Lahuta e Malcís, and as the editor of two of the most authoritative magazines after Albania's independence, Posta e Shqypniës and Hylli i Dritës.

Help me, as then you helped, Oh God Five hundred years the Turk has trod Upon our fair Albanian lands, Our people slaves under his hands, Leaving our world in woe, in blood; No chest can breathe, no flower bud; Here not even the sun moves free, Here all is evil that we see And we must suffer silently, Pitied by mice scrabbling for wheat; Pitied by snakes beneath our feet.

These men whose God is gold alone - I curse them for their hearts of stone - Desire to take this wretched land, Won by much Albanian blood, and Make a jigsaw of its borders.

[13] Fishta's lyric verse is regarded to be his best; these works include the collections Vierrsha i perspirteshem t'kthyem shcyp ('Spiritual Verse Translated into Albanian', 1906); Mrizi i zâneve ('Noonday Rest of the Zanas', 1913); Vallja e Parrizit ('The Dance of Paradise', 1925), and the satirical volumes Anxat e Parnasit ('The Wasps of Parnassus', 1907) and Gomari i Babatasit ('Babatasi's Ass', 1923).

[14] According to Arshi Pipa, Fishta's satirical works are modulated after the Bejte tradition of Shkodër, which he elevated to a literary level.

[15] The literature of Shkodra produced by Catholic Albanian clergymen entered a golden age during the first decades of the 20th century, and this blossoming of Gheg Culture is largely credited to Fishta, who was universally recognised as Albania's national poet at the outbreak of World War II.

[16] The story begins with skirmishes between Albanian highlanders from the Hoti tribe and the Montenegrins who had attacked them, capturing the heroic acts of figures such as Oso Kuka.

The main section of the work consists of the cantos VI-XVV, which focuses on the League of Prizren between 1878 and 1880 and covers numerous battles, duels and folkloric elements.

The final cantos focus on the Young Turk Revolution, the general uprisings in northern Albania, the Balkan Wars and the Albanian declaration of independence.

[5] The content and stylistic form of The Highland Lute were deeply inspired by the Albanian epic oral tradition that is depicted in the songs typically sung with the Çifteli or Lahutë.

[18] The majority of The Highland Lute was composed between 1902 and 1909, but it was refined and amended by Fishta until the original 30 cantos were published in Shkodër in 1937 to mark the 25th anniversary of Albania's independence.

Rather, Fishta's censorship was the result of the pro-Slavic sympathies of the Albanian communists that were rooted in Yugoslavian involvement in their actual establishment, and his works were wrongfully labelled as "anti-Slavic propaganda".

[4] In the last years of the Ottoman rule over Albania, proposed by the wali of Shkodër Hasan Riza Pasha he was awarded with the Maarif Order of 2nd class (tr.