Lyrics translations (Albanian music)

[Alboz]

As long as i live
i will be longing for you
This soul will love you
even if we won't talk anymore

During the day
i have fun with friends
(i get distracted)
so i don't have to think about you
But damn it
during the night, your face "hunts" me

Damn to this world
why can't people
who love each other be together?
You don't leave my heart
(i can't stop loving you)
but you aren't "my destiny"

.................................................. .........

For the first time
i started to love someone
And i'm passing the days, thinking
I'm afraid that i made some mistakes
Tell me boy
why are you mad to me?

Why i didn't think more
when i started our love
I lost myself
in the prime of life

[Alboz]

I'm in love with someone
Someone who
Is really troubling me
I'm in love with someone
Who doesn't believe
That love exists

I'm in love with someone
Someone who thinks
That nobody loves him
I'm in love with someone
He can't recognize
someone's love

Before I run far away
I wanna tell you that you were very close
Before I run far away
Your heart in my hand I take, I take

I'm drunk, can't stand on my feet, a love is troubling me

Shots & Tequila, beer works too
To get rid of the 'bad
' you just combo
Some Bob Marley would be nice too
So when I roll
I don't even stop at a patrol anymore
oh ra pam pa pam
The beat is so fine
And the wine is kicking in too
Even if there is no love
At least there's plenty of raki* to drink

Doesn't matter what you gonna say about me

Now, every night I drink raki and wine
'night drink raki and wine
It might be harmful for someone
but for me it's comforting
'night drink raki and wine
and you, shut up, shut up

* Raki is an alcoholic drink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rak%C4%B1

[Alboz]

I gave you my eyes
Why you didn't came in our usually spot?
Damn to you girl

I gave you Besa*
And my tears, as a gift

I waited for you, girl, all night
Why you didn't came in our usually spot?
May you be cursed

I gave you Besa
And my tears, as a gift

*Besa is a cultural precept, usually translated as faith, that means to keep the promise. The man of Besa connotes a man of respect and honour, someone to whom you can trust your life

[Alboz]

In the morning
when the sun hasn't shown yet its light
a voice awake me and i got up
The beautiful girl goes somewhere
It's always the same girl

Wait girl, wait
wait, i want to came with you
Wait for me girl, wait
cuz i'm in love with you

It's two days, that i'm waiting for you, boy
Two days, for you to come so we could "gather hazlenuts"(together)

You have to believe me, girl
Let me tell you of what happened to me last night
the sheep got scared and escaped
i travelled all of the mountain by foot (walking by myself)

[Alboz]

The house is shaking
You, the "first of the house" (the owner of the house, generally "the father")
May you get blessed
How beautiful you started it dancing while drinking the "first glass of alcohol"

There is a big wedding here, today
All our friend and our familes are here, enjoying it
May the new couple have a long life together

Who started the dance now?
The mother and the father
How much joy, aman*, shows the brother and the sister

.................................................. ........

Get up uncle (mother side) and dance
you make happy everyone with your "dancing skills"
Foots after foots, uncle it's dancing, with other nine people

Uncle (father side), mashalla **
this dance is made only for you
With that glass of raki in your hands
you seem like you are again "a young man"

Get up you aunts (father and mother side)
you should be the first to start this dance
This southern traditional dance
all of us will start dancing it

.........................................

May the groom have a long life
for he, the music, today, won't stop
Beautiful bride, like a fairy
she shakes the "dance" with her beauty

May the clarinet*** won't stop today
So the young boys and girls (who are single)
can enjoy this dance

*Aman is an expression remained here by Ottoman Empire. It's an exclamation of "distress", sometimes "amazement" (and many other emotions).

**Mashallah is an Arabic phrase used to express appreciation, joy, praise, or thankfulness for an event or person that was just mentioned. The phrase has also found its way into the colloquial language of many non-Arab Muslims.

***Clarinet is a musical instrument.

[Alboz]

From the poetry of Sejfullah Maleshova (1901 - 1971)

How I Love Albania

I've no farm estates or manors,
I've no shops or lofty buildings,
Yet I love my land, Albania -
For a barn in Trebeshina,
For its boulders and its brushwood,
For a hut above Selishta,
For two fields ploughed in Zallishta,
For a cow and for a donkey,
For an ox, a little lambkin,
This is how I love my country
Like a shepherd, like a peasant.

Yes, I love my land, Albania,
For the clover in its meadows,
For a quick and agile maiden,
For its spring of water gurgling
From the cliffs and flowing swiftly
Through the leafy oak tree forests,
Tumbling down to form a river,
Yes, I love my land, Albania,
For the fenugreek in blossom,
For the birds that fly above it,
For the nightingales a-singing,
In the shade and in the brambles,
Trilling songs of love and longing,
This is how I love my country,
Like a poet in devotion.

Yes, I love my land, Albania,
Right from Korça to Vranina,
Where the farmer sets off early
With his hoe and plough a-toiling,
Sows and reaps by sun and moonlight,
Yet, he has no food to live on,
Where the farrier and saddler
Day and night stoop o'er their duties
Just to get a few stale breadcrumbs,
Where the porter at the dockyards,
Laden down with iron and barrels,
Bears his load, barefoot and ragged,
Always serving other people.
Yes, I love my land, Albania,
Right from Skopje to Janina,
Where its people in misfortune
Suffer, live their lives in serfdom,
Yet they have a fighting spirit -
This is how I love my country,
Like a revolutionary.

[Alboz]

From the poetry of Fan Noli (1882-1965)

(Elegy written in Berlin on the death of writer and political figure Luigj Gurakuqi, 1879-1925, who had been assassinated in Bari on 2 March 1925 by an agent of Ahmet Zogu.)

Dead in exile

Oh mother, mourn our brother,
Cut down by three bullets.
They mocked him, they murdered him,
They called him traitor.

For he loved you when they hated you,
For he wept when they derided you,
For he clothed you when they denuded you,
Oh mother, he died a martyr.

Oh mother, weep bitter tears,
Thugs have slain your son
Who with Ismail Qemali
Raised the valiant standard.

Oh mother, weep for him in Vlora,
Where he bore you freedom,
A soul as pure as snow,
For whom you have no grave.

Oh mother, he did his utmost
With eloquence and heart of iron,
Alive in exile, dead in exile,
This towering liberator.

[Alboz]

[Kënga e Çelo Mezanit, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie.]

The sun arose in Malavire,
Çelo came out in Harile,
Çelo came out in Harile,
Out to offer his condolence,
Out to offer his condolence,

Near the well of Sulejmani
They awaited Çelo Mezani.

When the rifle rang the first time,
Çelo turned and looked around him,
Çelo turned and looked around him.

When the rifle rang the second time,
Çelo folded, closed his eyelids,
Çelo folded, closed his eyelids.

When the rifle rang the third time,
Çelo then was truly slaughtered,
Çelo then was truly slaughtered.

Off they went to tell his mother
That her son had now been slaughtered,
That her son had now been slaughtered.

“Do not utter these words to me,
For my Çelo is still living,
For my Çelo is still living.”

[Alboz]

[Janinës ç’i panë sytë, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie.]

What was it Janina’s eyes saw?
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
On a Friday did it happen,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
At the five wells in the canyon,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
Zenel Çelo and another,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
Zenel with that Velça fellow,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
And the hero Jaçe Mavro,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
How he rose in daring venture,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
Cleaved the enemy’s battalions,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!
And did slaughter the young pasha,
Ja-a, Janinë-o!

[Alboz]

Here we are, in our Lands
Nobody can divide us
The eagle is flying
Our Land is calling
the oaks and mountains too
Because we are one Nation
Ethnic Albania

I am red and black, red and black
Me and you are red and black
Our hearts are with you
You, the most beautiful flag in this world

I feel a force (in my blood)
(a force) that never goes away
We are, yes we are
Ethnic Albania
Our Land is calling
the oaks and mountains too
Because we are one Nation
Ethnic Albania