One of the biggest annoyances in the summer season is the song of the Cricket with a sound like a chinchilla that rattles your nerves on the field, let alone when you enter the house and irritates you to the extreme. For those who do not know it, we explain that Cricket is a weevil like a small shrimp, with dark wings, which usually lives in holes in the ground or in old walls and which at night makes a sound like a chirping, from where it came out and the expression "song like cricket", but I didn't think I would find it in Fatmir Terziu's poetry, even presented with a nice poetic rhythm, as the antithesis of his song: "And he came. And it remained. /From the inside. It came in from outside/it drowned out all the noise from the universe”. It has really happened that some bulk suddenly enters our homes, hides somewhere in the dark and "muffles", not only all the "noises of the universe", but also the conversations inside the house, all of them getting up in alarm in search of this the big "noisemaker" "although very small".
I-In the poetry of Fatmir Terziu, Cricket symbolizes a small idea, a small man but with a great influence on the opinion thanks to his "song-noise" and the poet uses artistic means to express this idea.
Cricket is a small being but being metaphorized in the verse "Cricket shines a couple of trillion brain cells", he represents a being with great "potential" and his noise-song, like any evil in the world can hinder developments great ideological or social issues, which are described with the ironic line: “the effect is so amazing / a clatter instead of a song.” We find it very easy to illustrate this effect with events of the time, but let's stay in the realm of poetry, why the line "the future remains the harvest" makes us think why and he "and noisy yet so hopeful / do we have a choice?!". The epithet "noisy" describes the pursuit of the future, emphasizing that it is crowded with noise and ambiguity. Moreover, the word "hopeful" implies that in this chaos, there is also a sense of relief, which comes from the feeling that something new is coming, why we instinctively asked ourselves: have the love songs, the sweet sighs, been lost in the insomnia of the girls? Won't the brave ones from the fairy tales and legends come out again to fight with this monster "Circle like a created sphere" and save the girls and bring back the white dawns? The hyperbole "Cricket shines a couple of trillion brain cells" makes us imagine some robot, or artificial intelligence, especially when we read the verse: "one thousandth of a second in the race", which we are not able to calculate. And we are ready to keep silent, powerless, when here, the well-known expression makes us smile: "Doesn't guilt fall from the fig tree?". Why is Cricket described as a "corpse", which shows that he is very small, invisible, and believable, mortal, so he is qualified with epithets in the verses: "the corpse of Cricket stuck / on the wall of the ten-year monument / that we tore / in the cause expected / for a whip ".
The symbolism expressed in the lines "Cricket's corpse stuck/on the monument wall of ten years", is interpreted as a triumph over "Cricket", who turned into a corpse, but who still stands on the monument wall even though he is a corpse, stopping the time of move forward, and can also be understood as a reflection of the division of life between the material world and that which lies behind it.
The epithet "will of the whip" is used to illustrate the idea that in this twisted and chaotic world, one can gain control over their own destiny by using their will to direct and then command, as dictatorships are born.
II- The conjecture that "Cricket" is "the little mammoth" does not hold, since he is characterized by all dark colours. Let's carefully read the verses: "I roll like a created sphere/but the Cricket walks in the brambles/the brain follows and it is simply he/she who recreated spheres” from which to create the idea of a roboticism.
III- Fatmir Terziu's poem "Cricket" has a philosophical and reflective approach to life and the future, like many of his other recent poems. The author has described a small event, such as the death of a Cricket, and it has connected to larger ideas about life and the world around us. For example, he points out that the corpse of the bulkhead got stuck in the ten-year-old monument wall that we tore down, showing that even the smallest things can have a big impact on life. The poet also instils hope that even though the future is unclear and uncertain, there is always the possibility of resolution and progress.
Regarding the language and words used, Fatmir Terziu uses a combination of simple language and rare words to create a special climate in his poetry. The word "cricket" is used as a metaphor to describe the small things that have a big impact in life, while the word "whip" is used to represent not so much the small and limited idea as the way it is brought to life. Another word used is "effect", which refers to the impact of an event or situation on people and the world at large.
The language used is simple and understandable, but with some rare words to create a special climate. The verse style is strongly rhyming and uses metaphors, symbols, and humour to express different ideas. It is a poem that is read with interest and leaves you thinking about its philosophical message.
Saranda, on May 4, 2023
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