I walk under moonless nights alone
My father said, do not die in bed,
but die in war, my dear son;
One day your life comes to an end,
you, as a brave, ahead must run.
All braves of our kin are gone
to afterlife by bullet or sword.
This is a worthy death, my son,
the other deaths, a vain record.
But I was born in a time sans swords,
a time of the coward communists, you see.
I walk under moonless nights alone,
seeking the fate my father left for me.
Translation from Albanian into English
By Alfred Kola
