The File on H. by Ismaíl Kadaré

have a thousand faces. Like the reincarnation of a single being by metempsychosis
.
    We are less interested in Albanian epics themselves than in their production process, to use a modern term. We are seeking to reach by induction a truth of universal applicability: the means by which epic poetry is generated, and as a consequence, the answer to the enigma of Homer
    The comparative method is the main key to our work. Not just comparisons between the different rhapsodes. The most important comparison will be the different interpretations of the same song by the same rhapsode. In other words, his way of singing such and such a poem one day compared to the way he sings it some later day. A month later, say, or three months later.
    Apparently the issue is not just a question of memorization. It is also related to a fundamental aspect of oral poetry
—
the mechanisms of forgetting, which in its turn is not really just a matter of forgetfulness but a much more complicated business. There could be involuntary loss of memory, but at the same time, conscious memory loss is
involved. An alleged slip of memory justifyng a new interpretation of the song...
    The rhapsode is the main wheel in the machinery of the epic. He is publisher, bookseller, and librarian in one, and also rather more than that: he is a posthumous co-author and, in this capacity, has the right to amend his text. It’s perfectly legal, no one disputes his right, and no one criticizes him, except perhaps his own conscience
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    It now seems obvious that the question which formerly seemed fundamental for explaining the Homeric phenomenon
—
to wit, how many lines could a rhapsode commit to memory (some say six thousand, others eight thousand, or even as many as twelve thousand)
—
needs to be replaced with a different question; How many lines may a rhapsode wish to forget? Or rather: Can a rhapsode exist
without a capacity to forget?
    We must stress, in this connection, that we still know very little about the world of the rhapsodes. What sort of people are they? How is their gift acquired? When is their art recognized publicly? On what does their reputation rest? What causes them to return to ordinary life? How are the contests between them held? What are the different styles, or schools, or rivalries between them within this
 s
trange universe of recitation? How are the mediocre performers filtered or weeded out? How are criteria of value established?
    We’ll try to find out all that when we are there. With a bit of luck, we will manage to enter this universe, and then we shall understand how the yeast was made to rise in the ancient dough. As it always has done. As it did in H’s time
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    Just as the governor was about to yawn, he lighted on a passage that had what seemed to him to be a rather literary touch:
    For the second time this week, I’ve had a bit of trouble with my eyes. The first time, it was like a cloud in front of me. I thought it must be from too much reading and took no notice. Today it happened again, but it was slightly different. It was as if I was looking through a broken windowpane that would not stop wobbling. It felt as though the vibration was damaging my retina. After which my sight stayed misty for quite a while. I must go and see an optician
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    As always in such circumstances the governor had the impression that he could smell his wife’s powder. He could see it sprinkled on her smooth belly, just where the pubic hair began but carnal desire instead of slowing down his breathings as it usually did’ filled his eyes with cruelty.
    To ward off any evil imaginings, he struggled to focus his mind again on his utterly boring reading.
    There are three hypotheses put forward by German scholars, who were the first to study the common motifs in the Greek and Albanian traditions, the migration of material from one mythology to another, its splicing, transferal, and cross-fertilization. The first view is that the