Epitaphs — Summary

Ndrek Gjini’s “Epitaphs” gives us a speaker bowed by misfortune but far from defeated. The opening image of stooped shoulders suggests long hardship, yet the voice is stubborn: he says he won’t stop soon, and he insists no one should mourn him. There’s pride here, even defiance. He describes “afflicting” his own destiny, as if his suffering is at least partly chosen, not something that simply happened to him. The second half of the poem turns calmer. He has made peace with God and even agreed with him on the epitaphs for his “senseless wars.” That phrase captures the mood: a weary, wry acceptance. The speaker sees his past struggles as costly and perhaps meaningless, but he has negotiated a kind of truce. The overall feeling is quiet, stubborn, and strangely settled—someone who has stopped fighting the way his life looks and now faces it without asking for pity.