Romantic traditions of azerbaijani poetry of the 20th century

Introduction. In general, one of the features that characterize the literature of the East, including Azerbaijan, is that our literature was created and evolved mainly in lyrical form, in the form of poetry, in poetic genres. And therefore the poet was the central figure in the history of literature and was always treated with great respect. The brilliant Sheikh Nizami, who uttered the phrase "poets after prophets", put them in third place after God. Thus, the great poet of the 20th century, the people's poet Samed Vurgun, about whom we began the conversation, also gave a deep assessment of poetry and its creator:

We have both poetry and art, And respect to both of them!

And for all these reasons, the traditions of poetry and schools of poetry were very strong in Azerbaijan and continued to exist for a long time. Only in the 30s of the XIX century, other literary types and genres appeared. Excluding Fuzuli's "Shikayetname" ("Book of Complaints"), dramatic and prose genres began to form two centuries earlier. Along with this, poetry continued its path with the work of such great masters as G.B. Zakir, S.A. Shirvani, M.A. Sabir. On the other hand, the wide development of ashug verse reached its peak in the work of Ashug Alesker in the 19th century. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the development of the national press, the horizons of poetry also expanded and national artistic forms and national identity were significantly strengthened in verse. The romantic traditions of poetry of the 20th century came from several sources: 1. From the great poet of the heart Muhammad Fuzuli; 2. From Turkic romanticism associated with the names of Tofiq Fikret , Namik Kemal , Rza Tofiq and others ; 2. From Azerbaijani romanticism, which formed as a literary movement at the beginning of the 20th century; 4. From rich ashug poetry associated with the names of Ashug Ali, Sary Ashug, Ashug Alesker and others.

In any field of the humanities and social sciences, be it literature, or religion and sociology, the basis of historicism is tradition . One of the modern theoretical studies says: "History is the plane of all sciences. Because behind thinking - be it humanitarian or technocratic - there is historical experience. Historical experience as a problem and as a principle is the mother of historicism, its genetic source. For the peoples of the Muslim East, reliance on historical experience is more important... In the East, the history of science was defined in the context of historicism of thinking... The reflection of history, historical processes, historical facts and historical figures in literature gives rise to such a principle of the problem of historicism as giving an analysis and assessment of literature, artistic creativity, the heritage of individual classics through historical experience. Thus, in literary criticism, historicism appears in two contents, two forms: as a problem and a principle! The principle of historicism is primarily an aesthetic concept, and the principle of historicism is a methodological one. (1. pp. 113 and 119) Behind such a conceptual interpretation of historicism there is a perfect system of traditions. And in poetry, tradition is not only following the past, its mention, but also a poetic and philosophical concept. Indeed, in artistic creativity without tradition there is no novelty, innovation. The researcher writes: "Our unique national and spiritual wealth, along with nature, is also history."

It does not belong to the past, but to us. It "dies" itself not when it becomes yesterday, but when we forget it. The literary and moral vitality of history lies in the fact that it is a continuous source of morality and education. A people who do not use their history are as poor and helpless as a people who do not use their underground resources, natural energy reserves, forests and rivers. Only a people who have lost their memory can lose their land, folklore and language... If we do not mobilize both history and nature for the benefit of an unmistakable understanding of the essence of modernity, if we do not gradually make it a weapon of artistic and philosophical thought, moral and aesthetic education in an even more active form, then history will remain only the wealth of the past, and nature the wealth of inhabitants without intellect. History educates morality." ( 2. p.56 and 61 )

Such is the dialectic of literary-historical heredity, artistic-philosophical tradition. History seems attractive only in the plane of modernity. Modernity is the elixir that revives history, the harbour where it drops anchor. And traditions also slumber precisely in the womb of history. Just as history is tenacious thanks to modernity, so tradition lives, nourishing innovation. A theoretical scientist writes figuratively: “While we rise into space, we seem to increase the size of the earth. The size of the earth begins to equal the size of space. Also, turning to distant history, moving away from modernity, we thereby expand and increase the size and limits of modernity, its territory.” (3.s.55) Truly, innovation in artistic creativity lies in the concreteness of the attitude to tradition. Traditions systematize relations both between literary generations, as philosophical ideas, and between genres, and do not allow them to break apart. The reverence for the past demonstrates the artistic and aesthetic level of each era.

In the 20th century, on the basis of Azerbaijani romanticism as one of the literary and artistic trends , and the traditions of romantic verse , stands the poetry of the brilliant poet of the heart M. Fizuli. Candidate dissertations were written on the influence of Fizuli's poetry on the romanticism of the 20th century by the late Namik Babayev, on the poetic traditions and influence of Fizuli in our poem by Professor Gulshan Aliyeva , and accordingly, monographs were published under the titles “Füzuli şəminin işığında” (“In the light of Fizuli's candle”) (1996) and “Çağdaş poeziya və klassik irs” (“Modern poetry and classical heritage”). The second work was especially devoted to the traditions of Fizuli in modern Azerbaijani poetry. However , the author directs attention more to the problem of the influence of the art of Fizuli’s poetry, the poet’s poetics on the Azerbaijani verse of the 60-80s of the twentieth century. We are most interested in the influence of Fizuli’s romanticism on the poetry of the new era -the 20-50s, especially the work of such luminaries as S. Vurgun and M. Mushfik. But in general, in order to study this problem, we must briefly consider the relationship of literary-theoretical thought, artistic-philosophical thought to classical poetic traditions, including the romantic tradition in 1926-1936 - during the period of formation of new directions in poetry.

There is an important feature that distinguishes Eastern, including Azerbaijani artistic thinking from European-Western artistic thought: Western artistic thought has a spasmodic character, a new stage in the literary-historical process denies the previous one . For Eastern (especially Azerbaijani thought!) is characterized by evolutionism. That is , one stage prepares a new one in itself . There are various reasons for such a strong, conservative in a good sense attitude to tradition in the East. The prominent orientalist I.S. Braginsky explains the reason for the first - the main one:

“Traditionalism, which is one of the components of the culture and aesthetics of the East, is not at all connected with the “special spirit” of the East, but with a real socio-political factor - the long dominance of feudalism in all spheres of public life” (5. p. 18) .

Thus, feudalism, which lasted in Azerbaijan for approximately 10 centuries -from the 9th to the 19th century, contributed to the continuation of traditionalism in poetic evolution. It is worth noting that aruz, which is a particularly perfect teaching, since the 11th century, with the first monument written in Turkic in aruz - the work of Yusif Has Hajib Balasagunlu "Gutadgu Bilik" ("Knowledge that brings happiness") became the reason for preserving the canons - dogmas in poetry. Aruz scholar Tarlan Kuliyev writes: "Aruz is such a complex size and a perfect system that evens the excess and insufficiency of sound is important here... Khalil ibn Ahmed invented and created aruz with mathematical thinking." (6. p.47)

In the 20-30s of the 20th century, Soviet-Russian science and local Marxists, defending the positions of proletkult , declared unsuitable Eastern traditions in culture and poetry for a new culture and poetry, especially did not want to let romanticism close. Let us note several facts: for example, the critic Mustafa Kuliyev in his book "October and the Turkic Revolution", published in 1930 in Russian and in his articles under the titles "For new literature, for new content, the old picture, the old form is not enough", "Aruz is an aged Sufi form that came from Persian", "The paths of development of Azerbaijani musical culture" (1928) , considered the tar and mugham useless for the new society, the new art, he called the tar a Persian musical instrument, and the mugham a cry of classes groaning under the tyranny, in the above-mentioned book he writes: "The style has aged, it brings monotony and uniformity to poetry. It is least of all rhythmic and emotional. We cannot remain confused in these initial Sufi positions, it is impossible to fit the new poetry of revolutionary leaps, struggle, the new poetry of inspiration into the old block of "aruz" and style. ( 7. p . 50) Of course, this was an expression of proletkult nihilism - an ancient hereditary denial. Such a vulgar sociological attitude came from the administrative-power organization RAPP, implementing the policy of the Communist Party in the field of literature and from the well-known motto of its leader A. Fadeev "Down with Schiller! - that is, down with romanticism!", or rather from his article of the same name. This article confused everyone. For example, an active and well-known critic of that time, Ali Nazim, on the one hand, wrote: "Among the poems of our young poets, there are few artistic poems; our revolution has not been expressed in artistic form to this day. No work has been created that we would read repeatedly with love, so that such works would excite our pupils and students, bring them pleasure. The true reason for this is the infusion of new content into old "skins", the expression of new thoughts through old means of expression, old images and motives." ( 8) Thus, in fact, Ali Nazim spoke out against traditionalism in the field of artistic form, poetic expression, and on the other hand, demonstrating objective thinking, he wrote: "Of course , we cannot, like some comrades, say "down with" our old culture. Whoever it is, we must fight against those who want to lead us astray from this path" ( 9.)

In relation to tradition, that is, the East in poetry - especially to the culture of Aruza - Gazello , Ali Nazim and his contemporaries - poets and theorists also occupied contradictory positions. Criticism of the 1930s, taking a confused path in relation to romantic verse , made mistakes in traditionalism as well. For example, A. Nazim wrote the following: "Those who go against the motto "In our today's verse, first of all, let us learn from the great verse of Pushkin - Mayakovsky!" do nothing but consciously or unconsciously turn us into monkeys of the forest of mystical Eastern literature . But at the same time, it is necessary to show the mistakes of poets who, disguised as the name of Mayakovsky or Pushkin, bring into our poetry the blindness of naturalism and the mutilation, the ugliness of feudalism ." ( 10. p.351 ) Thus, the attitude to tradition in poetry was quite complex in the 1926-1936s of the 20th century. Despite the fact that the creators of the new proletarian poetry, from an ideological point of view, forcibly wanted to distance themselves from classical Eastern, including Azerbaijani poetic traditions, they still could not do without turning to classical poetic traditions. Because literature, and especially poetry, did not always depend on socio-political conditions. Poetry often has a special element that does not depend on history. The verse of the 20s and 30s could not develop without turning to the romantic poetic traditions of Azerbaijani poetry of the Middle Ages, our rich ashug poetry, and the Turkish verse of the 19th century. Let us take into account that at the beginning of the 20th century there were such powerful romantics as G. Javid, M. Hadi, such a brilliant satirist as M. A. Sabir. And the young Komsomol, proletarian poets who came to literature in the 20-30s of the 20th century S. Rustam, A. Fevzi, M. Rahim, M. Mushfik, S. Vurgun, M. Dilbazi, N. Rafibeyli, A. Javad could not ignore the traditions of the Middle Ages, especially the brilliant romantic M. Fizuli, as well as the traditions of the active at the beginning of the 20th century verse of national revival. The artistic and philosophical traditions of the national-spiritual verse of independence, which were formed at the beginning of the 20th century, developed inertly until the end of the 1930s, that is, until the repressions of 1937. In the 1940s and 1950s, the totalitarian Soviet-Bolshevik-Communist ideology began to reign supreme over poetry; the bitterness of the Great Patriotic War, the pathos of sadness and victory came to the forefront in poetry. Although some poems were written in 1940-1945, political lyrics, the theme of war came to the forefront. Romanticism was forced to recede into the background somewhat. Victory in World War II greatly strengthened the romantic pathos in poetry in the 1950s...

Let us return to the unusually active poetic process of 10 years - in the second half of the 20s - first half of the 30s of the twentieth century.

A researcher of the romantic trend in Soviet literature writes: " In works of the romantic style, the masses and individualized heroes are depicted at decisive, turning points in their lives ... By the mid-20s, writers showed an increasing interest in revealing the psychology of various participants in the revolution, in the multifaceted revelation of their spiritual life" (11. p . 110). The situation was approximately the same in Azerbaijan and the union republics that were forcibly annexed to the USSR at that time . The role of the people in the revolutionary movement, the advantages of the new society, the thoughts and desires of the revolutionary masses were the main goals of the poetry of the 20s and 30s.

In the first two decades of the 20th century , thanks to the implementation of both romanticism and the "highest idea in the native land of the motherland" (S. Kuliyev), the poems of D. Jabbarli "To the Azerbaijani flag", "Beloved country", A. Javad "Hey soldier", "To the national flag", "Soul, soul, soul of Azerbaijan!" and others became the reason for the emergence of poetic epics of Azerbaijan in the 20-30s. Academician M. Arif, characterizing this period , and in general , the poetry of the first decades of the 20th century, wrote: "Poets, not daring to openly express their feelings, tried to hide their deep sadness and actions, tears that they shed for the old exploitative society with mystical and symbolic images, with non-political aestheticism" . (12. p. 269) Research and observations show that the most romantic image of the poetry of the 20s was the Moon. Although it was addressed with different epithets, the Moon was the image to which the poet, weighed down by earthly truths, turned . For example, M.S. Ordubadi in his poem "The Moon" addresses this political image as follows: "And you, go out like deceived deeds, yellow torch! The essence of the poem is in the denial of the moon, in the censure of the tricolor of independence:

The horizons shine at night, taking your light, Well, what about the Moon herself under the stain? Rise up, taking new light from the sun, And if you can’t, then leave the stage already!

Səndən gecələr nur alaraq parlayır afaq

Ay, sən ləkə altında durursan özün ancaq

Səyinlə günəşdən yeni bir nur alaraq çıx

Qabil olamazsan buna, səhnədən artıq! (13.s.33)

The poem "Moon" by M.S. Ordubadi was a purely Bolshevik poem, written against the Turks and the moon , which stood on the flag of the republic."

And in the poem "Moon" (1927) of Haji Kerim Sanyli, who entered Azerbaijani literature as a village poet, the following lines appear:

These black , pitch-black burns on your chest,

They know about the sadness and pain of your soul.

Köksündəki qara-qara yanıqlar

Söyləyər könlündə dərdü-sərin var.

Having risen ever higher, do not fall prostrate, Like a kemancha, don’t hunch your shoulders,

Don't believe every word, don't rely on every power, And kiss the five-pointed star, Moon!

Getdikcə ucalan, alçağa enmə

Büküb qamətini kamana dönmə Hər dilə inanma, gücə güvənmə Beşgüşəli ulduz ilə öpüş , Ay!

As you can see, the poem of G.K.Sanyly decorated in the national spirit with the ideal of Turkism is in complete contradiction with the verse of M.S.Ordubadi with the Bolshevik ideal . Ordubadi calls the moon stained, and Sanyly "a sign of sadness and pain", does not imagine it without a five-pointed star. The romantic image of G.K.Sanyly is a symbol of Azerbaijanism and Turkism. The scientist - researcher writes: "The fact that often mentioned in individual verses of poetry of the 20s "Moon", "star" symbolized "the flag of national independence" was a known truth" (14. p. 6). The poet of independence, the author of our national anthem, Ahmed Javad, was arrested in 1937 because of the following lines in his poem "Gek-Gol":

Your beauties are countless ,

The sun and the moon have found refuge in your bosom,

You became a good nanny for them, Gök-Göl

How providence immediately arranged its holiday!

Sənin gözəlliyin gəlməz ki saya

Qoynunda yer verdin günəşə, aya

Oldun sən onlara mehriban daya

Fələk büsatını quralı, Göy-göl! (Anthology, I.p.161)

Romantic, but secret deep love for the Moon, stars, tricolor flag, decorated with symbols, points to the inert continuation of the longing for national independence in the poetry of the 20s . Badri Seidzade , who openly came out with such anti-Soviet national text as "Let the veil disappear before my eyes, II So that I do not see another, whether you exist", wrote in his poem "I will cry!"

When I see the moon, my face dreams,

When I see a star, I drown in sadness,

I don't know if I can reunite again?

I will cry, and my eyes will cry,

The words and phrases I wrote will cry.

Ay görəndə üzüm düşür xəyala,

Ulduz gorcək qərq oluram məlala, Yetərmiyəm bir də bilməm vüsala?

Mən ağlaram həm də gözlərim ağlar

Yazdığım kəlmələr, sözlərim ağlar.(Anthology, book I , p.139)

In 1923, A. Javad wrote the poem "Don't Cry", dedicated it to the drama "Prophet " ( ") and the poem "Moon" to the one who wrote that year. In general, these poems have the main feature inherent in the poems of the 20s of the 20th century: the unification of romantic pathos with a political ideal. Let's pay attention to one couplet from the poem "Don't Cry":

Bən deyən yox, fələk deyən oldusa

Əsdi yellər, gül yanağın soldusa, Dərd əlindən ala gözlər doldusa Sən ağlama, bən ağlayım gözəlim! ( Anthology I., p. 152.)

If what was said not by me, but by fate, came true, The winds blew, and the pink face turned yellow, If green eyes are filled with tears of sadness, Don't cry, beauty, I will cry!

In the poem "Moon" the poet speaks in a somewhat social style:

Arayırmış kimi onu gizlicə

Dolaşdıqdan sonra bir uzun gecə

Səhər ulduzuyla görüşün gözəl

Elə günlər olur bizlərdən uzaq

Someone is looking for her secretly,

After wandering around for a long night,

Your meeting with the early star,

There are days that are far from us.

Görünməz olursan bir uzun gecə

Deyirlər ağlarsan onda gizlicə

Sənin ilə mənim dərdimiz bəlli

Birlikdə taparıq bəlkə təsəlli.

You become invisible in the long night,

They say you cry secretly then,

Our sorrow is known,

Maybe together we can find solace.

( Anthology I, p . 153)

We admit that such celestial bodies as the Moon, Star, beauty, romantic attributes give romantic verse of the 20s romantic uniqueness. The spirit of national independence reigns over this romanticism. The main feeling that distinguishes this romanticism is Longing, which arose due to the collapse of the national state. This Longing is the highest feeling of the people who have lost their high ideals. D. Jabbarli's poems "My God", "Hey, pre-dawn star" are an expression of such a thirst for beauty, such a deep poetic-romantic longing:

Qaranlıq gecədə səni gözləyib

Durmaqdan yoruldum, ey dan ulduzu!

Uzaq üfüqlərə göz gəzdirməkdən

Az qala kor oldum,ey dan ulduzu!

for you in the dark night,

I'm tired, pre-dawn star!

Looking into the distant horizons,

I was nearly blinded, pre-dawn star! ( Anthology, Book I , p. 197)

At the time when beauty and romance were being pushed out and relegated to the background, two great masters of the 20th century - G. Javid and D. Jabbarli wrote the poems of the same name "My God". It was that difficult, hard time about which the great possessor of inspiration, Samad Vurgun, said: "I swore that my pen would no longer be inspired by beauties". A researcher of the literary process of that time writes that during this period, that is, in 1926-1936 , in all Soviet criticism and literary studies, realism was equated with materialism, and romanticism with idealism. Romance was considered a fruit of abstract imagination.1 At such a time, G. Javid wrote:

Every slave has a refuge in peace,

Every spiritual person has his own altar,

Everyone has their own love, their own god, And my God is beauty and love.

Hər qülün cahanda bir pənahı var.

Hər əhli-halın bir qibləgahı var, Hər kəsin bir eşqi, bir Allahı var Mənim tanrim gözəllikdir, sevgidir.(Antologiya,I.,s125)

And D. Jabbarli, the last representative of national romanticism, wrote this: Once upon a time I was far from myself,

Yesterday I found one light, illuminated my soul with it, Let go of all the old gods,

Now there is only one god left - beauty!

Mən bir zaman öz-özümdən uzaqdım Dün bir işıq buldum, ruhuma taxdım Bütün əski tanrıları buraxdım

İndi artıq bir tanrım var-gözəllik! (Anthology, I.p.196)

Both poems of a programmatic nature, somewhat Sufi in nature , unite God and nature on the plane of beauty . And this is one of the main conditions of romantic verse, one of its main features. Of course, in the 20s, poems of proletarian poets were also published, which were the complete opposite of these poems. For example, Suleiman Rustam, who called himself "the son of the sons of the revolution" wrote the poem "My Verse" (1925) . Let's see what kind of verse he has? "Your imagination does not pluck a thorny flower from the garden", "Countless bullets fly from each of my verses at strangers" and finally:

Mənim şerim mühitinin istədiyi meyvədir.

Xalqımızın ruhunu oxşar odlu dililə

Onun hər misrasında bir döyünən ürək var.

Nə tanriya yalvarır, nə də gülə-bülbülə!

My verse is the fruit that the environment desires,

Our people caress the soul with their fiery language,

There is a beating heart in every line of it,

He does not pray to God, to a flower, or to a nightingale! ( Anthology , I, p . 281)

Thus, the poem by S. Rustam is a socio-political poem, far from romantic, generated by the Bolshevik environment. Taking this into account, the most famous critic of that time, Ali Nazim, analyzing the poems of S. Rustam, wrote that his poems are like a worn coin. Thus, the critic discovered the stereotyped state inherent in the poetry of the 20s.

Tradition in poetry is a concept that requires great talent from the poet who wants to accept it in a new historical period, to perpetuate it in new poetic forms. The correct attitude to tradition is the basis of innovation. And in the 20-30s of the XX centuries, despite all the negative influences of the Proletkult, in innovative poetic creativity, especially artistic and philosophical traditions were preserved, originating from the poetry of the brilliant Fizuli.

The prominent literary scholar Ya. Karaev wrote that true innovation lies in the precision and concreteness of the attitude towards tradition.

, writes in his valuable monograph: “In the 1920s , in literature, including poetry, the novelty of the artistic attitude to life made its way in the conditions of a complex literary-ideological struggle . Given that the novelty was interpreted in the form of responses to everyday socio-political events, a number of bold searches in the field of artistic form were not appreciated. ( 16. p. 146) On the one hand, literary criticism accused “of pouring new content into an old block” (A. Nazim), and on the other hand, she sought to justify lyricism and put forward the need for lyricism to simultaneously see it in a new form: “We need lyricism. We need lyricism that does not sing the passion of petty bourgeois individualistic souls, but rather the aspirations, desires and spiritual experiences of the revolutionary classes and masses. This is valuable for us. I call this social lyricism.” (17. p. 48)

Such an attitude to romanticism and romanticism, lyric poetry dealt a blow to effective creative searches in artistic creativity in general, especially in poetry. A purely class-sociological approach to creativity, vulgar sociologism, and formal evaluation of form did not allow a correct evaluation of romanticism. This situation is formulated by Ya. Karaev as follows: Instead of analyzing romanticism as romanticism, its analysis is carried out from the point of view of the features of realism. It turns out that the best features of romanticism are the features that violate the "purity of romanticism", the "features of realism" in romanticism. As a result of such an attitude, not only is romanticism distorted, but realism also withers, because it is reduced to the level of an element." (18. p .) Such a dual attitude towards romanticism, that is, the equating of romanticism in literature with idealism and analysis, that is, the revision of romanticism from the point of view of the principles of realism, hindered the arrival of romantic traditions in the poetry of the 20s and 30s, and slowed down this necessary artistic and philosophical process.

Of course, the Azerbaijani romanticism of the 20th century adopted the romantic traditions of the Middle Ages, especially the poetry of Fizuli, in a more effective way.(19.)

The great theorist Yashar Karayev writes that the traditions of Fizuli's poetry manifested themselves in the most vivid way in Sabir's satire: "Above the stormy spring of national literary sources, on which M.A. Sabir internally relied and precisely the "new manifestation", "true continuation" of which was his work, we see the image of the great Fizuli earlier and more than anyone else ."

The historical mistake that realistic aesthetics made towards the romantic Fizuli was corrected by Sabir...

Our literary criticism is absolutely right not to look for a connection between Sabir-Fuzuli's ghazal and Fuzuli's ghazal. But it looks between Sabir's satire and Fuzuli's satire." (20. pp. 214 and 228)

Romantic traditions of Azerbaijani poetry of the 20th century, or more precisely in the 20-30s, in the period before the Second World War were approximately in such a state. Our poetry mostly turned to the philosophy and styles of the artistic form of poetry of the Middle Ages and Fizuli. Beginning in the 50s of the 20th century, romanticism was formed in our poetry as an artistic and aesthetic quality.