A SCANDINAVIAN LOVE OF NIZAMI

Ragnhild Thori was born in Norway. She was a teacher at a school for children with special needs. She would never have believed it, if someone had ever told her that fate would whisk her away to distant Azerbaijan. But it so happened that she turned up in Ganca, the home of the great poet, which predetermined what she went on to do in life. When she got to know the works of this brilliant philosopher, it made her take another look at her own knowledge of world literature. Owing to her desire to tell people, especially children about the educational activity of the great Nizami, Ragnhild published the book "Nizami Gancavi . Layla and Majnun. Aphorisms." in English. She has been working and teaching in Azerbaijan since 2005.

- Ragnhild, please tell us how you, a resident of distant Norway came to be in the homeland of Nizami Gancavi.

- It happened in 2005. An acquaintance of mine, a representative of a Norwegian humanitarian organisation asked me to go the Ganca. Before that I had worked in Norway as a teacher in a class of children with special needs. I immediately agreed to go. I thought it would be interesting to visit a country that was so different from my own.

I remember that it was the beginning of January and very cold. There were constant power cuts and gas outages in the city. Since I fell ill, I had to stay at home for a long time. When I started to feel a bit better, I decided to have a quiet wander round the town. To begin with, I went for a walk near the house and then decided to make an excursion to the city centre. The first thing I saw was the huge, boring building of the town council offices, which was reminiscent of the Soviet era. I was impressed by the incredibly large size of the building. When the spring finally came, the city was transformed into blossoming trees and bright blue skies.

By that time I had managed to make friends with a lot of people in Ganca. What kind and hospitable people they were. Then I suddenly began to feel at home. When I was teaching in Ganca we got a very regular and interesting group of people together. These were mainly young teachers with whom we talked for hours. Once we started talking about love and one of the young teachers asked me, "What is love?" She had decided that due to my age, I would be able to define this feeling precisely. Then I asked them to talk about love. What did it mean to them? What could cast a shadow on their love? When the girls began to talk about themselves, I understood that many of things that happened in "Layla and Majnun" were very real to them. Society still considers that it has the right to condemn lovers it disapproves of and demands complete subjugation to laws and rules which are at times outdated. I think that the desire to love and be loved is embedded in each of us. It is given to us by nature. Adults should respect the feelings of their children. For love makes a person grow as a personality. Love makes us better people. For this reason it is worth getting away from stereotypes…

- So, it seems that at the time of that conversation you were already familiar with the works of Nizami Gancavi. Did you know of this great thinker before your trip to Ganca?

- No, I had never heard of Nizami before I came to live in Ganca. One day at the school where I was teaching one of the local teachers began to talk about Nizami and his literary heritage. I took an interest in him so the next day they brought me an abridged version of the poem Layla and Majnun in English. I was amazed when I read it. It was like something out of Shakespeare. When I mentioned this to my colleagues, they pointed out to me that Nizami lived and worked in the 12th century. Later, when I began to read and study the history of his life, I learned that Shakespeare, Dante, Pushkin and many other writers and poets had drawn their inspiration from Nizami Gancavi. I had the bright idea of putting on a performance in English with my pupils acting in it. I began to write the scenario based on "Layla and Majnun" and adapted this brilliant poem, after singling out what were in my view the most important quatrains, without losing sight of the main point of the plot about eternal love.

Professor Teymur Karimli, the director of the Nizami Institute of Literature helped me a lot with his advice and recommendations. The director of the Ganca puppet theatre, Bahram Fataliyev, presented the little actors and actresses with his own puppets, costumes, scenery and musical score. Our performance was a great success. After the premiere, people began to ask me whether they could get an adapted version of "Layla and Majnun" for children. But all I had was the scenario. Even Norway's ambassador to Azerbaijan, who had once visited our school in Ganca, was interested in the scenario. Then he admitted that he would be glad to have a book like that on his desk for visitors to look at. So, I decided that, no matter what, I would publish it.

Naturally, I was a bit frightened to do it because I am not particularly good at writing and even less at translating. I was just a teacher of English. But I did start working on it all the same. It took me a very long time and it wasn't easy either. I found a very good designer in Baku and I had to go round numerous international companies and organisations which all refused me any kind of sponsorship. By that time I had already moved to Baku to teach Norwegian at Azerbaijan's University of Foreign Languages. The deputy to the University's rector, Professor Natiq Yusifov, who was in charge of tuition, offered to help me get the book published. He found me a publishing house that agreed to put out the book. We made contact with Azerbaijan's  Ministry of Education, which in its turn managed to drum up sponsorship by the World Bank. But it took me six years to do all that. Unfortunately, since the publishing house worked very slowly, we had to find another firm to print it. The latter made an excellent job of the assignment and met the deadline for publishing the first 1,000 copies. We also included Nizami Gancavi's aphorisms in the book and illustrated it with miniatures and added a short biography of the poet. Each copy contained a disc showing the performance that started our story off. All the books were bought up by the Norwegian embassy in Azerbaijan, international schools and bookshops within a month. Up to the present time, there have been three editions of the book "Nizami Gancavi. Layla and Majnun. Aphorisms." My adapted variant in English has also been published in Azeri and Russian.

- What was it about the poem "Layla and Majnun" that you found so attractive?

- I believe it is one of the greatest dramas ever written in mankind's history. Nizami Gancavi was a genius. When I was getting to know his works, I read numerous historical documents. What does "Layla and Majnun" mean to me? It is a story which shows that even death cannot destroy true love. In it Nizami did an excellent  job of showing that man keeps true values hidden in his heart. He showed in his work how senseless traditions and the opinions of those around us try to crush true feelings. The poem "Layla and Majnun" is evergreen today, because even now people make mistakes when they intervene in the lives of others and try to decide the fate of others. Each of us can recognise himself or herself in the main characters in Nizami Gancavi's work. As far as Nizami himself was concerned, he managed to oppose the stereotypes of his time and arrange his life as he saw fit. His first and favourite wife, the slave girl Afaq, to whom Nizami dedicated many poems, was given to him by the ruler of Derbent [Fakr al-Din Bahramshah], who failed to value the perspicacity and wisdom of this woman. Nizami closely examined the finest human qualities in her and, in spite of the opposition of society, he freed Afaq and married her. This was a very bold thing to do in those times.

Many centuries later we can understand what he wanted to say and regard his message from different angles. The message in all Nizami's work is that we need love. Happiness does not stem from money and wealth. The love of Layla and Majnun was incredibly pure and heavenly. Real love elevates a person. Nizami says that, according to eastern tradition, people try to hide their feelings just as Layla did. But Majnun went against everyone, telling the whole world about it. He was declared to be mad because of this and was punished by society and sent into exile in the desert. There he found true friends among the wild animals. And, when Majnun inscribed his love on paper and then tore his message up after an outburst of despair, the wind carried the scraps of paper bearing the words of his love songs into the city, to the townsfolk. They read these lines and hegan to praise and admire the anonymous author. They did not suspect that this love song had been written by that very Majnun whom they had rejected.

Nizami's works represented a landmark in world literature. Nizami says that man was created for a happy life. The fate he was given cannot be changed by any kind of evil forces. This is the idea that runs like a red thread through all Nizami's works. The everlasting quality of his works lies in the very fact that throughout his works he points out positive ways of solving many of mankind's problems. He was able to put his finger on society's problems and point out ways of solving them.

- It would be interesting to know what you think of his other works

- Yes, after "Layla and Majnun" I started to study Nizami's other poems with great interest. His Book of Alexander [Eskandar-nameh] amazed me just as much as the tale of the lovers. The poem is Nizami's creative treatment of different subjects and legends about Iskander [Alexander the Great], whom the author has made the main character in the poem. Alexander the Great learns about the legendary Queen Nushaba of Barda whose palace only houses maidens [Amazons] and which men are barred. To check the truth of this, he goes to Nushaba disguised as an  envoy of the Macedonian king. But the clever and shrewd woman had noticed that he had entered the palace like a "strolling lion", forgotten to take off his sword and did not bow before the throne. Understanding that this was a trick on the part of Alexander, she order a luxurious feast to be prepared. She placed golden chalices studded with precious stones before the king. Addressing Nushaba, he said that everything was inedible and asked for something different to eat. The queen burst out laughing and asked him why he was requesting something he didn't need and why he desired unnecessary war every hour.

This is simply brilliant. Nizami shows people that riches, treasures and material wealth don't mean anything. They only cause suffering. People only need food, water and love.

Nizami is regularly quoted. For many his pithy sayings [aphorisms] are rules for life. The former Latvian president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga has integrated the works of the great poet into a programme of instruction for teachers at Riga University. I want to do the same. I think that in Norway they need to know about Nizami Gancavi and study his works which are filled with profound meaning. I remember that at an international event I went up to Queen Noor of Jordan, who hails from Sweden and presented her with my book. She liked our brochure-like book. The director of the Alexandia Library in Egypt expressed a wish to acquire our book for his collection. But when the Libyan representative flicked through the pages of "Nizami Gancavi. Layla and Majnun. Aphorisms", he stated that his country needed this book like no other. He said that even now senseless traditions are being observed in their country which sometimes destroy the fates of numerous people.

- The well known Norwegian anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl has asserted that our peoples have the same roots. What do you think? In what way are Norwegians and Azeris alike?

- (laughs)I think all people are alike. After all, we all have the same primogenitors.