HOW SAD THAT HE WAS SHOT

It's difficult to write about Mikayil Musfiq - it's always difficult to write about a genius, all the more so about someone whose life was tragically cut short. Mikayil Musfiq was a prominent representative of the Azerbaijani people. Sadly, he was one of those luminaries that had to be extinguished. The tool was Stalin's bloody policy. But luminaries light the way for others as well as themselves and burn out quickly. 

Today we are marking the centenary of Mikayil Musfiq's birth. Mikayil Mirza Qadir oglu Ismayilzada, the outstanding Azerbaijani poet, was born on 5 June 1908. He was 18 when he took up literature and soon won wide recognition. Musfiq wrote 10 collections in 10 years of creative work. Before his arrest on charges of pan-Turkism and nationalism in 1937, he was finishing his 11th book. But he was destined never to see it. Mikayil Musfiq was shot on 12 March 1938, although he had never been involved in politics.

If only…

Oh, if only that summer could come again,

And God's grace

Send me a happy outcome. If only your dacha

Could be next to ours again

That the full cup of my soul might bubble 

With inspiration 

From every meeting

With you, my love, that every evening

I might write a new verse.

Tell me, is my desire softer 

Than your curls?

And does it please your heart?

And may I …

These lines are from a popular poem by Mikayil Musfiq. It's possible to pick out Musfiq's lines from hundreds of poems by other authors. Every line, every intonation, every expression is Musfiq's and only Musfiq's. Those who study Mikayil Musfiq's work say that it's impossible not to fall in love with his poetry. "Whoever reads his poems just once will be engrossed in them forever, because you eat into them heart and soul," Safura Quliyeva, senior researcher at the Nizami Literary Institute and doctor of philology, told R+.

"Mikayil Musfiq is a poet of an original poetic world, of great feeling and bright optimism," literary scholar Academician Mammad Arif said. "He died early, but left samples of fiery lyrics, full of the joy of creating and transforming reality." Many examples can be cited of poems in which Musfiq warmly welcomes the new revolutionary era in the life of the people: Songs about Tar-Tar Power Station, The Lucky Man, The Poet, Epic of Freedom etc., but this does not mean that Musfiq's work was politicized. "Musfiq never asked himself whether he should 'accept' the revolution or not. After the death of his father - a teacher and poet - he became a child of the revolution which took him under its wing. He earned his keep himself. The poet accepted the revolution romantically and with a clean heart and considered it something close to him." 

Musfiq's poetry does not only consist of elevated songs in praise of the building of socialism. His lyrical verse sometimes also contains a cry of the heart. Through his poems you can turn the pages of his difficult life. You can see the people around him, as though in a play, Safura Quliyeva said.

"Musfiq's creative life had a very early and tragic end. When the fate of the poet is discussed today, one painfully realizes that Musfiq's tragedy was not a chance of fate, a one-off. His tragic death was a tragedy of the era of repression, the tragedy of thousands, tens of thousands of unjustly, wrongly accused, honourable and talented sons of the motherland."

When the people are ready to cry

I will be the tears in their brimming eyes.

So as not to understand the reprobates

I will be impervious to them.

If I fall from the hand of death before my time

And smash like a fragile jug,

The poet will still write new verse

As long as the Universe exists, there will be poetry!

This is how the 27-year-old poet expressed his inner conviction during the building of socialism: "As long as the Universe exists, there will be poetry!"

Poetic melody

What is the secret of the attraction of Mikayil Musfiq's work? Leading Musfiq experts say it is above all his unique originality, his special spirit, the original intonation and construction of his verse and his individual manner. Alongside the special characteristics of intonation and line construction, the inner depths of his poetry harbour an unrepeatable poetic subtext that belongs to Musfiq. Impulses, energy, emotion - these are the most important characteristics of his poetry. The romantic spirit of his poems is a stream that begins in the clear mountain springs, gradually grows in strength and turns into a powerful, turbulent waterfall. 

Musfiq is a poet of tempestuous inspiration and deep intimacy. This impulse is present in all his work, regardless of concrete theme or idea, like a symphony written for a full orchestra. Musfiq has always been read in Azerbaijan, is read today and will always be read. His words are set to music and clips filmed. Not long ago, well-known Azerbaijani singer Ayyub Yaqubov based his latest song on the poet's "If only that garden were here again". Director Elxan Cafarov filmed a clip of the music, telling the tale of the poet's tragic fate. However, Musfiq expert Safura Quliyeva thinks that these heartfelt, optimistic lines should not have been set to "gloomy" music. "I am very, very glad that young people today are interested in the work of this great Azerbaijani poet. But the composer of this music should have felt optimism, not pessimism in this poem. Not one line of this poem contains sadness or a sombre mood. These lines are permeated with memories and nostalgia, the desire to bring back the unrepeatable, while the music written for them is sad and the clip itself is permeated with tragedy. Yes, Musfiq's life was broken but the poet himself sang of this life in all its manifestations. From the artistic point of view, the clip has been well made, but it should have used other poems by the poet," Quliyeva thinks.

One of Mikayil Musfiq's main innovations is his original, rich and varied form. The search for form can be felt in many of his works. In his creative laboratory Musfiq uses the aruz classical metre, heca syllabic metre and free verse to suit his varied poetic aims, themes, content and ideas. The poet's innovativeness lay in his creative approach to traditional forms. He is particularly original in his use of heca. The typical sequence of long and short lines in such poems creates the highest degree of poetic harmony. Sometimes Musfiq divides internal syllables in lines into three-syllable word combinations. Here, according to the mood of the poem, he strings together these short combinations of syllables into lines, skilfully using six-, nine-, 12- and more complex lines in his poems. In these instances, without breaking the internal harmony of the metre, the poet seems to "free" the poetry, to break the usual sequence of rhythm, subordinating all this to the expression of ideas and feelings. The special sequence of building three-syllable compositions in lines and the further development of similar structures are connected with Musfiq above all.

Musfiq's "Sovietness"

"The seeking necessary for young Soviet poetry, difficulties, failures and successes were natural in Musfiq's work. Even though critics such as A. Nazim, M. Huseyn and M. Rafili sacrificed objective analysis in their research to political views and current social problems, they nevertheless helped the development of the literary process and tried to point its ideological and artistic seeking in the right direction," Safura Quliyeva says.

Musfiq was harshly criticized because he belonged to the aristocracy and was called a "petty bourgeois poet" and "opportunist". At the same time critics appreciated the poet's work and talent. Their comments are especially valuable for us today. "Of our young writers, Musfiq is a very talented and productive poet" (M. Rafili, 1930); "Some people accuse Musfiq of nationalism. This is without doubt completely wrong" (M. Huseyn, 1932); "The young poet Mikayil Musfiq is distinguished by his great artistic energy and ability. Having studied classical Turkish poetry more than most, Musfiq is trying to create a revolutionary, romantic poetry. This idea permeates his best poems (Ali Nazim, 1935).  

The ambivalent attitude of the critics towards Musfiq's work is further proof that the criticism of the era encompassed not only the poet's lyrical verse but also thoroughly "researched" his poetry, ignoring nothing and putting forward widely varying interpretations (Cahanbexs, Literaturnaya Gazeta, 31 March 1934). Mammad Arif wrote about the poet: "In most of his works Musfiq is locked in a bourgeois point of view and expresses a middle-class attitude towards issues." Another of our critics called Musfiq a "great poet" in a speech at the third plenum of the All-Union Writers' Union. He said that "recently he has created works of great significance." (Ali Nazim, Literaturnaya Gazeta, 24 March 1936)

Musfiq was at the height of his creative powers in the late 1930s. As well as contemporary ideas and themes, his verse was new in terms of the emotional resonance of these ideas and artistic and poetic form. New and unique. The "ideological struggle movement" in public and political life in the country had an extremely negative affect on the life and work of writers and poets in 1937. Those who wanted to unmask "suspicious characters" grew fiercer by the day and censorship grew much tougher all the time. More meetings were called in the Writers' Union and more people spoke in lengthier discussions. Musfiq's lyricism really was original and a valuable heritage for our national poetry. His verses reflect the most important ideas of that era, Safura Quliyeva said.

Musfiq's tar

This is what People's Poet Suleyman Rustam had to say about Mikayil Musfiq: "Mikayil has studied the work of our classical poets in depth - Fizuli, Nasimi, Vaqif, Said Azim and Sabir. He also completely mastered the basis of classical verse composition - aruz.  But he looked for new forms and expression. In his seeking Musfiq did not turn only to the classics, but to the life-giving source of folk poetry, our richest treasure trove. He knew by heart hundreds of four-line bayati and qosma songs, compiled by our famed, nameless ashuq singers. We grew up and reached manhood in the romantic, revolutionary era. And we became, or to be more exact could not but become, singers of our severe, beautiful era. Poetry - this is what we lived and breathed. 

Poetry at home, poetry outdoors, poetry at the dacha, poetry, poetry, poetry at the workshop, at the factory, in industry. We began to live and work at a time when the literary links between the peoples of our country had just been made on new, revolutionary, socialist soil. At this time Musfiq did not know Russian well. He asked his comrades for help, especially me, and for hours we would read and re-read the works of Bedniy, Mayakovskiy, Bezimenksiy and Aseyev. As a result we went not only to every corner of Azerbaijan together, but to Tbilisi, Moscow and Leningrad. And again and again we would return from our trips home to Baku. Even now when I walk our boulevards and avenues, it seems that Musfiq has returned from a long journey and we are walking side by side. And again, as during our youth, we are reading one another poems. Our own poems and poems by our teachers, poems by our friends from the fraternal countries. Poems, poems, poems."

People's writer Gulhuseyn Huseynoglu thinks that Musfiq was born to be a poet and demanded a great deal of himself as a poet. "He tirelessly perfected his skill, constantly sought new forms to express great thoughts and aspirations, worried about the beauty and expressiveness of a poem, filled it with emotion and passion. He was always conquering new peaks in poetry. Nevertheless, he never lost a sense of dissatisfaction with himself. In one of his poems the poet torments himself thinking how to make his songs as beautiful as his thoughts, how to give them all the colour of the blue spring sky, all the scent of grass and flowers, how to make them breathe joy. There was of course one answer: work, work, paying no attention to the hardship and sleepless nights. With good reason Musfiq would say that the unhappiest moment of his life was the one that passed without poetry."

Musfiq drew rich inspiration from oral people's poetry, a source that never ran dry, learnt from the best traditions of Azerbaijani classical literature and continued and developed these traditions in new circumstances. He could not bear people who dismissed Azerbaijani classical literature, Huseynoglu says. "The poet lives in the modern memory as a genuine successor and worthy proponent of the classical literature and ancient culture of his people. Nigar Xanim Rafibayli puts this well in her memoirs: 'Musfiq was like an archaeologist, who carefully takes up a pickaxe in order to find beneath the layers traces of our ancient culture. Like a conscientious scholar and researcher who finds pearls - the words of poets of past centuries - he shows a great interest and genuine love for such incomparably beautiful lyric forms as ghazals, qosma and bayati, he shook the dust of oblivion from these poets. For the first time, the verses and gazals of Bahar Sirvani, Bixud, Nasex and many other forgotten and half-forgotten Azerbaijani poets I heard from the lips of Musfiq."

In the early 1930s when a campaign was under way against national musical instruments, including the tar, the powerful and passionate voice of Musfiq could be heard amongst the defenders of the best traditions of the Azeri people. His poem Tar was at the time a harsh rebuke to whoever tried to denigrate the importance of national musical instruments. The poet's fellow writers well remember that, as soon as his poem was published, it became immensely popular and prompted a lively response: "He read Tar for the first time in the House of Enlightenment where several hundred people had gathered. We all, and the whole auditorium, sensing ourselves on the crest of a powerful, all-conquering wave, gave Musfiq an enthusiastic welcome. Like a torch, he gave out warmth and light from the stage to all four corners," Azerbaijani writer Mirza Ibrahimov wrote.

Of course, the appearance of such a bold poem at that time shows how strong Musfiq's sense of citizenship was, how strongly he was bound to his people. The Tar lives on as a bright sign of the poet's long-sightedness. As well as the tar, which Musfiq considered "gall and joy" and "a creation and gift of the people", the poet often mentioned in his poems other folk instruments, such as the saz, kamancha and bubna.

He looked for beauty in everything - in work, in people, in nature and in human feelings. His poem Beauty is typical in this regard. Saying that the attraction to beauty lies in man's very nature, the poet looks for meaning in beauty itself. He takes inner and spiritual beauty in an indivisible whole: 

The beauty that has no sense

Is alien to my soul, my people, my country.

Musfiq said that what was most important for a person was to feel beauty in the whole of existence. He thought it necessary to develop a sense of beauty in the people, to perfect their aesthetic taste. This has of course always opened, opens and will continue to open new creative horizons for art and artists. As long as mankind lives, art will live. This idea permeates the poem Song of Eternity in which Musfiq gives the highest assessment of poetry. Musfiq could not and did not want to imagine people without poetry, without art. How right he was! How sad that he was shot! How much more Mikayil Musfiq could have created!