Selected Poems

Fülszöveg

Daghestan lies in the Caucasus bordering the Caspian. There in the small Avar village of Tsada high in the mountains Rasul Gamzatov, a leading contemporary Soviet poet, was born in 1923 in the family of folk bard Gamzat Tsadasa, People's Poet of Daghestan. ^ "My father named me Rasul, which in Arabic means 'representative'," explaines Rasul Gamzatov. "Happy is the poet whose readers say he is 'the spokesman of our country and of our poetry'. A writer's life Is judged not by his years but by his books, and there's no better measure of a person than his work."
Rasul Gamzatov was fortunate in his poetic career: he published his first verse when he was only fourteen. Since then his poetry collections have been constantly appearing in Avar, his mother tongue, in Russian and in many other languages of the peoples of the USSR and in foreign translations.
The qualities of his poetry which attract readers are its originality and spontaneity, its Oriental love of aphorism^ its striking... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Daghestan lies in the Caucasus bordering the Caspian. There in the small Avar village of Tsada high in the mountains Rasul Gamzatov, a leading contemporary Soviet poet, was born in 1923 in the family of folk bard Gamzat Tsadasa, People's Poet of Daghestan. ^ "My father named me Rasul, which in Arabic means 'representative'," explaines Rasul Gamzatov. "Happy is the poet whose readers say he is 'the spokesman of our country and of our poetry'. A writer's life Is judged not by his years but by his books, and there's no better measure of a person than his work."
Rasul Gamzatov was fortunate in his poetic career: he published his first verse when he was only fourteen. Since then his poetry collections have been constantly appearing in Avar, his mother tongue, in Russian and in many other languages of the peoples of the USSR and in foreign translations.
The qualities of his poetry which attract readers are its originality and spontaneity, its Oriental love of aphorism^ its striking imagery, wisdom and sly humour. It is truly poetry of the people and at the same time the work of a contemporary writer who is highly aware of his civic responsibilities.
In 1963 Rasul Gamzatov was awarded a Lenin Prize for his book of verse, Lofty Stars.
His public and social activities are manifold. He is a member of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet and Chairman of the Board of the Union of Daghestan Writers. He is active in the work of the Soviet Committee for Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia and Africa and does a great deal for peace and international friendship. Vissza