The 75th birthday of Azerbaijani writer Anar

By Vestnik Kavkaza

In March the People’s Writer of Azerbaijan, director, and script-writer Anar Rasul ogly Rzayev who is simply called by compatriots Anar was celebrated the 75th birthday. Anar is son of poet Rasul Rzy and poetess Nigyar Rafibejli. He was raised in an atmosphere of literature evenings; his parents were friends with Arseny Tarkovsky, Mikhail Svetlov. Anna Akhmatova translated one of Rasul Rzy’s poems.

Polad Byul-Byul Ogly, ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia, said at the anniversary evening organized by the Azerbaijani culture society “Ochag” that “Anar is a phenomenon of not only Azerbaijani literature, but also the life of Azerbaijani society. It is true. There is a theory that children are less talented than their parents. Azerbaijan intensively disproves this theory, because in Azerbaijan there are a lot of families and well-known people who continue the traditions founded by their fathers, mothers, grandparents. I think it matches the harmony of Eastern wisdom, which is a part of Azerbaijan. When we all started in the 1960s, it was difficult to say who would achieve what results; but Anar was distinguished by his philosophy, moderation, and intellect. Almost all our adult social life has passed side by side. Anar is a splendid writer, literary author and poet, he also has a lot of philosophical books which unfold the essence of our life. He is a man who has initiated a lot of ideas, which were luckily implemented.”

Lyudmila Lavrova, writer, reviewer, publicist, stated in an interview to Vestnik Kavkaza: “What is the most important thing in Anar’s works for me, a literary reviewer, a person who made a book about him - “Well-known Stranger”? It is the fact that he writes, and have been writing in Soviet times when everybody wrote about production, people of labour, he wrote about human beings, first of all. It has never been important for him what status a human being has, what his material value is. For him the subtle matter of human feelings has always been important. I don’t know other Azerbaijani writers who could write like him. This is his lesson to those who are only beginning to write today. I have said in my speech that there are some negative attitudes, including in Russia, from young people toward writers of a previous generation. They say: you haven’t written anything monumental! We will discover and turn the world upside down! In fact, everything is simpler. All modern approaches – post-modern, the internet, information, documentary drama which is very popular in Russia, a genre of gathering some facts and making a work from them – all modern, “spicy” things, which seem to reflect the current development, are worth nothing in reality. The works do not speak about contemporary people, the dramas, tragedies and changes which are experienced by people in the current very difficult stage of development of not only Azerbaijan and Russia, but also the whole of humanity. From this point of view, Anar’s lessons are priceless, because personality, character, and the human soul have always been in first place for him.”

“The other important thing is his civil position, when he began to write about the Azerbaijanines,” Lyudmila Lavrova thinks. “In the international context of the Soviet Union, when all of us seemed to be the Soviet nation, he spoke about Azerbaijaniness, continuing the line of Mamed Emin Rasulzade, who had thought about it a lot, i.e. the tradition of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, self-identification in the world of yourself, your nation, your creative heritage. In Soviet times he wrote about mugam, carpets, i.e. he emphasized national diversity rather than cosmopolitanism, a notion of “citizens of the world”. We use it, for sure, we read this and take the best from it and don’t reject this. At the same time, we love and appreciate our own traditions; we establish our national character; we wind our thread into the wonderful carpet of world culture, into a wonderful carpet of spiritual space of the whole of humanity. I think that until Anar’s lessons are realized by the young generation of writers, literary workers who are starting on their road today risk being ephemeral writers and poets. Anar is deep. Anar is an encyclopedia. Anar is a space of Azerbaijani culture.”

Anar himself told Vestnik Kavkaza: “Young writers are different. There are very talented and promising ones. There are those who seem to fall out of the race, because literature is a life-long job. It is a marathon. Not everybody is able to bear long distances. I wish hard work and responsibility for talented people, and success will come if they are patient.”

“It was a pleasant surprise for me when our dear President Ilham Aliyev said that he read in a calendar that it was my birthday and decided to award an order to me to mark the anniversary,” Anar said. “Every birthday is an addition of new stages to life, further periods of life, and not always joyful events. However, I am very glad to be here among my friends, wonderful Muscovites, Azerbaijanis who have been Muscovites for a long time.Speaking about our generation of the "Sixtiers", I can say we were a lucky generation, because we didn’t need to write about heroes of labor, farmers, workers, and so on. Of course, one always had to write about peasants, but we didn’t write about the perfect heroes from the banners. I remember in these years there were love stories, but they were so official that the author even didn’t call his characters by names, only surnames. He wrote: “Kasanov fell in love with Akhmedova. Alhmedova responded to Kasanov’s feelings. Akhmedova and Kasanov kissed.” We rejected hackneyed phrases. If we wrote about people, they were alive, I mean works by writers of our generation. We turned to common people, not to heroes, but common people, and succeeded in this I think. But we didn’t hate or get angry about the previous generation. Because hatred is the destiny of those who cannot do anything and spend their energy on a hateful attitude to ancestors, contemporaries, and successors. We could misunderstand older writers and tried to write differently, but we always respected them. I think the current young Azerbaijani writers who can say that they are real writers should respect our generation as well. And I can see it.”