Azeris have a high level of education and love and know their literature, especially their poetry. Azeri poetry is represented by such luminaries as Nizami Ganjavi, the peak of whose creative activity "Khamsa" is included in the treasure-house of world literature, Afzalladin Khagani, Samad Vurgun, Mehseti Ganjavi, Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh, Mohammed Fizuli, Molla Panah Vagif, Khur-shud-banu Natavan and others. The most famous among them are Nizmi, Fizuli and Nasimi.

Nizami Ganjavi was born around 1141 in Ganja, where he remained until his death in about 1209. He lived in an age of both political instability and intense intellectual activity, which his poems reflect. Although he left a small corpus of lyric poetry, Niz?m? is best known for his five long narrative poems: Tresury of Secrets, Seven Beauties, Leyli and Mejnun, Iskandarname, Khosrau and Shirin. You can find manuscripts of Iskandarname in the British Library in London.


The Contest Between Khosrau and Farhad (excerpt from the poem Khosrau and Shirin)

Khosrau asked once: "Where do you come from, say?"
Farhad replied: "From regions far away."
Khosrau: "In what crafts does you land excel?"
Farhad: "We purchase grief and souls we sell."
Khosrau: "By selling soul what do you gain?"
Farhad: "Our bards this custom don't disdain."
Khosrau: "Your soul from love is well high fleeing?"
Farhad: "My soul? I love with all my being."
Khosrau: "Shirin's affection do you prize?"
Farhad: "O yes, I prove it with my sighs!"
Khosrau: "Is she the moon that shines at night?"
Farhad: "Though drowsy, still I see her light."
Khosrau: "When will your heart forget her glow?"
Farhad: "When I am buried, lying low."
Khosrau: "When she appears, you trembling, sigh?"
Farhad: "To please her in the dust I'd lie."
Khosrau: "But if she wounds you in the eye?"
Farhad: "I'll give both eyes without a cry!"
Khosrau: "If someone offers her his heart?"
Farhad: "My sword of steel will do its part!"
Khosrau: "She never will become your own!"
Farhad: "A glimpse of her is a joy enough alone!"
Khosrau: "If all your chattels she demands?"
Farhad: "I'll give her all, as she commands."
Khosrau: "But if she orders - go away!"
Farhad: "My head then at her feet I'll lay!"
Khosrau: "Forget this friendship, do you hear?"
Farhad: "Can friendship be destroyed by fear?"
Khosrau: "Be calm, it is a day-dream, see?"
Farhad: "Nay, calmness not made for me!"
Khosrau: "Give up your love, and bear your lot."
Farhad: "For me love without love is nought."
Khosrau: "With patience men condole for sure."
Farhad: "Some men endure, I don't endure."
Khosrau: "By what great sorrow are you torn?"
Farhad: "Our parting makes me weep and mourn."
Khosrau: "Would you desire to have a wife?"
Farhad: "Alone I can no more bear life."
Khosrau: "Give up Shirin, you must obey!"
Farhad: "Shirin is mine, that's my last say!"
Khosrau: "Her name to mention do not dare!"
Farhad: "You see and hear Farhad's despair!"
Khosrau: "And if I come to love Shirin?"
Farhad: "The world will burn to ashes clean!"



Fuzuli is one of the greatest Azeri-Turkish poets.

It is generally considered that he was born app. in 1498 in Kerbela (in the area presently known as Iraq). He wrote: "…I am master of all the arts in discussing beauty of expression and in disputing agreeableness of style with those who are masters of one art only. Well, all this demonstrates the total "presumption" ("fuzuli" in Arabic), but also the perfection of Fizuli". Fuzuli had left us writings in Azeri (Turkish), Persian and Arabic. His wrote great number of poems but "Leyli and Mejnun" is the most famous among them. This poem is about to lovers, who could not be together because of different circumstances and died far from each other from their unhappiness and sufferings.


LEYLA and MEJNUN
Translated by Sofi Nuri

III
Herein is recounted the Structure of the Building of Misfortune,
and the Antecedents to the Pain and Affliction that follow.

Gay was our child with his constant companion
With angel-like beauties he passed all his time.
In rows sat the pupils, all facing the teacher,
The first one of girls, the second of boys.
Together were gathered these nymphs in their glory
And soon became friends. No surprise is in this,
The market of love with occasion grows brisker
For languishing maids can enchant with their eyes.
And how can a lad bid his spirit be patient
When amorous glances and coquettish airs
Surround him and tease him and quicken his manhood?
Were patience his portion, what word could he say?
Among all the girls was one bright as a fairy,
Who aimed all her glances directly at Qays.
So beautiful she, with her ways and her graces,
That many an elder, forgetful of vows,
Might find all his virtue caught up in her curls.
Calamitous chain for the neck was the garland
Of ringleted locks that fell down in a cloud:
Affliction for lovers was spelled by her eyebrows,
As lovely as twins, and, as twins, forming one.
Each eyelash that curved from her lids was an arrow
That pierced to heart and that stirred all the blood:
Her eyes from their shelter poured forth fiery glances
That, piercing the soul, spread the fever of love.
Her brow, like an ocean, far spread and smooth rolling
Like the ocean had many a peril in check.
The black of her eyes shamed collyrium's darkness
And made it a captive in chains to her mole.
Her cheeks flushing red, paled her rouge to a whiteness,
No rouge ever sullied their delicate blush.
Should her eyes lose their pupils, no blindness would follow,
Her mole would become a black pupil of sight.
Her teeth, pearly white, from between her lips'redness
Gleamed forth as bright pearls in the heart of a rose:
When the doors of her speech were full opened, one fancied
The dead must spring forth from their mouldering tombs.
From her round dimpled chin her neck curved to her bosom;
Her stature and form were creation divine.
The falcon itself, a bird sacred to kingship,
Unhooded, can gaze in the eye of the sun,
But the eyes of this child, with their antelope softness,
Could flash forth a look that the falcon outshone.
Her motion was graceful, her words sugared honey,
No act but had grace, every movement a joy-
But why count her beauties? Put all in a sentence:
The whole world itself, in a passion of terror
Clung fast to her hair, as she went on her way.
Beloved of all the world was this maiden.
Qays looked and he perished, for Leyla her name.
As he with a sorrowful passion of yearning
With sighs fed the fire that her beauty awoke,
So she in a thousand sweet joys lost her reason
For him without whom she knew living was death.
She saw how the world gave its ultimate wonder,
She saw how he held all her world in his hands.



Nasimi was born in the Central Asian region of Azerbaijan. (Though there seems to be some disagreement as to his birth place, some sources stating he was born in Baghdad.)
In Nasimi's time, Azerbaijan had recently freed itself from the Mongol yoke, but was subsequently invaded by the conqueror Tamerlane.
In the midst of this political and cultural turmoil, the Hurufi sect emerged, asserting that the individual and God are fundamentally One.
Nasimi joined the Hurufis, assuming the name Nasimi in imitation of his teacher, who was named Naimi.
Because of their non-dualistic beliefs, the Hurifis were often persecuted. After the death of his teacher at the hands of Tamerlane's son, Nasimi journeyed across much of the Middle East to spread the teachings of Hurufism and to write sacred poetry.
In 1417, he was arrested by the orthodox religious authorities in Aleppo, Syria, where he was executed for his "blasphemous" poetry.


Both worlds within my compass come, but this world cannot compass me.
By Nasimi


Both worlds within my compass come, but this world cannot compass me.
An omnipresent pearl I am and both worlds cannot compass me.
Because in me both earth and heaven and Creation's "BE!" were found,
Be silent! For there is no commentary can encompass me.
Through doubt and surmise no one came to be a friend of God and Truth.
The man who honours God knows doubt and surmise cannot compass me.
Pay due regard to form, acknowledge content in the form, because
Body and soul I am, but soul and body cannot compass me.
I am both shell and pearl, the Doomsday scales, the bridge to Paradise.
With such a wealth of wares, this worldly counter cannot compass me.
I am "the hidden treasure" that is God. I am open eyes.
I am the jewel of the mine. No sea or mine can compass me.
Although I am the boundless sea, my name is Adam, I am man.
I am Mount Sinai and both worlds. This dwelling cannot compass me.
I am both soul and word as well. I am both world and epoch, too.
Mark this particular: this world and epoch cannot compass me.
I am the stars, the sky the angel, revelation come from God.
So hold your tongue and silent be! There is no tongue can compass me.
I am the atom, sun, four elements, five saints, dimensions six.
Go seek my attributes! But explanations cannot compass me.
I am the core and attribute, the flower, sugar and sweetmeat.
I am Assignment Night, the Eve. No tight-shut lips can compass me.
I am the burning bush. I am the rock that rose into the sky.
Observe this tongue of flame. There is no tongue of flame can compass me.