Poetry
Ürək sözü
Not translated into English
Mahammad Biriya · 1944
Synopsis
One hundred and five pieces divided into two parts: forty-eight lyric poems on varied subjects, then fifty-seven satirical works. The poet, who signed with a pseudonym meaning “sincere”, was then writing in Tabriz against the Shah's regime and against fascism, and his verses circulated in leaflets; the collection brings together this lyric and satirical output in Azerbaijani. Twenty of the lyric poems and twenty-nine of the satires were reprinted unchanged in 1997, in a volume devoted to his investigation file.
Context
The book was published in Baku in 1944, in five thousand copies and one hundred and eighteen pages, with a preface by Mikayıl Rəfili, who also edited it. It is the only one of his collections printed north of the border: Vətənim Azərbaycana, thirty-four poems, had come out in Tabriz, and Üsyan and Hücum appeared there in 1945 from the publisher Firdovsi. The poet also wrote plays, including Stalinqrad and Hitler və Mussolini, and the film that Esfir Shub made in 1947, Arazın o tayında, shows him reciting one of his poems.
Who it is for
A collection in Azerbaijani, with no translation; the second, satirical part assumes knowledge of Tabriz in the forties.
Prizes and reception
The fullest of his four collections and the only one published in Baku; part of it was reissued in 1997.