Magomed Akhmedov's Artistic Reflections on Russian Poetry (on the Development of Dagestan-Russian Literary Relations)

Gadzhilova Shanisat Magomedovna PhD in Philology Senior Scientific Associate, Institute of Language, Literature and Art of Dagestan Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences 367000, Russia, respublika Dagestan, g. Makhachkala, ul. Askerkhanova, 18, of. B shanisat05@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The creative reflections of the modern Dagestani poet M. Akhmedov from the very first steps in literature to the present day testify to the process of development of an artistic word that goes beyond the national artistic consciousness, about the ways leading to artistic synthesis. Russian Russian poetry occupies a special place in M. Akhmedov's creative laboratory. A. S. Pushkin, M. Y. Lermontov, N. A. Nekrasov, A. A. Blok, S. A. Yesenin, V. V. Mayakovsky and other masters of poetic art are represented in M. Akhmedov's artistic reflections as bright figures of Russian poetry, "glorifying freedom to the world" (A. S. Pushkin), distinguished by their "loyalty to talent" (R. Gamzatov).

The study of the work of a poet or writer in the context of national artistic and aesthetic traditions can always be considered as one of the simple tasks of literary studies. But "the study of the problem of national and international provides ample opportunities for fruitful conclusions about the processes taking place in multilingual and diverse literatures, to identify the creative individuality of a particular artist of the word" ^{[12, p. 113]}. Hence, the study of the internationalist poet, in whose reflections the roots of the national worldview are closely connected with international problems, is a difficult task, nevertheless important and relevant. Russian Russian and Dagestani writers, if we consider this task in relation to the work of M. Akhmedov, is associated with general questions about literary ties, mutual influence and mutual respect between Dagestani and Russian writers. M. Akhmedov was lucky in this regard in the sense that his arrival in literature coincided with a period of intensive cooperation between Dagestani and Russian poets. As is known, the first group of Russian writers, consisting of N. Tikhonov, P. Pavlenko, V. Lugovsky, on the initiative of M. Gorky, arrived in Dagestan back in 1933. Ten-year-old R. Gamzatov met them with his family at his father's house. Since then, literary ties and friendly relations between Russian and Dagestani writers have only grown and strengthened. "A significant role in this turn belongs to the entry of Dagestani literature into the arena, which gave it the opportunity to close with the all-Russian literary movement" ^{[5, p. 107]}. The importance of Russian culture in the destinies of the peoples of Dagestan, in their spiritual and creative development has become high.

Step by step, Dagestan literature developed, defining on its scale not only ideas permeated with the current of internationalism and friendship between peoples, but also reflecting the portraits and destinies of Russian writers and poets. As N. Kapieva writes about this, "Dagestani poetry has the opportunity to draw from the experience and riches of Russian classical poetry, primarily Pushkin, Lermontov, Mayakovsky. They are constantly being addressed, they are being translated" ^{[10, p. 159]}.

So, in 1953, R. Gamzatov called his collection of poems "The Word about the elder brother", since then the definition of the Russian people as the elder brother has been established as generally accepted. "The national Russian poet in my mind has become the national Avar poet" ^{[7, p. 73]}, R. Gamzatov wrote. In the works of G. Tsadasa, S. Stalsky, A.-G. Ibragimov, R. Gamzatov and other Dagestani writers, A. S. Pushkin, M. Y. Lermontov and other representatives of Russian literature occupied a special place, their works were translated into national languages. In the works of Avar writers, there are frequent reminiscences from the works of Russian poets and writers, and attempts to analyze their human and creative destinies, to present their portraits.

Of particular value in this regard are M. Akhmedov's reflections on Russian writers and poets, who pass through his work in various forms and variations, presented as an artistic dialogue on the "border of centuries" (M. Akhmedov). Thus, calling A. S. Pushkin the "sun of poetry", M. Akhmedov in one of his sketches emphasizes that this sun, which does not have "its own nationality", has been warming for two centuries and thanks God for this. As you know, "having already become the center of national consciousness during his lifetime, the meaning of the spiritual quest of the epoch, Pushkin put forward and justified an ideal that was real in its perspective, an ideal large-scale and majestic, an ideal in which later appeared more weighty and deeper, broader and more significant than all his life ideas. A true Russian genius, Pushkin came to mankind, became the property of all peoples, all generations" ^{[6, pp. 493-494]}.

In an artistic dialogue with A. S. Pushkin, the Dagestani poet does not feel lonely, he talks about the Russian poet as if with his devoted friend, while focusing on issues that bother him. The saddest question in M. Akhmedov's thoughts is the question of the poet's death, which is associated with eternity and is perceived by the author in inextricable connection with the concept of immortality. Hence, "the true basis of life, according to the poet, can be found only outside the space that is allotted for a while" ^{[4, p. 360]}. Here, the category of time associated with the phenomenon of immortality acts as one of the facets of the author's artistic consciousness. The poet rightfully stretches or narrows centuries, transfers artistic images and symbols related to the poet's death from one space to another. Here is what M. Akhmedov writes, for example, in the poem "The poet died."

Centuries have passed,

The river dried up from grief.

But the bullet is still immortal,

Flying towards us through the ages ^{[2, p. 318]}.

The idea of a "bullet flying through the centuries" is successfully continued by M. Akhmedov also in the Boldin Sonnets, linking with it the death of another Avar poet, Mahmud from Kakhab–Roso, who "made his historical choice, consciously determined his general line, his theme and goals, which he followed scrupulously and faithfully throughout his creative life. All his poetry, his artistic and literary fate, his tragic death itself is an example of rare courage, rebelliousness of spirit, loyalty to his vocation" ^{[15, p. 5]}.

I'll climb the porch to Pushkinskoe

And I will tell all people bitterly,

Like scoundrels in the village, not to their face –

They shot the glorious Mahmud in the back ^{[1, p. 285]}.

Speaking about Mahmud from Kakhab-Roso, who was killed in the Avar village by a Magdilava bullet, climbing the "Pushkin porch", M. Akhmedov summarizes the idea of the death of two poets, in other words, connects objective socio-historical facts with the subjective possibilities of perception of the reader. Pushkin's death does not remain a certain value of unchanging meaning, this problem is multifaceted and multifaceted, most importantly, it has its continuation, M. Akhmedov connects with it the death of Mahmud, and even the death of the children of Beslan, who died in September 2004 as a result of a terrorist act.  

Our century is a continuation of the Black River,

Everywhere, everywhere they shoot without misfire.

An autumn day is a smoking wound –

Stained with the blood of a children's Beslan ^{[1, p. 285]}.

As can be seen, M. Akhmedov, without focusing on Pushkin's talent, without enthusiastic descriptions, characteristics of Pushkin the poet, reveals his reflections in a dialogue with Pushkin not only as a poet, but also as a person who is able to understand the pain that once deprived the poet of life, the pain of mothers who lost their children, the fear of the people, whose salvation depends on a wise ruler. In the Boldin Sonnets, the ideological content of the work, the recreation of the images of the work and, in general, the artistic idea of M. Akhmedov are connected with the lyrical mood of the poet, with his feeling and full understanding of himself as a person in whose soul "Pushkin's autumn shines".

The miracle of Pushkin's word has touched

The nature of the modest Boldinsky shelter…

Pushkin worked here, looking into these distances,

For Boldin, the verses became a prayer ^{[1, p. 283]}.

So M. Akhmedov presents to the reader the experience of the Russian poet's attitude to poetry, to creative inspiration, here the author does not remind the reader that Pushkin's Boldin works testify to the poet's extraordinary creative mood, his creative rise and inspirations of this period, thanks to which the poet wrote as if someone dictated to him from the outside, suggested ideas. M. Akhmedov expresses this thought through his ideas, the Dagestani poet mentally transfers himself to Pushkin's time, to the Boldin autumn, feels himself a part of the Pushkin world.

I, a highlander, am also rebellious in spirit,

But I check Pushkin's creativity.

I repeat in the Avar language:

"I erected a monument not made with hands..."

Wherever I was later, but also in the middle of the night

Autumn Boldinskaya shines in my eyes ^{[1, p. 284]}.

M. Akhmedov's "Boldin Sonnets" is a vivid example of the creative process, testifying to the possibility of dialogue between literatures, as between artistic phenomena that differ in their national genesis. And here the national originality of M. Akhmedov's artistic thought, the national essence of his poetic worldview become most vivid due to comparison or interaction, meeting with another culture. Russian art culture, using the example of the legacy of A. S. Pushkin, about which M. Akhmedov writes, certainly seems to be a good opportunity to understand and reveal the depths and expanses of both cultures. So, in M. Akhmedov's monologue, in his lyrical descriptions of the Boldin autumn, Pushkin's estate, new questions appear, which the author raises. The boundaries of two cultures are blurred here, but each of them does not lose its identity, but only gets answers to questions that did not arise before, before this dialogical meeting.

There is one in the middle of the Dagestan mountains,

Whimsically in the way of human gaze

She is the profile of Pushkin,

I remembered this mountain in Boldin.

Yes, Pushkin and the mountain are with us, and the sea,

And a grain field in a simple headdress.

Ah, autumn… The harvest was harvested on time.

But Pushkin's lines shine in the field ^{[1, pp. 284-285]}.

It is interesting to note that M. Akhmedov, as a poet-singer of national feelings, national interests, as an artist- the voice of his people, using national images, habits, national artistic motifs, freely, effortlessly creates the phenomenon of a second native language, a second culture, alien, but close to the national worldview. Russian Russian field is associated with a feeling of immortal love, his beloved is also tender and sad, like the Russian field, the Russian field is a symbol of light and will, a symbol of immutability and constancy.

It's snowing, you can't see the moon or the stars,

And the soul gets cold from the share that has fallen out.

It's like a horse flying under me without a bridle,

And I'm riding a horse across the Russian field.

You are like a Russian field, gentle and sad,

And you have so much light and will in your chest!

Everything passes – love remains alone,

If this love is like a Russian field ^{[1, p. 306]}.

Russian Russian literature and culture: The problem of inter–literary synthesis, the shift of intercultural boundaries relative to Russian literature and Russian culture is one of the significant artistic models, according to which M. Akhmedov builds a certain angle of view that will help to see in literature what is essential, what is relevant not only for one generation, a century, but what, indeed, will remain in history. literature, passing from century to century.

This is approximately how M. Akhmedov builds his reflections on other Russian writers. For example, the poetry of M. Y. Lermontov, from the point of view of M. Akhmedov, is a kind of "heavenly mystery", "heavenly alphabet", "which made all people cry with pride and delight" ^{[2, pp. 320-321]}. M. Akhmedov sees the indestructible power of the spirit of the Russian poet especially in his prayer lyrics. In a stream of exciting thoughts, M. Akhmedov recalls the first and last lifetime collection of poems by M. Y. Lermontov. In the poem "Lermontov", the Dagestani poet again mixes his inspirations with the Russian literary context, with the artistic processes associated with the work of M. Y. Lermontov, as well as A. S. Pushkin, with their destinies, poetry and especially the death of the poet.

In the midday heat in the valley of Dagestan,

Like Lermontov, I am lying motionless…

And I'm not dreaming about it, oddly enough –

My soul was shot at point-blank range ^{[1, p. 219]}.

The poet M. Akhmedov is presented as a person who understands that the salvation of the motherland depends on the truth, as a citizen and patriot, worried about the brotherhood, perceiving the motherland as "his Borodino". The poet lies motionless "with honor clenched in his hand", the "cursed lead rain" pours down on the mountains of Dagestan, the poet's bright thoughts about the Motherland, about the "saving brotherhood" are "swallowed up by darkness", "shots are thundering around, then explosions, and the sons of the Fatherland are falling." In such an environment, a poet was killed. In the image of the poet, M. Akhmedov sees a man whom it would be desirable to listen to in order to preserve peace, the Motherland, "but the Motherland is disappearing from under his feet" and there is no other poet who could mourn the death of the poet, as M. Y. Lermontov did after the death of A. S. Pushkin.

In the midday heat in the valley of Dagestan

The mountain echo keeps telling me again:

- The poet died!..

And the wound in my heart aches…

"Slave of honor!" - there is no one to say ^{[1, p. 220]}.

Thus, "the poet appeals to the most important events of national history, but not directly, but through subtext, through images that are understandable to his contemporaries" ^{[14, p. 113]}. The motif of loneliness is one of M. Akhmedov's artistic techniques, which he uses especially often when writing about the fate and role of the poet in society. "Russian writers, especially the big ones, have always tried to guess the hero who would define the type of person who could equip Russia" ^{[9, p. 171]}. In the understanding of M. Akhmedov, it is the poet whose word carries the courageous truth that belongs to this type of person. Lonely, but patiently diligent, analyzing the eternal questions of man, standing "on the border of conscience" poet M. Akhmedov is the image of the savior of man, society, Homeland, world, planet. If M. Y. Lermontov's loneliness is a semi–celestial, semi–earthly sphere, then V. V. Mayakovsky's loneliness is a socio-psychological problem, it is a struggle for "new art", for "new love", for a new society. "At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia gave the world a brilliant galaxy of great poets – A. Blok, V. Mayakovsky, S. Yesenin, V. Khlebnikov, B. Pasternak, N. Gumilev, M. Tsvetaeva, O. Mandelstam.

All these poets were strikingly different from themselves, but they decorated the sky of the "silver age" of Russian poetry with their unique starry brilliance and carried in their work the reflections of that gigantic glow that illuminated these restless, stormy and revolutionary years" ^{[2, p. 356]} – M. Akhmedov writes. In his opinion, V. V. Mayakovsky's poetry is the epitome of an epoch, its gigantic, open, honest epochality will surprise and excite many more generations. Many of V. V. Mayakovsky's poems dedicated to V. I. Lenin, the revolution, and socialism, M. Akhmedov considers a reflection of time, an epoch, a reflection of changes in public spheres where such works were in demand, as V. V. Mayakovsky himself wrote: "The weak are marking time, and the strong are running ahead to drag the understood time"^{[2, p. 357]}. Of course, V. V. Mayakovsky was ahead, but he warned:

I want to be understood by my country,

And if I'm not understood, well.

I will pass by my native country,

How the oblique rain passes ^{[2, p. 357]}.

In his reflections on V. V. Mayakovsky, M. Akhmedov does not exclude the idea that there have been and will still be attempts to reduce the work of the giant of Russian poetry to a slogan, to commissioned marches, while emphasizing that the pathos of creation in his "poetry made of the impossible" is not an indicator of simple rhetoric, but a new example of creativity, the literary process. As a new example, M. Akhmedov also considers the love lyrics of the Russian V. V. Mayakovsky, reflecting on paradoxical metaphors that reveal the poet's rebellion, threats, and most importantly his suffering and unprecedented passions. As an example, M. Akhmedov cites the following lines by V. V. Mayakovsky:

Mom! Your son is very ill!

Mom! He has a fire in his heart ^{[2, p. 360]}.

The poetry of S. A. Yesenin also occupies a special place in M. Akhmedov's thoughts. M. Akhmedov recalls 1975, when, as a student at the Moscow Literary Institute, he participated in an event on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of S. A. Akhmedov. Yesenin. "We arrived in Ryazan by train and in this beautiful Russian city, Yesenin and his poetry were already breathing from the platform" ^{[2, p. 345]}, the poet recalls. Trying to penetrate the poetic soul of S. Yesenin, to understand her reaction to the world around her, to external existence, which is accompanied by internal contradictions, M. Akhmedov writes: "Yesenin's poems are like wildflowers, they are full of unique sounds, smells, colors, they fly like butterflies to fire, to earthly life and feelings dying in the flame of his poetic fire, they are reborn in the hearts of readers like a Phoenix from the ashes" ^{[2, p. 347]}.

 Discovering a living interweaving of heterogeneous feelings and thoughts in Yesenin's poetry, M. Akhmedov comes to the conclusion that his works are almost untranslatable into other languages, explaining this by the fact that it is impossible to translate breath, sigh, heartbeat, depth of gaze from one language to another. For M. Akhmedov, it is important to grasp the main psychological core around which various motifs of S.'s lyrics are built. Yesenin, based on feelings similar to "naked electric wire" (M. Akhmedov). The Avar poet tries to understand the light and darkness alternating in the artistic search of the Russian poet, a tender word about a person, about love for a person and a rude cry acting as a protective shell, he pays special attention to the meaning of "the path of spiritual and mental suffering necessary for the poet, which in 1925 he will formulate as a lyrical manifesto – "blood feelings to caress other people's souls" ^{[13, p. 106]}. This idea is close and understandable to M. Akhmedov in all its entirety, as evidenced by numerous poems dedicated to the theme of the poet and poetry, which show an artistic picture of the system of images and the image of the poet in it, allowing "to reconstruct, expand the poetic concept of the world order, to allocate a well-deserved place in it to the man-poet" ^{[3, p. 152]}. But, reflecting on S. Yesenin's poetic searches, about his attitude to the poet and poetry, in this case, instead of any artistic interpretations or expressing his attitude to this topic through a poetic word, M. Akhmedov simply quotes S. himself. Yesenina:

Being a poet means the same thing,

If the truth of life is not violated,

Scar yourself on delicate skin,

Caressing other people's souls with the blood of feelings [Akhmedov, 2008, p. 351].

 M. Akhmedov recalls the remarks and statements of M. Gorky, A. Blok, A. Kozlovsky, N. Rubtsov and others about the work of S. Yesenin. Thus, analyzing Yesenin's early poems, he quotes A. Kozlovsky, who connects the description of the "splashing with happiness" beginning of Yesenin's poetry with the tragic end of his life, about which he writes in his last poems. The confrontation of hostile elements in S. Yesenin's artistic consciousness is interpreted by M. Akhmedov as an instinct of self-preservation, as the poet's desire to preserve the right to be and remain significant on earth.

I thought through a lot of thoughts in silence,

I composed a lot of songs about myself,

And on this gloomy earth

I am happy that I breathed and lived ^{[2, p. 350]}.

S. Yesenin's poems "The Black Man", "The Poems of the Brawler" and others, according to M. Akhmedov, indicate that suffering became the lot of the poet, the forces of good in his fate constantly fought in an unequal struggle with the forces of evil, light and darkness were his inseparable companions in everything, taking into account that light The poet considers it as "a valuable component of human consciousness, which determines a person's worldview, acts as a kind of measure determining the existence of nature and himself" ^{[11, p. 144]}.

As a confirmation of his thought, M. Akhmedov cites the following lines from S. Yesenina:

The poet's gift is to caress and carve,

The fatal seal on it.

A white rose with a black toad

I wanted to get married on earth ^{[2, p. 349]}.

In his reflections on poetry and the poet, M. Akhmedov almost always connects the fate of one poet with the fate and search of another. We have already noted above that, reflecting on Pushkin, M. Akhmedov recalls Mahmud, M. Y. Lermontov's creative searches are closely connected with the fate of A. S. Pushkin. So, in his sketch about S. Yesenin M. Akhmedov cites a poem by S. Yesenin, dedicated to A. S. Pushkin, emphasizing that it was this poem that he read at an event dedicated to the anniversary of S. Yesenin. And M. Akhmedov completes his sketch with poems by another talented Russian poet N. Rubtsov about S. Yesenin.

This is not the muse of the last day.

I love her, I am indignant and I cry.

She means a lot to me.,

If I mean anything at all ^{[2, p. 353]}.

These are approximately the poetic thoughts of M. Akhmedov about S. Yesenin's poem "Russian Poets", mixed with feelings of longing and sadness, with thoughts about the presence of Yesenin's spirit in his life, expressed through a description of the nature of his native Gunib. Here again, Yesenin's influence on M. Akhmedov's artistic thinking is obvious, especially in the last two lines of the second stanza, which resemble Yesenin's line – "I won't be young anymore...":

And only once will they shine

There are stingy tears in his eyes,

When will there be a noise in Guniba

Yesenin's birch trees.

Clinging to them, as if in childhood,

With naive faith in a miracle,

I'll understand what's more young

And I won't do it anymore ^{[1, p. 245]}.

Thus, M. Akhmedov opens up to his reader the idea of the possibility and necessity of understanding the Russian poet in the person of S. Yesenin, whose work has attracted the interest of readers not only of Russian or Russian, but also of a global scale in recent decades. As K. A. Zhulkova writes, "the problem of S. A. Yesenin's perception in world culture was first emphasized by Russian literary critics in the 80s of the twentieth century.

Russian Russian poet In the 1990s, a special stage in the attempt to comprehend the world reception of the Russian poet can be considered the publication of the collection "Russian Abroad about Yesenin" by N. I. Shubnikova-Guseva in 1993" ^{[8, p. 143]}.

In M. Akhmedov's poetry, special attention is also paid to poems dedicated to poets G. Ivanov, V. Sokolov, Yu. Kuznetsov, N. Rubtsov and others. Almost all of them are imbued with thoughts about the role and significance of the poet. This is how, for example, the image of the poet is presented in M. Akhmedov's poem "The Poet", dedicated to M. Andreev.

A poet is walking, stoned,

And the world is carried on bent shoulders.

The battlefield is smoking in his soul,

And the light of prayer is in his verses ^{[1, p. 339]}.

M. Akhmedov sees poetry as a special force that plays an important role in changing a person, his character, his life and his destiny. In the poem "The Fire of the Verb" dedicated to N. Rachkov, M. Akhmedov asks questions in each line, expecting in response the correct opinion from his friend and talented poet.

Where is our fate, the mountain that measured the peak,

Where is the mournful cry that burst from the heart?

Where are the poems about the motherland captivating light,

So that the poet remains immortal among the people? ^{[1, p. 311]}

The diverse motifs in M. Akhmedov's lyrics, which generally represent the psychological core of his worldview, in the chain of poetic images created by him reveal the author's desire to preserve his right to remain a patriotic poet.

And for good reason, there is a reason for everything in our poems,

And the majesty of the mountains, and wavy rye,

And our burning verb is sublime and strict,

If the Fatherland and God live in our lines ^{[1, p. 312]}.

The material presented in the article indicates the need to pay due attention to the artistic connections between Dagestan and Russian literatures, which have a lot in common, which is well reflected in the artistic reflections of M. Akhmedov.

Thus, the conducted research allows us to deduce the following main points:

- the sphere of poetic influence, the aesthetic impact of Russian poetry on the artistic consciousness of M. Akhmedov had the opportunity to expand and develop since his student days. For M. Akhmedov, Russia is not only his homeland, but also a real, real world of creative inspirations;

- the development of Russia, Russian poetry in the perception of M. Akhmedov is a purely artistic and aesthetic process, which is accompanied by an emphasis on nationality. Starting from his national culture, he opens up the opportunity in his work to penetrate into Russian artistic culture, while raising the role and importance of both cultures;

  Russian Russian poetry-related issues addressed by the Dagestani poet in his work are historical, referring to Russian poetry, the poet reveals important facts and events of national and international culture. Typological similarities stand out most vividly here, which indicate traditions and continuity in Dagestan, in particular, in Avar literature.

Russian Russian poet M. Akhmedov's artistic reflections have deep, strong roots associated with Russian poetry and the fate of Russian writers.