Gabdulla Tukay

Ğabdulla Möxəmmətğərif ulı Tuqay () was a Tatar poet, critic, publisher, and towering figure of Tatar literature. Tuqay is often referred to as the founder of modern Tatar literature and the modern Tatar literary language, which replaced Old Tatar.

Early life

Ğabdulla Tuqay (Tukayev) was born in the family of the hereditary village mullah of Quslawic, in Kazan Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Tatarstan, Russia), near the modern town of Arsk. His father, Möxəmmətğərif Möxəmmətğəlim ulı Tuqayev, had been a village mandative mullah since 1864. In 1885 his wife died, leaving him a son and a daughter. Möxəmmətğərif married his second wife, Məmdüdə, daughter of Uchili village mullah Zinnətulla Zəynepbəşir ulı. On 29 August O.S. Möxəmmətgərif died when Ğabdulla was five months old. Soon Ğabdulla's grandfather also died and Məmdüdə was forced to return to her father and then to marry the mullah of the village of Sasna. Little Ğabdulla lived for some time with an old woman in his native village, before his new stepfather agreed to take Tuqay into his family. Tukay's relatively happy childhood did not last long: on O.S. 18 January 1890 Ğabdulla's mother Məmdüdə also died, and Tuqay was sent to his poor grandfather Zinnətulla. Lacking enough food even for his own children, his grandfather sent Ğabdulla to Kazan with a coachman. There the coachman took Tukay to a market-place, Peçən Bazaar, hoping to find someone willing to adopt the child. A tanner named Möxəmmətwəli and his wife Ğəzizə from the Yaña-Bistə area of Kazan decided to take care of him. While living in Kazan, Tuqay was taken ill with walleye. In 1892, when both of Ğabdulla's adoptive parents became sick, they had to send him back to his grandfather. This time, Ğabdulla's grandfather sent the child for further adoption to the village of Kzyl Utar, where Gabdulla stayed with the family of a peasant Səğdi. During his stay with this family, Ğabdulla was sent to the local madrassah (religious school), for the first time in his life, where, in his own words, his enlightenment began.

In the fall of 1895, the Gosmanovs, Tatar merchants living in Uralsk, decided to adopt their distant relatives, because their own children had died. Ğaliəsğar Ğosmanov and his wife Ğəzizə, Ğabdulla's aunt, asked a peasant from Quslawiç to bring them Ğabdulla. The peasant took ten-year-old Tuqay away from Səğdi, threatening him with Russian papers and the village constable. Living in Uralsk, Ğabdulla attended to Motıyğiya madrassah. Simultaneously, in 1896, he started to attend a Russian school. There, for the first time in his life, he became acquainted with the world of Russian literature and started to write poetry. In 1899, the anniversary of Alexander Pushkin was widely celebrated in Uralsk, an event which inspired Tuqay's interest in Russian poetry, especially works by Pushkin.

Ğosmanov tried to interest Ğabdulla in his work, but Tuqay stayed indifferent to the merchant's lot, preferring to develop his education. On 30 July 1900 Ğaliəsğar Ğosmanov died of "stomach diseases", so Tuqay moved into the madrassah itself, living first in common room, and two years later in a khujra, an individual cell. In the madrassah Tukay proved himself a diligent student, completing in ten years a program intended for fifteen. However, he continued to live in poverty.

By 1902, Ğabdulla, age 16, had changed his nature. He lost interest in studying the Qur'an, and showed criticism to all that was taught in madrassah. He didn't shave his hair, he drank beer and even smoked. At the same time, he became more interested in poetry.

Literary life

Uralsk period

Beginning in his madrassah years, Tuqay was interested in folklore and popular poetry, and he asked shakirds, coming for different jobs all over Idel-Ural during summer vacations, to collect local songs, examples of bəyet, i.e. epic poem and fairy-tales. In the madrassah itself he became familiar with Arabic, Persian and Turkish poetry, as well as poetry in the Old Tatar language of the earlier centuries. In 1900 Motıyğiya graduate, a Tatar poet Mirxəydər Çulpani visited the madrassah. Ğabdulla met him and Çulpaní became the first living poet to impress Tuqay. Çulpaní wrote in "elevated style", using aruz, an Oriental poetic system, and mostly in Old Tatar language, full of Arab, Persian and Turkish words, and rather distant from the Tatar language itself. In 1902–1903 he met a Turkish poet Abdülveli, concealed himself there from Abdul Hamid II pursuits. Thus, Tuqay adopted Oriental poetic tradition.

Young teacher, the son of headmaster, Kamil "Motıyği" Töxfətullin, organized wallpaper Məğarif (The Education) and hand-written journals. The first odes of Tuqay were published there, and he was referred as "the first poet of the madrassah".

In 1904 Motíğí founded his own publishing company, and Tuqay became clerk there. He combined this job with teaching younger shakirds in the madrassah. He introduced new methods, typical for the Russian school.

After the October Manifesto of 1905 it became possible to publish newspapers in the Tatar language, which was strictly forbidden earlier. However, Motıyği wasn't enough solvent to open his own newspaper, so he bought the Russian language newspaper Uralets with typography, to print also a Tatar newspaper there. Tuqay became a typesetter. The newspaper was named Fiker (The Thought). Then Motıyği started to issue Əlğəsrəlcadid (The New Century) magazine. Tuqay sent his first verses there to be published. At the same time he started writing for a newspaper and began participating in the publishing of several Tatar magazines. At day Tuqay worked in typography (he was already a proofreader), but by nights he wrote verses, so every issue of Fiker, Nur and Əlğəsrəlcadid contains his writing. More over, he wrote articles, novels and feuilletons for those periodicals, he translated Krylov fables for the magazine. It is also known that Tuqay spread social-democratic leaflets and translated social-democratic brochure to the Tatar language.

Despite social-democrats' negative attitude towards the Manifesto, in his verses Tuqay admired with Manifesto, believing in the progressive changes of the Tatar lifestyle. During that period he shared his views with liberals, as the long-standing tradition of the Tatar enlightenment didn't distinguish national-liberation movement from the class struggle and negated the class struggle within Tatar nation. The most prominent writings of that period are Millətə (To the Nation) poem and Bezneñ millət, ülgənme, əllə yoqlağan ğınamı? (Has our nation dead, or just sleeps?) article. Since the satirical magazine Uqlar (The Arrows) appeared in Uralsk, Tuqay renowned himself as satirist. The main target of his jeers was Muslim clergy, who stayed opposed to progress and Europeanization. As for the language of the most of his verses, it still stayed the Old Tatar language and continued the Oriental traditions, such as in Puşkinə (To Pushkin). However, in some of them, directed to the Tatar peasantry a pure Tatar was used, what was newly for the Tatar poetry.

In January 1906 police conducted a search of the typography, as rebellious articles were published in the newspaper. The First State Duma was dismissed, the revolution came to naught. The ultra-right Russian nationalists from the Black Hundred proposed that Tatars emigrate to the Ottoman Empire. That period his most prominent verses devoted to the social themes and patriotism were composed: Gosudarstvennaya Dumağa (To the State Duma), Sorıqortlarğa (To the Parasites) and Kitmibez! (We don't leave!). Tuqay was disappointed in liberalism and sympathized with socialists, especially Esers. In Kitmibez! he answered to the Black Hundred that the Tatars are a brother people of the Russians and immigration to Turkey is impossible.

On 6 January 1907, Tuqay left madrassah, as his fee permitted him to live independently, and settled in a hotel room. He became an actual editor of Uqlar, being the lead poet and publicist of all Motıyği's periodicals. That time liberal Fiker and Tuqay himself was in confrontation with Qadimist, i.e. ultraconservative Bayan al-Xaq, which even called for pogrom of liberal press activists. However, that year he was surprisingly discharged, as the result of the conflict with Kamil Motıyği and instigation of the typography workers for a strike to raise a salary. On 22 February 1907, Motıyği was deprived of publishing rights and his publishers was sold to merchant, who attracted Tuqay to the work again, but sonly dismissed the periodicals.

That time Tuqay departed from the social-democrats and politics generally, preferring to devote himself to poetry. Since mid-1906 to autumn 1907 more than 50 verses were written, as well as 40 articles and feuilletons. That time he turned to a pure Tatar, using a spoken language. Impressed by Pushkin's fairy-tale poem Ruslan and Lyudmila, Tuqay wrote his first poem, Şürəle.

It is known, that Motıyği tried to establish another newspaper, Yaña Tormış (The New Life) in Uralsk, with Tuqay as one of constitutors, but that time Ğabdulla was already so popular in the Tatar society, that chief editors from Kazan, the Tatar cultural capital, offered him job. Moreover, Tuqay should be examined by a draft board in his native uyezd, and he left Uralsk anyway. The admiration with the future trends of his life in Kazan is expressed in Par at (The Pair of Horses), which consequently became the most associated with Kazan Tatar verse.

One of the most famous works after Almaz Monasypov, "In the rhythms of Tuqay" (1975) (, ) is written on Tuqay's poems.

Mintimer Shaymiev, the former President of Tatarstan, remembers Tuqay as follows: "Holding A. Pushkin and M. Lermontov, classics of the high Russian literature, as his teachers and using his poetic language, Tuqay managed to bring to the Tatars timeless cultural values that join and unite our nations. Over one hundred years since first Tuqay's works were published his poetry has become the treasure of not only Tatar and Russian but also world culture".

Professor Michael Friedrich: "Tatar literature was a model for other Russia’s Turkic nations too. Even poets Abai and Gafur Gulom were idolized with implied reference to Tuqay. Russia’s Turkic nations perceived Russian and European literature through interaction with the Tatars".

Tuğan tel

:İ tuğan tel, i matur tel, ətkəm-ənkəmneñ tele!

:Dönyada küp nərsə beldem sin tuğan tel arqılı.

:İñ elek bu tel belən ənkəm bişektə köyləgən,

: Annarı tönnər buyı əbkəm xikəyət söyləgən.

: İ tuğan tel! Hərwaqıtta yərdəmeñ berlən sineñ,

: Keçkenədən añlaşılğan şatlığım, qayğım minem.

:İ tuğan tel! Sində bulğan iñ elek qıylğan doğam:

:Yarlıqağıl, dip, üzem һəm ətkəm-ənkəmne, Xodam!»

"Oh My Mother Tongue!"

:Oh, beloved native language

:Oh, enchanting mother tongue!

:You enabled my search for knowledge

:Of the world, since I was young

:As a child, when I was sleepless

:Mother sung me lullabies

:And my grandma told me stories

:Through the night, to shut my eyes

:Oh, my tongue! You have been always

:My support in grief and joy

:Understood and cherished fondly

:Since I was a little boy

:In my tongue, I learned with patience

:To express my faith and say:

:"Oh, Creator! Bless my parents

:Take, Allah, my sins away!"

thumb|Tuğan tel (Bulat Şəymi, 2024).

Tuğan tel ("Mother Tongue"), a.k.a. İ Tuğan tel, by Ğabdulla Tuqay, is an iconic Tatar poem-song.

Notes

References

External links

Official site
Ğabdulla Tuqay's poetry (in English)
Ğabdulla Tuqay's poetry (in Tatar)
Gabdulla Tukay (1886–1913)