G‘afur G‘ulom: “Sog‘inish” and “Vaqt”

G‘afur G‘ulom was born on 10 May 1903 in the Qo‘rg‘ontegi neighbourhood of Tashkent into a poor family. When he was nine his father died and soon he lost his mother as well, becoming an orphan. He studied first at a primary school, then at a Russian-native school, graduated from teacher-training courses and taught; from 1923 he worked as an educator in an orphanage. He wrote articles and satirical feuilletons in newspapers and journals. His first poetry collections were “Dinamo” (1931) and “Tirik qo‘shiqlar” (1932). In 1930–1935 he wrote the long poem “Ko‘kan” and the ballads “To‘y” and “Ikki vasiqa”. He succeeded equally in poetry and prose: the novellas “Netay”, “Yodgor”, “Tirilgan murda” and “Shum bola” made a great contribution to the development of our national prose. During the Second World War he wrote poems such as “Sen yetim emassan”, “Kuzatish”, “Vaqt” and “Sog‘inish”; for the collection “Sharqdan kelayotirman”, which gathers his war poems, he received the State Prize in 1946. He was given the title of academician in 1943 and became “People’s Poet of Uzbekistan” in 1963. G‘afur G‘ulom died on 10 July 1966 at the age of 63 from a serious illness. In 2003 his 100th anniversary was widely celebrated.