Abdulla Oripov’s poetry

The textbook gives an excerpt “Ko‘rgan-bilganlarim” (“What I Have Seen and Known”) by Abdulla Oripov (1941–2016). In it the poet recalls his childhood in the foothills of Qo‘ng‘irtov near Qarshi, in the village of Neko‘z: the smell of spring, mountain caves, starry southern nights. Because his brothers studied language and literature at universities, the house had many books – dastans, Navoiy, translations of Pushkin, the poetry of G‘afur G‘ulom and Hamid Olimjon; at weddings baxshis sang dastans. He secretly read replies from a children’s newspaper to his older brother’s poems and rummaged through books to learn rhyme. His first poem, “Qushcha”, was printed in the republican children’s newspaper, and he never forgot this joy. The poet says his poem “Ayol” is dedicated to the widows of his uncles who did not return from the war, tells the reasons for writing the ode “O‘zbekiston” and the poem “Ona tilimga”, and says the social restrictions of that time troubled him. He calls translating Dante’s “Divine Comedy” his greatest school, where he came to believe in the richness of his mother tongue. In “Munojotni tinglab” the poet, listening to the sorrowful “Munojot” melody, addresses the rubab: why do you increase my grief? In the tune he seems to hear the weeping of Navoiy or Khayyam; if the melody of centuries’ sorrow is like this, he wonders how humankind has endured the sorrow itself.