“Qadrdon so‘qmoqlar”

“Qadrdon so‘qmoqlar” (Beloved Paths) is a poem about the feelings of a person who returns to his native village after many years. As the epigraph the folk proverb “Har kimning tug‘ilgan yeri – Misr shahri” (everyone’s birthplace is a city like Egypt’s) is used: the poet considers his village no less than the world’s most beautiful cities. When the lyric hero steps onto the paths of his childhood, his heart, long constricted by separation, expands and feels lighter; the willow, the red hemp and the cranes flying away awaken childhood memory. He recalls friends of his youth, days of reading poems together and the neighbour girl who was his first love, but she is not here, she is far away; where orchards once were, cotton fields now cover the land — a result of the Soviet-era cotton monoculture. In two separate quatrains the poet gives philosophical conclusions: in one, because of his long absence an old man does not recognise him and he does not know a young boy — proof of time’s passing; in the other, two poplars look to the son like a ladder, but his father says this is life — i.e. parents’ lives are spent raising their children. The poem is filled with deep longing and reflection about homeland, childhood and time. (Lines are not quoted here, only the proverb; the content is in our own words.)