Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

The 110th birthday of the outstanding playwright, poet Suleyman Rustam was solemnly marked at the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall, Trend Life reported.

The memorable event was co-organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Azerbaijan Writers Union.

The exhibition, set up at the foyer, featured the books by Suleyman Rustam, publications about poet's life and creativity.

The ceremony was hosted by honored artists of Akbar Alizadeh and Gulnara Azizova, who spoke about such patriotic poems as “Mother and a postman".

The gala concert featured songs written on poems by Suleyman Rustam.

The performances by local singers Gulyaz and Gulyanaq Mammodovas, Anar Shushali and others brought a lot of joy.

Suleyman Rustam, best known for his patriotic poems, was born in family of a blacksmith.

In 1929, continued his education at the faculty of literature and arts of Moscow State University. From 1937, he worked as a chairman of Azerbaijan State Academic Drama Theatre named after M.Azizbekov.

Along with creating poems, he made translations of the works by I.A.Krylov, A.S.Griboyedov, A.S.Pushkin, M.Y.Lermontov, N.A.Nekrasov and others into Azerbaijani.

His first collection of poems, “From sadness to happiness”, written in 1927, was dedicated to Komsomol, civil war, courage of soldiers struggling for the Soviet power.

The main theme of his works, created in 1930’s was the creation of romanticism of a collective work and spiritual enrichment of people.

In 1939-1940’s, Rustam wrote “Qachaq Nebi” novel. The poet used folk proverbs about Qachaq Nebi, expanding and deepened them socially and historically.

Main heroes of the novel are Qachaq Nebi - a famous leader of the national movement of the 19th century and Hejer - his brave wife and fellow fighter.

The patriotic poems, including “A day will come”, “To the sons of Azerbaijan”, “Old man’s answer” written during the Great Patriotic War were dedicated to bravery and heroism of the Soviet people.

Suleyman Rustam’s “Mother and a postman” poem had a great fame.

The poet wrote a collection of poems called “Two shores”, dedicated to hard life of Azerbaijani paupers in Iran and postwar flourishing of the Soviet Azerbaijan.

He was the laureate of many prestigious premiums of Azerbaijan and the USSR.

Suleyman Rustam died on June 10, 1989 and was buried in the Alley of Honors in Baku.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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