Musa Cälil

Musa Cälil Poems

Musa Cälil Biography

Musa Cälil February 15, 1906 – August 25, 1944) was a Soviet Tatar poet and resistance fighter. He is the only poet of the Soviet Union who was simultaneously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union award for his resistance fighting, and the Lenin Prize for authoring The Moabit Notebooks; both the awards were awarded to him posthumously. Musa Cälil was born in Mustafino, a village in Orenburg Governorate, in the family of Junkman. He graduated from Husainiya Madrasa in Orenburg. His first published works were revolutionary verses. The Turkic poetic tradition of aruz traced in Cälil's early works, which attributed to Ghisyanism, a style of revolt, found in the Tatar poetry of the early 1920s. In 1919, he entered the underground Komsomol cell of Orenburg, which was under the control Whites that time. Then, Musa participated in the Russian Civil War against pro-White gangs, but due to his nonage he didn't fight at the front, but in a Red Army unit. In 1920, Cälil returned to his native village, establishing the pro-Communist youth organization The Red Flower there. He also became a Komsomol activist in Mustafino. He represented his village at the governorate Komsomol conference.)

The Best Poem Of Musa Cälil

IF YOU ARE NOT THERE...

Though mad nightingales their joying
to the springtime garden tell -
Will the world for me be joyless,
if you're not with me as well!

Though the woods and grasses rustle,
though the apple - tree blooms fair,
Still the sweetest fruit is bitter
if my loved one isn't there!

Though the butterflies are flitting
and disporting on the lea -
I'll be sad unless my pretty,
dainty butterfly's with me!

Even angels, even peris
are for me a host of shades -
If there's not with me my lovely,
my incomparable maid!

Translated by Jessie Davies

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