Selected Poetry / Избранное (англ.)

All the poems in this collection, with the notable exception of the poetic tales of Shuraleh and The Haymarket, are translated by writer, journalist, and translator Ilya Genn (United States), who has performed the nearly impossible task of capturing the inimitable spirit of Tukai’s poetry in the English language.

В В В В Ravil Bukharaev

В В В В Poet, writer, historian, 2006 Gabdullah Tukai State Prize winner

Gabdullah Tukai

WHAT I REMEMBER ABOUT MYSELF

It was initially the request from a number of publishers who asked me to send them my autobiography that prompted me to write these notes I called What I Remember About Myself.

I put pen to paper with the intent of providing a brief outline of my life from birth until the present but my story somehow stretched beyond what was anticipated.

My life (readers will see that) was an unappealing and rather bleak affair, but at the same time it was interesting, because once I began writing, I felt like describing everything that remained in my memory.

Therefore, it seemed appropriate to me to have all that I experienced before moving to Uralsk, and all I remember from that time until the present day when I sit and write these lines to be published in two booklets.

В В В В G. Tukayev

В В В В September 29, 1909

I

My father Muhammedgarif, the son of Muhammedgalim, who was the mullah of Kushlavych village, began to attend a madrassah in the Kyshkar village when he was 14 or 15 years old; after spending as many years there as were necessary to complete his studies he returned to our Kushlavych village when his father, advanced in years, was still alive and became the local mullah.

After becoming a mullah, he got married but he only lived a few years with his wife: his wife passed away, leaving him with two young children on his hands, a son and a daughter.

My father then remarried. Mamduda, his second wife and my mother, was the daughter of Zinatulla, the mullah of the village of Uchila.

I, their first child, was born a year and half into the marriage[3 - On April 14, 1886 according to the Old Style (Greigorian Calendar).].

When I was five months old, my father died after a short illness.

After living for some time with my widowed mother, I was given temporarily away to be cared for by a poor elderly woman from our village by the name of Sharifa. My mother married the local imam in the village of Sasna.