The Unity of tradition and innovation in Zelimhan Yakub’s poetry

Abstract

Azerbaijani poetry, which has a thousand-year history, has been constantly updated, accumulating rich poetic experience, enriching itself in form, content, size, form, figurative structure and literary art. Tradition and innovation have always followed each other in poetry, and the development of each period and stage reflected a new poetic thought. One of the poets who was influenced by minstrel (aşıq) poetry is Zelimkhan Yakub. Zelimkhan Yakub is a modern Azerbaijani poet and bard who grew up in the minstrel environment of Borchali and held the post of president of the Azerbaijan Minstrels Association. Zelimkhan Yakub, a master of the minstrel art and performing saz melodies, became famous in the Turkisch world for his poems written in the style of minstrel poetry. The poet’s poems in a pure and fluent language set out the genetic memory, ethnography - holidays, weddings, everyday life of the Azerbaijani people. “Epic of Liberation”, “Epic of Yunus Emre”, “Epic of Great Life”, “Epic of Huseyn Sarajli”, “Epic of Fifty Years” and others are among the poems of the poet with epic motives. Poems written by the poet were published in 13 volumes. The life and work of the poet were studied by such researchers as Musa Nebioglu, Azer Turan, Rustam Kamal, Elnare Akimova, Kadim Rufullayev, Emine Huseynova and Sebuhi Bayramov. This article examines the problem of tradition and innovation in the poetry of Zelimkhan Yakub. As a result of the analysis of the poems of Zelimkhan Yakub, it was established that the poet skillfully used folklore, classical poetry and modern poetic traditions, but was not completely influenced by any of them.