“Write Out Loud”, the leading poetry portal of England, has posted in English the ghazal “A Love Song” by the great Azerbaijani poet Khagani Shirvani as part of the AzSTC project “Azerbaijan Literature in an International Virtual World”.

The author of the translation of the ghazal presented with information about the poet’s creativity is a well-known translator Tom Botting.

It is worth noting that the poetry portal “Write Out Loud”, which has a wide auditorium of readers, regularly publishes works by such outstanding poets as William Shakespeare, Alexander Pushkin, Friedrich Schiller, Emily Dickinson and Pablo Neruda.

https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php

Afzaladdin Khagani

 (1126 – ­1199)

·   the outstanding poet-thinker of Azerbaijan;

·   is the author of lyric verses consisting of 17,000 beyts, “Tuḥfat al-ʿIrāqayn” (“Gift of the Two Iraqs”)” poem, 60 letters  ̶  the interesting patterns of artistic prose, as well as hundreds of qasida, ghazals, panegyric, rubai, marsiyeh, habsiyah;

·   such socio-philosophical works as “Shiniyya”, “The Ruins of Madain” and the poem “Tuḥfat al-ʿIrāqayn” have been translated into various languages of the world;

·   with his ghazals and rubai, he laid the foundation of the traditions of the classical Azerbaijani school of poetry.

A Love Song

As long as my heart is still beating,

the one that I love shall be you.

As long as I hold something dearer

than life, it shall always be you.

Affection within my soul burning

lent strength to my heart in the past.

The impulse to keep my heart beating

forever, my dear, shall be you.

Whatever the wound I may suffer

the balm for my pain shall be you.

Whatever disorder afflicts me

the cure for my ill shall be you.

I always shall be at your service,

whatever your heart may desire.

One sultan in life I acknowledge,

and that one shall always be you.

If ever I write about faith

and ingratitude, now I proclaim

The title shall start with the letter

which begins my beloved’s first name.

In matters of state, or of faith and apostasy you can’t

deceive me…

For you Khan, my Belief, my idol – al one and

the same! –

Who is Khagani?Oh, my sloe-eyed sweet beauty, approach

me and claim

To be Khagani’s khagan, be my monarch demanding acclaim.