There are very few people in the literary environment to whom such a man of words has a special place in his life, to whom such a man of words feels indebted...
Our well-known scientist, wonderful critic, doctor of philological sciences Vagif Yusifli was one of our scientists. It is rare to find people in the literary environment who did not participate in Mr. Vagif's literary work and did not express an opinion about his work.
Let's face it, in recent decades, with the exception of our honest critics, who are too few to be counted on the fingers, when many write about someone, there is some kind of acquaintance, friendship, or other interest behind it. Apparently, this is one of the consequences of capitalism. If we pay attention, we will see that the most written authors in the last 20 years were our authors who held a certain position somewhere and had a judgment somewhere. Even if it hurts, it is the truth. Sometimes, before the work of such authors appears, praise letters about them are already filtered into the press.
However, one of the main features that endears Vagif Yusifli to us is that he is not among these "critics". When you look at the objects of his writings, you can see that they are simple penmen, but some work, poem, story attracted the attention of Mr. Vagif, aroused his interest and he wrote about it...
During the 25 years of our acquaintance, I always observed an infinite fanaticism and a strange selflessness in his activities. If there is even an iota of light in the work of any writer, if there is a spark of literary value, then teacher Vagif seems to take it upon himself to draw attention to this writer, to direct others to his creativity, to introduce him and to stimulate him. It doesn't matter whether he is young or old, whether he lives in the capital or in the region. The main thing is that there should be some light of literature in his work.
When our critic who writes the most about young people, he is the first person who comes to mind. He comes to mind when he says that he is the critic who writes the most about our writers living in the region. When talking about the most difficult reports at the AYB events, he remembers... With his conscience, his hard work and bigotry...
I would also like to mention that Vagif Yusifli is in our literary biographies, and also as our critic who wrote the first article about us. It was he who wrote and introduced the first article about many of our writers who are already known today and are considered serious signatures by the literary community. While working at "Azerbaijan" magazine, his regular articles, both in his magazine and in other newspapers and magazines, were mostly about authors coming to new literature and newly published works... Personally, I consider myself doubly indebted to Mr. Vagif, and he wrote my first article about myself. wrote, and I read the names of many talented writers for the first time from his articles, searched for them and read them.
I can say with certainty that the Azerbaijani literature of the last 25 years has completely passed through the criticism filter of Vagif Yusifli...
I do not want to write the classification of the scientific activity of the teacher Vagif, the stages of development, the scientific value of his works, a lot has been written about this, and whatever I write will be repeated. Also, I don't want to repeat a biography that everyone knows and loves, but I want to highlight the points that are interesting and touching to me.
Methodologically, the writings of art historians and critics are usually divided into three types. For the first type of writers, the topic is just a means to show their knowledge and thinking. Sometimes, when you look at such writings, you see that the author stayed away, and the critic was busy imposing his scientific-philosophical thoughts on the reader. Behind such writings, the critic's ego and arrogance are more visible.
A destructiveness prevails in the second type of inscriptions. When you read such type of articles, you see that the critic is engaged in purposefully smearing the work or the author, hiding the good aspects and highlighting only the weak and unsuccessful aspects. Behind such writings, the prejudice and hatred of the critic can be seen.
In the third type of writings, the critic focuses exactly on the author's text - his artistic findings, interesting aspects, aesthetic qualities, and exchanges opinions only on the author's texts. Behind such writings, the critic is not visible at all. Only the author is visible. With all its strengths and weaknesses.
Vagif Yusifli is one of our critics. We have not observed that even in one of his writings, he advertised his knowledge, ideas and thoughts under the pretext of the author. When he starts writing, he seems to disappear, leaving only the author. Putting the reader face to face with the author about whom he is writing, he seems to retreat into the shadows. He uses his education, knowledge and skills not to advertise himself, but to more clearly reveal the artistic qualities of the work he writes about...
Nice features. Very rare features, especially for today's era. This is one of the reasons why teacher Vagif is so loved. Of course, behind these qualities is a great love. A sincere, simple love of literature. No other feeling, emotion
cannot make a person spend so much energy. Vagif Yusifli was one of our critics who spent the most energy on our literature during the period of independence. Yes, to our own literature. Together with the good, the bad, the weak, the strong.
In contrast to our writers who make a profession of writing from European and American literature in order to promote their reading and learning, Mr. Vagif was truly ours, ours. In his view, even a small literary pearl that has been created in us is not lacking from the great examples of art that have been created in other places. Because he had no sense of ego and incompleteness complex. His soul breathes with love of literature and words. That is why, unlike the writers who write a sentence about us and leave a debt of gratitude for almost a lifetime, Mr. Vagif has never treated any author like this. Just because I wrote about you doesn't mean you owe me. No, your duty is to create beautiful works of art, and my duty is to illuminate it and bring it to the attention of the literary environment. This was the life credo of Vagif teacher. For example, no writer who later became known and famous said that I wrote the first article about you, that I introduced you first. He never tells this to anyone, never thanks anyone. He wouldn't do these things, if he did, he wouldn't be Vagif Yusifli, whom we all love...
One of the characteristics that made teacher Vagif even more familiar to me was his special attachment and love for our classical literature. He is a Fuzuli lover, a lover of Fuzuli. When I was new to the Journals of the Writers' Union, for some reason I had the impression that only modern literature was discussed in this environment, everyone was more focused on modern literary thinking, and classical literature was considered outdated and unnecessary. In fact, I had these ideas not in vain, I heard these words a lot, and there were even many people who looked at the sexual experiments I was engaged in at that time. Some of our friends compared me to giving artificial respiration to a dead person by re-adapting a poetry form that was killed by the course of history and bringing me closer to the new modern literary thinking. And I admit that I was even discouraged at times. However, when my first aruz experiments were published in "Ulduz" magazine for the first time, at one of the events, Mr. Vagif himself approached me, we met personally, and he had such interesting conversations about classical literature, especially Fuzuli's work, that I was impressed. He gave me a lot of interesting advice, and his most important advice was that no matter how modern, abstract, poetic images you use during the experiments, maintain the transparency of our language, never lose the sweetness, fluency, and fluency of our modern language.
In the years after that, Vagif Yusifli had a special place among our master writers who inspired me and encouraged me to do even more interesting experiments on aruz.
Later, in the "Majlisi-uns" television project, his knowledge and literacy about our classical literature was used in the television space. When there were the most difficult and complex topics, the first scientist who came to mind was Vagif Yusifli. For more than ten years, I regularly invited to "Majlisi-uns" and we presented interesting conversations on various aspects of our classical literature to the audience.
I would also like to mention one thing about myself that when my multi-volume work was published in 2015, its extensive "Foreword" was also written by Mr. Vagif. He analyzed my creativity in a very broad way, found and revealed the most subtle points...
A lot can be written about teacher Vagif, we have had many joint trips and joint events. And since then, I can't remember a single negative thing about him. It's not just me, I think there is no one in the literary environment who would talk about some unpleasant action or disapproved behavior of him. How can they talk about something that doesn't exist... He didn't bow before anyone, he didn't flatter anyone, he didn't bend his back in front of anyone. He only bowed before literature and words. Because, in his eyes, great literature was superior to all professions.
This month, teacher Vagif turns 75 years old. I heartily congratulate our master critic both on my own behalf and on behalf of the entire literary community. Long live, Mr. Vagif. We need you a lot.
