Poetry
Hophopnamə
Not translated into English
Mirza Alakbar Sabir · 1912
Synopsis
The satirical poems given to the press, first of all to a satirical journal in Tiflis where the poet signed himself Hophop. In them he takes on the voice of those he targets: the ignorant mullah, the corrupt petty official, the unscrupulous bey, the father who refuses school to his son, the fanatic, the superstitious woman, but also sovereigns, Shah Mohammad Ali, Wilhelm II and Abdülhamid II, faced with the constitutional revolutions of Iran and Turkey. Built on a refrain, these monologues let the absurdity of their speakers reveal itself.
Context
The collection appeared in Baku in 1912, after the poet's death, assembled by his friend Abbas Səhhət and by his relatives; its title comes from the signature Hophop, one of the many names under which he published in Molla Nəsrəddin. The Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan issued a three-volume edition of it in 1962, and the Şərq-Qərb publishing house reissued it in 2004. In English there are only selections: that of Dorian Rottenberg in the anthology Azerbaijanian Poetry, in 1969, and three poems translated by Lala Məmmədova, awarded a prize in 2025.
Who it is for
In Azerbaijani, with no French translation; in English, only selected poems can be read.
Prizes and reception
It gathers the strongest part of his work, that of his last years, which is still being translated into English today.
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