Human problems Huseyn Javid’s poem “Azer” in the context of the East-West

Abstract

Huseyn Javid’s poem “Azer” is an important example of creativity in terms of the expression of the poet-philosopher’s attitude to human problems and the illumination of the problem in the Western context. Javid turned Azer, who was accused by the people around him of being “Stupid, crazy, and arrogant”, into a mouthpiece of his ideas, and conveyed his ideas to the readers in his language. In the article, problems such as ignorance, war, superstition, modernization were investigated in the context of the East-West in accordance with the content of the work, and the attitude to these problems is investigated in relation to the way of thinking, worldview and psychological state of people living in different regions. In the poem written in 1926, after the First World War and the victory of socialism, the author brought clarity to the problems faced by humanity, which are against humanity, progress and humanism, by confronting different worldviews, ideologies and regions. Like many Eastern thinkers of the late XIX and early XX centuries, Huseyn Javid did not also praise the West in the poem, criticized the moral erosion and disasters brought by capitalist relations, colonial tendencies, and exploitation with the pictures of life he presented from Western world, evaluated the events as a poet with a sensitive heart and at the same time a deep-thinking philosopher. It should be noted that in all of Javid Efendi’s works, especially in the poem “Azer”, we do not encounter extreme westernism. Although Europeanization in the direction of modernization is valued in the poem, which can be characterized as a creative example of enlightened romanticism, the alienation observed in the society as a result of the inclination to the West, the alienation from the national roots, moral and religious affiliation is condemned. The poet also emphasizes that the cause of some problems is not only related to time and space, but also to people's way of thinking. Acting from a rationalist position, Azer prefers the role of reason and intelligence in solving all human problems, based on the principle of self-awareness.In the poem, Huseyn Javid tried to show the reader that the solution to these big problems lies in getting away from all kinds of ignorance and acquiring science and education.