Gabdulla Tukay

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13 facts from the life of Gabdulla Tukay, people's poet of Tatarstan:

1. At the age of 4, Gabdulla Tukay was left an orphan. The boy was raised and raised by one or another relative. Life was very hard, they often lived from hand to mouth, and from early childhood little Tukai had to work.
2. The most joyful period of his childhood passed in the village of Kyrlay in the family of the peasant Sagdi. The dark dense forests of Kyrlay made a great impression on him. It is in them that the famous hero of Tukai, Shurale, will subsequently live.
3. Gabdulla Tukay considered himself a student of Russian classical poets. At the dawn of his creative life, he translated Krylov’s fables and the poetry of Koltsov, Pushkin, and Lermontov into Tatar. His translations were not only beautiful, but also very accurate, and they were willingly published.
4. Gabdulla Tukay was fluent in five languages - Tatar, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Russian.
5. Gabdulla Tukay wrote all his works in the Tatar language. His poems were translated into Russian by many, including Anna Akhmatova, Samuil Marshak, Veronika Tushnova, Konstantin Lipskerov and others.
6. Tukay’s works have been translated into almost 40 languages of the world.
7. In less than 8 years of his creative life, Gabdulla Tukay managed to write 9 poems, more than 400 poems, as well as 350 stories, essays and memoirs.
8. The pinnacle of Tukay’s poetry was the poem “Native Language”. The song based on these verses is secretly considered the anthem of the entire Tatar people.
9. In addition to deep and serious works for adult audiences, Tukay also wrote for children. In total, more than 150 poems for children came from his pen. In some of them he immortalized the heroes of national Tatar fairy tales.
10. Gabdulla Tukay received 50 kopecks in silver or gold for each written line, which made him the highest paid poet of his time.
11. One of the “points of Gabdulla Tukai’s will” was the establishment of a scholarship for gifted children, for which the poet allocated 500 rubles.
12. Gabdulla Tukai spent his entire life collecting books, with which all the window sills and cabinets in his room were filled. He always left the door open so neighbors could come in and get something to read. Because of this kindness, many books were never returned to him, and after the poet’s death, his library completely disappeared.
13. On the day of Tukay’s funeral, as a sign of mourning for the great poet, almost all shops and factories in Kazan were closed, and classes in schools and madrassas were canceled.