Hamid Olimjon

Hamid Olimjon (1909-1944) was a talented poet. He made a worthy contribution to 20th-century Uzbek literature with his lyrical poems. He was born on December 12, 1909, in Jizzakh. After primary education, he continued his studies at the pedagogical academy in Samarkand in the late 1920s. His first poetry collection, titled "Ko'klam", was published in 1928. Lyrical pathos dominates his poems. In the 30s, he became known as the singer of joy and happiness.

Hamid Olimjon (Olimjonov Hamid) (1909.12.12, Jizzakh - 1944.3.7, Tashkent; reburied at the "Forobiy" cemetery) — poet, publicist, literary scholar, and public figure. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan (1943). He studied at the educational college in Samarkand (1923-28) and at the faculty of socio-economic sciences of the Pedagogical Academy (1928-31), while also working as a department head at the "Zarafshon" newspaper (1926-27). He served as a responsible secretary at the youth newspaper (1931), the "Qurilish" and "Sovet adabiyoti" magazines, a senior researcher at the Cultural Construction Scientific Research Institute (1932-34), a department head at the Institute of Language and Literature (1934-37) and the Educational Pedagogical Publishing House (1938-39), and a responsible secretary at the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan (1939-44).

Hamid Olimjon's interest in the art of words was shaped based on the fairy tales of his mother, Komila aya, and the epics and poems (terma) of Fozil Yoldosh o'g'li, who visited the home of his grandfather, Mulla Azim. His early works are "Ko'klam" (poems, 1929), "Tong shabadasi" (short stories, 1930). He is the author of the poetry collections "Olov sochlar" (1931), "Poyga", "O'lim yovga" (1932), "Daryo kechasi" (1936), "She'rlar" (1937), "O'lka", "Oygul va Baxtiyor" (1939), "Baxt" (1940), "Qo'lingga qurol ol!", "Ona va o'g'il" (1942), and "Ishonch" (1943).

Although Hamid Olimjon wrote short stories during the first period of his creative work, his talent was more harmonious with the nature of lyrical poetry. In his early poems, the idea of creating a new literature and new literary forms was dominant. By the mid-30s, as his life and creative experience grew, Hamid Olimjon began to master the art of brightly expressing the rich impressions he received from the nature of the motherland, the life of society, and the people within the framework of lyrical poems ("Kuychining xayoli", "Ofeliyaning o'limi", "Holbuki, tun...", "Ishim bordir o'sha ohuda"). In his work before the Second World War, he wrote lyrical poems that are considered good examples of 20th-century Uzbek lyrics, such as "O'rik gullaganda", "Sevgi desam...", "Tinimsizdir yolg'iz shabboda...", "Shodlikni kuylaganimning sababi", and "O'zbekiston". These poems gained attention for their ideological content, form, beautiful language, and style.

The poet, who saw the Jizzakh uprising of 1916 brutally suppressed, looked to the future with great hope as he witnessed the construction works and economic and cultural changes that took place in the Soviet country in the 30s. Such optimistic feelings and thoughts that occupied Hamid Olimjon's heart and mind were the reason for the formation of the romantic depiction method in his work. The poet strove to depict reality using this method not only in his lyrical poems but also in the epics "Ikki qizning hikoyasi" (1937) and, especially, "Zaynab va Omon" (1938) created during this period.

Hamid Olimjon created the epics "Oygul bilan Baxtiyor" (1937) and "Semurg' yoki Parizod va Bunyod" (1939) based on motives from folk fairy tales. These works gained the attention of readers with their ideas of freedom-loving, heroes who linked their destiny with the destiny of the people and the country, and their artistic charm. In the early years of the Second World War, Hamid Olimjon wrote poems that inspired the people to struggle, courage, and bravery, making even wider use of the mother and son images characteristic of Uzbek folklore, as well as the depiction methods and means inherent in oral folk art ("Qo'lingga qurol ol!", "Sharqdan G'arbga ketayotgan do'stga", "Qamal qilingan shahar tepasidagi oy", etc.). At the same time, using the romantic depiction method, he created poems and ballads such as "Sevgi", "Sen tug'ilgan kun", "Jangchi Tursun", and "Roksananing ko'z yoshlari". In collaboration with Pogodin, Uyg'un, and Sobir Abdulla, he wrote the drama "O'zbekiston qilichi" (1942), and based on his impressions of a front trip (February 1943), he published journalistic articles and essays.

Hamid Olimjon's tragedy "Muqanna" (1943) also emerged based on the social order of the war era. Through the images of the central heroes of this work — Muqanna, his beloved Guloyin, and other characters — Hamid Olimjon showed that the issue of independence for every country is a crucially important social and political issue linked to the fate of the people, the freedom, prosperity, and future of that people.

Along with literary work, Hamid Olimjon was also engaged in critical work. However, in the articles he wrote during this period, he could not escape the influence of vulgar sociologism and condemned the work of some patriot writers. In the second half of the 30s, in the process of preparing the folk epic "Alpomish" for publication and studying its literary heritage on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Navoiy, Hamid Olimjon approached classical Uzbek literature and folk oral art with great love and interpreted these golden pages of our cultural heritage from a correct scientific position. As a responsible secretary of the Navoiy committee, he made a great contribution to studying the great poet's heritage and translating his works into Russian. The epic "Alpomish" (Fozil Yoldosh o'g'li) prepared for publication by Hamid Olimjon served as a basis for studying folk oral art works and preparing their scientific publication for many years.

Artistic translation constituted an important part of Hamid Olimjon's literary work. He translated into Uzbek the epics "Kavkaz asiri" and "Suv parisi" by A. S. Pushkin, the "Bela" story from M. Yu. Lermontov's "Zamonamiz qahramoni", M. Gorky's short stories "Chelkash", N. Ostrovsky's novel "Po'lat qanday toblandi", A. Korneychuk's play "Platon Krechet", as well as some poems by poets such as Byron, Pushkin, Shevchenko, P. Tychyna, M. Bezymensky, M. Svetlov, K. Simonov, and V. Inber.

Hamid Olimjon died at the age of 35 as a result of a car accident. One of the Tashkent metro stations, the House of Writers of the Writers' Union, and the regional theater in Samarkand were named after Hamid Olimjon. A statue of the poet was erected in the square named after him in Tashkent (1990).

His beautiful poems such as "Holbuki, tun", "Ofeliyaning o'limi", "Qamal qilingan shahar tepasidagi oy", and "Ishim bordir o'shal ohuda" are famous. He wrote epics such as "Oygul bilan Baxtiyor" (1937), "Semurg' yoki Parizod va Bunyod" (1939), and "Zaynab va Omon" (1938), and dramas such as "Muqanna" (1942) and "Jinoyat" (1944). He translated some works of Russian poets and writers into Uzbek.