{"id":48576,"date":"2026-05-26T20:32:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/?p=48576"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:32:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:32:49","slug":"hafiz-saifullaev-russian-language-tajik-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/tajikistan\/hafiz-saifullaev-russian-language-tajik-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHafiz Saifullaev\u2019s prose marks a fruitful turning point in Russian-language Tajik literature\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The short story collection Hold Me in Your Arms<\/em>, by Hafiz Saifullaev, has been nominated for the Sadriddin Ayni Literary Prize.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book Hold Me in Your Arms<\/em> (Moscow, 2024), by Tajik writer Hafiz Saifullaev, was nominated by the Sughd<\/a> branch of the Writers\u2019 Union of Tajikistan for the Sadriddin Ayni Literary Prize. This undoubtedly represents an important milestone in the landscape of contemporary Russian-language Tajik literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, the writer\u2019s short stories may evoke a sense of ambivalence. Some find them highly personal, intimate and linguistically simple, yet complex in terms of perception and the depth of thought they convey. Others see in them a rather cerebral, rational form of writing, driven by the need to express the words of the soul, emotional fractures. In any case, by grasping the subtleties of the subtext, it becomes clear that a prosperous future awaits this Russian-language writer, a true sculptor of words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tajik media outlet Asia-Plus<\/em> has read Hold Me in Your Arms<\/em>, published in 2024 by Pero publishing house in Moscow, and has drawn the following conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lyrical writer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hafiz Saifullaev is a lyrical writer, in whom East and West intertwine naturally. His prose is imbued with the world around him. Trees, mountain rivers and high peaks all appear in his work in a philosophical and poetic form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also read on Novastan : Hymnes de sang, un recueil de nouvelles tadjikes de l\u2019\u00e9poque de la perestro\u00efka<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most essential feature of his short stories is the absence of any distortion in his ideas about the world, people and their lives. Hafiz Saifullaev expresses his thoughts and feelings with such sincerity that his words seem to emerge in a moment of pure truth, without any artifice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was sitting on a bench in the park. In the orange flames of autumn, wrapped in my black jacket, I looked like a piece of coal that had not yet caught fire. I had opened my laptop and was staring at the screen. I was searching for the Word. A cat distracted me from these useless ramblings, having crept up close without my noticing. It was grey, speckled with white, almost transparent. Floating, perhaps\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stories imbued with sincerity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The writer is fully aware that the loss of sincerity and inner truth is fatal to literature. And yet Hafiz Saifullaev\u2019s short stories are not limited to a simple account of what he has seen or experienced: they take the form of philosophical meditations, reflections on life and death, the past and the future, the irreconcilable struggle between good and evil, joy and sorrow, the moment and eternity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeeing my mother lying in bed, strangely stern, I went up to her and took her cold hand in mine. Her chin was held up by a bandage. \u2018It\u2019s over,\u2019 I told myself, \u2018Mama is dead.\u2019 I looked at her, trying to imprint her features in my memory. But instead, her young face came back to me, her laughter. I stayed like that until I placed the pillow back under her head. Under the pillow was a folded velvet waistcoat, the one I loved. I could not hold back my sobs and leaned towards her, taking her in my arms. It was then that I heard her voice: \u2018Do you love me?\u2019 I began breathing again. My mother\u2019s light flowed into my chest. No one saw it. It remains a secret between my mother and me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a return to childhood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hafiz Saifullaev\u2019s prose stands out for the richness of its vocabulary and the variety of its rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The language of his works is rich, metaphorical and simple, \u201calmost materially tangible\u201d, according to critic Sanoat Azizova. His thought is both visual and philosophical. The absence, in his miniature stories, of grandiloquence or declarative tone, often characteristic of more conventional prose writers, reveals the combination of genuine artistic talent and deep intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Reading Hafiz Saifullaev\u2019s miniatures gives rise to a poignant feeling of nostalgia: the memory of one\u2019s own childhood. In many of his stories, the colours are more vibrant, the snow whiter, the sky more azure and unfathomable. In the short story Hold Me in Your Arms<\/em>, this is exactly the case: one\u2019s breath is taken away by the brilliance of its wonderful, colourful epithets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a rare thing to read a text of such coherence and density, written in a single breath, to the point that one almost regrets that the memories of childhood come to an end, that they are interrupted\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music and thought<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These are only a few sketches of impressions born from reading, or listening to, these musical stories by a talented writer who has brilliantly established himself in Tajikistan\u2019s Russian-language literature. Reading his miniature stories, the reader perceives both music and thought, wrapped in the garment of his poetic imagination:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere is the Word. The one whose function is to awaken man. And there it suddenly appears in the context of a sentence, of a story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is exactly what happens in the short stories of the collection Hold Me in Your Arms<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also read on Novastan : \u00ab\u00a0Un th\u00e8me \u00e9ternel\u00a0\u00bb : entretien avec l\u2019autrice kazakhe Roza Mouqanova<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hafiz Saifullaev is moving through literature seriously and confidently. He must continue to remain always close to people, to live events fully alongside his characters. For this is what matters most for a writer, a poet, a creator. And there is no greater happiness than to be understood by those for whom one creates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sculptor of words<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As the Kabardino-Balkar poet Tanzilia Zumakulova writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd to dry someone\u2019s tears,
To soften pain, O poet, you must be
Not an actor playing a role,
But shed bitter tears yourself,
And not suppress true suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conclude these reflections on Hafiz Saifullaev\u2019s book Hold Me in Your Arms<\/em>, a work that can rightly be described as poetic prose, it is possible to say that its author, a true sculptor of words, undoubtedly deserves to be awarded the prestigious Sadriddin Ayni Literary Prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His prose, as poet Nizom Kosim states, \u201cbrings together all that is best: the pull of plot and imagery, the brilliance of imagination and fantasy, the subtlety of themes and characters, a rich and vivid language. How could one not appreciate such prose?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Azim Aminov and Kamila Mulloyeva<\/strong>
Journalists for Asia-Plus<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from Russian<\/a> by Lisa D\u2019Addazio and from French<\/a> by Mathieu Lemoine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The short story collection Hold Me in Your Arms, by Hafiz Saifullaev, has been nominated for the Sadriddin Ayni Literary Prize. The book Hold Me in Your Arms (Moscow, 2024), by Tajik writer Hafiz Saifullaev, was nominated by the Sughd branch of the Writers\u2019 Union of Tajikistan for the Sadriddin Ayni Literary Prize. This undoubtedly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":48578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4669,4668,6],"tags":[4339,4284,3979],"coauthors":[358],"class_list":["post-48576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-society","category-tajikistan","tag-ayni","tag-literature","tag-tajikistan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48579,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48576\/revisions\/48579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48576"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novastan.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=48576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}