Waterstones, Europe's largest academic range bookshop, overlooking Trafalgar Square in London, has hosted the Poetry Night and Book Launch of 'Candles: 101 Verses', a new English anthology of contemporary Azerbaijani poets published by the Translation Centre under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan (AzTC). The event was attended by members of the London literary community, poets, writers, as well as embassy staff and representatives of Azerbaijani diaspora in the United Kingdom.

UK poet Matt Panesh in his opening remarks gave detailed information about the book for the participants.  “English readers will get acquainted with examples of literary works by more than 50 Azerbaijani poets.  Having read the book, I came to the conclusion that Azerbaijan’s poets are capable of masterly expressing their own pattern of thoughts and poetic palette. Azerbaijan is living in war condition, you know. Karabakh is under occupation. All this misfortune has been expressively reflected in these poems. Most of the authors are men of letters with new distinctive literary thoughts, not only for Azerbaijan, but for the whole world. I believe that such books will help an English-speaking reader know much about Azerbaijan and its literary thoughts, and I would like to thank your Centre for this initiative,” he said.

The Centre's director Afag Masud, in turn, spoke about Azerbaijan’s rich literary treasure, saying that “literature, poetry is the shortest way of reaching mutual understanding among peoples.“   

In her speech: “Azerbaijani citizens had limited access to the outer world under Soviet rule, you will remember. Therefore, it was difficult to launch our literature worldwide. I mean, the world would read an Azerbaijani piece or writing through Russia and Russian translation only, plus those published in the form of the Soviet ideology.  But today, as an independent nation, Azerbaijan is being integrated into the world in all spheres. This is the Centre’s first project aimed at launching the book worldwide. The contemporary poetry and prose of Azerbaijan, whose genius men, such as Khaqani Shirvani, Nizami Ganjavi, İmadeddin Nasimi, and Mahammad Fuzuli have been studied by diverse international institutions, must take its worthy position in the international arena, as well. To this end, our Centre seeks to effectively manage the translation of literary works into foreign languages, through involving in this process notable writers, poets, and past masters in the field of literary translation across the world.  The major project our Centre is currently sticking at is the translation of a two-volume selection “An Anthology of Contemporary Azerbaijani Literature” into several foreign languages.  And AzTC has done a lot of work for the translation of World Literature examples into the Azerbaijani language.  Works by Thomas Eliot, Somerset Maugham, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Pinter Harold, Joanne Rowling, Brian Aldiss, Richard Aldington, Graham Swift, Julian Barnes, William Blake, and other English authors have been translated into Azerbaijani and published in Khazar world literary magazine, or in various books. Besides, we have been engaged in translating the material to raise international awareness about Azerbaijan’s development and Karabakh truths.”     

“I hope that “Candles” lights the candle of fine Azerbaijani poetry this evening in this place in London, full of books and people,” Masud concluded.

Later on, award-winning UK poets Matt Panesh and Sophia Walker took the floor, reading some poems by Ali Karim, Vaqif Samadoğlu, Vaqif Bahmanli, Ajdar Ol, and Aysel Alizade included in the anthology, as well as own poems.  

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