Highlights of the issue include:

-         The novel “The Black Monk” by Anton Chekhov under the heading of “Incredible Works”;

-         Poems by Ali Karim under the heading of “Azerbaijan Literature”;

-         Jerome Salinger’s interview “A Writer Should Not Sign His Book” under the heading of “Interview”;

-         The essays “The Four Rules of the Science of Life”, “From Montaigne to Aragon”, “Marcel Proust”, “Walter” and “Anatole France” by André Maurois under the heading of “Essays and Literary Portraits”;

-        The historical work “The Scientist Who Made the Hungarians Know Themselves” by Vilayet Guliyev under the heading of “Annals”;

-         Verses by Besik Kharanauli under the heading of “Georgian Poetry”;

-         The short story “The Last Days of Winter” by Tarjei Vesaas under the heading of “The Norwegian Prose”;

-         The continuation of the novel “Poor Folk” by Fyodor Dostoevsky under the heading of “Literary Giants”;

-         The continuation of the novel “Brooklyn” by Colm Tóibin under the heading of “Dublin Literary Award Winners”;

-         World famous writers’ viewpoints on the art of writing, talent and genius, books and reading under the heading of “Aphorisms”.

For Khazar readers: copies of the edition are available on the stands below:

Kiosk Press – Elmler Akademiyası metro station, 19 Huseyn Javid Avenue;
Kiosk Press – Nariman Narimanov metro station, 122 Agha Neymatulla Street;
Kiosk Press – Icheri Sheher metro station, Istiglaliyyat Street;
Kiosk Press – Koroghlu metro station;
Kiosk Press – Nizami metro station, Alibey Huseynzade Street;
Kiosk Press – Hazi Aslanov metro station, 41 Khudu Mammadov Street, and on other newsstands at metro stations.

The readers of the Khazar magazine can get acquainted with the new heading “Incredible Works” and the foreword to the translation of the newly published novel by Anton Chekhov “The Black Monk” entitled “The Black Monk and the Mysterious Visit”. (by A. Masud) 

THE BLACK MONK AND THE MYSTERIOUS VISIT

Early in May, during a conversation with Ramiz Rovshan about the artistic word and its influence, I realized that literature, with the exception of a small number of works, had no longer the former power and influence. Even the works that are considered to be world literature masterpieces such as “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Red and Black”, “The Gadfly”, “Madame Bovary”  with the authenticity of their pain and suffering, which have almost been absorbed into our subconscious, have lost their influence and importance like old products.  My interlocutor did not agree with me, and he tried to talk me out of clinging to this “mistaken position” and to convince me of the eternal and unchanging power of great literature, but after a number of examples and explanations that I provided we finally agreed. But then, as if something had happened, and both of us, as if we had dropped something sacred and broken it, we wandered around the topic with a strange caution, full of fear, as if we had handed death sentence for someone and tried to justify the cruel “judgement” ... and through different angles of viewpoints, artistic improvisations and pauses, we turned the topic up and down and set about solving the problem. In order to bring more clarity to the topic, I said that “I would not include Chekhov in this list”, and I felt that Ramiz’s face had suddenly tightened with an incomprehensible, secret nervousness, and his eyes also flinched because of the same reason, and I attempted to switch the subject, but I heard him say: “I think he belongs to the same category of people.” He paused, and I understood the reason of his anger: one of his favourite writers was on the list of “outdated books.” 

There was a deep silence... I strained my memory and remembered Chekhov’s works “The Cherry Orchard”, “Three Sisters”, “The Seagull", which  had then had a strong influence on me, happiness, misfortune, lie and truth, which the heroes were looking for in some layers of their boring life, reminiscent of underwater grayness, their boring conversations, full of romantic troubles and problems, even intelligent fools of “Ward No. 6”, which I had once read and was shocked... and, as if saying goodbye to Chekhov, with bitter resignation, I said: “Yes, I think so too.” 

The next morning, after our conversation, I was walking in early morning hours, as usual, putting on my headphones and preparing to listen to the 6th chapter of “The Brothers Karamazov”, which I had not listened to the day before, and I was suddenly stunned when I saw Chekhov’s sad photo, emerging from deep darkness and blackness on my phone screen with audio text titled “The Black Monk” in bold type under the photo. Choking with excitement, I stopped and remembered our yesterday’s conversation with Ramiz, the list of “outdated books” and the sad finale of the discussion that ended with Chekhov...

  Although it seemed to me that I knew from whom this mysterious message had come, and that I was well acquainted with the author’s complete works, I for some reason had not read this work, but as I understood that this was a work that I hadn’t read and it had been sent in response to the cruel decision made as a result of yesterday’s “trial”, I felt my throat tickle with anger, my head spin, as if I had risen to an unattainable height, and my eyes begin darkening... I carefully touched Chekhov’s photo, who was looking at me with strange sadness from the phone screen, opened the video text and with all my heart began to listen to this unique masterpiece performed by the brilliant actor Innokenty Smoktunovsky... 

A. Masud