NO

How unbearable,

how difficult it is for a kind,

gentle, non-confrontational person

to pronounce this short word!

Fundamental. Sharp.

Able to offend and hurt the pride of others.

No.

No halftones,

not the slightest hint of “maybe”,

“I’ll think about it”,

“what if? ..”.

Short and sweet: NO.

For “yes,

I agree” they don’t touch,

in the worst case they will despise or disdain,

but for “no” in the easiest option:

subjected to moral,

and even physical humiliation,

they can be convicted,

fined, deprived of liberty,

sent into exile,

subjected torture or sophisticated ostracism,

in the end, they can be executed.

And, of course, your “no” can be neglected.

Everything can.

Except one thing: to force you to give up your no.

A bold and calm “no”.

Don’t hesitate to say “NO”.

Even when it’s very scary.

When the crowd around roars “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!”

and demands blood.

“NO” is your human dignity.

The most precious thing we have.

ABOUT ELDAR AKHADOV

Eldar Akhadov is an outstanding Azerbaijani poet writing in Russian. A man of many parts, he is also a scientist, geologist, arctic explorer, excavator, linguist, critic, educationalist, and teacher. He involves himself with both questioning and celebrating the physical universe around us and within us, and, equally, the mysterious metaphysical questions that our existence poses to us all, which are both vast and miniscule at once. His depth and breadth of vision are balanced with a close attentiveness to what William Blake called the minute particulars and Gerard Manley Hopkins named the inscape and instress of things. His spirit combines passionate intellectual enquiry with empathy and magnanimity. And while his poems sing and breathe suffering and joy, what they emanate above all is hope. In all these respects, Akhadov is not merely a model man of our times but forour times, and for our future too. He is not only an internationalist but an imaginationalist.”

Richard Berengarten

Cambridge, June 2020

Richard Berengarten is a world-famous poet from UK, teaches at Cambridge, has a great many literary awards of higher dignity. His poetry has been translated into hundreds of languages of the peoples of the world

Eldar Akhadov was born on July 19, 1960 in the city of Baku (Azerbaijan), Azerbaijani, writes in Russian, began writing poetry on May 2, 1968, first publication – 1976, author of 75 books of poetry and prose in 6 languages – Russian, Azerbaijani, English, Italian, Spanish and Serbian. Awards: “Silver Pen of Russia” 2007, “For the Good of the World”, 2012 and 2013, publishing house “ZA-ZA Verlag” Germany, 2018, Silver Medal of Eurasia, 2019, Vincenzo Padula competition, Italy, 2022 and dozens of other awards. Honorary member of the Azerbaijan Writers’ Union, member of the Russian Writers’ Union, member of the Russian National Geographical Society, Co-Chairman of the Literary Council of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, member of the International Advisory Council of the Reader’s Choice magazine, Mumbai (India), coordinator of the VII World Literary Competition WOW-LIFFT-2024. Member of the Board of the World Writers Organization (WOW).