Rasul Gamzatov (b. 1923) was born in the village which bears the name of his father Gamzat Tsadasa, People's poet of Daghestan. He was educated in Moscow, and began his career by translating the Russian classics into his native Avar language.
More than thirty books of poetry by Rasul Gamzatov have been translated into Russian and other languages. The popularity of his poetry is explained by its amazing and quite rare combination (Robert Burns (;an be given as an example) of natural talent, the tradition of naive ancient folk myths and songs and modern literary culture. Characteristic forms used by Rasul Gamzatov are the octave and the form of poetic, aphoristic "inscriptions", which Caucasian mountain dwellers used to engrave on the vaulted ceilings of their stone buildings, on tombstones, on sword handles and saddles.
