CONSTANCY IN LOVE AS THE CORE OF THE LYRIC HERO: THE CONTINUITY OF NAVOI'S LOVER IMAGE IN MODERN UZBEK TAXMIS

In the taxmis a later poet places three new lines before each couplet of an existing ghazal, so the lyric hero is not created anew but inherited from the base text. This article examines how the central function of Navoi’s lover, constancy in love, is carried over into taxmis written on his ghazals by three modern Uzbek poets: Aziziy, Ochildi Qo’ysun and Erkin Vohidov. Constancy is realised in four manifestations: self-sacrifice, patience in separation, madness and weeping. Separating the amplifier’s three lines from Navoi’s two in every stanza shows that the amplifier never turns the hero away from his vow; he strengthens it by supplying conditions, causes and a concrete setting. The poets differ in emphasis: Aziziy turns patience into a rule of conduct, Ochildi Qo’ysun grounds the idea of fana in social criticism, and Erkin Vohidov gives the hero a social role. Behind all four manifestations stands the idea of the perfect man, towards which the hero strives without having attained it.