Rafili, Mikael Gasan ogly

Born Apr. 12 (25), 1905, in the village of Borsunlu, now in Kasum-Ismailov Raion, Azerbaijan SSR; died Apr. 26, 1958, in Baku. Soviet Azerbaijani poet and literary scholar. Doctor of philological sciences (1947).

Rafili graduated from Moscow State University in 1930. An advocate of free verse, he was the author of Window (1929), New History (1934), Crane (1936), and other collections of poetry. He also wrote studies devoted to the works of Nizameddin Ganjevi (Nizami), Füzüli (Fizuli), M. F. Akhundov, and other literary figures and the textbook Introduction to the Theory of Literature (1958). He translated the works of J. W. von Goethe, H. Balzac, L. N. Tolstoy, V. Hugo, E. Verhaeren, and other writers. Rafili was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.