Afat.

one of 50 copies - signed by Iliazd and Picasso

The first of nine books Iliazd and Picasso collaborated on. Afat is a collection of seventy-six classical sonnets in Russian written by Iliazd, the majority of which were written between January and June, 1938.
All of them were published under the imprint of 'Degré Quarante et Un', a name Iliazd chose in memory of a school of futurist poetry called the 'University of the 41º', which he had founded in Tiflis in 1917...Afat is a collection of 76 sonnets in Russian by Iliazd, the majority of which were written between January and June, 1938. In his poems, Iliazd writes of love, of feminine beauty, of the poet's difficult métier and the hidden meaning of words. Three sonnets are about the poet's relationship to 'Pablo' (Picasso).' (Patrick Cramer).

The sonnets are preceded by two Arabic titles in aquatint by Picasso, both titles are written in kufic letters. Afat - the title is a Persian term signifying unhappiness in love. The second title, 'madjusiya', means 'sorceress' and the illustrations Picasso produced were inspired by these two words. The first ten examples were reserved for close friends. Coco Chanel's copy, number five, included an extra sonnet dedicated to her.

Limited edition, one of 50 copies from a total edition of 64, this numbered 42, oblong 4to; signed in red by Iliazd and pencil by Picasso on the Russian justification page, with 6 illustrations total: 2 aquatints and 4 engravings with burin on Montval wove à la cuve paper, some minor foxing, more so to some leaves, text in Russian; attached with string, unbound in wrappers reinforced with grey cardboard and a sheet of Montval paper, some pages uncut, title in black kufic lettering on the front; brown paper-covered slipcase, a very good copy.