The poem ”Petőfi’s Grave” by Kazakh poet Jumeken Sabiruli Najimedenov was published in the latest issue of Hungarian Diary. The poem was originally written in 1978 and published in his volume ”Seven Colors” (Zseti bojau) in 1979.
The above poem published in the monthly of the Association of Hungarian Writers is yet another episode in the cooperation enfolding between the literary lives in Hungary and the Turkic countries. The Year 2023, declared by TÜRKSOY as the Year of Petőfi, has given an opportunity for several gratifying events – the poems by Petőfi have been and are being translated in all the Turkic countries.
Earlier at an event by the Representation Office of the OTS, Kinga Erős, the President of the Association of Hungarian Writers pointed out that through the works of Petőfi, the Turkic world can learn about us, his descendants. ”Compared with the original ones, all translated texts have their own independent lives, since they are born later than the original ones. Even if their own existence can unambiguously be attributed to the glory of the original works, they have been found worthy of being lifted out of their own linguistic environment and planted into a foreign culture through translation,” emphasized the President of the Association of Writers at that time.
On March 6, 2023, in the framework TÜRKSOY, the Association of the Writers of the Turkic World (TÜRKSOY Yazarlar Birliği) was established. The Association of the Hungarian Writers was among the first to welcome this excellent initiative, and supports the cooperation with the literary people of the Turkic world with the resources at its disposal.
The first poem by the Kazakh writer, poet, translator and composer Jumeken Sabiruli Najimedenov (November 28, 1935 – November 22, 1983) was published in 1955, and his first volume of poems was printed in 1961. During his lifetime ten volumes of his poems and three novels were published, followed by ten more collections of his unpublished works after his death. His works have been translated to several languages. Since 2006 his poem ”My Kazakistan” (Menin Kazaksztanim) – written in 1956 – has been the text of the national anthem of the Republic of Kazakistan.
