Kazakhstan celebrates Abai Day Aug 10
Abai is a great Kazakh poet, composer, enlightener, thinker, public figure, founder of Kazakh written literature, and its first classic.
Abai was born on August 10, 1845, in Semipalatinsk region to a noble family. Abai studied at a local madrasah under Mullah Ahmet Ryza and then at a Russian school.
In his works Abai described the lived realities of people, all he saw around him. He saw advanced ways to change the life of the Kazakhs by opening schools, studying, people’s enlightenment, and raising their culture. He authored some 170 verses, poems, and «Qara Sozder» (Words of Wisdom). He also translated Russian and European authors into Kazakh.
The works of Abai were translated into 116 languages around the world. The first translations of Abai’s poems were published in the early XX century. Later, his poetry and Words of Wisdom saw countless translations and republication. The majority of books devoted to Abai’s works were published in 1995, in the year of celebration of the poet’s 150th anniversary under the UNESCO aegis. The publication of the book «Works and Thoughts of Abai» in Farsi became a remarkable event in the cultural life of Iran and Kazakhstan since Abai’s works had not been published in Iran before.
In 2020, in the year of celebration of the 175th anniversary of Abai, his works were translated into 10 languages – English, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Turkish, French, and Japanese.
Several verses, poems, and all 45 Words of Wisdom were retranslated into the Russian language. The majority of the verses and three poems were translated by famous Russian poet and translator Mikhail Sinelnikov.
Abai was also a composer.
