Spanish poet presents volume dedicated to Kazakhstan
The book, published by Vitruvio, made its debut on the eve of Saturday's 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and Kazakhstan, Kazinform has learnt from the Latin American Herald Tribune .
"For the celebration of this historic moment between our countries, we thought to go beyond politics and focus on culture as well," the Kazakh ambassador to Spain, Bakyt Dyussenbayev, said at the event in Madrid, which also included Vitruvio chief Pablo Mendez.
Padron, an internationally acclaimed poet who was nominated in 2008 for the Nobel Prize in Literature, started with Spanish prose renderings of poems by 50 Kazakh writers dating from the 19th century to the present.
"It has been a very difficult challenge. I took poems crudely translated into Spanish and adapted them to the Spanish hendecasyllabic (11 syllables per line) system," he said during the presentation.
Appropriately enough, the first Spanish-language collection of Kazakh poetry is the work of the first poet from Spain to see his poems translated into Kazakh.
"This book is dedicated to the Spanish people, for them to become acquainted with our culture, always very tied to the history of our country," Dyussenbayev said.
The idea for the project originated with Padron, who became interested in the poetry of the Central Asian nation through discussions with Kazakh writers and translators during a visit to Astana to present the Kazakhstan edition of his book "Los circulos del infierno" (Circles of Hell).
"It has been the most arduous task I have tackled in 50 years of experience as a translator, but I believe it has been worth it," Padron said Friday.
"Kazakhs who understand Spanish and have read the work have told me that I have succeeded in capturing the spirit of the poems," he said.
Ten Kazakh poets represented in the anthology were present for the event, which was sponsored by the Kazakh Embassy along with Talgo, Maxam, and Airbus Defence and Space.
