From the History of Translations of Kazakh Literature into Armenian

Abstract

The article examines the history of the translation of works by Kazakh authors (both classics and contemporaries) and examples of oral folklore into Armenian across the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. During the Soviet era, works by Makhambet Utemisov (1804-1846), Ybrai Altynsarin (1841-1889), Abai Kunanbayev (1845-1904), Jambyl Jabayev (1846–1945), Gabit Musrepov (1902–1985), Anuar Alimzhanov (1930–1993), Ilyas Yesenberlin (1915–1983) and Mukhtar Auezov (1897–1961) were translated, as well as works by other Kazakh poets and prose writers representing the then-dominant artistic movement of socialist realism. The initiators of these translations into Armenian were the celebrated classics of 20^th-century Armenian literature: Silva Kaputikyan, Gevorg Emin, and Paruyr Sevak. Following the declaration of independence by Armenia and Kazakhstan, the centuries-old Armenian-Kazakh cultural ties entered a new stage of development. It then became possible to translate and publish in Armenian works that were censored during the Soviet era, including the poetry of Kazakh zhyraus (folk bards) and the works of Shakarim, Magzhan Zhumabayev, and Akhmet Baitursynov. Significant publications include the fundamental Anthology of Kazakh Literature (2019), a new edition of Mukhtar Auezov’s epic novel The Path of Abai, the first translation of Abai’s philosophical prose, Kara Sozder (The Book of Words, 2020), and the first collection of Kazakh Folk Tales (2023) in the Armenian language. Furthermore, through comparative textual analysis and an examination of literary-critical approaches to the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, the article elucidates the methodological aspects of selecting themes (reflecting a shift away from the predominance of translations of Socialist Realist works aimed exclusively at glorifying the Soviet system toward introducing Armenian readers to the works of authors repressed during the Stalinist period) and texts for translation, as well as the nuances involved in the accurate transmission of the national values and Eastern figurative system crystallized in the Kazakh originals to Armenian readers through literary translation.