Poetry
Баймағамбет сұлтанға айтқан толғауы
Not translated into English
Sherniyaz Zharylgasuly · 1850
Synopsis
A tolgau, a Kazakh poem of address. Having come to the sultan Baimagambet Aishuakuly, the first sultan of the western Kazakh lands, the poet is received with contempt from the threshold. He introduces himself as the Sherniyaz of Isatai and answers his host's boasts and orders with biting verses: in them he celebrates Isatai's courage and mocks the sultan, whom he calls a false nobleman and a traitor to his people.
Context
Nothing of it was printed during the author's lifetime. The poem is known from three versions, noted down by Alych, Omarbek and Mashhur-Jüsip; Alych's, the fullest, is also the most widespread. Khalel Dosmukhamedov was the first to make these words addressed to the sultan known, and he also maintained that their author had afterwards sought Baimagambet's favour: Egemen Qazaqstan presents this point as a thesis, not as an established fact. Mukanov, Zhumaliev, Amanshin and others have since collected, completed and reissued his verses. A poem by Makhambet, addressed to the same sultan, bears a similar title.
Who it is for
A brief, biting poem, to be read to hear a poet's free speech before power on the steppe of the nineteenth century.
Prizes and reception
One of his best-known works, according to Egemen Qazaqstan; his poems are studied at school and at university, according to Kazinform.
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