Poetry
Тилек
Not translated into English
Barpy Alykulov · 1951
Synopsis
A posthumous collection of the songs of an akyn from the south, taken down from his lips in his last years: love songs that became models of the genre, mocking couplets, advice and meditations on life, and a poem about the time when the khanate of Kokand dominated the Kyrgyz. Its table of contents is not known.
Context
Its author wrote nothing down: he sang, and without a komuz, the voice alone carrying the line, as the manner of the southern akyns required. His songs began to be written down only in 1943, six years before his death; a first selection appeared in the year of his death, and this volume two years later, in Frunze, with the Kyrgyz state publishing house, in one hundred and twenty-four pages. Most of his songs were later translated into Russian.
Who it is for
In Kyrgyz; a Russian anthology exists, nothing in French. It is worth knowing that these texts were sung before being written down, and that no instrument accompanied them.
Prizes and reception
Second volume of a work that has entered the country's classic canon: a village in the Suzak district bears its author's name, as do schools and streets.