Poetry
1916-жыл
Not translated into English
Abylkasym Dzhutakeev · 1917
Synopsis
A poem about the year 1916: the Kyrgyz uprising, the repression and the flight. No line of this collection is quoted or discussed.
Context
Its author belongs to the writer akyns, those who noted down their verses themselves in Arabic script instead of entrusting them to memory alone, and circulated them in manuscript. Three of his poems deal with the events of 1916: this one, one on the life of the fugitives and a lament on the people. They are cited together, alongside those of three other writer akyns who treated the same subject. The works of this generation appeared in print only after the establishment of a Kyrgyz edition.
Who it is for
In Kyrgyz, never translated. It is better to know that the exodus of 1916 drove a considerable part of the population towards China, and that these verses are among the rare direct sources on what happened there.
Prizes and reception
Retained by the country's literary histories as a document as much as a poem, for lack of other testimony about what the fugitives went through.