In Eastern literature, each of dozens of masters of words, such as Nyzamy, Ferdowsi, Rumi, Jami, Yunus Emre, Saady, Novayi, is distinguished by his own creative way. Magtymguly Pyragy, the great poet of the Turkmen people, is among the Eastern thinkers. The rank of Magtymguly Pyragy among the world’s intellectuals symbolizes the great dignity of the poet, his contribution to the values of science, and the special position of the Turkmen people in the world, their unique, ancient national culture, centuries-old literature, speech, music, and art have been elevated to a high level.
In every word, thought and verse of Magtymguly lies the heartbeat of the Turkmen – pure feelings, dreams, deeds and other wonders. All of them are miracles of the heart and mind, passed down from generation to generation.
During the Revival of the New Epoch of the Powerful State, the creative work of our lyricist Magtymguly Pyragy, which is equivalent to “Jemshid’s Mosque”, is not only a special event in the centuries-long history of the rich literary heritage of the poetic and imperial Turkmen people, one of the ancient peoples of the Near and Middle East, it is also a unique phenomenon of the entire East.
Magtymguly Pyragy, an outstanding representative of the classical literature of the Turkmen people, has been glorifying the name of the Turkmen people for almost three hundred years. Magtymguly poetically describes all the problems of secular life, which developed the philosophical views and artistic mind of not only the Turkmen people, but also world thinkers.
As our Hero Arkadag noted: “Magtymguly’s creativity today gives spiritual pleasure not only to the Turkmen people, but to the whole of humanity. At the same time, the creativity of the poet is the creativity that solves the problems related to life. It is for this reason that his wonderful poems, which are songs, resonate in languages, are sensible and are absorbed, have been translated into dozens of languages of the world” [1, p. 6].
The healthy thoughts expressed in Magtymguly Pyragy’s wonderful poems are a guide not only for the future of the Turkmen people, but also for the life and spiritual needs of all mankind. The value of the world of the poet’s poetry has gone beyond the national boundaries and has become the cultural value of world literature and the treasure of human wisdom. It is for this reason that the great poet’s wonderful poems have been translated into many languages of the world.
In order for the great writers-poets of any nation to become famous in the world, the first task falls on the translator, who is the “twin” or “servant” of the author, to convey their works to the languages of different peoples of the world with their sweetness and originality. Also, in this work, a very important task belongs to the scientific community of the people who formed the writer-poet in their hearth, as well as translator specialists. This is the case with the great thinker Magtymguly Pyragy and his brilliant poems. To translate the poems of the great sage as perfectly as possible, to convey to the peoples of the world, without destroying the original words, the precious coral poems that make up his literary heritage, with their delicious flavor, in our time when Magtymguly Pyragy’s literature is devoted to the past history and the national heroes who have left a permanent mark on history. It is considered an important task for scientists and national specialists who deal with the heritage and study its creativity.
During the period of Independence, Magtymguly’s works were republished among the people not only within the territory of his Motherland, but also on the basis of the manuscripts found and studied by scientists in foreign countries.
Translations of Magtymguly Pyragy’s works into many languages of the world, especially the languages of the European nations, are of great importance for the Russian translations of the great thinker. As it is known, Magtymguly’s works were published in dozens of languages, including Mongolian, Vietnamese, Polish, French, English, and Chinese. Currently, among the activities dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the poet’s birth, works are being carried out to translate Magtymguly’s works into different languages, as well as to publish them in book form. As a result, the poet’s works have been published in Arabic and Uzbek languages until today. Translations in Spanish, Belarusian, Korean, Armenian and many more languages will be available to readers in the near future.
Regarding the history of translations of Magtymguly in Russian, the first attempt to render them in Russian belongs to F.A. Bakulin. In 1872, he published a literal translation of two of Magtymguly’s poems and an article entitled “Songs of the Turkmen and their poet Magtymguly” in “News of the Caucasus Department of the Russian Geographical Society”.
In the second half of the 20th century, the work of translating Magtymguly’s works into the Russian language and the languages of other nations became wider. Famous Russian poets who translated the poet’s works into Russian are G. Shengeli, A. Tarkovsky, S. Ivanov, M. Tarlovsky, Y. Gordiyenko, Y. Neuman, N. Grebnev, T. Spendiarova, V. Ganiyev, A. Krongauz, Y. Valich, A. Starostin, N. Lebedev, L. Penkovsky, T. Streshneva, A. Revich, S. Botvinnik, A. Zyrina and others took an active part.
Among them, one of the most famous translators of Magtymguly’s works into the Turkmen language, A.Tarkovsky, who won the State Prize of Turkmenistan named after Magtymguly for his translations in 1971, can be singled out. He managed to rekindle the inspiration of Magtymguly, which he saw in his translated poems, and considered “the days of translating the works of the great Turkmen poet as the most wonderful and happy moments of his life.”
Another translator of Magtymguly’s works is a well-known Turkish scholar, doctor of philology, professor S.N. Ivanov. He knew the Turkish languages well, so his translations are distinguished by their closeness to the original in terms of meaning and use of artistic means.
When these translators, whose mother tongue is Russian, translated Magtymguly’s works from the Turkmen language into the Russian language, they mainly had to use preliminary line-by-line translated materials. To some extent, this caused difficulties in achieving the equality of the content world of the original text with the translation, and as a result, the differences between the translated text and the original text increased. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the translation of individual works of Magtymguly into Russian was very successful with the dedication and talent of the mentioned translators.
The experience gained in the translation of Pyragy’s profoundly meaningful works into world languages shows that there are a number of urgent problems that require a solution in this field.
First of all, it is necessary to use effective methods and genres to fully reflect the poet’s worldview and national uniqueness in the translation. For this, one should follow the principle of translating the meanings of words in Turkmen language based on the vocabulary of Pyragy’s works, depending on each context.
The problem of rendering old and obsolete words in the works of Magtymguly in translation has a great impact on the content of his works being equal to the original in other languages. It is necessary to prepare and publish their own dictionary in the form of a booklet in order to make the methods of these words used in practice.
The translation of Pyragy’s poems tests the norms of poetic composition in other languages. There is a need to create a principled tradition in this regard in translations of the poet’s works in a specific foreign language.
Achieving perfection in the translation of the works of Magtymguly, the most prominent representative of Turkmen literature, into world languages will serve as the basis for translating our literary works into other languages.
The translation and dissemination of Magtymguly’s poems into world languages, firstly, informs about the great value of his scientific and philosophical ideas for the East and the West, and secondly, promotes the development of international cultural relations of Turkmenistan.
References
- Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. Ösüşiň täze belentliklerine tarap. Saýlanan eserler. 2-nji tom. –Aşgabat, 2009.
- Влахов Ф., Флорин С. Непереводимое в переводе. – М., 2011.
- Махтумкули. Сборник избранных произведений. – Ашхабад, ТГИС, 2010.
- Magtymguly. Saýlanan eserler ýygyndysy. – Aşgabat, TDNG, 2014.