A collection of translations of several works by outstanding Uzbek poets and writers Alisher Navoi and Abdulhamid Cho’lpon has been published in London.

The author of the translations is the British poet Andrew Staniland. The publication was carried out with the support of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in the UK and is timed to the 30th anniversary of the state independence of Uzbekistan.

The collection includes 12 popular ghazals by Alisher Navoi and 14 poems by Abdulhamid Cho’lpon.

Sharing his impressions after the publication of the collection, Andrew Staniland noted that after a trip to Uzbekistan, as well as familiarization with the rich cultural heritage of the Uzbek people, inspired by the Uzbek classical poetry, he published a collection of poems “New Divan. Khazrat Alisher Navoi”.

Later, taking into account the practical lack of good translations of the works of Uzbek poets into English, he decided to try himself in translating ghazals by the founder of the Uzbek literary language, Alisher Navoi, as well as the works of Abdulhamid Cho‘lpon, one of the outstanding figures of modern Uzbek poetry, a poet of reforms and hope for the future. As a result, the current collection “12 ghazals by Alisher Navoi and 14 poems by Abdulhamid Cho’lpon” was recently published.

According to the author, for an English reader, Navoi is a Timurid poet of the 15th century. The combination of his ghazals in one collection with Cholpon’s poems is intended to emphasize the long tradition and continuity of Uzbek literature. At the same time, it will be more interesting for the British audience to identify similarities and contrasts in the works of both great poets.

The author worked closely with two translators from Tashkent: a translator and a scientist, an expert on Navoi Aidakhon Bumatova and a translator, an expert on Cholpon’s poems Avazkhon Khaydarov.

UzA