Zhambyl Zhabayev

Zhambyl Zhabayev was born in February 1846 at the foot of Mount Zhambyl, in Semirechye, to a poor nomadic family; his mother, who was hiding from brigands, gave birth there, and the child received the name of the mountain. An uncle taught him the dombra; at fourteen, he left his family to live by his singing and spent six years with the akyn Suyunbai Aronuly. A victor in contests for decades, he became famous only around 1936, at ninety, when the Soviet authorities made him a symbol. He died in Alma-Ata on 22 June 1945.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetryЛенинградтық өренімZhambyl Zhabayev · 1941not translated into EnglishLiterature