Poetry
Қырында киік жайлаған
Not translated into English
Asan Qaighy · 1450
Synopsis
A tolgau that first tells of the beauty and riches of a land, the Oiyl and the valley of the Edil, then turns into a lament over a people forced to go from place to place without finding where to settle. The poet reproaches the khan, whom tradition identifies as Janibek, for having led his people away from the Jem without taking counsel, and warns him that this migration will not bring prosperity: it is for the sovereign to find for his people a homeland to live in.
Context
Nothing was written down in the poet's lifetime: his verses were collected from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, notably in the newspaper Dala oualaïaty in 1897 and in Grigori Potanin's collection of legends in 1917; the tolgau appears in the first volume of Бес ғасыр жырлайды, by Magauin and Baidildaev, in 1989. Its interpretation remains disputed: a university course dates it to the early 1470s; the historian Janabek Jaksygaliev objects that the poem names no ruler and that the route from the Jem to the Oiyl and the Edil does not match the known migrations of Kerei and Janibek.
Who it is for
A short and solemn poem, to be read in order to hear the sage of Kazakh legend judge the power of the khans.
Prizes and reception
The poem is at the centre of a debate among historians over its date and its addressee, whom tradition identifies as Khan Janibek.