Poetry
Goşgular
Not translated into English
Mammetveli Kemine · 1840
Synopsis
About forty poems, almost all of which have come down through oral tradition. Many are satires that take on the powerful, the clergy and the qadis, the greed of the rich, and defend the poor: such as “Le Pauvre”, “La Misère” or “Mon cadi”. Others are moral lessons and love poems, addressed to a beloved sometimes named Selbiniýaz, most often anonymous; satire and humour also surface in them.
Context
His verses owed much to the bagşy Aly, his friend, who set them to music and spread them. They were first printed in the Soviet period, in Turkmen and in Russian, in the translation by Arseny Tarkovsky. His devotional poems, including a long poem in praise of Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, were set aside in that period. Kemine also became the hero of popular anecdotes, in the manner of Nasreddin Hodja.
Who it is for
In Turkmen, with no French or English translation; it is read mainly in Tarkovsky's Russian versions.
Prizes and reception
The first Turkmen comic opera, Kemine and the Qadi, premiered in 1947 at the Ashgabat opera theatre, features him as a character.
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