Comments on: Two Poems by Memtili Ependi

By: Lessoskallow

Lessoskallow — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:52:19 +0000

Thanks for the great poetry. It sounds very good in English. To translate poetry is the most difficult thing in the world. The truth is in poetry and I am very happy to read it. Please keep up.

By: Dawutjan

Dawutjan — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:15:36 +0000

Nice to see these here.

How about reading peqir mäshräp käbi as a reference to Shah Mashrab (17th C trickster/poet)? I’m sure Mämtili Äpändi was aware of his works. Likening oneself to a mäshräp gathering doesn’t make a lot of sense.

By: Uyghur

Uyghur — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:08:05 +0000

@ Tewpiq:
“ghérib” in “Ah-ghérib miskin weten …” does not necessarily indicate “the lover of Senem”; It is used more commonly to describe poor, pitiable, or wretched condition, which is the correct meaning of the word here.

By: Tewpiq

Tewpiq — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:56:40 +0000

@ Mr. Jeck — Oo, ouch. Good catch. I’ve gotten used to reaching Chaghatay, which writes seven as يتي. I’ll correct it. Thank you!

By: kahraman

kahraman — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:27:13 +0000

When offering my explanation of the final line of “Barmiken” to my Uyghur teacher, I got a bit of a scolding. As she doesn’t agree, I retract it….
I guess I’m too used to looking for hidden meanings in all fiction and poetry by Uyghur authors.

By: Mr. Jeck

Mr. Jeck — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:01:13 +0000

Tewpiq: I sent you en email regarding to a possible mistake occurred in the translation, don’t know if you had a chance to take a look at it. I think there is some error with the first line.

The original saying is “Qashqerge wapa tegdi”. Here you translated the word” wapa” as “loyalty”, which is technically right, but it is wrong in the meaning. I also noticed that this word should be “waba” instead of “wapa”. You got a typo in the text which brought in the error in translation. “Wapa” means “loyalty” while “waba” means ” plaque”, or kind of disastrous disease. Then the original meaning should be ” Kashgar got a plaque” or something like that. Please check it out at Yulgun online dictionary.

About the seven cities. I believe that the stanza” qedimim yetti wetenge” doesn’t refer to the seven cities at all. It means “my steps reached to the homeland”. It seems you translated “yetti” as “seven”, but it should be translated as ” reach”. The word “Yette” then means seven, but it is not there.

By: Tewpiq

Tewpiq — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 03:57:43 +0000

@ d/b: Oh, good point on Yetti Sheher… I mistranslated that in my note. Under Yaq’ub Beg, the Six Cities became, in some interpretations, the Seven Cities. If you read the Tarikh-i Aminiya, which describes the Muslim revolts of the 1860s, the reign of Yaq’ub Beg, and the Qing reconquest, the author (Sayrami) describes the “Seven Cities”: Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Aqsu, Uch Turpan, Kucha, and… hum. No seventh. I think the follow-up, the Tarikh-i Hamidi, includes Turpan, but I’m not sure…

By: kahraman

kahraman — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:39:45 +0000

I meant Tewpiq, the Uyghur poet and not Tewpiq, the Uyghur translator.

By: kahraman

kahraman — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:36:05 +0000

Great job on tھe translation. I really got into reading these.

I love the double entendre in the last stanza of the second poem.

يەڭنى تۈرگەن، كۆكنى تىرىگەن

Reading between the lines, couldn’t this be interpreted as “standing in victory, upholding the blue (flag)”?

If you consider يەڭ to be a cognate of يەڭمەك , meaning to ‘win, defeat, overcome’ and consider that the color of the first ETR flag was also blue, it makes sense (he is writing in 1933).

I am not positive about that cognate, but it seems many Uyghur words can be broken down as such. As a writer with an obvious political bent, this couldn’t have been lost on Tewpiq.

By: Mr. Jeck

Mr. Jeck — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:58:09 +0000

@ Tewpiq: The ideology of the Uyghur people of early 20th century can’t be explained well without linking it to the drastic changes happened in neighboring countries/related nations, like Russia, China and Turkey. Ata Turk’s contribution and reform in Turkey are still in controversy among Islamic fundamentalist. I guess Mr. Yalqun Ruzi tried to interpret it from the perspective of Uyghur Nationalist. Note that he tried to re-evaluate almost every historical figure of Uyghurs of that time from his perspective, which is quite contradictory to prevailing interpretations, like he praises a lot Ilihan Tore, Aysa beg, Mes’ud Sebri, Muhammed Imin Bughra but raises negative concerns on Ehmatjan Kasim and Is’haqbeg etc.