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| The cover of the Korean edition of "Leyli and Majnun" by 12th-century Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi / Courtesy of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Korea |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
"Leyli and Majnun," an epic love poem by the 12th-century Azerbaijani poet, Nizami Ganjavi, has been translated into Korean, as a literary gesture to commemorate the ties between Azerbaijan and Korea.
The year 2021 was declared the "Year of Nizami Ganjavi" in Azerbaijan and on the occasion of the 880th anniversary of the poet's birth, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Korea supported the first-ever translation of Nizami's poems into Korean.
Azerbaijani ambassador to Korea Ramzi Teymurov noted that the Korean publication of "Leyli and Majnun" is of great importance in terms of "introducing wonderful examples of Azerbaijani classical literature to Korean readers and at the same time, contributing to the elimination of information scarcity about Azerbaijan in Korea."
"Nizami Ganjavi, a prominent representative of world literature, a great Azerbaijani poet and thinker, is one of the rare personalities who opened a new page in the artistic thought of mankind. Throughout his life, Nizami Ganjavi lived and created in the ancient Azerbaijani city of Ganja, one of the important cultural centers of the time, and created wonderful pearls of word art that enriched the history of Eastern philosophical-social and artistic-esthetic thought," the ambassador told The Korea Times via email.
"In 'Leyli and Majnun' that is being presented to Korean readers, Nizami was the first to bring to literature the legend of love widespread among the peoples of the Middle East and created an immortal epos about freedom of conscience and love."
Professor Kim Seong-ryong of Hoseo University and Ramin Abasov, who earned his master's degree from the university, contributed to translating the Azerbaijani literature into Korean.
Abasov studied Korean at the Azerbaijan University of Languages and majored in Korean classic literature at Hoseo University. After returning to Azerbaijan in 2005, Abasov has been working as a Korean translator.
Abasov's master thesis was themed, "Introducing 12th-century Azerbaijan love poetry to the Korean public," and he added a partial translation of Leyli and Majnun as the appendix.
"But I've always desired to translate the whole poem into the Korean language someday. Because the great poet Nizami Ganjavi and his great works have remained unknown to Korean readers. Nizami Ganjavi's poems were translated into many foreign languages so far. But there is no Korean translation among these translations. And I decided to make a contribution to this," Abasov said.
"Nizami is the most influential and prominent poet in Azerbaijan's history of literature. Through his literature works his humanistic view of life, human nature, free will are studied from elementary school in Azerbaijan. His name is perpetuated in Azerbaijan. In memory of Nizami Ganjavi you can find lot of monuments, museums, art centers, streets and avenues carrying Nizami's name."
Abasov quoted a saying in Azerbaijan, that "Shakespeare is the Nizami of the West," reflecting the greatness of the poet.
"(Nizami's) poems displayed not only Nizami's high mastery of poetry, but also his philosophical, aesthetic and ethical views. The virtue of Nizami's poetry lies in his ability to express people's desires and yearnings, with humanism common to all mankind, with the highest artistic skill, with the delicacy of progressive ideas, in their fluency and simplicity, perceptibility, actuality and profoundness," Abasov explained.
"In his poems, he sang about the purity and unconditional love that the human heart longs for. He praised women's beauty and wisdom while asserting women's liberation and natural rights from the strife of feudal society. Assuming Nizami lived in the 12th century, when the precepts and laws of Islam were strongly governed, it is a quite surprising and notable thing."
As the poem was written in the 12th century, translating idiomatic expressions and medieval language features took a lot of time.
"I had to do a lot of searches. Especially, differences between Korean and Azerbaijan, or the Middle East's culture, as well, were one difficult part of the translation," Abasov said, adding that he is grateful to his academic advisor, Kim, who revised and perfected the translation.
"If I have the chance, I would like to translate more wonderful literary works of Azerbaijan poets into the Korean language. I think Korean readers would very much enjoy reading the great Azerbaijan poets' works, like those of Fuzuli (16th century), Nasimi (14th-15th centuries), Khatai (15th-16th centuries) and others."
"And of course, it would be great if I had the chance to work on the rest of Nizami Ganjavi's poems which are included in Khamsa, such as, 'The Treasury of Mysteries,' 'Khosrow and Shirin,' 'The Seven Beauties' and 'The Book of Alexander.'"
