USD Alumnus and English lecturer Jake Zawlacki, MFA publishes a translation of Kazakh poems
USD alumnus and current Lecturer of English Jake Zawlacki, MFA, is coming out with a new English translation of Mosquito, a landmark poetry collection by Kazakh writer Akhmet Baitursynov.
Originally published in 1911, and then expanded and republished in 1922, Mosquito consists of 36 poems ranging in lengths from six lines to over one hundred and fifty. It contains Akhmet Baitursynov’s most overtly political poems, aimed at the yet-to-exist Kazakh nation: to his people, to his kin and to the many future sons and daughters of Kazakhstan.
Baitursynov’s intentions with the collection are revealing, as one can see in the opening lines of the poem “Author’s Note” — to buzz around the sleeping Kazakh populace in hopes of awakening them with a rallying cry. "He wanted to help foster a literary Kazakh populace, one that would be able to govern itself and free his people from the shackles of Russian Imperial rule,” explains Zawlacki.
Zawlacki ran a Kickstarter campaign in order for the translated book to be printed. “When I first learned about Ahmet Baitursynuly, I was shocked to find only a few of his poems translated in academic texts,” says Zawlacki. “This was ‘The Teacher of the Nation’ as they refer to him in Kazakhstan, and a man who single-handedly adapted an alphabet for Kazakh written language.”
Zawlacki’s printed translation is being published this month by Academic Studies Press, an independent scholarly press specializing in classic literature and corresponding scholarship from Eastern Europe, the Caucuses and Central Asia.
Read more about Professor Zawlacki’s journey on his Kickstarter page.
He wanted to help foster a literary Kazakh populace, one that would be able to govern itself and free his people from the shackles of Russian Imperial rule.