Erkin Vohidov


Erkin Vohidov was an Uzbek poet, playwright, literary translator, and statesman. In addition to writing his own poetry, Vohidov translated the works of many famous foreign poets, such as Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Muhammad Iqbal, Rasul Gamzatov, and Sergey Yesenin into the Uzbek language. Particularly noteworthy are his translations of Yesenin's works and Goethe's Faust.
In 1983, Vahidov was awarded the State Hamza Prize. He became a People's Poet of Uzbekistan in 1987. In 1999, he was awarded the title Hero of Uzbekistan, the highest honorary title that can be bestowed on a citizen by Uzbekistan.

Life

Erkin Vohidovich Vohidov was born on December 28, 1936, in Oltiariq District, Fergana Region, then the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. His father, Choʻyanboy Vohidov, fought in the Soviet-German war against Nazi Germany and its allies and died in Tashkent after his return from the war. Vohidov was nine years old at the time. He reminisced about the hardships of the war years as follows:
In 1945, Vohidov moved to Tashkent with his mother, Roziyaxon Vohidova, who also soon passed away. He was raised by his uncle, Karimboy Sohiboyev. It was Vohidov's uncle who sparked his interest in poetry:
After graduating from the National University of Uzbekistan with a degree in philology in 1960, he started working at various publishing houses. Vohidov died on May 30, 2016, at the age of 79.

Work

Vohidov worked as an editor at Yosh Gvardiya, the Uzbek branch of Molodaya Gvardiya, from 1960 to 1963. He also worked as editor-in-chief at the same publishing house from 1975 to 1982. Vohidov also served as editor-in-chief and director of Gʻafur Gʻulom, another publishing house in Tashkent. From 1982 until 1985, he worked as the head of the monthly periodical Yoshlik. After Uzbekistan gained independence, he worked as chairman of the Committee on International Affairs and Inter-parliamentary Relations of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan and chairman of the Senate Committee on Science, Education, Culture and Sport.
Vohidov started writing poetry during his student years. His first poem was published in the Mushtum magazine when he was fourteen years old. Vohidov's first collection of poems, Tong nafasi, was published in 1961. In 1987, he published a collection of literary essays entitled Shoiru, sheʼru shuur: Adabiy esselar.

Literary works

The following is a list of Vohidov's books of poetry:
Many of Vohidov's poems were translated into Russian. The following is a list of his poetry books that were published in Russian:
Vohidov wrote three plays, namely, Oltin devor, Istanbul fojiasi, and Ikkinchi tumor. His play Oltin devor was staged in Lahore, Pakistan.
Many of his poems have been turned into songs by Uzbek artists. Two of the most famous Vohidov poems that have become the lyrics to well-known Uzbek songs are "Inson qasidasi" and "Oʻzbegim", both sung by Sherali Joʻrayev.

Literary translations

Vohidov translated the works of many famous foreign poets, such as Alexander Blok, Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lesya Ukrainka, Mikhail Svetlov, Muhammad Iqbal, Rasul Gamzatov, Sergey Yesenin, and Silva Kaputikyan into the Uzbek language. In particular, he translated Goethe's Faust into Uzbek in 1974. Especially noteworthy are his translations of Yesenin's works into Uzbek. Below is Vohidov's translation of Yesenin's farewell poem "Goodbye, my friend, goodbye" :
Vohidov's own works in Uzbek have been translated into Russian, German, French, English, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and many other Turkic languages. The Soviet poet Robert Rozhdestvensky thought very highly of Vohidov's work.
An example of Vohidov's original work follows :