About the Work

by shokhrukh usmonov

Bashorat Otajonova is one of the leading female voices in contemporary Uzbek poetry. Being a polyglot, she not only reads major world poets, but also translates their works from Persian, Turkish, and other languages into Uzbek.

Whether she writes about the green valleys of her village or about time and seasons, she always investigates her longing and unfulfilled wishes or remembers her childhood fairytales, every time she makes a comparison between her dreams and life, she wants you to be a witness to her sense of awe. 

As a literary translator, I fell in love with the poems of Bashorat because they consist of unique simile, exhilarating melody, and charisma. For me, it has always been a pleasure to translate her poems. When it comes to the translation of these two poems, both have their own stories. The poem titled “To Safiya” is my first translation of Bashorat’s work. It has already been three or more years since then. The other one, “Woman Scattered Her Dreams Across the Morning,” is her latest poem that I translated just a few months ago. I postpone all other things in the face of a new poetry translation, even when I am failing to meet other deadlines in favor of reading and translating poems by Bashorat Otajonova. 

It is difficult for me to describe her poetic skills with words, I simply appreciate her poems both as a reader and translator. I hope that Bashorat’s talent will be recognized outside Uzbekistan, and if I could have even a little contribution in this, I would be more than satisfied.

*

bashorat otajonova was born in 1986 in the Fergana region of Uzbekistan. Besides writing poetry, she works as a full-time journalist. Her poems have been translated into several languages, including English, Persian, and Turkish. She is the author of the poetry collection Kumush yog‘dular (Silvery Lights). She is a member of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan. 

shokhrukh usmonov is a poet and literary translator, born in 2001 in the Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan. He studied translation theory and practice at Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature. He has translated poems and short stories by various authors, including George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway, Ruskin Bond, Oscar Wilde, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou. He has published full-length translations of Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking and Gibran Kahlil’s The Madman. He was a runner-up in the Duel, a contest in the field of literary translation in 2021 and his work was nominated for The Best Book for Children and Teenagers in Translation award in 2022.   

In the Classroom