Fariza Saidybek
on translating Magzhan Zhumabayev
When I first encountered Сарғайдым, I was struck by its raw honesty and emotional intensity. Magzhan Zhumabayev’s voice feels painfully human, balancing resignation with a fierce desire for freedom. The title itself, literally “I turned yellow,” is deeply symbolic: in Kazakh, "yellowing" suggests withering, fading, and losing vitality, much like autumn leaves. It resonated with me as a powerful image of a person drained by suffering and time.
Translating this poem challenged me on several levels. First, the musicality of Kazakh is very different from English. Kazakh poetry often uses repeated sounds, internal rhymes, and a steady rhythm of syllables that can be hard to echo in English without sounding forced. I tried to prioritize the emotional flow and vivid imagery rather than duplicate the rhyme, believing the core spirit was more important than exact metrics.
Second, some cultural metaphors were difficult to carry over. For instance, the line “Black seems like white, and white has turned to clay” reflects a world where truth is twisted under repression. In Kazakh, this imagery felt to me like a subtle protest against forced confessions and a system where nothing is as it should be. I wanted to preserve that suggestion without overexplaining it.
I was drawn to this poem because it felt timeless: a portrait of hopelessness, but also a cry for spiritual dignity. Translating it was an act of solidarity — bringing one man’s voice from a century ago into a new language, where its emotional truth could still matter.
about the author
Magzhan Zhumabayev was a Kazakh poet, educator, translator and thinker whose work defended Kazakh language and culture under Russian imperial rule and Soviet repression. As a leader of the Alash movement for national autonomy and educational reform, he was arrested in 1929 on fabricated charges of nationalism and espionage, then sent to a harsh labor camp in Northern Russia, where he suffered severe illness and exhaustion. His wife, Zuleikha, risked everything to preserve his manuscripts and support him. Although freed briefly in 1936 thanks to literary advocates, he was rearrested in 1937 and executed during Stalin’s Great Purge.
Zhumabayev’s poetry contains both romantic themes — praising love, nature, motherland and beauty — and a deeply philosophical, symbolist vision that seeks freedom beyond the harsh realities of his era. Through vivid imagery and moral reflection, his work offers spiritual strength and quiet resistance. Banned for decades, his poems survived thanks to Zuleikha’s courage and were only published after Kazakhstan’s independence in 1991. Today, Zhumabayev is honored for his lyrical honesty and universal vision of freedom, making him one of Kazakhstan’s most important literary voices.
about the translator
Fariza Saidybek was born and raised in Kazakhstan, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Translation Studies and gained experience with legal translation as well as freelance interpreting for business events. Now pursuing a master’s degree in English and Anglo-American Studies at La Sapienza University in Rome, she has become drawn to the quiet power of literature and creative translation. She is fascinated by the ability of words to cross borders like travelers, picking up traces of each place they pass through. She loves how reading poetry in a second language can feel like seeing the same sunrise from a new hill. She hopes to keep exploring how meaning and culture shift and grow.
