NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH
POET OF THE MONTH
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA
APRIL
2024
NILAVRONILL: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive, dear poet.
And congratulations as the poet of this month. I would like to know your
personal views on literature or poetry in general.
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poetry is treatment of humanity with
words. Poets usually paint pictures with words. We express our feelings in
words. But how to convey is quite another matter. The poet is born with the
power of speech given by the Lord.
Poetry is all about poet’s destiny... Destiny is usually written by a
poet. True poetry is written only when own destiny is accepted by a poet.
Genuine poetry requires sacrifice. The poet quarrels and makes friends with the
wind, kisses snow and hates it, flies like an echo.
NILAVRONILL: What are the factors that have influenced
you immensely in the growing phase of your literary life. When, most probably
you were not certain of your future as a poet or writer. Do you think society
as a whole is the key factor in shaping up you as a poet, or your poetry
altogether?
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I was seriously ill and got treatment in hospital in 2011. This is my
secret of course. I must tell you this. I fell in love with a man 11 years
younger than me, but it was one sided love. When I looked at myself in the
mirror, I cried regretting that if I were beautiful, I would have married that
man. That man seemed to be my whole life, food, air, earth, and water. I wrote 145 verses in 6 months trying to
please him and be beautiful. So, my book called "Dusty page" was
published. Poets live in society whether they want it or not, but at the same
time society is a kind of threat for poets’ tender hearts. They look for the
world they long for. Maybe it is not on earth. The poet's feelings are gloomy
and aggressive. Their feelings make them selfish. My feelings require
faithfulness. As if it says look at me, be next to me, take care of me, it's as
if this force controls me. In my life there have been lots of cases when I am
unable to control everything. When poets are involved in writing, they become
isolated from their children and spouses. They mostly live in opposition. Their
internal conflict seems to other people to be weird and crazy. The conflict
arises within the family, and they prefer leaving this real world for another
world. Thus, poetry turns into the poetry of cosmos. Poet’s heart hurts; he is
hated by his family members and society. He will not fit into the society.
NILAVRONILL: Do you consider your literary life as an
extension of your self-existence? If so, how it is related with the time around
you?
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I believe that poetry is not related to time. Even if you are 50 years
old, you can live with love and feelings of an eighteen-year-old girl. I
breathe with the heart of an eighteen-year-old girl. Poetry is against time.
The poet lives in a chaotic and unstable society. The poet can never live in
peace; there is a constant battle in his inner world. Poetry is half of my
soul. I feel like as if two persons live in me. a) I am Sagyn Berkinalieva, an
ordinary Kyrgyz woman, mother of three children. b) Lyrical character –
Josephine. My Josephine is like no one. She is a tender, beautiful young woman.
She is a beautiful, magical dancer who cries for love all her life. She is a
lyrical character whose feelings are uncontrollable. Josephine is the name of
my feeling. I don't write my poems, but Josephine does.
NILAVRONILL: As a poet, do socio-economy and politics
in general influence your literary visions? If so how, and if not, why?
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I am not concerned in any politics or economy; they aren’t my topic. My
poetry is all about my emotional instability. I wrote only lyrics and love. I
could not cover other topics.
NilavroNill: Is it possible to put into the words
everything that as a poet you wish to express literarily? If not, why?
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poet’s pure soul should be put into the words. It is only then that the
poem creates life, and energy appears in it. A poet creates a poem in a state
of trance, and that's when the reader is seduced into the poem. The way the
poet feels in a trance state, the listener and the reader also fall into that
trance. I think that a poet must not only write a poem, but also be able to
recite it in front of an audience with acting skills. These days I am reciting
them among ordinary people in hospitals. If the poetry is effective, the sick
person gets out of stress. I understood this from my own experience.
NilavroNill: Do you agree with John Keats
(1795-1821) on his ardent believe, “Truth is beauty, beauty is truth”? Even if
we take for instance the the fall out of second world war in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, how can we manage to reconcile between those truths with beauty as
promulgated by Keats?
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: I can answer your question as a poet.
Poetry written from the real heart is beautiful. Creation based on experience
is beauty. To know the value of beauty and happiness human beings should feel
death and disaster. Life without death is worthless. Life without accidents is
bitter. The war in Hiroshima was a great lesson for humanity and the necessity
to save the world arose. A quote from John Keats is a bitter truth.
NilavroNill: Too many writers believe imagery
is an essential part of poetry. Do you agree this notion? Even if we consider Leonardo
da Vinci’s words that poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poetry is not created easily. It vibrates
in the blood vessels, turns into red blood, and comes out in a warm state.
Poetry is a magical feeling that cannot be held by the hands but can be felt
with the heart.
NilavroNill:
Do you believe, passionately
falling in love with a particular language is essential to excel in poetical
ventures? And is it possible to write poems in multiple languages preserving
same literary quality? We would like to know your own experiences.
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA:
Innate true feelings of the poet
can be expressed well only in his or her native language. But poetry translated
into other languages is distorted anyway. No matter how adequate the
translation is, it doesn’t convey everything written in the source text.
English language helped me to get into world poetry. In 2019, a collection of
lyrical poems "Girl Dancing in the Sky" was published in English.
Poets who translated the book from Kyrgyz into English are Altynai Toktomatova
(Kyrgyzstan) and John Farndon (Great Britain). Now my poems are translated into
Spanish, Italian, French, Hindi, Filipino, Greek, Albanian, Chinese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Uzbek, Kazakh, Georgian, Turkish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Persian
languages. They were included in more than 50 poetic anthologies in European
newspapers and magazines. Currently, I am working closely with Latin American
poets. Recently, on December 16, I gave an interview about my work for an hour
to virtual television of Colombia and Argentina. Also, my poems are constantly
recited on the radio broadcasts of Colombia, Mexico and Spain. But it doesn’t
mean that I have made it to the top.
NilavroNill: Do you consider poetry as an
emotional outbursts of poet’s personal sentiments? Or is it a long journey to
realize and express the universal sentiments beyond all personal limitations?
Again, we want to understand your views through your personal experiences of
your literary life as a poet.
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: A poet's fate will be a tragedy for a poet, because a
poet will not be satisfied with himself throughout his life. Poetry and the
author are two completely different things. I am an unhappy person in life.
Love has been hard for me. Not a single man caressed me as a woman. No one
kissed my cheeks, and stroked my hair. I am a woman hungry for affection. I
don't understand myself. There were days when I had no appetite and went to
bed. I said that I suffered from unkind and unrequited love for six years.
There were days when my husband beat me. Because I wrote about my feelings and
what I went through honestly in my poems. My husband did not like such poems;
there were many arguments in the family. But I have always been true to my
poems. It would be a sin against God. It is really difficult for a poet to
assess whether he is a bad or a good poet. Poetry is a kind of destiny. I think
that the main goal for a real poet is not fame, but that the use of poetry for
people. Every poet should think over why I was born as a poet, and for whom I
write poems. I think that poets should write pure poetry. This is the main duty of poets!
NilavroNill: Would you consider, it should be
the goal of a poet to enlightens the readers towards much greater apprehensions
as well as appreciations of life and eternity in general? Or is it better to
write poems only to console the poet’s soul?
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA:
I used to write poems when I was
heartbroken. Once after my poems were published, I became responsible more and
more. I started to be in search of everything. Now I pray to God that my poems
will serve humanity.
NILAVRONILL: We are almost at the end of the interview.
I remain obliged to you for your participation. Now, personally I would like to
know your honest opinion about Our Poetry Archive. Since April 2015 we are
publishing and archiving contemporary world poetry each and every month. Thank
you for sharing your views and spending much time with us.
BERKINALIEVA SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: Poetry serves humanity no matter what language it is written in. Poets
should unite for the sake of poetry. This way you do a great job and you will
be appreciated by Almighty. If one line of a poet's poem heals a person, then
the poet becomes happy. Long live Poetry!
BERKINALIEVA
SAGYNBUBU ABDUSAMATOVNA: (Kyrgyz Republic)
Berkinalieva Sagynbүbү Abdysamatovna was born in 1974 in the village of Uzgurush in Talas region.
Member of the National Writers’ Union of Kyrgyzstan, member of Eurasian
Creative Guild, member of the Writers' Union of North America. Head of the Kyrgyz branch of the Writers'
Union of North America. Published works: 1) "Sheet covered with the
dust" (Publishing house "Biyiktik" -2014). 2) "Girl dancing
in the sky" (Publishing house "Great mountains" – 2019).
Collection of poems, where were included Sagun’s Berkinalieva poems:
"Dedication to Jolon", "Kyzdar ai", "Caravan of
songs", "Dedication to the homeland". In 2016 she took part in
the competition for young poets and won the Audience Award. Diploma winner for
active participation in the competition of young poets "Mekenge
taazim" and "Besh Akin" in 2017. Diploma winner of the Festival
of Eurasian Week of Culture, which was held in Great Britain (London). In 2019
she had participated in an International Competition of Eurasian Creative Guild
in Belgium (Brussels). She won the first
place in the nomination of poetry and was awarded the "Lyre" medal
for the best female lyrics. In 2019 she was awarded "The Best Poet of the
Year" in Kyrgyzstan according to the results of the republican newspaper
“Erkin Too”. Recently was published a collection of poetry "Girl dancing
in the sky" in English. (Britain Britain), the poems were translated by
remarkable poet of England John Farndon. The publication took place thanks to a
grant to the first place in the competition “Open Eurasia”. She has got the highest award of the
International Prize "Amber Nugget".
Laureate of the first prizes of the International Prize "Old
Record" named after Leonid Utesov. Laureate of the International Literary
Prize "Duke de Richelieu" (Pushkin and Gogol in Italy). In 2021, she
was awarded the silver badge of the Writers' Union of North America and Marley.
Academician and honorary worker of the Writers' Union of North America She has
got the Grand Prize of the International competition named after Anna Snitkina
Dostoevskaya, (SPSA). International Laureate of the Liftt Competition - 2021.
Winner of the 1st degree diploma for the International Mark Twain Prize
"Simpletons Abroad". Honorary Member of the Writers' Union of North
America. Academician and honorary member of the Academy of Literature, Art and
Communication. Academician of World Literature and Art (Marley) Laureate of the
Petrarch International Literary Prize Laureate of the International Literary
Prize Matsuo Base Honorary Member of the World International Chamber of Poets
in Italy Laureate of the International Song Festival in Portugal
beautiful
ReplyDelete