Generally, private publishing houses translate books into Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan. They do this at their own cost and by themselves. According to experts, the situation could get better with the state’s assistance and with improved status of the Kyrgyz language in the country.
Demand exceeds supply
“Nuska” Centre for Kyrgyz book is one of few places in Bishkek, where only books in Kyrgyz are sold. According to Anarkhan Sadykulova, director, bibliographer with 51 years of experience, the centre was established in 1998. The main product range consists of the Kyrgyz classics, children’s books, history and various brochures about Kyrgyzstan. As to the world literature translated into Kyrgyz, it has only old books published back in the Soviet period.
According to Anarkhan, the centre has worked with authors directly during the years of its existence.
“If someone comes here and asks to sell their book, it would be my pleasure,” she said. “I would love to sell world literature books translated into Kyrgyz. But no one has asked me to. I don’t know, maybe the store’s location is inconvenient.”
The bibliographer also said that books in Kyrgyz are in demand. According to her, people ask for particular authors from time to time, but such books are not always available.
“In my opinion, the problem is that there are very few people who could translate books into Kyrgyz in a quality manner. Moreover, it costs much, and would be unaffordable,” Sadykulova said.
Koichuman Momunkulov, director of the Book Chamber, said to CABAR.asia that every year the Ministry of Culture allocates 500 thousand som (5.7 thousand dollars) for book publishing in Kyrgyz. It covers only one or two books only.
“In other words, 500 thousand som are intended only for book publishing,” Momunkulov said. “Translation and distribution costs are not covered. Authors and private publishing houses do it themselves, at their own cost.”
In turn, Turusbek Madylbai, writer, translator, noted that the number of books in Kyrgyz has not increased in recent years, and books in Russian have flooded the book market of the republic.
According to him, no economy would improve if people were unread and uncultured.
Everything at their own cost and by own efforts
The US Embassy is known for funding the programme on book translation into Kyrgyz. The diplomatic mission issues grants to local publishing houses, educational institutions or NGOs on a competitive basis. The average grant amount is 35-45 thousand dollars. This amount covers costs of copyright acquisition (if required), translation, printing and distribution of books, along with follow-up trainings, master classes, etc. But the programme covers only books by American authors or manuals that reflect the values of the United States of America.
However, there are private publishing houses that raise money to accomplish their goals on their own. Among those are Kitepstan and Bugupress.
“Kitepstan” publishing house was established in 2018. According to director Bakytbek Abdullaev, the primary goal was to help teachers and publish global teaching methods in Kyrgyz for them. But later, authors of the idea realised that teachers do not read such manuals, and that they waste their money and resources. And then the publishing house decided to focus on foreign books that have wide readership.
Currently, there are 28 translated books on the list of “Kitepstan” publishing house. They are generally about self-development and upbringing of children. According to Abdullaev, priority was given to the books that made the reader think critically, and contained creative or progressive ideas. There is the well-known dystopian novel 1984 by British writer George Orwell on the list.
“We translate books from source language only,” Bakytbek said. “We have practiced translations from Russian, but content does not remain correct in this case.”
Zhanybek Abidetegin, director of “Bugupress” publishing house, has the same opinion. According to him, if translation is done not from the source language, the meaning gets distorted, or lost.
Since 2019, Bugupress has translated seven books for adults and over 20 books for children into Kyrgyz. Among them are the famous bestseller by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, and the book by American economists Daron Acemogly and James Robinson, “Why Nations Fail”.
According to publishers, the process of book translation is quite a time-consuming process. Work over every book is seen as a separate project. And its implementation may take both one months and six months. Publishing houses do not have translators on their staff. They generally involve freelancer journalists, philologists, or employees of state bodies. Moreover, in case of economic literature, a translator needs to be not only a good philologist, but also know the economy part.
The terminology problem may arise in the process. In particular, according to Abidetegin, it happened when they worked over the book “Why Nations Fail.”
“In the original version, authors tried to figure out why some countries develop, and some do not. So, there are a lot of economic terms, which cannot be translated into Kyrgyz as we don’t have such notions,” he said. “And I can say that we started to introduce such terms into the language. It should be discussed later whether our readers and politicians would accept such designations.”
According to publishing houses, they have never accepted any grants for translations as they are funded by sponsors. Sometimes, people they know and concerned citizens help them out. According to Bakytbek Abdullaev, many translators are simply enthusiasts who just want to contribute to this thing.
In Kyrgyzstan, every author publishing a book must submit 12 copies to the Book Chamber for free, which are later distributed among libraries.
Moreover, according to Abdullaev, book sales have dropped almost twice compared to last year. According to him, it could be related to many factors, one of which is financial standing of citizens.
“Kitepstan has its own readership to some extent, but it is not large,” Abdullaev said. “We need help from the state; campaigns and events to promote books must be held. But we don’t have such things. What development can we speak about?”
What should be done?
According to experts, the status of the Kyrgyz language should be improved first to improve the situation with book translation in Kyrgyzstan. Zhanybek Abidetegin, director of Bugupress, said that authorities have made many statements about its development, and offered to translate all promotional boards and signs into the state language. But development does not start from it,” he said. “First of all, the Kyrgyz language must become the language of science and business. People should learn to speak it and think in it. Therefore, we need to translate literature, so that we could introduce thinking in Kyrgyz.
According to writer and translator Turusbek Madylbai, Kyrgyz language is like a step child at its own home.
“Just like Cinderella. Just like Nastya from Morozko fairy tale,” Madylbai said. “And our government is like Nastya’s father, it keeps silence. The angry stepmother rules everywhere. Every time the old man tries to defend his daughter, stepmother starts shouting. And he becomes speechless.”
That’s why, according to Maldybai, when Kyrgyzstanis decided to rename the four districts in the capital, we heard the ‘stepmother’s’ outcries. Therefore, he said, other countries often try to lay hands on Kyrgyz scientists and poets.