Translation of Duchêne (Tajikistan)

This photograph shows the title page and draft of the Tajiki translation of the collection of novels written by French writer Ferdinand Duchêne (1868-1956), who acted as an advocate for various social reforms in Algeria. The title of the collection is Qamar [New moon], as can be seen in the right corner of the photograph. Duchêne worked as a magistrate in Algeria, moving from one city to another and observing hardships and difficulties that the colonial life caused. He was also one of the first proponents of the idea of the reform of the legal status of Kabyle women. Despite his efforts to gain international fame, Duchêne was not well-known outside the French-speaking world (so Aini[1] translated this work directly from French). This picture, which contains Tajiki translation’s title and first pages, is placed in The Book of Life of Sadriddin Aini, edited by M. S. Asimov, President of the Academy of Sciences of Tajik SSR, and published in 1989 by Dushanbe’s Irfon publishing house. The fact that it is included in this particular book, which was published in the time period already marked by emerging nationalist sentiments in the Central Asian republics, is remarkable. Its purpose is thus to show the importance of social freedom, of providing women with equal rights (hence the picture of a woman on the front page of the translation) and of education.

Sadriddin Aini (1878-1954), the author of this translation, is considered to be the founding father of modern Tajik literature. His choice to translate this French progressive thinker is important for understanding social trends in the Central Asian society of that time. Aini was facing two important tasks shortly after the creation of the USSR and inclusion of Central Asia in its territory, which were 1) promotion of the ideas of socialism and 2) creation of a distinct Tajik identity. It was for the purpose of the former that he wrote the majority of his Soviet works, including the translation under discussion.

One of the main Soviet researchers working on Aini’s legacy, Iosif Samuilovich Braginskiĭ, described the writer’s works in terms of “томление по правде и отвращение к неправде” [longing for truth and aversion to deception] (Braginskiĭ, 1974: 7)), which is very similar to Duchêne’s philosophy, and explains the importance of this photograph placed in the book dedicated to Aini’s literary legacy. As noted above, it is noteworthy that the cover page of the translated book (located in the right corner of the photograph) contains an image of a woman, since Aini himself was an advocate for female emancipation in the Central Asian region. The woman’s figure is adorned with big earrings and necklace, showing her beauty very vividly. In the left corner of the photograph one can see the actual handwritten translation, which is clearly a draft, as it contains several strikethroughs (in the ninth, tenth and eleventh lines). In the thirteenth line Aini even spelled one word using the Latin script.

The translation under discussion was made by Aini in 1928, in the beginning of the history of Soviet Central Asia. Therefore, the script he used was still the Persian one. The period shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution in Central Asia was marked by certain cultural boom, since the newly formed Soviet government needed to establish loyal culture within the territory of former Turkestan. It was probably the need to create a new, revolutionary culture that had to substitute the older one which was the driving force behind this boom, as “much of the modern culture of Central Asia has its roots in this brief period” (Khalid, 2015: 178). The photograph of this translation clearly shows that Aini was hinting at the parallel between Algeria and pre-revolutionary Central Asia, asking his readers to learn from the Algerian experience. In this light Aini’s translation of Duchêne’s works not only acts as an indication of that period’s cultural boom, but also marks Aini’s interest in novels written by Western progressive thinkers on the topic of life in European colonies.

Bibliography

Asimov, M. S. (ed.). (1978). Kniga zhizni Sadriddina Aĭni. Dushanbe: Irfon.
Braginskiĭ, I. S. (1974). Problemy tvorchestva Sadriddina Aĭni. Dushanbe: Irfon.
Grassi, E. (2009). Alcune considerazioni sul racconto Margi Sudkhūr “La morte dell’usuraio” dello scrittore tagico Sadriddin Ajnī. Oriente Moderno: Rivista d’informazione e di studi per la diffusione della conoscenza della cultura dell’oriente soprattutto musulmano, 1, pp. 67-88.
Khalid, A. (2015). Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Yountchi, L. (2011). Between Russia and Iran: Soviet Tajik Literature and Identity, 1920-1991. PhD thesis. Evenston, Illinois: Northwestern University.

Kamila Akhmedjanova completed her BA and MPhil degrees at the University of Oxford, having previously specialized in Italian literature and linguistics. She is currently a PhD student at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, with her research focusing on the pre-Soviet and early Soviet Tajik literature.