Iran, Kyrgyzstan ink literary agreement

Iran’s Alhoda International Publications and the National Commission on the State Language of Kyrgyzstan have agreed to translate and publish ancient Persian Ferdowsi’s The Shahnameh and the traditional Kyrgyz epic Manas.

The agreement was inked by the representatives in Kyrgyzstan during the meeting between the Director of Alhoda Hamid Reza Shahabadi and officials from the Kyrgyz commission.

The translation will provide the Kyrgyz literature lovers to read The Shahnameh in their own language as well as Persian speaking people will have the opportunity to understand Kyrgyz masterpiece, Manas.

The process of translations will take about a year, and both books are to be published by Alhoda Publications, Shahabadi said.

Composed and sung entirely in oral form by various singers throughout the centuries, Manas is regarded as the epitome of oral creativity.

The Shahnameh (Book of the Kings) is a classic among epic Persian poetry and recounts Iran's mythical and historical past.

Written by the persian11th-century poet Ferdowsi, the book chronicles the legendary history of the pre-Islamic kings of Iran from Keyumars to Yazdegerd III.

Ferdowsi spent over three decades on the book that was written in Persian at a time when Arabic was the main scientific and literary language of Iran.

The book composed of 55,000 couplets has been translated into several languages in the world.

Regarding outstanding literary work, The Shahnameh millennium was accepted on UNESCO's 2010 calendar of events.
/SR