A cross-cultural translation project carried out by Canadian poet Randy Kohan and linguistic students of Dagestan State University (DSU) was completed in September. A group of students guided by their teachers Asiyat Khaibulaeva and Svetlana Shakhemirova translated some poems from Randy’s new collection “When Conditions Are Right”. The book was launched on October 17, 2020.
Before the book launch, Randy Kohan, Zaira Makhacheva and the young translators held a number of workshops. The students received a new insight into Randy’s poetry and improved their translation skills.
Earlier, in May 2019, Randy Kohan and Zaira Makhacheva visited Dagestan State University to launch a bilingual edition of Randy’s “Hammers and Bells”. They were welcomed by Nazir Ashurbekov, Vice Rector for Research and Innovation, and Firuza Abilova, organizer and leader of DSU book-club.
Opening the event, Nazir Ashurbekov emphasized the growing need for such meetings, allowing people from different countries and cultures to communicate in conditions when politicians make decisions that increase tensions in the world. The vice-rector also spoke about the participation of DSU in strengthening international scientific and cultural ties.
Randy Kohan and Zaira Makhacheva introduced students of the Faculties of Philology and Foreign Languages to contemporary western poetry. Randy read his poems himself, listened to them performed by the students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and answered numerous questions. At the end of the meeting, everyone could buy the book, get an autograph and take a picture with the poet.
Randy Kohan is an English-speaking poet from Alberta, Canada. His ancestors were immigrants from Poland and Western Ukraine who came to Canada after the First World War. Randy graduated with a degree in history, but his acquaintance with the works of Russian poets and writers pushed him to his own creativity.
Zaira Makhacheva, Dr. Sc. (Medicine), has been living in Canada for over 15 years now. Fluent in several European languages, she successfully represents the Russian intelligentsia abroad. She owns both the idea of translating R. Kohan’s poems into Russian and launching “Hammers and Bells” in her homeland.
