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The Embassy of Turkmenistan in Ukraine hosted a meeting with Professor Nikolay Vaskiv, Senior Researcher at the Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, who was honored with the jubilee medal of Turkmenistan “Magtymguly Pyragynyň 300 ýyllygyna”.

This medal of honor was awarded to Nikolay Vaskiv for his great merits in the study, preservation and promotion of the creative heritage of the great thinker and classic poet of the East Magtymguly Fragi, as well as in the development of cultural and friendly relations with Turkmenistan.

The awarding ceremony took place on 10 October at the Turkmen State University named after Magtymguly in Ashgabat, where Nikolay Vaskiv among other foreign citizens received a high award from the hands of Chairperson of the Mejlis Dunyagozel Gulmanova.

In Ashgabat, Professor Vaskiv delivered a lecture to students and teachers of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, sharing his experience and knowledge in studying and popularizing the creativity of Magtymguly, Turkmen literature and culture in general.

Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Ukraine Mr. Toyly Atayev congratulated Nikolay Vaskiv on the well-deserved award, expressing his conviction that his many years of work and significant contribution to the popularization of the works of Magtymguly Fragi in Ukraine and in the world, as well as his valuable contribution to strengthening friendship and mutual understanding, cultural dialogue between our countries, were duly noted.

Professor Vaskiv expressed his deep gratitude to the President of Turkmenistan for the high appreciation of his work and trust. Taking part in the anniversary events on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Magtymguly Fragi, Professor Vaskiv noted the extremely high level of their organization and conduct, as well as the warm hospitality shown to the participants of the events in the capital Ashgabat and the smart city of Arkadag.

The meeting at the Embassy of Turkmenistan was attended by the publisher of the book "Magtymguly Fragi. Revelation" Viktor Zelensky, whose publishing house has published a lot of Turkmen literature in the Ukrainian language. V. Zelensky expressed his intention to further promote the popularization of Turkmen literature among Ukrainian readers, books about the history, culture, and traditions of the Turkmen people.

The newspaper “Türkmenistan” of 14 September 2024, No. 234, published an article on translations, research and promotion of the creative heritage of the outstanding Turkmen poet and thinker Magtymguly Fragi in the countries of Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. The author of the article is Professor Nikolay Vaskiv.

His research analyzes the book by the famous Polish writer Jan Brzechwa (1898–1966). As the author of the article points out, this is the first and so far, the only collection of translations of Magtymguly into Polish, published in 1954. The book consists of a short preface, retranslations of twelve poems by Magtymguly, and the author's notes. The brief preface introduces Polish readers to the name of the classic Turkmen poet, his innovation, main themes, and poetic features. Regarding the translations, Jan Brzechwa strives to accurately reproduce the genre characteristics of ghoshgy and ghazals, preserve the strophic pattern and rhyme scheme of Magtymguly’s poems.

Vaskiv notes that Brzechwa's merit lies not only in the fact of popularizing Magtymguly and his works. The translator proved to be a very attentive and meticulous master, capable of capturing the exoticism of Eastern Turkmen poetry and the perfection of the versification of Fragi.

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Photo: ukraine.tmembassy.gov.tm