A Launch ceremony to promote Leyli and Majnun, an epic love poem by Nizami Ganjavi, published in Ukrainian this year to commemorate and celebrate Azerbaijan’s greatest poet for 800 years was held at the Kyiv Book Art Fest.

 Focusing on Nizami’s rich literary heritage in his opening remarks, Ukraine’s notable writer and translator, Honoured Art Worker Oleksiy Kononenko, noted the Azerbaijan State Translation Centre’s (AzSTC) contribution to the further development of Ukrainian-Azerbaijani literary ties.

 “With the release of this epic love poem in Ukrainian, AzSTC has managed to implement in Ukraine a valuable project aimed at promoting Nizami’s enduring heritage and conveying a deep study in this regard. Bearing in mind the historical necessity of works by the greatest poet, whose 880th anniversary is celebrated this year, these very poems  re-opened up to the world literature, highlighting human moral values, thus enriching and purifying the spiritual world of humanity as a whole.”

  Marina Goncharuk, who represents AzSTC in Ukraine, spoke in detail about the edition, adding that the book includes excerpts from the monograph Nizami and His Contemporaries by famous Ukrainian Turkologist Agafangel Krymsky, which provides a comprehensive and deep analysis of the book whose copies have been disseminated among the country’s central libraries.

  The book fair, along with Leyli and Majnun, also hosted a presentation of other books in Ukrainian published by AzSTC, including An Anthology of Modern Azerbaijan Literature (Poetry), I Have Set Myself on the Road of Truth (“І шляхом І стини постав я сам...”) by Imadaddin Nasimi,  The World Is So Shallow to Drown in It (І потонути неможливо, неглибокий цей світ”) by Salam Sarvan, and The World Dissolves like a Dream (“Свiт тане, як сон”) by Leyla Aliyeva.

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