We found Ksenia, who lives in Belo vodskoye, and visited her at the Central Rural Library named after Chinghiz Aitmatov, to find out who the initiator of this unique project is and what exactly the Kyrgyz songs are about in Russian. It is not for nothing that they say librarians are creative people; Ksenia is also a talented individual. She always carries song lyrics in her bag, which she refines and hums. You could say she lives for this.
- Ksenia, tell us, whose idea is this?
- The author of this unique project is Mikhail Sergeyevich Demchenko. He has long nurtured the idea of translating Kyrgyz songs into Russian. He is a member of the Writers' Union of Russia and the head of the Semirechye Cossack Union. He has dedicated his entire life to cultural and mass work, and now the choir sings these "new-old" songs. He has always been amazed at how melodic and beautiful Kyrgyz songs are, and he has always wanted to know what they sing about, so he found like-minded people who agreed to do a line-by-line translation of the texts. The result surprised everyone. "What is the youth singing about now? Nothing, really. But Kyrgyz songs are history, and the lyrics are incredibly artistic and full of epithets," he would repeat. The flowering of musical culture in many countries occurred in the 1980s, which is why we turned to this repertoire. And it was not easy to fit Russian lyrics into folk melodies, as one must consider syllables, stresses, and the manner of performance.
- How did you get involved in this project?
- We met Mikhail Demchenko purely by chance. I participated in a poetry contest and was heavily criticized, which made me lose the desire to create. I just wanted to know the opinion of someone who had already published a book. I was told there was no literary club in the village, but in the children's library, I should find Tatyana Demchenko, who could help me. I tracked her down, and she advised me to contact the Cossack Mikhail Demchenko. It turned out we lived next door. I went to him and showed him my poems. A few days later, he invited me over and told me he was working on compiling an electronic poetry collection called "Cossack Station," which was later published in Moscow in 2009.
In this publication, among ten authors, were my poems. He also shared with me that he wanted to bring the project "Kyrgyz songs in Russian" to life. He asked me, "Do I sing?" So I sat down at the instrument and performed a song, and since then we have been working together. Since I was 12, I enjoyed performing the composition "Elaman," and I was very curious to know what it was about, as I was only told that this song is about a child. That's how our team was formed, to which another guy joined. But it was difficult to find common ground with him, and he left our creative team, so we were left without recording and instruments. Fortunately, we had some savings and bought simple keyboards. Since then, we began to work. In 2012, a well-known performer in the republic, winner of numerous festivals Stas Pashkovsky, was invited to the project; he is now the sound engineer and vocalist of the project. In 2013, Marianna Tentimisheva, a vocalist who works as a teacher at the PSSh in Belo vodskoye, was invited.
- We heard that you even released a disc "Kyrgyz songs in Russian..."
- We recorded a disc in 2014, but it is not for sale. We only give away the record. The disc contains twenty songs. For us, line-by-line, or semantic translations are made by librarians and school teachers, and then we engage in meticulous yet interesting work to make these translations poetic. Before recording a song, we review its translation made by several people to preserve the meaning of the original more accurately.
- How do people react when they hear well-known songs in Russian?
- You know, at first, we doubted whether we were doing the right thing by translating songs into Russian; we were really afraid that listeners would be dissatisfied. But it turned out quite the opposite. Now they even suggest to us which composition is better to cover. And after we were shown on TV, people started stopping us on the street to thank us. Kyrgyz listeners are very pleased and note that the translation was done successfully.
- What does performing these songs and participating in this project give you personally?
- I write my own songs and gladly perform them when asked. And in the media project, there was an opportunity to perform translated songs, which also delights the soul. Since childhood, we have heard Kyrgyz compositions and have always admired their lyricism and beautiful voices. They all resonate with the soul. First and foremost, we wanted to know what the performers were singing about. And we are very pleased that now many others can understand what these songs are about. And this is not only for Russian-speaking people in our country; it includes everyone living abroad. It is very important for us to give new life to Kyrgyz songs. We do not have a professional studio; we record at the homes of project participants.
- You are an incredibly creative person...
- I would like to say a huge thank you to my mother, who started recording my poems when I was four years old. I have a musical education in two instruments: bayan and piano. Currently, for the second year, I have been leading the People's Cossack Choir "Stanitsa," where I play the tambourine. By nature, I am a lyricist, and I am more interested in sad compositions, which I enjoyed performing, and then I started writing songs myself. My education is in "Library Science." I am very glad that I have the opportunity to record not only Kyrgyz songs but also my own. In 2014, I published my own poetry collection "The Left Trace." And I am also glad that we, thanks to the translations of Kyrgyz songs into Russian, can leave a mark in the history of our country. This especially pleases the soul.
- What exactly are you working on now?
- We started our project with translations of compositions from the 60s and 80s. We switched to contemporary repertoire. I would very much like the authors themselves to reach out to us, as it would be a wonderful opportunity for them to be understood by other nationalities and to present their songs in a different version. We perform at concerts, and not long ago, we were invited to television for the program "World and Friendship of Peoples," and I believe our project is working in this direction.
But are songs only talked about? They need to be listened to. Project participants invited us to their home studio, which is located right in the hall of Mikhail Sergeyevich's house. To be honest, we listened to the song "Zholuaarim bilgemin" ("Someday we will meet") about eight times, and we wanted to listen to it again and again. Ksenia managed to convey the heroine's feelings accurately.
"In life, I have cried so many times, searched for happiness in vain.
At night during the moonlit hour and when dawn breaks.
Suddenly, one day, I saw you, my heart started beating faster!
You became my destiny. Out of hundreds of thousands of destinies, you became
The light under a happy star," Ksenia sang.
In turn, I would like to express words of gratitude for the hard work that has allowed many of us to learn what Kyrgyz performers sing about.
