Tsendiin Damdinsüren

Tsendiin Damdinsüren ( Mongolian Цэндийн Дамдинсүрэн ; * 1903 ; † May 27, 1986 ) was a Mongolian writer and is considered a co-founder of modern Mongolian literature .

Life

Born in 1903 (and not - as previously claimed - 1908) the son of a literate cattle herder, he trained in the district chancellery and after the revolution of 1921 worked in responsible positions, such as army clerk, newspaper editor and in 1929 chairman of the trade union federation. In January 1929 he was one of the founders of the (first) writers' circle in Mongolia.

Damdinsüren studied from 1933 to 1938 at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Leningrad . After his return fifteen months innocent in custody , he worked from 1939 to 1946 in the science committee and from 1942 as editor-in-chief of the largest newspaper Ünen . Damdinsüren, who was instrumental in the creation of the new Mongolian alphabet as well as a modern orthography and morphology of the Mongolian language , received his doctorate in 1950 after an apprenticeship at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Leningrad on the Geser epic.

From 1953 to 1955 he was chairman of the writers' association and, among other things, a long-time member of parliament and a member of the World Peace Council . Appointed professor, he became Section Director for Languages ​​and Literature at the Academy of Sciences founded in 1961. Damdinsüren was reprimanded several times for "political deviations".

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The internationally renowned Nestor of Mongolian literary studies made an outstanding contribution to the development of ancient Mongolian literature, among other things with the translation of the Secret History into modern Mongolian, with his work on the Mongolian epic and as editor and main author of a fundamental three-volume Mongolian literary history (1957 / 76).

In addition to many other literary and linguistic works, he also initiated the first editions of the Mongolian national poets Daschdordschiin Natsagdordsch (1945) and Dulduityn Rawdschaa (1962). In 1950 Damdinsüren wrote the text for the national anthem of Mongolia , which is still used today with some changes and additions.

Damdinsüren, who had come out with little fairy tales and poems since 1926 , published his first and most important major prose work as early as 1929 , the short story The Spurned Girl (German 1976). It stands at the beginning of modern Mongolian prose and also has a key function because here, for the first time, a Mongolian author creates people from the lower social classes with their conflicts using realistic means and over a longer period of action.

Damdinsüren's poetic conception is shaped by its close ties to folk poetry and the thematic openness to the traditions and ethical values ​​of the cattle herders. His poem Mein Grauhaariges Mütterchen (1934), in which he depicts the longing for home and the deep love for his mother, ties in with motifs from folklore. In addition to nature and love poems, his praise to the warrior Geser (1941) and the poem Der Polarstern (1944) became famous . Damdinsüren also wrote the libretto for the national opera The Three Sad Hills (1942) based on the 1934 play by his friend Daschdordschiin Natsagdordsch . During this "dark" time he also published a few short stories such as The Two White Things (1945, German 1976). In addition to Tschadraabalyn Lodoidamba's early stories , they are among the few noteworthy prose works of the Tschoibalsan era (1937/38 to 1952). Damdinsüren, who after 1945 mainly devoted himself to scientific work, later published not only individual poems but also a few stories that deal with ethical issues: Der Bulle Gombo (1953), Der Teufel (1964) and Der voll Koffer (1965). His short story collection An Unusual Wedding was published in 1966.

Damdinsüren, who is one of the most important translators of works of world literature into Mongolian ( Schiller , Pushkin , Lermontow , Balzac , Petőfi , Mayakowski , Neruda and others), died as a highly respected scientist and writer.

Translations

• in: Explorations. 20 Mongolian stories, (East) Berlin 1976
• in: Mongolian Notes, issue 17/2008
• in: The times move under the Eternal Sky. A pearl necklace from Mongolian poetry, Leipzig 2014

literature

• Renate Bauwe , D .: The spurned girl. In: Kindler's new literary lexicon. Supplementary Volume 1, Munich 1998
• in: Klaus Oehmichen: Ten Mongolian poets. In: Mongolian Notes. Issue 17/2008

Mongolian name: As is customary in Mongolia, in this article the patronymic is in the genitive case before the proper name. Thus Tsend is the patronymic , Damdinsüren the proper name. The person is addressed with their proper name.