Jumaniyoz Jabborov

Jumaniyoz Jabborov was born on 25 October 1930 in the village of Po‘loti in the Koson district of the Qashqadaryo region, into a white-collar family. He began to publish in 1950. In 1952 he graduated from the philology faculty of Tashkent State University and in 1952–1953 attended the Higher Literary Courses in Moscow.

He started work in 1953 at the journal Sharq yulduzi, first as head of a department and then as executive secretary (1953–1962). From 1962 to 1964 he was editor-in-chief of the journal Gulxan, and from 1964 to 1976 head of a department and deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper Sovet O‘zbekistoni (today O‘zbekiston ovozi). In 1976–1981 he headed a department in an administrative body, and in 1981–1985 he directed the Ghafur Ghulam Publishing House of Literature and Art.

His first collection, “Bahor nafasi” (“Breath of Spring”), appeared in 1956. Later came poetry books such as “Maqsad yo‘lida”, “Ilhom daqiqalari”, “E‘tiqod” and “Ajab dunyo – sevgi dunyosi”, and long poems including “Gulshan”, “Tog‘lar sadosi” and “Tallimarjon dostoni”. His plays “O‘jarlar”, “Yillar o‘tib…” and “To‘ydan oldin tomosha” were staged at the Muqimiy Music Theatre and in regional theatres. In 1998 he wrote the libretto of the opera “Al-Farg‘oniy”.

As a translator Jabborov rendered into Uzbek poems by Hafez, Ubayd Zakani, Byron, Lermontov and Blok, and Rabindranath Tagore’s play “Sacrifice”. In 1985–1990 he was an adviser to the translation council of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan, and from 1990 to 2005 executive secretary of the State Prizes Committee for literature, art and architecture under the Cabinet of Ministers.

He was named Honoured Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR in 1980 and People’s Poet of Uzbekistan in 1997, and received the Shuhrat Medal. He died in Tashkent on 13 December 2010, in his eighty-first year. In August 2021 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Mehnat Shuhrati. In 2020 the Alisher Navoi National Library held an evening for the 90th anniversary of his birth.