Ramz Bobojon

Ramz Bobojon (Russian: Ramz Babadzhan; born Ramz Nasirovich Babajanov) was born in Tashkent on 2 December 1921. He began writing poetry in 1936, and his first collection, “Sheʼrlar” (Poems), appeared in 1939. He graduated from the faculty of language and literature of the Tashkent State Pedagogical Institute in 1944 and completed postgraduate studies there in 1955.

He worked in journalism, in literary organisations and in publishing: he was head of a department and an editor at the newspaper Lenin uchquni and also worked in radio. From 1949 to 1959 he was a consultant to the Writers’ Union, from 1960 to 1963 and again from 1968 to 1980 a secretary of its board, and from 1963 to 1967 he directed the state publishing house of fiction. From 1981 to 1986 he chaired the board of the Vatan society of Uzbekistan.

Alongside lyric verse, lyrical-epic poems hold an important place in his work: “Qadrdon doʻstlar” (Dear Friends, 1948), “Birinchi parvoz” (The First Flight, 1955), “Bobom bilan suhbat” (A Talk with My Grandfather, 1967) and “Obi hayot” (The Water of Life, 1969). His book of quatrains, “Yangi ruboiylar” (New Quatrains), came out in 1966. For the poem “Obi hayot” he received the USSR State Prize in 1972.

He was also a playwright. His comedies “Togʻa-jiyanlar” (Uncle and Nephews, 1961), “Insu jins yoki Tirik murdalar” (People and Jinn, or The Living Dead, 1972) and “Zuhraning maktublari” (Zuhra’s Letters, 1975) were staged in Uzbek theatres; “Zuhra’s Letters” was also produced by the Romen theatre in Moscow under the title “You Can’t Fool a Gypsy”. The musical drama “Yusuf va Zulayho” (1981) became the basis of a five-part television film. He translated into Uzbek Ibsen’s “Ghosts”, Tvardovsky’s “Vasily Tyorkin”, Aliger’s “Zoya” and works by Pushkin, Lermontov and Nekrasov.

Bobojon was an Honoured Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR (1971) and People’s Poet of the Uzbek SSR (1981), and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1981) and two Orders of the Badge of Honour. After independence he received the Order “El-yurt hurmati”. He died in Tashkent on 31 December 2008.