Shavkat Rahmon

Shavkat Rahmon (born Shavkat Rahmonov) was born on 12 September 1950 into a family of office workers in the Pomir neighbourhood of Qorasuv (Kara-Suu) District, Osh Region. After finishing secondary school in 1966 he worked on building sites and at the regional printing house and newspaper. His first poems also appeared in the newspapers of the Osh Region.

He went on to study at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. After graduating he moved to Tashkent and worked at the Ghafur Ghulam Publishing House of Literature and Art as an editor and later head of a department (1975–1982 and 1985–1990); in 1982–1984 he held a staff post at the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan.

His first collection, “Colourful Moments”, came out in the late 1970s. It was followed by “Facets of the Heart” (1981), “Open Days” (1984), “The Blossoming Stone” (1985), “The Wakeful Mountains” (1986) and “Hulvo” (1988). His poetry is counted among the lyrical-philosophical, rebellious-spirited trend that stood out in Uzbek literature of the 1980s. He sought unexpected comparisons and images, handled the rhythm of the traditional syllabic barmoq metre freely, and used history as a lens for a critical view of his own time.

As a translator he introduced Uzbek readers to 20th-century Spanish poetry: he translated Federico García Lorca from Spanish and Russian and published the translations twice, in 1979 and 1989, and also translated Juan Ramón Jiménez and Rafael Alberti.

In 1996 he received the title of Honoured Worker of Culture of Uzbekistan. After a long and serious illness, Shavkat Rahmon died in Tashkent on 2 October 1996, aged 46. His “Selected Poems”, which he had compiled himself and which include verse written during his illness, appeared posthumously in 1997. In 2021, by decree of the President of Uzbekistan, he was posthumously awarded the Order “For Selfless Service” (Fidokorona xizmatlari uchun).