Biography
Abay Qunanbayulı (Kazakh: Abay Qunanbayulı, 10 August 1845 – 6 July 1904) was a Kazakh poet and philosopher, considered the founder of Kazakh classical literature. He was born in Eastern Kazakhstan, into a wealthy family that had the luxury of sending him for education first in a Madras and then in a Russian high school where he was taught Russian and Western literature.He started writing poems from the age of 12 and lived his whole life studying, writing and translating. He was the first to translate the works of Schiller, Pushkin, Byron, Mickevich, Geine, Goethe, and thanks to his translations, the people of Kazakhstan got to know the classical literature of the world. He wrote poems, essays, conversations with readers, prose, leaving a huge literary legacy, with which, among other things, he described the lifestyle of his nomadic people, while emphasizing the need to fight against social injustices, vice and vanity.
He was characterized as one of the first national heroes of Kazakhstan. He died in 1904.