In Memoriam Tsog
Shagdarsüren by Simon Wickham-Smith
The death on November 24th of my friend and colleague Tsog
Shagdarsüren has dealt a severe blow to the Mongolian literary
community. Tsog had been educated during the 1970s in Dresden, and his
fluent German meant that he was able to translate texts from both
literature and economics (a subject with which he had been
professionally involved) into Mongolian. He had also spent some years
working on translating books about history and economics into and out
of English, including Francis Fukuyama's The End of History.
But
in recent months, Tsog had decided to put his energy into translating
Mongolian literature into English. He and I spent August preparing Ancient Splendor,
an anthology of Mongolian poetry from the earliest sources until the
communist era, and had only in the last few weeks finished our
translation of poetry by six of Mongolia's most important young poets.
Next year, we were hoping to start a translation of Injanashi's Khökh Sudar.
Tsog had such a keen understanding of nuance in language, a willingness
to learn, an eagerness to develop and expand his knowledge: he was an
enthusiast, his mind was like a sponge.
His
contribution to other areas of Mongolian cultural life may not have
been so extensive, but it should nonetheless be mentioned. He
organised in 2005 an exhibition of photographs taken by his father, who
had been private secretary to Marshal Kh Choibalsan. He was also
partly responsible for the Roaring Hooves music festival, having
introduced the organisers to one another during the late 1990s.
Tsog's
loss will be felt by all of us who knew him, for however long. He was
a fine translator, a witty and scholarly man, and most importantly, he
was my friend.
Tsog
Shagdarsuren
14th
of Feb 1951 - 24th
of Nov 2006
Education:
Dresden University of Technique
in Germany
In English class of National
University of Mongolia
Leadership Institute of
Maastricht in Netherlands
Course of project management
of Budapest in Hungary
Employment:
As an Engineer in Ulaanbaatar
Meat factory
“Aris impeks” combination
of Ministry of Foreign Trade
Mongol Amical LLC
Water power station of Erdenebulgan
in Kuvsgul aimag
“Open Society Forum” in
Mongolia
“ Soros foundation” in
Mongolia
Works:
Translated the Germain Droogenbroodt’s
“Prayer” with Dashnyam.L
Translated oral poetries Simon Wickham-Smith
Mongolian ancient poetry
Talent of Chinggis
Khubilai Khaan
Agai Princes
Translated the famous poets
novels and poetries such as Natsagdorj.D, Yavuuhulan.B, Rinchin.B etc.,
Published books and others:
Ancient splendor; Please, lift your foot, a flower wants to blossom;
The flying deer;
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