Under Mongolian Blue Sky

When the lights go down in the city

I'm back in Ulaanbaatar and ambivalent. My time here is coming to an end, yet I have many things left to do.

Translator Simon Wickham-Smith was recently named editor of the Kegan Paul Library of Mongolian Literature. Soon you will be able to find on their website several volumes of poetry and prose that he has translated from Mongolian. We are to do a book of translations together to include the "modernists" as opposed to the "traditionalists," which predominate in most of the work  that Wickham-Smith, at the behest of the Mongolian Academy of Culture and Poetry, has produced thus far.

Don't forget to check out the recently posted photos in the "Countryside" gallery of the car wreck and Tavan Bogd!

Natsagdorj City Public Library

Today I visited the very first public library in the city of Ulaanbaatar. It is named the Natsagdorj City Public Library and is now just one branch of the Metropolitan Library System of Ulaanbaatar, which was established in 1986.

D. Natsagdorj, after whom the library was named, is credited as the founder of modern Mongolian literature. He was a poet, playwright and fiction writer, among other things, and he wrote the famous Mongolian poem My Native Land, an excerpt of I've included below. Apparently, one of Natsagdorj's plays is going to be produced in the upcoming season at the Mongolian Academic Theatre of Drama and Ballet. I couldn't find any information online, but I hope to catch this show.

While I was at the library, I met the director Mijiddorj. He is an older man with greying hair and a wise face. Though he didn't speak English--an officer from the US Embassy translated--he seemed very kind and offered to introduce me to many Mongolian poets. And he gave me a book about Natsagdorj.

I've never met so many people who upon my first meeting gave me books of poetry or books about poets. Nor I have I met so many non-poets who are so well-acquainted with their country's poets and have a sense of pride in their country's literary tradition.

From My Native Land by D. Natsagdorj

The virgin-lands between Altai and Khangai
Lands of our eternal destiny where ancestors lie
Land grown mellow under the golden rays of the sun
Land grown eternal under the silver moon

(Disclaimer: The translator of this excerpt is unknown. I cannot vouch for its quality.)