10.4. Readers' Forum - Sherlock Holmes in Azeri

Winter 2002 (10.4)
Page 9

Readers' Forum
Sherlock Holmes in Azeri

I'm a collector of Sherlock Holmes' detective mystery books by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). I'm desperately searching for any volumes published in the Azeri language. I know there's an Azeri Cyrillic version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" published in 1958. My hope is that there may be others.

Doyle wrote 56 short stories and 4 novels about Sherlock Holmes between 1887 and 1926. I own more than 400 different editions of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" alone. I have more than 1,000 editions of the 66 languages represented by Doyle's works, the majority of which are translations into German, French and Italian, Japanese and Spanish. My collection also includes Afrikaans, Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, Frisian, Georgian, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi. The list goes on and on to the end of the alphabet, ending with Vietnamese and Yiddish. The rarest book I've found so far is Inuit or Eskimo (Western Greenlandic). Other rarities include the Italian provincial languages of Rumansch and Friulian. I also have Braille, shorthand and Latin editions.

I'm still looking for Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Tajik, Uzbek, Macedonian, Malay and Mongolian; as well as Indic versions in Kanarese, Oriya, Sindhi, Sinhalese and Telugu. If anyone can help me locate Azeri versions-Cyrillic or Latin, I would be so grateful.

Don Hobbs
Flower Mound, Texas
221b@verizon.net

Editor's note: We are not aware of any editions of Sherlock Holmes in the new Latin script for Azeri. However, the Writer's Union of Azerbaijan is actively seeking project support for the preparation of outstanding foreign classics to be translated and published in the Latin script so that Azerbaijan's youth can get a taste of the world's best literature in their own native language. See "Translating the Classics: Azeri Latin Versions Needed" in AI 10.1 (Spring 2002). This past year the Norwegian Embassy sponsored a book of four dramatic works in Azeri Latin by Norwegian playwright Henri Ibsen.

Also the French Embassy recently published "Little Prince" by Antoine de St. Exupery. This translation from French into Azeri (Latin script) by Aziz Gozalov and Yagut Gurbanova is now available in PDF format at Azerbaijan International's Web site for Azeri Language and Literature: Visit AZERI.org.

For more information about undertaking translations or converting classics from Cyrillic to Azeri, contact Azerbaijan International (ai@artnet.net) or Anar at the Writers' Union in Baku: Tel or Fax: (994-12) 93-52-25.