Poet Ikrom Otamurod passes away at 75

Ikrom Otamurod, a renowned poet and Honored Cultural Worker of Uzbekistan, has passed away. The Writers' Union of Uzbekistan announced the news on July 12.

The Union expressed its deepest condolences to the family, relatives, and fans of the late poet, highly acknowledging his contributions to the development of Uzbek literature.

Ikrom Otamurod was born in 1951 in Kasbi village, Kasbi district of Kashkadarya region. After graduating from high school, he studied at the Faculty of Journalism of the current National University of Uzbekistan between 1969 and 1974.

He began his career in 1974 as an editor at the Uzbekistan Encyclopedia publishing house. A year later, he started working at the "Sharq Yulduzi" magazine, where he served for many years, first as a literary staff member and later as the head of the poetry department.

The poet's first poetry collection was published under the title "Vaqt ranglari" (Colors of Time). Later, his poetry books such as "Janub qushlari" (Birds of the South), "To‘rg‘ayli manzillar" (Skylark Destinations), "Ufqlar orti bepoyon" (The Endless Beyond the Horizons), "Ruhimning qayg‘usi" (The Sorrow of My Soul), "Sen" (You), "Ko‘nglim, o‘zing" (My Heart, Itself), and "Tavr" (Manner) were presented to readers.

His works have been translated into Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Bulgarian, Moldovan, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Georgian languages.

The poet was also an active and prolific translator. He translated poems and epics by major figures of world literature—Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and Olzhas Suleimenov—into the Uzbek language, bringing them to readers.

With his prolific creative work and significant contribution to the development of literature, Ikrom Otamurod left a worthy mark in the history of Uzbek poetry.