The creative work of Abai is a fusion of thought and feeling, an exchange between the mind and the heart, combining personal experience, history, philosophy and religion, morality, and psychology. His poetry is melodic and mysterious, a powerful torrent of soulfulness, expressing an unquenchable thirst for redemption and inner spontaneity. It brings the breadth of the history of the Kazakh people and a planetary comprehension of existence. His sad, enchanted songs are imbued with lofty wisdom and the utmost clarity.

ABAI QŪNANBAIŪLY, born 1845 in Semipalatinsk province of what is now Kazakhstan but was then part of the Russian Empire, was a Kazakh poet, composer, translator, and social activist. He received the nickname “Abai”, meaning careful, in his early childhood. His inspirations range from Navoi and Ferdowsi to Pushkin and Darwin.