Ak Kalpak Yrlary

Akyns' contest in Kyzyl-Adyr

The district held an aitysh in the square by the House of Culture, the first in eleven years. Two young akyns, a boy from Kyzyl-Adyr and a girl from the hill villages, improvised against each other for an hour. The girl won. The boy was very good also, but the girl made the district head laugh and then made him go red, in the same verse. That is the art.

They asked me to be in the jury. I gave the girl ten and the boy nine and a half. Then I went home and could not sleep from happiness.

The square before the aitysh.