Gennadiy Aygi

Gennadiy Nikolaevich Aygi (Russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Айги́, IPA: [ɡʲɪˈnadʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ɐjˈɡʲi] (listen), Chuvash: Геннадий Николаевич Айхи; 21 August 1934 in Schaymurzino, Batyrevsky District – 21 February 2006 in Moscow) was a Chuvash poet and a translator. His poetry is written both in Chuvash and in Russian.

Gennadiy Aygi
Born	(1934-08-21)August 21, 1934 Chuvashia, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	February 21, 2006(2006-02-21) (aged 71) Moscow, Russia
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He was born in the village of Shaimurzino (Çĕnyal), Chuvashia (USSR), moved to Moscow in 1953 and stayed there for the rest of his life. Aygi started writing poetry in the Chuvash language in 1958.

Among the recognitions he has won are the Andrey Bely Prize (1987), the Pasternak Prize (2000, the first to be awarded this), the Prize of the French Academy (1972), the Petrarch Prize (1993), the Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings in 1994 and the Jan Smrek Prize (Bratislava, Slovakia).

In 2003 Aygi participated in the "international literature festival berlin".

Sofia Gubaidulina set several of his poems to music in her cycle Jetzt immer Schnee ("Now always snow").

His son Aleksey Aygi is a composer.