Uldis Bērziņš is a Latvian

Latvians

Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...

 poet and translator.

He studied Latvian philology at the University of Latvia

University of Latvia

University of Latvia is a university located in Riga, Latvia. Being established in 1919, University of Latvia is the biggest university in the Baltic states.-History:...

 and published his first collection of poetry in 1980. Bērziņš studied Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

 in Leningrad University Oriental Studies Department (from 1968 to 1971), and also studied in the Asian and African Studies section of Moscow State University

Moscow State University

Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...

 (concentrating on Persian and Turkish), at Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

 State University (Uzbek

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

), Reykjavik University

Reykjavík University

Reykjavík University is a private university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and is chartered by the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Icelandic Industries, and the Confederation of Icelandic Employers....

 (Icelandic

Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...

), as well as in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and other countries.

Bērziņš has taken part in the international Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 translation seminar at the Amsterdam Open University and Lund University

Lund University

Lund University , located in the city of Lund in the province of Scania, Sweden, is one of northern Europe's most prestigious universities and one of Scandinavia's largest institutions for education and research, frequently ranked among the world's top 100 universities...

 forum over questions regarding Koran translations. From 2002 on he has been teaching Turkish at the Modern Languages Department of the University of Latvia.

Bērziņš' poetry has been translated into German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

, Estonian

Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

 and Lithuanian

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...

. In 2009, Bērziņš finished the translation of Quran into Latvian, a fifteen years' work of his.

Awards: Three Star Order (1995), Zinaida Lazda Award (1994), the Baltic Assembly Award (1995) and the Spidola Award (2000).

In 2009 and again in 2010 he was named one of the World's 500 most influential Muslims in survey conducted by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.

Works

Poetry

• Saruna ar pastnieku ["Conversation With a Postman"], Rīga: Neputns (2009)
• Dzeja ["Poems"], Rīga: Atēna (2004)
• Maijs debešos ["May in the Heavens"], Riga: Preses Nams (2002)
• Daugavmala ["The Daugava’s Edge"], Riga: Nordik (1999)
• Nozagtie velosipēdi ["Stolen Bicycles"], Riga: Minerva, (1999)
• Dzeja ["Poems"], Rīga: Artava (1995)
• Kukaiņu soļi ["The Footsteps of Insects"], Riga: Rainis and Aspazija Foundation (1994)
• Laiks ["Time"; with Juris Kronbergs
  Juris Kronbergs
  Juris Kronbergs is a Latvian-Swedish poet and translator, living in Stockholm.In Latvia, he is best known for his poetry, written in Latvian. His most acknowledged book is Vilks vienacis , which has been published in Swedish, English and Estonian translations. In Sweden, Kronbergs is the most...
  
  ], Riga: Zinātne (1994)
• Nenotikušie atentāti ["Assassinations That Never Happened"], Riga: Liesma (1990)
• Poētisms baltkrievs ["Belarusian Poetics"], Riga: Liesma (1984)
• Piemineklis kazai ["Monument to a Goat"], Riga: Liesma (1980)