 Aldan-Semenov found Zhambyl on the recommendation of the collective farm chairman, the only criterion of choice was that the akyn be poor and have many children and grandchildren.After Aldan-Semenov's arrest, other "translators" wrote Zhambyl's poems.In a different account, according to the Kazakh journalist Erbol Kurnmanbaev, Zhambyl was an akyn of his clan, but until 1936 was relatively unknown.