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      Olonkho

      NURGUN BOTUR THE SWIFT

      PLATON A. OYUNSKY

      Written down for the first time in the indigenous Sakha language of Yakutia (Sakha Republic, northeastern Siberia) in the early 1930s by the politician, poet, writer and enlightener Platon A. Oyunsky (1893–1939), this first English translation was initiated by the Institute of Foreign Philology and Regional Studies of the North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, in 2007, following the UNESCO proclamation in 2005 that the Olonkho was to be honoured as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

      Olonkho is the general name for the entire Yakut heroic epic that consists of many long legends – one of the longest being ‘Nurgun Botur the Swift’ consisting of some 36,000 lines of verse. Like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Finnish Kalevala, the Buryat Geser, and the Kirghiz Manas, the Yakut Olonkho is an epic of a very ancient origin dating back to the period – possibly as early as the eighth or ninth centuries – when the ancestors of the present-day Yakut peoples lived on their former homeland and closely communicated with the Turkic and Mongolian peoples living in the Altay and Sayan regions.

      The Sakha language in which the Olonkho is written (over the previous centuries it was only ever spoken or sung) is one that is enriched by symbols and fantastic images, parallel and complex constructions, traditional poetical forms, figurative expressions and alliteration. As with all Olonkho stories the hero – in this story Nurgun Botur the Swift – and his tribe are heavenborn, hence his people are referred to as ‘Aiyy kin’ (the deity’s relatives). Naturally, too, on account of his vital role (in saving his people from destruction and oblivion by evil, many-legged, fire-breathing, one-armed, one legged Cyclops-type monsters – the Devil’s relatives representing all possible sins), he is depicted not only as strong, but also a handsome, remarkably athletic and incredibly brave and well-built man ‘as swift as an arrow’, but also with an uncontrollable temper when required.

      Despite the many and complex linguistic challenges, this rendering of the Olonkho in the English language will surely be welcomed by both Western scholarship and the English-speaking world in general, providing a unique and remarkable insight into both an ancient peoples and a little known culture boasting an evocative oral tradition of remarkable richness and colour that would otherwise have been lost to mankind.

      COVER ILLUSTRATION-FROM SONG 1:

      ‘He was as slender as a spearAs swift as an arrow,He was the best among the human-beingsThe most beautiful among them…’

      RENAISSANCE BOOKS

      ISBN 978-1-898823-08-7

      OLONKHO

      Nurgun Botur the Swift

      Olonkho

      NURGUN BOTUR

      THE SWIFT

       By

      Platon A. Oyunsky

      ORIGINAL TRANSLATION FROM THE SAKHA LANGUAGE

      SUPERVISED BY ALINA NAKHODKINA

      MANAGING EDITOR

      VASILY IVANOV

      LITERARY EDITOR

      SVETLANA YEGOROVA-JOHNSTONE

      OLONKHO: NURGUN BOTUR THE SWIFT

      By Platon A. Oyunsky

      First published in English 2014 by

      RENAISSANCE BOOKS

      PO Box 219

      Folkestone

      Kent CT20 2WP

      UK

       Renaissance Books is an imprint of Global Books Ltd

      Original Sakha text © M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Russian Federation

      ISBN 978-1-898823-08-7

      eISBN 978-1-898823-37-7

      SPECIAL THANKS

      The publishers wish to acknowledge the support and funding given by the M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University – under the supervision of Chancellor Evgeniya Mikhailova, founder of the NEFU Olonkho Research Institute – which made this English edition possible.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

       British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

      Set in Baskerville 11 on 13pt by Dataworks

      Printed and bound in England by CPI William Clowes

      Contents

       Preface to the English Edition by Vasily Ivanov

       Foreword by Anna Dybo

       Olonkho – The Ancient Yakut Epic by Innokenty Pukhov

       Translating the Olonkho by Alina Nakhodkina

       Acknowledgements

       Select Glossary and Commentaries by Alina Nakhodkina

       Map of Sakha (Yakutia) and Autonomous Areas of Russia

       List of Translators and Editors

       OLONKHO – NURGUN BOTUR THE SWIFT

       Introduction

       Song 1

       Song 2

       Song 3

       Song 4

       Song 5

      

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