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Olonkho. P. A. Oyunsky
Читать онлайн.Название Olonkho
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781898823377
Автор произведения P. A. Oyunsky
Жанр Старинная литература: прочее
Издательство Ingram
All of this suggests that P.A. Oyunsky recorded his own version of ‘Nurgun Botur’ (as practised by him in live performance and perceived in a live performance), that it was not just a version ‘compiled’ or borrowed from others. These are some of the most significant features of P.A. Oyunsky’s Nurgun Botur the Swift. They show that this Olonkho, in its entirety, is within the tradition of Yakut Olonkho-tellers and represents one of the versions of people’s Olonkho, and that it is not just a ‘consolidated text’ arranged by a poet at a table.
Nurgun Botur the Swift was translated into Russian by V.V. Derzhavin – an outstanding poet and translator. He undertook this work after translating many works of classical poetry of the peoples of Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus (Navoi, Ferdowsi, Nizami, Khagani, Khayyam, Rumi, Saadi and Hafiz). The works of these classics of the East in the translation of V.V. Derzhavin were published repeatedly. Widely known translations of ‘David of Sassoun’, ‘Kalevipoeg’, ‘Lacplesis’, ‘Raushan’ and other works of epic poetry were made by V.V. Derzhavin. The Uzbek writer and academician Camille Yashen said about V.V. Derzhavin’s works as a poet and translator: ‘The ingenuity of the translation skills of V.V. Derzhavin stands solely on faithfulness to the manuscript, careful and meticulous study of the culture of the people to whom belongs this literary masterpiece, and the ability to penetrate into the essence of the historical perspective of the author, to recreate the original tone and unique colours of his poetic world – in other words, the ability to make the Russian reader feel the flavour of poetry born in a different language.’
The same can be attributed to V.V. Derzhavin’s translation of the Yakut Olonkho; he worked on it for many years. Throughout that time he consulted with me continually about the translation of ‘Nurgun Botur the Swift’, and I would like to note his extremely attentive attitude towards this monumental epic.
Before translating, V.V. Derzhavin read books on the history, ethnography and mythology of the Yakuts, carried out a detailed study of all translations of the epic and folklore, as well as works on Yakut folklore. He consulted with me in detail on all manner of questions, seeking to deepen his understanding of the epic, as yet unknown to Russian and European readers. During all these years V.V. Derzhavin repeatedly met with me (and often with writers from Yakutia) and discussed all aspects and details of the Yakut epic and its translation and the difficulties encountered in the process.
His translation is fair and true and conveys the spirit and imaginative system of the Olonkho and its plots. Preserving the original style, he has recreated a parallel system in tune with the poetic system of Olonkho.
It is my deep conviction that V.V. Derzhavin’s translation of Nurgun Botur the Swift is a wonderful (I would say, a classic) example of poetic translation of the ancient epic of the Turkic-Mongol peoples.
1975
Translated by Nadezhda Noeva,
Yakutsk. 2012
Translating the Olonkho
‘A MASTERPIECE OF ORAL AND INTANGIBLE
HERITAGE OF HUMANITY’
Alina Nakhodkina
Dr of Philology, Project Coordinator,
M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Russian Federation
INTRODUCTION
The Yakut folklore tradition is represented by a powerful and picturesque genre – the heroic epic known as the Olonkho. In 2005, UNESCO proclaimed the Olonkho ‘a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. This highly significant new status prompted a series of important events in the Sakha Republic, including the implementation of the State Programme on Preservation, the Study and Dissemination of the Yakut Heroic Epic Olonkho, the establishment of the NEFU Research Institute of Olonkho, the Olonkho Theatre, the Olonkho Land, the Olonkho Portal and many others. In 2007, at the M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, UNESCO’s proclamation also prompted the start of the Yakut-English translation project of the greatest of the Olonkho stories known as Nurgun Botur the Swift, first recorded by Platon Oyunsky.
An Olonkho hero
THE WORKSHOP IN 2007
The idea of translating Platon Oyunsky’s Yakut epic of Nurgun Botur the Swift, the first written, the most popular and longest – and certainly almost sacred – text into English first crossed my mind in 2003, but when I discussed the proposal with various specialists and friends everyone tried to discourage me, immediately pointing out the complexity of such a project. I nevertheless held a workshop on the Yakut epic for future translators, in which leading researchers of the M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University took part, including Professor Vasily Illarionov, Professor Louiza Gabysheva, Professor Nadezhda Pokatilova, Dr Vasily Vinokurov, Dr Ekaterina Romanova and Dr Svetlana Mukhopleva of the Institute on Humanitarian Research and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. By that time the first song of Oyunsky’s Olonkho had already been translated into French and English. It was for this reason, given their experience in Olonkho translation, that the workshop was also attended by the faculty of the Department of French Studies, represented by Dr Lina Sabaraikina, Dr Lyudmila Zamorshikova, and Assistant Professor Valentina Shaposhnikova.
The workshop turned out to be very worthwhile, since our gathering provided a platform for communicating my plan to the scientific and translators’ society in the Republic, which predictably prompted a debate in which both our supporters and opponents participated. Our opponents had stated that we did not know the Yakut language of the Olonkho, but they totally ignored the fact that Otto Boetlingk, Yankel Karro, Douglas Lindsay and Kang Duck Soo were not Yakut native speakers and had translated various pieces of Olonkho into German, French, American English and Korean respectively. I suggested that we, modern Sakha scholars, knew the Yakut language better than non-native speakers and therefore through our superior command of vocabulary and idiom we could produce a far better translation than theirs.
THE TEAM OF TRANSLATORS
I then came to realize that our old Yakut was not that sophisticated and so decided first to translate the Olonkho from the Russian version. It seemed to be a good idea because the translation was intended for English-speaking readers for whom the main priorities were a plot and characters. However, I soon discovered omissions and mistakes in the Russian translation which was disappointing, and at the same time I became more and more captivated by the richness of the Yakut language of Olonkho. Certainly, we lost some time on the Russian-English translation but we still found the strength, will and enthusiasm to start again – this time translating the epic from Yakut into English. At this point, I turned to Albina Skryabina, a former university professor and my teacher, who once had translated the first song of Nurgun Botur the Swift into English for some translation contest, and asked her to join our team of translators. Now her translation opens the English version.
I also had the idea that we could use selected students’ translations for this project but then it quickly became clear that Yakut was not our only weak point, but it was the standard of our English as well. We were a team of non-native speakers in which the students were the weakest part. Consequently, I had to reject the idea, but still appreciate those students who worked on the translation, and I sincerely hope it was a precious experience for them. Some fragments of their translation in Songs 5 anf 6 made by Agrafena Ivanova, Zoya Kolmogorova,