Epic
Specimens of the Folk Literature of the Turkic Tribes
Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme
Vasily Radlov · 1870
Synopsis
The epics of the steppe, taken down just as they are sung, with the repetitions, the formulas of address and the differences from one reciter to another: Alpamys held captive for seven years in a pit, Kobylandy recovering a stolen herd, and the contests in which two poets confront each other in verse before an assembly that decides the winner. Each piece is given in the language in which it was spoken, with a facing translation, without editing or correction; the 1870 volume collects the Kazakh dialects and songs.
Context
Ten volumes appeared in Saint Petersburg from 1866 to 1907, each for one domain, the Kazakh in the third, the Kara-Kirghiz in the fifth; the first six were translated into German, the last into Russian, the translation printed facing the texts. In the preface to the fifth volume, the collector observed that every skilled singer improvises according to the inspiration of the moment and never tells the same song twice identically, like a pianist who recombines familiar passages: Milman Parry, founder of the theory of oral formulas, was influenced by these remarks.
Who it is for
A scholarly corpus in a bilingual edition, difficult of access. Its value is documentary: it is the oldest state of the epics and contests of the steppe.
Prizes and reception
These ten volumes remain the main early source on Turkic oral literatures, and Turkologists speak of a “Radloff era”.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.