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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
Olonkho – The Ancient Yakut Epic by Innokenty Pukhov
Translating the Olonkho by Alina Nakhodkina
Select Glossary and Commentaries by Alina Nakhodkina
