Poetry
The Tale of Igor's Campaign
Слово о полку Ігоревім
Anonymous · 1187
Opening lines
Не лѣполи ны бяшетъ, братіе, начяти старыми словесы трудныхъ повѣстій о пълку Игоревѣ, Игоря Святъславлича!
Would it not be fitting, brothers, to begin in words of old the grievous tales of the campaign of Igor, Igor Sviatoslavich!
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
In the spring of 1185, Prince Igor of Novhorod-Siverskyi sets out against the Cumans of the steppe with his brother Vsevolod, his son and his nephew, without the consent of the grand prince of Kyiv. An eclipse of the sun warns him; he disregards it. The poem follows the march, the first encounter, in which the princes seize the nomads' wagons and fabrics, and the night that follows, while the signs of misfortune rise.
Context
Probably composed around 1187, the poem is known only through a manuscript found around 1795 in a monastery in Yaroslavl and acquired by Count Musin-Pushkin, who published it in 1800; the original disappeared in the fire of Moscow in 1812, which long fuelled the suspicion of a forgery, which most scholars now dismiss. Written in the East Slavic of before the separation of the languages, it is claimed by Ukraine as well as by Russia; it was translated into Ukrainian as early as the nineteenth century, and Shevchenko adapted two fragments of it.
Who it is for
A short poem, some eight hundred short lines in translation, but dense in names of princes, towns and rivers: an annotated edition helps a great deal. The same text appears in the Russian catalogue of this site.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the masterpiece of the literature of Kievan Rus' and compared to the Song of Roland, it inspired Borodin's opera.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.