From: Sergejus Tarasovas
Message: 1927
Date: 2000-03-23
Piotr wrote:... which is precisely why some people thought it was an 18th century hoax. They just couldn't believe that anything like "Slovo" could exist without a rich literary tradition in the background. One can compare it to other epic literature from different cultural contexts, and it compares favourably. I can say that, as I know "Slovo" first-hand and I enjoyed reading it in the original. Regrettably, it's not on the school reading list in Poland, but there is an excellent translation by Julian Tuwim; it has also been translated into English by Vladimir Nabokov (as "The Song of Igor's Campaign: An Epic of the Twelfth Century").Of course such tradition existed, but existance doesn't implicate survival. Even "Slovo" was saved from being set to fire by an unenlightened monk. As for those doubting Thomases, the ultimate argument is (as it's mentioned in Britannica) that "Slovo" has obviously influenced "Zadonshchina" (XV-XVI cc.)Sergei