The ancient Russian heroic epic "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" of the 12th century is not only a Russian literary monument, but also an original, unique work that belongs to the entire vast Slavic world as an independent cultural and historical community, and at the same time occupies a significant place in history of both Russian and world literature.According to the decision of UNESCO, the entire cultural world in 1987 celebrated the 800th anniversary of the creation of the work "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", thereby confirming its uniqueness. Slovak readers had the opportunity to get acquainted with this outstanding work as early as 1947, when it was first published in Bratislava in the translation of Alexander Vasilyevich Isachenko, with illustrations - woodcuts by Ludovit Fulla. In 1960, the work was translated into Slovak by Jan Komorowski, and the last edition in Slovak, translated by Elena Krizhanova-Brindzova and illustrated by Vincent Glozhnik, was published in 1986.
The decision to study this work in detail and republish it in Slovakia, undoubtedly, was facilitated by my personal visit to the Yaroslavl Kremlin, where the museum "The Tale of Igor's Campaign." The only copy of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" of the 16th century, which was stolen from the monastery in 1795 , and later, in 1800, the book was first published by I. Musin-Pushkin. We visited this place as part of the Slovak delegation of the Jubilee All-Slavic Congress in 2017.
In the book published by us, we offer the Slovak reader a translation of the glorious epic, which was prepared by the famous Slovak writer, translator and expert in the field of the Russian language Yaroslav Reznik. Our goal is to make this exceptional literary monument accessible to new generations of the Slovak cultural community in a new guise.
This edition is complemented by beautiful illustrations by the Slovak artist Milina Zimková, whose work has distinctive color qualities and a penchant for abstract imagination. In addition, the book contains the Russian version of the famous Russian poet V. A. Zhukovsky and the original Old Russian version of the text. Literally, we also provide an analysis of this greatest work by its true connoisseur, the outstanding Russian philologist Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev.
The central place of The Tale of Igor's Campaign in Russian literature was shown in detail by Likhachev in the book The Tale of Igor's Campaign and the Culture of His Time (1978). The unknown author of this heroic epic, an artist of high culture, was able to transform a typical plot of Russian history into a work of extraordinary power and a truly national treasure, where the main idea is patriotism.
The cruel defeat that Prince Igor suffered during his campaign served as an occasion for the author to wonderful reflections on the fate of the Russian land and appeal to the princes with an appeal to put an end to mutual strife and unite in the fight against the enemy. In addition to patriotism, there is also a universal theme in the epic - the grief of women over the lost lives of men. As time shows, calls for patriotism and humanism are still relevant.
In conclusion, it is logical to conclude that even the past centuries did not influence and did not at all reduce the strength, poetics and beauty of the unique heroic epic. On the contrary, interest in this beautiful literary monument is growing. Let this publishing initiative of ours become a contribution to the cultural, linguistic and spiritual rapprochement of the fraternal Slavic peoples. Since this book is bilingual, so to speak, Slovak-Russian, we are sure that it will also be interesting and, of course, useful for students and all lovers and experts in the Russian language.
Author: Milos Zverina
