The Tale of Ihor’s Campaign in the World Context

Last Friday, Kyiv hosted a presentation of the book The Tale of Ihor’s Host. Translation and Commentaries by Vladimir Nabokov at the initiative of the Kyiv Nabokov Society “Camera Obscura.” This ancient Rus’ literary work is known to every schoolchild and does not require any special introduction. Some sources point to about forty Ukrainian versions. This work always attracted nineteenth-century writers, among them Taras Shevchenko, Panas Myrny, Ivan Franko, as well as Soviet authors (including Maksym Rylsky, who published a well-known translation) and Diaspora writers. Vladimir Nabokov did an English translation of the section in the Tale that recounts the Polovtsian campaign against Prince Ihor (Igor) of Novhorod-Siversky. In his commentary he notes that his purpose was quite utilitarian: simply to provide his students with an English version. But as noted Nabokov researcher Professor Vadim Stark, who presided at the book launch, pointed out, Nabokov introduced the Tale into the world literary and historical context.

Published by St. Petersburg’s Akademichesky Proekt, this book will be of interest not just to people who know English, since Nabokov’s translation is only a small part of this publication. The book includes Nabokov’s fascinating commentaries and his abundantly footnoted foreword (Vadim Stark noted that Nabokov’s attention to detail reflected his poetic nature; he could not live without it). Vadim Stark’s introductory article offers background and commentary to the translation (in a way it is an introduction to the foreword). The ancient Rus’ text was reconstructed by Dmitry Likhachov and illustrated by the Russian artist Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962). The illustrations merit special attention: they were originally created for a German edition published in Munich in 1923, in a print run of 700 copies, which few people in Ukraine, if any, have read or seen. Goncharova’s illustrations, criticized by Soviet critics for their “modernism and conventional character,” are unique indeed. But as Natalia Teletova, the author of the index, writes, “even the title page with its medieval- style characters and figures shows that Goncharova wanted to make the Tale part of a single family of European tales.” The book is a precious gift for the connoisseur. It should also be noted that the launch in Kyiv took place earlier than in Russia, where the book will be presented in 2005.