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Прысну море полунощи; |
The sea spurted at midnight; the waterspouts pass like mists. God manifests the road to Prince Ígoŕ from the Polovsk land to the Russian land, to his fathers' golden throne. The twilight dimmed at even-time. Ígoŕ sleeps, Ígoŕ wakes, Ígoŕ in his mind measures the plains from the mighty Don to the little Donéts. [There is] clamour at midnight; Ovlur whistled beyond the stream, summons the prince; Prince Ígoŕ could not understand. [Ovlur] called out loud; the earth throbbed; the grass rustled. The Polovsk tents began to stir. Ígoŕ the Prince raced like an ermine to the brushwood, like a white duck to the water, cast himself on his swift horse and leapt from it like a swift-footed wolf and fled to the meadow of the Donéts, and flew like a hawk in the mists, slaying geese and swans for breakfast, dinner and supper. When Ígoŕ flew like a hawk, then Vlur fled like a wolf, shaking off himself the cold dew. For they had over-ridden their swift steeds. |
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Донецъ рече: "Княже Игорю! |
Donéts [the river] said:--"Prince Ígoŕ, not mean is thy greatness, nor Končák's hatred, nor the joy of the Russian land! Ígoŕ said:--"Oh Donéts! Not mean is thy greatness, thou who swayest the Prince on thy waves, and hast spread out for him [a bed of] green grass by thy silvery banks, clothing him with warm mists beneath the shade of the green tree; thou hast guarded him with a duck on the water, with gulls on the billows, with mallards on the winds. |
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708 "Не тако-ли,"--рече, "рѣка Стугна, |
"Was it not thus," he said, "that the river Stugná, having an evil stream, swallowing strange brooks ground down the barges on the bushes? The Dnĕpr closed his dark banks to the youth Prince Rostíslav. Rostíslav's mother wails for the youth Prince Rostíslav." The flowers drooped for sorrow and the tree for grief bowed low to earth.
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(1) не сорокы втроскоташа,
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It was not the magpies chirping; in pursuit of Ígoŕ, Gzak rides with Končák. Then the crows did not croak, the jackdaws were still, the magpies did not chirp; they crept in the boughs. Only the woodpeckers by their pecking show the road to the river;
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728 соловии веселыми пѣсньми |
the nightingales with their merry song announce the dawn. |
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(2) Молъвитъ Гза къ Кончакови:-- |
Gzak speaks to Končák:--"If the hawk is flying to his nest, we two will shoot down the fledgeling with our gilded arrows!" Končák said to Gzak:--"If the hawk is flying to his nest we will fetter the fledgeling with a maiden fair." And Gzak said to Končák:--"If we fetter him with a maiden fair, then we shall have neither the fledgeling nor the fair maiden; but the birds will begin to assail us in the Polovsk plains." |
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Рече Боянъ и ходы |
Boyán has told of the expeditions of Svyatosláv [the First] against the Kogan: "I am the poet of the ancient time [i.e. Vladímir I], of the time of Yarosláv [the First], and Olég [of Tmutarakáń]." 'Though it be heavy to thee, the head, parted from the shoulders; ill is to thee, body, parted from the head:--to the Russian land without Ígoŕ!' |
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Солнце свѣтится на небесѣ;
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The sun shines in the heavens. Ígoŕ the prince is in the Russian land. The maidens sing on the Danube; their voices mingle across the waters [and are borne] to Kíev.
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Игорь идетъ по Боричеву Слава Игорю Святъславличь, Здрави князи, и дружина, Княземъ слава а дружикѣ хвала!
770 Аминь! |
Ígoŕ repairs up [the hill] Boríčev to the Holy Mother of God at Pirogóšč. The countries are happy, the cities rejoicing; singing a song to the princes of yore: and hereafter the the young shall sing it. Glory, oh Ígoŕ Svyatoslávič, brave bull Vsévolod, Vladímir Ígorevič! The princes prosper and the družína fighting for the Christians against the Pagans! Glory to the Princes and (praise) to the družína!
AMEN.
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The re-arrangement suggested in the note на седьмомъ would read:--'By strife there has been oppression from the land of Polótsk. In the seventh age of Troyán Vséslav cast lots. He set out to the [river] Issa, doffing his white sheep-skin. He opened wide (l. 580. . .) the gates of Nóvgorod, shattered the glory of Yarosláv [Svyatopólkovič]; galloped like a wolf . . .to the Nemíga. He at the last tore himself with wiles; galloped. . . . Bĕlgorod; . . . . . three parts. (ll. 572-579).' v. p. 18.