Among the huge number of recent postings there was one in which VN’s translation of The Song of Igor’s Campaign was mentioned. The poster also mentioned that The Song’s authenticity had been disputed. It’s going to be of interest perhaps only to professional Slavists who are, sadly, mostly lurkers on NABOKV-L. But: VN mentioned André Mazon’s 1940 book whose argument (The Song was written in the 18C by an imitator of the Zadonschina) he dismissed. Since then there have been other scholars questioning The Song’s authenticity despite Prof. Dean S. Worth’s admonition: “Attacks on the authenticity of the Igor’s Tale have always come from amateurs, while the defenders have been philologists with professional competence in 12C Russian language and culture” (Victor Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature (1985), p.425). The most recent debate was between Prof. E.L. Keenan, a historian (Harvard Univ.), and Prof. A.A. Zaliznyak, a linguist (Moscow Univ.), Keenan proposing that the real author of The Song was a 18C Czech imitator named Josef Dobrovsky, and Zaliznyak offering his philological, linguistic counter-evidence. Keenan’s book was published in 2003 in English; Zaliznyak’s book in 2004 in Russian (I’m familiar only with the latter). To return to VN, I was wondering if anybody had commented on what VN wrote about the necessity, after all is said and done, to “cope with certain eerie doubts” (Intro, p. 14). Someone in Kievan Rus in the early summer of 1187 describes a series of events which started only two years before and are “still in a state of live flux and formlessness.” How could the author “combine this political, local, actual, journalistic reality” with “such poetical imagery as is usually associated with the maturity of fondly manipulated impressions” (ibid.)?

 

This is a minor point but perhaps someone out there with a better knowledge might have something to say.

Sergey Karpukhin

Charlottesville, VA