Yukaghir (original) (raw)
Other Authors in the Oral Tradition
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Contents
[The Song of an Old Man](#The Song of an Old Man)
[Love Song of a Young Man](#The Song of a Young Man)
[When Our Camps Separated ](#When Our Camps Separated)
[There Stood a Handsome Fir](#There Stood a Handsome Fir)
[To the Frozen Sea ](#To the Frozen Sea)
[Libation Song for a Birth Ceremony](#Libation Song for a Birth Ceremony)
Introduction
The poetry of the Yukaghir, a poor hunting tribe in eastern Siberia, consists of improvisations or verses handed down from narrator to narrator or from singer to singer through generations. Verses handed down in this way can be expected to vary from person to person. As can be seen, verses from these people deal with familiar themes in human life: experience of aging, expression of love, appeals to a harsh environment for relief, and celebration of a birth.
The number of speakers of Yukaghir has diminished greatly since these verses were collected. In 1987 there were less than 200 speakers of the two branches of this language.
1 The Song of an Old Man
Oh, old age came to me�
It threw me down like a rotten tree.
I look like a scorched stump, see.
Yukaghir Singer
2 Love Song of a Young Man
She is white as snow,
Her eyebrows are black as ink,
Her hair is soft as silk,
She shines like the sun.
I am hurrying to her
Never to part with her.
Yukaghir Singer
3 When Our Camps Separated
When our camps separated
I looked after him:He is tall like a mountain ash
His hair covered his shoulders
Like black squirrels' tails.
When he disappeared
I lay down in the tent:
Oh, how long is a spring day?
But the evening came
And through a hole in the tent cover
I saw my love coming.
When he came in
And looked at me
My heart melted
Like snow in the sun.Yukaghir Singer
4 There Stood a Handsome Fir
There stood a handsome fir
Vasya felled it there.
Meadow green was their bed,
Moving clouds their coverlet,
Soft bush of willow
Served as their pillow,
And the firmament
Was their upper tent.
Vasya,Yukaghir of the Omolon River.
5 To the Frozen Sea
You, owners of the green and trees,
Help me.
Sea mother, who has as cover
Seven snow mounds,
As bed, eight ice layers,
As collar, black foxes,
As foam, arctic foxes,
As waves, cub foxes,
Help me,
Sea mother, owners.
Yukaghir Shaman
6 Libation Song for a Birth Ceremony
The boys, like the rushes,
The maids, like the mushrooms,
From the grass of the steppe
They have made a scourge;
With the water of the spring
They have made ablution;
With the nine silken threads
They have made a scourge.
Buryat Shaman
Source
Adapted from Peoples of Asiatic Russia by Waldemar Hochelson. American Museum of Natural History, 1928. Reproduced by courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History.
An online site providing information about the Yukaghir is maintained by Elana Maslova at Stanford University
Selection, Adaptation and Introduction � Rex Pay 2001