Golden Apple A Round of Stories, Songs, Spells, Proverbs and Riddles
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Vasko Popa (1922–1991) was born in the Banat district of Yugoslavia. During World War II he fought with a partisan group; afterwards he studied in Vienna and Bucharest before completing his education at the University of Belgrade. He was elected to the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972 and to the Parisian Académie Mallarmé in 1977. He visited Britain on several occasions, attending the London Poetry International and Cambridge Poetry Festivals. He was widely regarded not only as the greatest poet of the Serbo-Croat language but as a poet of towering European stature. He lived in Belgrade where he worked as an editor for the publishers Nolit from 1954 until 1979. Andrew Harvey was born in 1952 in South India. At 21 he became the youngest person ever to be awarded a fellowship to All Soul’s College, Oxford. He is an internationally renowned religious scholar, writer, teacher, and the author of more than 30 books. See: www.andrewharvey.net Anne Pennington (1934–1981) was a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she held the university’s Chair of Comparative Slavonic Philology. Her translations include Poems by Blaže Koneski (1979) and Vasko Popa's anthology The Golden Apple (Anvil, 1980 and 2010), both with Andrew Harvey; Marko the Prince: Serbo-Croat Heroic Songs (1984) with Peter Levi; and Vasko Popa’s Complete Poems (Anvil, 2011).'Throughout there is the sense of the unadorned, unrationalized essence of folk tradition - This book entertains and startles afresh on each reading.' - Michael Cayley, PN Review ' - an absolute delight. The tales fly along relentlessly to their enigmatic endings, mixing up the ridiculous, the miraculous and the commonplace, putting to shame the puerile moralizing of many modern children's books. The irrational is sitting in the trees waiting to leap upon you - ' - George Szirtes, Quarto
A delightful selection from one of the richest traditions of folk literature in Europe. The universal qualities of these poems, stories, riddles and proverbs will appeal to a wide range of readers, including children. Since Yugoslav folklore is so much a part of Vasko Popa’s own poetic world, readers of his poetry will find the book especially rewarding for the insight into his sources which it provides.
In making his original compilation, Popa followed his own poetic taste, gathering pieces he himself loved, and finding ‘great joy in bringing the little-known and undervalued beauties of old riddles, proverbs, spells and counting-rhymes out of the shadows into daylight.’ Translatability has been the key factor in making this English selection, which is illustrated with traditional Serbian rug motifs. The vitality of Popa’s material is wonderfully conveyed in this adaptation by Andrew Harvey and Anne Pennington.
Nothing Can Be Hidden
Two lovers kissed in a meadow
They thought no one saw them
The green meadow saw them
Told the white flock
The flock told its shepherd
The shepherd told a traveller
The traveller told a ferryman
The ferryman told his walnut boat
The boat told the cold water
The water told the girl ’s mother
The girl was furious
“Meadow, may you never be green!
White flock, may wolves eat you!
Shepherd, may the Turks hack you down!
Traveller, may your legs rot !
Ferryman, may water carry you off!
Ferry-boat, burn! Water, dry up!”
The Dark Country
Once upon a time, there was a king who came with his
army to the end of the world, and went into the dark
country, where you can’t see anything. He left the foals
of the mares he had with him on the other side, so the
mares would be certain to lead them back.
When they went into the dark country and were
moving through it, they kept feeling small stones under
their feet. Something called out from the darkness “He
who takes some of these stones will regret it, and he who
takes none of them will regret it.” Some of them thought
“Well, if I regret it, why bother?” Some thought “Well,
why not take one, at least?”
When they came out of the dark, they saw these were
precious stones. Those who took none regretted they
hadn’t taken any; those who took some regretted they
hadn’t taken more.