The Tale of Igor's Campaign

"Better is it to be hewn to pieces than to be captive!"

"I wish to lay down my head and to drink of the Don in my helmet!"

"Wizard Boyán, scion of Véles."

"The trumpets blare at Nóvgorod, the banners stand fast at Putívl."

"Div arose crying calls on the tree-top."

"But the Pólovtsy on trackless roads ran to the mighty Don."

"There have been the ages of Troyán; the years of Yarosláv have declined. There have been the armies of Olég, Olég Svyatoslávic̆. That Olég with his sword forged rebellion, and sowed arrows over the earth."

"Then, in the time of Olég, Boris wrought for evil: feuds were sown and grew apace, the life of [Russia] the scion of Dážbog [the Sun-god] was wasted in the factions of the princes and the generations of mankind were shortened."

"From early moon until the evening, from the evening until the day-light, tempered arrows fly, the sabres thunder about the helmets, the lances crack in the foreign country, amid the land of the Pólovtsy."

"They fought one day, they fought another; on the third day, close on noon, the standards of Ígoŕ fell."

"Now already, brothers a weary time arose."

"The discord of the princes ruined them against the Pagans. For, brother spake to brother;—"This is mine, and that is also mine.""

"Ígoŕ's brave host will rise no more!"

"There the Germans and the Wends, there the Greeks and Moravians sing the fame of Svyatosláv."

"Ígoŕ dismounted from his golden saddle into a slave's saddle."

"The fair maidens of the Goths sang on the shore of the blue sea, tinkling in Russian gold. They sing the time of Bus [or Blus]."

"Shoot, my liege, the heathen Končák the slave, for the sake of the Russian land, for the sake of the wounds of Ígoŕ."

"Neither the crafty man nor the experienced, nor a bird nor a minstrel can escape God's judgments."

"Yaroslávna wails early at Putívl' on the rampart."

"Oh Dnepr Slovútič, thou hast pierced the stone mountains through the land of the Pólovtsy."

"God manifests the road to Prince Ígoŕ from the Polovsk land to the Russian land, to his fathers' golden throne."

"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!"