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 The first edition of Kotliarevsky'sEneyida, 1798 | |
| Author | Ivan Kotliarevsky |
|---|---|
| Original title | Енеїда |
| Translator | Bohdan Melnyk |
| Language | Ukrainian |
| Genre | Travesty,poem |
| Publisher | Maksym Parpura (in Ukrainian, first ed.) The Basilian Press (in English, full ed.) |
Publication date | 1798 (first 3 parts) 1842 (in full) |
| Publication place | Russian Empire Canada |
Published in English | 1933 (first stances) 2004 (in full) |
| Pages | 279 |
| ISBN | 978-0921-5-3766-3 |
| Followed by | Natalka Poltavka(1819) «Москаль-чарівник»(1819,Moskal-Charivnyk) |
Eneida (Ukrainian:Енеїда,lit. 'Aeneid') is aburlesque poem in theUkrainian language, written byIvan Kotliarevsky in 1798. Thismock-heroic poem is considered to be thefirst literary work published wholly in the Ukrainianvernacular. The talented depiction of various elements of the life of theUkrainian people in the context of language,history, traditions and everyday life brought the poem great success among contemporaries, caused many imitations, and led to the final displacement of theold literary language from the literary use by the vernacular.[1]
Eneida is a parody ofVirgil'sAeneid, where Kotliarevsky transformed theTrojan heroes intoZaporozhian Cossacks.[2] It is a loose retelling[3][4] ofN. P. Osipov's 1791Aeneid Turned Inside Out [ru] (Russian:Виргилиева Энеида, вывороченная наизнанку), written in Russian; the latter being a free translation ofAloys Blumauer's VirgilsAeneis, travestiert (1784), which in turn hails back toPaul Scarron's 1648 poemLe Virgile travesty en vers burlesques. Critics believe that it was written in the light of the destruction ofZaporozhian Host by the order ofCatherine the Great. The poem was written during the formation of romanticism and nationalism in Europe. At that time, part of the Ukrainian elite was gripped by nostalgia for the Cossack time.
The first three parts of the poem were published in 1798 in St. Petersburg, without the author's knowledge. The completeEneida was published after Kotliarevsky's death in 1842.
The poem is in top-100 list by "FromSkovoroda to modern time: 100 most important works in Ukrainian".[5]
After the destruction of Troy by the Greeks, Aeneas (Enei) fled with a troop of Trojans by sea.Juno, who did not love Aeneas, the son ofVenus, ran to the wind godAeolus to raise a storm and drown the Trojans. Aeolus let loose the winds and made a terrible storm. But Aeneas gave a bribe to the god of the sea,Neptune, and the storm subsided. Venus, worried about her son, went to complain about Juno toZeus.
He said that the fate of Aeneas had already been decided — he would go to Rome to "build a strong kingdom", "drive the whole world into serfdom" and "they will all be leaders". After long wanderings, the Trojans reachedCarthage, whereDido ruled. The queen fell in love with Aeneas and walked with him so that he forgot about his main goal — the construction ofRome. Zeus, accidentally looking at the earth from Olympus, saw this, got angry and sentMercury to remind Aeneas of his appointment. Aeneas and the Trojans fled Carthage at night, and Dido burned herself with grief.
The Trojans sailed the sea and landed inSicily, where King Acest ruled. TheSicilians received them hospitably. Aeneas decided to hold awake for his fatherAnchises. During the Trojan feast and games, Juno sent her maid to earth, who persuaded the Trojan women to burn the boats. There was a big fire. Aeneas became angry and went tocurse the gods, asking for rain. The rain went down and some of the ships survived. Aeneas went to bed in grief and saw his father in a dream. Anchises promised that all would be well and asked him to visit him in hell.
Leaving Sicily, the Trojans sailed on the sea for a long time, until they landed atCumae. Aeneas went looking for a way to hell and metSibyl the soothsayer. She promised to take Aeneas to hell in exchange for a bribe to the sun godPhoebus and a gift for herself. They both went down the street to hell, where Drowsiness, Yawning, and Death lived, and behind them stood the plague, war, cold, famine, and other calamities. Across theStyx, the mythical ferrymanCharon transported Aeneas and Sibyl to hell. At the entrance they were met by a terribleCerberus, to whom the soothsayer threw bread. There they saw sinners tormented in hell: lords, liars, stingy, stupid parents… Aeneas met in hellDido and the slain fellow Trojans. Finally he met his fatherAnchises, who said that Aeneas will found "a great and zealous family", that "will rule the whole world".
After boarding the boats, the Trojans, led by Aeneas, sail on. The guide sailor sees an island ruled by the cruel queen Circe, who turns people into animals. The island could not be bypassed. Aeneas turns to Aeolus and asks to avert trouble. Aeolus helps and the army continues its journey.
Aeneas and his Trojans sail to the island ruled by the Latin king. Together with his wifeAmata, he is going to marry his daughterLavinia toKing Turn. Meanwhile, Aeneas sends soldiers onreconnaissance. They tell him that the locals speak Latin. Aeneas and his army learn Latin in a week. Then Aeneas sends the king inns and he receives the Cossacks with honors, wishing that Aeneas became hisson-in-law. Meanwhile, Juno, seeing that Aeneas is already allowing himself too much, decides to give him a good lesson for his impudent behavior.
The goddess sendsErinys Telphousia, who inhabits first Amata and then visit Turnus. Turnus sees a dream in which his future bride chooses Aeneas as her fiancé. Offended, he sends a letter to the Latin king, declaring war. Aeneas' army accidentally dropsgreyhounds on Amata's nanny's dog. In turn, she begins to turn people against Aeneas. The Latin people are preparing for war.
Aeneas is thinking about how to defeat Turnus, because theOlympic gods were in no hurry to help. Aeneas fell asleep, and in a dream an old man advises Aeneas to make friends with theArcadians, who were enemies of the Latins. Thus he decides to seek help from the Arcadians (Evander is the king of the Arcadians, Pallant is his son).
Aeneas sacrifices to the gods and goes to Evander. He agrees to help and sends his son Pallant with the army.Venus asksVulcan the blacksmith to make her son Aeneas a strong weapon.
Juno sends a maid to warn Turnus about a possible attack by Aeneas and advises to strike first. He besieges the Trojan fortress, but can not take it. Then he burns the Trojan fleet. Venus complains to Cybella (mother of the gods), and she, in turn, complains to Zeus. The supreme god turns the ships of the Trojans into sirens, and the Rutuls flee in fear. Then there was silence again. Nyz and Evrial, young warriors, are on guard. Nyz offers to get into the Rutul camp and beat the enemies. He wants to do it himself, because Evrial has an old mother, and he has no one. However, his comrade does not agree, and they go together. Nyz and Evrial showed great courage, cut out many enemies, and when they returned, they came across Latins going to their camp. The young men try to hide in the woods, but the Latins tracked them down, surrounded the forest, from which "you can not slip away", and began to look for a "brave couple". When Evrial was caught, Nyz climbed a willow tree, dropped his spear, and thus revealed himself. Colonel Wolsent executed Evrial, and Nyz thrust his sword into the enemy and fell in battle.
A fierce battle begins. Turnus goes with the army to the assault fortress, and the Trojans bravely defend themselves; Juno intervenes again and defends Turnus. The Rutuls are beating the Trojans and they already want to leave the fortress. Then the artillery chief begins to embarrass them, to remind them that Aeneas "considers us soldiers, the grandchildren of the most glorious grandfathers". The embarrassed Trojans rallied and went on the offensive, and Turnus fled.
Angered at the gods for their intervention, Zeus forbids the gods to do anything for either party. Venus comes to the supreme god, begins to flatter him and complain about Juno. Juno, hearing this, starts a quarrel.
At this time, Aeneas sails on a ship with Pallant to help the Trojans. When everyone is asleep, he thinks about how to defeat Turnus. Suddenly he sees amavka in the water. She tells him that Turnus and his soldiers have already started fighting the Trojans and nearly burned their fleet. Aeneas rushes to the rescue and immediately rushes into battle. Turnus kills the brave Pallant. Jul tells Aeneas what had happened in his absence.
Zeus, drunk, goes to apologize to his wife Juno. She deceived God with her cunning and put him to sleep. Juno turned into the image of Aeneas and lured Turnus to the ship so that he would sail home and not die.
The next day, Aeneas buried the dead.Envoys from Latin came to him. He tells them that he is not fighting against the Latins, but against Turnus, and offers to arrange a one-on-one duel with him. The ambassadors liked it and they retold the words of Aeneas to Latin and Turnus. The latter reluctantly prepares for a duel. Amata opposes the marriage of her daughter and Turnus, because she is secretly in love with him.
The next day, both sides took up positions to watch the battle. Juno sendsJuturna to help Turnus. She starts a fight between the Trojans and the Rutuls again. Aeneas was wounded during the skirmish. Venus collects for him all sorts of potions that help heal the wound.
Thinking that Turn is dead, Amata decides to hang himself. This news frightened everyone. Aeneas goes to a duel with Turn, knocks him out of the sword. Juno, with the hand of Juturna, gives Turnus another sword. For this, Zeus quarrels with Juno and says: "We have already told all the gods: Aeneas will be with us in Olympus to eat the same pies that I tell you to bake." The duel continues. Having knocked Turnus to the ground, Aeneas is going to kill him, but Rutul's words touched his heart. Suddenly he notices Pallant's armor on Turnus' body and kills him.
According to Ukrainian philosopherMyroslav Popovych,Eneida belongs to thecarnival andsatirical literary tradition, playing on the contrast between the epic-heroic tone of Virgil's original poem and the "lowly" style of Kotliarevsky's text. The humorous effect is amplified by separate passages, which are written in amacaronic mix of vernacular Ukrainian andClassical Latin. The poem also contains references to numerous elements ofUkrainian folk tradition and represents an important source on material culture,cuisine and other aspects of daily life in Ukraine during the 18th century.[6]
Partial translations ofEneida date back to 1933 when a translation of first few stanzas of Kotliarevsky'sEneida byWolodymyr Semenyna was published in the American newspaper of Ukrainian diasporaUkrainian Weekly on October 20, 1933. Another partial translation was published byUniversity of Toronto Press in 1963 in the anthologyUkrainian Poets 1189–1962, by C. H. Andrusyshen andWatson Kirkconnell.[7] However, the first full English translation of Kotliarevsky'smagnum opusEneida was published only in 2004 in Canada by a Ukrainian-Canadian Bohdan Melnyk, most well known for hisEnglish translation ofIvan Franko'sUkrainian fairy tale "Mykyta the Fox" (Ukrainian: Лис Микита).
Еней був парубок моторний
І хлопець хоть куди козак,
На лихо здався він проворний,
Завзятіший од всіх бурлак.
Но греки, як спаливши Трою,
Зробили з неї скирту гною,
Він, взявши торбу, тягу дав;
Забравши деяких троянців,
Осмалених, як гиря, ланців,
П'ятами з Трої накивав.
Він, швидко поробивши човни,
На синє море поспускав,
Троянців насадивши повні,
І куди очі почухрав.
Но зла Юнона, суча дочка,
Розкудкудакалась, як квочка, —
Енея не любила — страх;
Давно уже вона хотіла,
Його щоб душка полетіла
У пекло, щоб і дух не пах.[8]
Aeneas was a lively fellow
And quite aCossack for a lad,
For mischief he was more thanmellow
While courage above all he had.
But when the Greeks felt very bitter
And made of Troy aheap of litter
He took a bag, and with a lust –
With some good Troyans whom he gathered
Whose hides were tough and necks well lethered –
He showed old Troy a cloud of dust.
He quickly built some boats of timber,
Then launched them in the quiet sea
And filling them with muscle limber
He hit the foam where eyes could see.
But cacklingJuno, dog-gone-daughter,
Kept cackling like ahen for water;
– That's how Aeneas lacked her grace –
A long long time she had been praying:
She wished his soul would stop delaying
The trip to that unearthly place.
The first artist to illustrate the poem was Porfyriy Martynovych, a folklorist and ethnographer stemming from Kotliarevsky's native city ofPoltava. Created during the 1870s, Martynovych's illustrations were first presented in 1903, during the opening of a monument to the poet in his native city. Among other notable artists who created illustrations toEneida wereMykhailo Derehus,Ivan Padalka and Anatoliy Bazylevych, with the latter's works achieving the greatest popularity. In 1919 heroes of the poem were depicted byHeorhiy Narbut.[12]
Ahigh relief depicting the heroes ofEneida was created by sculptorLeonid Pozen as part of the monument to Ivan Kotliarevsky in Poltava in 1903. During the 1960s two cycles of decorativeporcelain compositions inspired by the poem were created by Ukrainian artists Vladyslav Shcherbyna and Valentyna Trehubova.[12]
Acomic book based on the plot ofEneida was presented by Ivan Budz in 1995.[12]
LiterarycafeEney, which functioned between 1966 and 2000 at the headquarters of theNational Writers' Union of Ukraine inKyiv, was named after the poem's main hero, and its interiors were decorated with illustrations to the work created by Anatoliy Bazylevych.[12]
In 1891 an eponymousoperetta based onEneida was created byMykola Sadovsky. In 1910 an opera in three acts based on Kotliarevsky's poem was presented byMykola Lysenko, with the Ukrainian-languagelibretto written byLiudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska. A 1959 production of Lysenko's work at theKyiv Opera starredDmytro Hnatiuk as the main protagonist. Anavant-garde treatment of Eneida was prepared in 1927 by Boris Erdman, but there is no data if it was ever realized. In 1986 a new production of Eneida premiered at theIvan Franko National Academic Drama Theater with libretto byIvan Drach, starring among othersNatalia Sumska andBohdan Stupka. Kotliarevskyi's work has also been adopted asrock opera and is present in the repertoire ofKyiv Puppet Theatre.[12]
Amultimedia performance based onEneida premiered in 2017 at theArsenal Book Festival, with author's narration byYurii Andrukhovych.[12]
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