Copyright (C) 2005 by Arthur Cropley. BEARSLAYER by Andrejs Pumpurs (1841-1902) A free translation from the unrhymed Latvian into English heroic verse by Arthur Cropley University of Hamburg Copyright (C) 2005 by Arthur Cropley TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Technical Notes Summary Canto 1: The Revelation of the Bearslayer Canto II: Bearslayer Begins His Life as a Hero Canto III: Bearslayer and Laimdota Are Betrayed Canto IV: The Latvians Suffer Many Hardships Canto V: The Journey to the Homeland Canto VI: The Struggle against the Invaders Glossary of Personal and Place Names FOREWORD Most societies seem to have epic heroes and events that define them as they like to see themselves: Even a young society such as Australia has Ned Kelly, Eureka Stockade, and ANZAC. Others have their Robin Hood, Siegfried, Roland, or Davy Crockett. Lacplesis (Bearslayer) is such a work. Bearslayer is patriotic, brave, strong, tough, loyal, wise, fair, and virtuous, and he loves nature. He embodies the strengths and virtues of the Latvian folk in a legendary age of greatness, before they were subjugated and corrupted by "Strangers". The poem was important in the growth of Latvian self-awareness As Jazeps Rudzitis, the eminent Latvian folklorist and literary scholar, put it, "There is no other work in Latvian literature whose story has penetrated mass consciousness as deeply or resounded as richly in literature and art as Bearslayer." Thus, it seemed worthwhile to me to make the poem available to people who wish to read it in English, and this volume is the result. It contains the fruits of two years' labour. In writing Lacplesis Andrejs Pumpurs made an enormous contribution to Latvian literature. Thus, it may seem presumptuous that I have given myself equal prominence with him on the title page. After all, he is the author of the original poem, of which the present text is merely a translation. However, the task of translating a poem is much more than that of taking the words of the source language and replacing them with equivalent words from the target language. In Latvian, in addition to tulkot (to translate), there is a second verb atdzejot, which means approximately "re-versify". As I explain in the Technical Notes (p. iii), I have transformed Pumpurs's original Latvian work into an English poem in heroic verse: The result is an atdzejojums, not "merely" a translation.