Book
Autumnal Maples. Anthology of Korean Poetry of VIII – XIX Centuries in Russian Poetic Translations
General Editor: Kontsevich Lev
Compilator: Kontsevich Lev
Санкт-Петербург, 2012, 352 p.
The Anthology is the first collection of Korean classic poetry of the millennium period, represented by translations from the Old Korean language. The Anthology consists of 5 parts in which the major genres of the Korean poetry are presented in the original language in chronological order. The first part includes works of the Early Middle Ages, written in the hyangga form characteristic of the people’s poetry. The next parts contain writings of the Middle Ages period: the second part includes “Koryǒ kayo” (from the XIIIth cent.); the third one offers verses in the sijo form (XVth – XVIIIth cent.), written by known authors as well as by anonymous ones; the forth part presents works in the kasa form (XVIth cent.) and in the chapka form (XVIIth – XVIIIth cent.).
The poetical translations into Russian are by such prominent poets as Anna Akhmatova, Alexander Zhovtis and Eugeny Vitkovsky.
It is to be hoped that the readers will discover from this Anthology a hitherto unknown world of the Korean poetry of the past ages and appreciate its national flavor.