“The Tale of Igor's Campaign” in N. Gumilyov's lyrics of the later period

Abstract

This research is dedicated to spatiotemporal aspect of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in N. Gumilyov’s lyrics of later period. Based on the lyrical works written over the period from 1913 to 1921, the author contemplates on the role of the Old Russian epic for the poet’s ideology. A hypothesis advanced that the text of the tale is one of the most constructive in worldview of the poet. The article employs the comparative-historical and structural-semiotic methods (juxtaposition of semantics facts that go back to the text  of the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and contained in N. Gumilyov's poetry) for establishing correspondence or semantic changes of words in the original text. The method of parallel text search is applied. Textual analysis of the fragments of N. Gumilyov's works and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is conducted. The article is first to determine and substantiate the interrelation between N. Gumilyov’s poem “War” (1914) and text of the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign”. Detailed analysis is given to the image of the “sowing” and “reaping” Russian warriors. In his later works, Gumilyov associates the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” with the highest ethical values, history of Russian and world culture, which underlines the historicism of Gumilyov’s thinking. The article reveals the “horse”, “warrior”, “quiver”, “saber” contained in the text of the tale reflect the true life of N. Gumilyov.