Overview

An ancient Central Asian epic, passed down through generations, carries the reader into a world of nomads, warriors and horselords 'Manas the brave is arriving! One flash of rage by him, and this whole encamped multitude will surely be slaughtered!' This tale from the Manas epic gives the reader startling, brilliantly coloured access to the world of the horse-based nomad cultures of Central Asia. Written down in the early twentieth century but drawing on sources of unguessable antiquity, The Memorial Feast for K k t y Khan is the bravura telling of the story of a new and uncertain khan, Boqmurun, and his decision to hold a great gathering to commemorate the life and death of K k toy, his already legendary predecessor. From the Muslim lands to the west to China in the east, great warriors and their turbulent retinues gather in the high grasslands to feast, compete and quarrel. Beautifully translated by Daniel Prior, The Memorial Feast allows the reader to get closer than any other source to a sense of the values, glamour and sheer strangeness of the peoples who shaped so much of Eurasia.

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9780241544211

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Reviews

The bombast and energy of Orozbak's oral performance leaps from the page - he backtracks, interrupts himself, leaps forward, whatever it takes to maintain the forward movement of the poem [...] Mr. Prior's extensive notes and prefatory material keep the reader who is unfamiliar with the Kirghiz epic from becoming lost; a long final essay holds out a guiding hand for those who would like to dig deeper. -- Jude Russo * The New York Sun * Prior's translation reads in an appropriately lively and energetic way - and even in this form lends itself to being read aloud ... a fine example of how to present a literary work from a lesser-known culture and tradition to readers. -- M. A. Orthofer * complete review *

The bombast and energy of Orozbak's oral performance leaps from the page - he backtracks, interrupts himself, leaps forward, whatever it takes to maintain the forward movement of the poem [...] Mr. Prior's extensive notes and prefatory material keep the reader who is unfamiliar with the Kirghiz epic from becoming lost; a long final essay holds out a guiding hand for those who would like to dig deeper. -- Jude Russo * The New York Sun * Prior's translation is written in clear, idiomatic, and often lively English ... Prior's reliable and well annotated translation ... will certainly help further the popularity of the Kirghiz epic tradition. -- Karl Reichl * Turkic Languages * Prior's translation reads in an appropriately lively and energetic way - and even in this form lends itself to being read aloud ... a fine example of how to present a literary work from a lesser-known culture and tradition to readers. -- M. A. Orthofer * complete review *

Prior's translation ... is written in clear, idiomatic, and often lively English ... Prior's reliable and well annotated translation ... will certainly help further the popularity of the Kirghiz epic tradition. -- Karl Reichl * Turkic Languages * Prior's translation reads in an appropriately lively and energetic way - and even in this form lends itself to being read aloud ... a fine example of how to present a literary work from a lesser-known culture and tradition to readers. -- M. A. Orthofer * complete review *

Author Information

Saghimbay Orozbaq uulu (Author) Sagimbay Orozbaq uulu (1867-1930) was a traditional Kirghiz bard who lived long enough to have his extempore performances written down by Soviet folklorists in the early 1920s. Daniel Prior (Translator) Daniel Prior is Associate Professor of History at Miami University, Ohio. He has written extensively on the Kirghiz epic tradition.

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