Olonkho. P. A. Oyunsky

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       The eight-rimmed, eight-brimmed ¹

       Full of discord-discontent,

       Our Primordial Motherland,

       Was created-consecrated, they say…

       So, we do our best to tell the story…

      ***

      In ancient times

      In warring, bloodthirsty times

      Before the world changed,

      Beyond the evil horizon

      Of the awful earlier years,

      When the Middle World²

      Was not yet known,

      As the thirty-five tribes

      Emerging from everywhere,

      To become the front-faced,³

      Two-legged

      Human beings

      With an ability to foresee;⁴

      The people of the Under World

      Born wearing worn-out,⁵ ragged fur coats,

      With teeth as sharp as a knife

      Descendants of the famous tribe

      Of Arsan Dolai⁶

      And the famous old woman Ala Buhrai,⁷

      Not yet known as the thirty-six tribes

      To the people with the reins on their backs⁸

      With foreseeing eyes;

      The descendants of the Kun Aiyy family⁹

      The great old man, Ulutuyar Uluu Toyon,¹⁰

      Born in the upper, inaccessible sky,

      And Khotun Kokhtuya with a shrill voice,¹¹

      Not yet known as the thirty-nine tribes

      To the people with the reins on their backs.

      Tales about them were by no means on the tip of their sharp tongues.

      The inhabited Middle World was created,

      They say…

      It is unknown if the smooth, white sky¹²

      Is held together by its edges;

      It is unknown if it hangs on radiant ropes,

      It is impossible to see

      Where it begins at three shiny locks

      Where the steps rise into the air,

      It is impossible to see how it floats

      Above the deathly nyuken etugen.¹³

      No wings can be seen

      Which lift it into the air,

      The axis cannot be seen

      Which rotates the earth,

      But a mournful song,

      A sorrowful toyuk is heard.¹⁴