TECHNICAL NOTES
This is a free translation into English heroic verse of Lacplesis (Bearslayer) by Andrejs Pumpurs, first published in Latvian in 1888. The translation here is a corrected version of the original, which was published in 2005. Lacplesis has been translated into Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish and at least three times into Russian, as well as into Japanese! An English translation was published by Rita Berzin in 1988. This used poetic language, but the text was unrhymed and its metre irregular. It is also very difficult to obtain. Various prose translations of fragments also exist. The present translation is in rhyme and has a strict metre. As far as I know, it is the only existing translation of the entire poem into English verse.
In the interests of telling a good story in an easily understandable way I have omitted or shifted to a slightly different location an occasional line in Pumpurs's text, perhaps a dozen lines in the entire poem. I have also occasionally inserted lines that were not in the original text, again perhaps a dozen in the entire poem. My translation is also very loose in some places-an important priority for me was a poem that flowed well-and I have allowed myself some liberties. I apologize to those who are offended. I have, however, followed the sequence of events exactly as Pumpurs told them, and have retained virtually all Pumpurs's metaphors and similar poetic devices, such as the moon's rays being described as bars of silver, or mist as dripping like blood. I have tried to recapture in the English the moods suggested to me by the original Latvian: rustic joy, horror, tenderness, or despair.
The translation is also free because I wanted to maintain a strict metre as well as to achieve the effect of an English epic poem. The latter goal involved using archaic-sounding words as much as possible, although I preferred words that would be familiar to educated native-speakers of contemporary English, rather than genuinely archaic words. I also employed devices such as inversion of the word order (e.g., "a hero bold") or using adjectives in the place of adverbs (e.g., "the sun set slow"). However, I avoided forms that no longer exist, such as "thou," "thy," or "doth" and the like: I believe that these now sound too artificial to modern readers' ears.
Despite the liberties just described, the organization of the work follows Pumpurs's original division into six cantos of widely differing lengths. However, as aids to following the story I have given the cantos titles, divided them into "scenes", each scene beginning on a new page, and inserted intermediate headings. The scenes and headings are entirely my own invention and, to make it clear that they do not come from Pumpurs, I have put my headings into italics.
Pumpurs used various stanza structures, ranging from four lines to passages of 250 or more lines without interruption. Where Pumpurs used four-, six- or eight-line stanzas, I have done the same. Later, where Pumpurs used very long stanzas, I have returned to an eight-line or four-line format, largely depending on the number of syllables in a line. I have also sometimes inserted four-line stanzas into sections otherwise consisting of eight-line stanzas, in order to mark a turning point in the action.
Pumpurs also used differing metrical forms, the number of syllables in a line ranging from six to eighteen. In my translation I have used the iambus as the basic metrical unit throughout the entire poem. The most common metrical form in my translation is iambic pentameter. However, where Pumpurs used eight-syllable lines I have done the same. In such cases I have also often switched to four-line stanzas, in order to increase the "staccato" effect of the shorter lines. The original Latvian is largely unrhymed. I have translated into rhyming verse, mainly using the rhyme scheme a, b, a, b, c, d, c, d. In the six-line stanzas the rhyme scheme is a, b, a, b, a, b; in the four-line stanzas a, b, a, b.