“The song of the creation of the Mother-Earth” recorded by K. G. Orosin: preparation of textological comments in the academic publication
The article focuses on the textological analysis of “The song of the creation of the Mother-Earth” manuscript as recorded by K. G. Orosin, with edited variants also taken into consideration. The song is being prepared for the publication in the volume “Yakut Folk Songs” of the academic series “Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East.” The choice of this song for the analysis is due to the fact that all the stages of the creative process from a manuscript to published texts can be followed. The manuscript is characterized by multiple layers, representing as it does an autograph in the form of fair copy with editor’s alterations. This article is dedicated to reconstructing the original version without editorial changes. For an objective assessment of the text changes within the editing practice, we have made a textological interpretation of various readings in edited versions of the song. The song was published three times and republished once in different sources. Two main publications of the song were selected for the analysis. The first publication of 1912 is considered to be the first attempt to divide the straight text into verses. The second publication of 1947 is different in having the “improvements” of the text as a result of editing with a focus on conformity with literary norms. Thus, the textological comment was made to reconstruct the authentic text “The song of the creation of the Mother-Earth” recorded by K. G. Orosin and identify the alterations in edited and published texts.