Oral Literature

The oral literary texts that begin this anthology offer a brief glimpse into an extraordinary rich heritage. The oral literature of Central Asia includes genres of elegy, wedding songs, religious texts, folktales, as well as a rich and varied tradition of heroic epics centered on the exploits of various cultural heroes. Included in this anthology are translations of lyric and minstrel poetry, a Kazakh and a Uyghur folktale, excerpts from a romantic and a historical epic, and a section of a famous oral duel between two Kazakh bards.