Talk:Utendi wa Tambuka

Couple of Qs

Thanks for adding this, Babbage. Is this poem available anywhere in Latin script? Also, Swahili says this is the earliest known written literary work in the language; we should add that here (we only say "one of the earliest known documents" at present). I presume there's not a discrepancy (i.e., there are earlier documents in Swahili, but they are not literary works)? — Matt Crypto 21:50, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

The phrase most frequently encountered in other descriptions of this poem is "earliest known imaginative literary work in Swahili". I believe there are older religious texts, though that needs checking. It would be cool indeed to cite and translate (part of) the poem here. I'll see if I can pick up Knappert 1977 today at the library. Also, here's another citation:

• Gérard, S. (1976) 'Structure and values in three Swahili epics', Research in African Literatures, 7, 1, 7-22.

Here's the abstract of that article as given by my library:

Brief comparison of three stages in the evolution of the Swahili utendi, a narrative poem so called because of its heroic content (tendi means acts or deeds). The genre developed from the raw energy and superficial religiosity of the Utendi wa Tambuka (Epic of the Battle of Tabuk), dating from 1728, to the sophistication with regard to psychological and moral insight, religious doctrine and artistic form evident in the poem Utenzi wa Vita vya Uhud (Epic of the Battle of Uhud), compiled in the early 1950's.

— mark ✎ 06:16, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

First few strophes, from Knappert 1977

This is Knappert's Latin transcription, based on the Arabic manuscript:

Bisimillahi kut̠ubu

yina la Mola Wahhabu

Arraḥamani eribu

na Arraḥimu ukyowa

Ḥimid̠i nd̠akwe D̠ayyani

Mukaafu Mwenye šani

na Muḥammad̠i Amini

jit̠ahid̠i kuṣallia

Kumuḥimid̠i Jabbari

ndilo jawabu h̠iari

na kuṣallia Basiri

ni jawabu afudaa

Unfortunately, Knappert (1977) contains only the first six strophes in Swahili; the rest of that book is a translation in Dutch making use of the original meter. Knappert (1958) contains a more literal, prozaic translation as well as the full text in Swahili; I'll see if I can get hold of that one. Knappert (1977) does have a general introduction on the history of this epic, so I think I could expand the article a little based on that. — mark ✎ 11:00, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Move to Utenzi...?

The name Utend̠i wa Tambuka is a Latin transcription of the Arabic title, but Utenzi wa Tambuka seems to be another quite common name (as was already noted by Babbage). Does anyone think we should move it to that title, or is it just fine as it is? — mark ✎ 14:18, 25 September 2006 (UTC)