An Old Amharic Poem from Northern Ethiopia: One More Text on Condemning Glory

An Old Amharic Poem from Northern Ethiopia: One More Text on Condemning Glory

Author: 
Bulakh, Maria
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press
Date published: 
2019
Record type: 
Responsibility: 
Nosnitsin, Denis, jt. author
Journal Title: 
Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African studies
Source: 
Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 82, N0. 2, February 2019 pp. 315-350
Abstract: 

This article presents a publication and translation (with linguistic and philological commentaries) of a recently discovered piece of Old Amharic poetry, possibly dating to the first half/middle of the seventeenth century. The published text bears the title Märgämä k br ("Condemnation of glory"), but its content differs from that of several other Old Amharic poems (not entirely independent from each other) known under the same title. It is only the general idea and the main topics that are shared by all Märgämä k br poems: transience of the earthly world, the inevitability of death and of God's judgement, and the necessity of leading a virtuous life. One can thus speak of Märgämä k br as a special genre of early Amharic literature, probably originally belonging to the domain of oral literature and used to address the Christian community with the aim of religious education and admonition of laymen.

Language: 

CITATION: Bulakh, Maria. An Old Amharic Poem from Northern Ethiopia: One More Text on Condemning Glory . : Cambridge University Press , 2019. Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 82, N0. 2, February 2019 pp. 315-350 - Available at: https://library.au.int/old-amharic-poem-northern-ethiopia-one-more-text-condemning-glory-0