In 1922, Eugène Hurel published a collection of Rwandan folktales and proverbs with French translations. Now, hundred years later, we present a new edition of his book. We have transcribed Hurel’s old-fashioned Rwandan texts into modern scientific Kinyarwanda, which marks the lengths and heights of the vowel tones, and translated Hurel’s French introduction and all 40 folktales into English and German. We have omitted the proverbs because there already exists an abundant literature in many languages, both in book form and in the internet, of Rwandan proverbs.
Undoubtedly, these folktales belong amongst the richest treasures of the old Rwandan culture, which definitely should be preserved for posterity. With this trilingual edition of Hurel’s book, we want to make them available to a wider, not only Francophile audience.
The Kinyarwanda and English versions of the tales are presented in a two-sided layout (left pages: K, right pages: E), arranged into small numbered paragraphs appearing at the same height on both sides. In the second part of the book, the German translations of this Preface, Hurel’s introduction and the tales follow in a single-paged layout. A large number of footnotes gives not only linguistic, but also cultural, ethnographical and historical information and explains the meanings of most Rwandan names. In this form, we hope that the present book will serve not only students of the language Kinyarwanda in the Western world, but also those Rwandans who are interested in the classical literature of their country.
© 2023 by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag – www.koeppe.de