), 'began' (modern Russian as a development of the old perfect.) Note the style of punctuation. The Tale of Igor's Campaign . c. 1200(?), from the Catherine manuscript, c. 1790. 'Would it not be meet, o brothers, for us to begin with the old words the difficult telling of the host of Igor, Igor Sviatoslavich? And to begin in the way of the true tales of this time, and not in the way of Boyan's inventions. For the wise Boyan, if he wished to devote to someone [his] song, would wander like a squirrel over a tree, like a grey wolf over land, like a bluish eagle beneath the clouds.' Illustrates the sung epics. Yers generally given full voicing, unlike in the first printed edition of 1800, which was copied from the same destroyed prototype as the Catherine manuscript. Typical use of metaphor and simile. The misquote ('to effuse/pour out one's thought upon/over wood'; a product of an old and habitual misreading of the word , 'squirrel-like' as , 'thought-like', and a change in the meaning of the word ) has become proverbial in the meaning 'to speak ornately, at length, excessively'. Avvakum's autobiography 1672–73. Modernized spelling. And then they sent me to Siberia with my wife and children. Whatever hardship there was on the way, there's too much to say it all, but maybe a small part to be mentioned. The archpriest's wife [= My wife] gave birth to a baby; and we carted her, sick, all the way to Tobolsk; for three thousand versts, around thirteen weeks in all, we dragged [her] by cart, and by water, and in a sleigh half of the way. Pure 17th-century central Russian vernacular. Phonetic spelling ( 'it all, all of that', modern ). A few archaisms still used (aorist in the perfective aspect 'was'). Note the way of transport to exile. Alexandr Pushkin From "Winter Evening" (), 1825. Modern spelling. Буря мглою небо кроет, Вихри снежные крутя; То, как зверь, она завоет, То заплачет, как дитя, То по кровле обветшалой Вдруг соломой зашумит, То, как путник запоздалый, К нам в окошко застучит. Tempest covers sky in haze[s], Twisting gales full of snow; Like a beast begins to howl, A cry, as if a child, it will let go, On the worn-out roof it will clamour Suddenly upon the thatch, Or as though a traveller tardy Starts to knock upon our hatch.