Epic "Manas". The Beginning of the Battle. Part - 3

The Beginning of the Battle. Part - 2

Hearing the joyful news,
Kanykey was not pleased:
— Taking Beijing, the Chinese throne,
He has doomed himself to death.
Let him return quickly —
Here a son has been born, Semetey!
And if suddenly he perishes there
His father, my beloved,
Our only child
Will become an orphan from swaddling clothes, —
Kanykey wept bitterly.
Shuutu rushed to Beijing,
Brought news to Manas,
That a son had been born to him,
That they named him Semetey,
And that Kanykey asked
To return to Talas quickly,
And that all the Kyrgyz people
Are waiting for their kin with victory!
Manas did not heed his wife's plea —
He gathered his warriors
And addressed them:
— I have been strict and harsh with you —
I could not act otherwise.
And against your will I
Led you on a campaign to China.
At the cost of blood and death
We fulfilled our sonly duty
Before our homeland:
The enemy is defeated, lies at our feet!
When the people in the land are united,
They are invincible against enemies!
The military campaign is over —
It is time for the warriors to rest.
Let the newlyweds, the old men,
Those who were sick or wounded in battle,
From now on I grant freedom —
Let them return home!
Kyrgyl with the battle comrades
May stay here with me!
— Praise, great khan Manas! —
The warriors shouted around,
Not wiping their eyes from tears.
They arranged a farewell feast.
Then Bakai, the old man Koshoy,
Father of Manas, Bay Jakyp,
Son of Elemana er-Toshtyk,
Father of Chubak Akbalt,
Loaded the caravan
With the spoils acquired in battles
And set off to their native Talas,
Where they had been long awaited.
The trusting Manas did not know
That the surrender of the city of Beijing
Was a trick, so that later
The whole city could be surrounded,
To call the townspeople to arms,
To seize Manas's palace
And kill all the Kyrgyz.
And the cunning Konurbai
Ordered weapons to be forged,
To seek deadly poison for arrows —
Konur was waiting for his hour.
Learning that many warriors
Had gone to Talas with the spoils,
The guard in the palace weakened,
He began to watch Manas,
To sneak in and kill him.
Manas's servant — Shiykuchu
He managed to secretly bribe.
A Kalmyk named Manzhu
Shaved his braid from the top
And, like a wandering Muslim,
Put a turban on his head,
Took an old staff in his hand
And, like a beggar, in the morning
Went to the Beijing palace.
And here the spy Shiykuchu
Gave him baked bread —
And at that moment the Kalmyk Manzhu
Rushed to his khan.
Konur broke the flatbread,
And there, in a note, he read,
That in the morning khan Manas
Goes to the garden to pray.
For this holy ritual
He does not take the guard with him,
And, having penetrated into the garden, at that moment
Manas can be killed.
Konurbai rushed to the palace.
Old Kyrgyl and Akayyar,
Who guarded the khan's palace,
Slept soundly at dawn
And did not see how
Konurbai himself penetrated on Algara.
And it was Azhibay's turn
To guard Manas's garden,
He knew that no one would pass
Through Kyrgyl into the khan's garden.
Pressing his spear to the ground,
Azhibay himself dozed in the saddle.
To read the pre-dawn prayer
The hero Manas went to the river.
He dipped his hands in the water
And performed the morning ablution
According to the sharia.
In a light robe on his shoulder,
In the morning prayer he asked,
Raising his hands to the heavens,
That the Creator Himself would preserve
His victory over the enemy,
Return him home alive,
So that, finally, he could see there
His beloved son.

Epic "Manas". The Beginning of the Battle. Part - 2