The Song of Hiawatha

“The Song of Hiawatha” is a classic monument of American literature—an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow based on legends of the Ojibwe people. The translation offered by Ivan Bunin, for which he received the Pushkin Prize in 1903, is still considered unsurpassed. According to Longfellow, the poem is based on legends “about a man of wonderful origins,” sent to people “to clear their rivers, forests, and fishing places and teach the nations peaceful arts.”