Myth of Arrival

Disclaimer: Ekaterina Evseyeva is a friend of mine, a Yakuts scholar and poet from Siberia. I had written to her during my research for various forms of international sonnets. She translated an article written in Russian by T.N. Vasilyeva and sent it to me. Translation, discourse and copyrighting being what they are, I take full responsibility for any information presented herein, as well as any mistakes in interpretation — ZJC.

"National Features of the Yakut Poetry"

While establishing contacts with the world literature in the aspect of the genre forms and in analyzing of the contemporary issues, Yakuts/Sakha poetry does not loose its own peculiarities and moreover, produces some adopted lyrical forms, one bright example being the sonnet.

One of our well-known scholars, Vasilyeva, reviewed almost all works of this genre, from 1930-2000. Her work is based on the theory of K.S. Gerasimov, who tells us that "the most suitable size of sonnet is the one in which the poetry of a given nation reveals its perfection."

Thus, the most common size of the Yakut sonnet is a seven-syllable/ step form, the oldest form coming from the Turkish poems. For example, we can analyze the sonnets of our poet, Ivan Gogolev. In his work, rhythm equals with the size of traditional Sakha songs. The development of this idea and theme in the sonnet is like that in the song – not too fast, but gently; the thesis gradually turning into antithesis. Such soft transition is supported by repletion of sounds and morphemes such lines as:

Кулун ыраас хара5а/ 2-2-3/ clear eyes of the foal
Долгутар миигин куруук,/ 3-2-2/ always make me feel excitement,
Ыйдаца куех арда5а/ 3-1-3/ like when the rain during the full moon night
Дууhабар тохтор курдук./ 3-2-2/ pours into my soul.

Дьиктиргии, сергии, уерэ/ 3-2-2/ being full of solemn joy,
Аан дойдуну одуулуур,/ 1-3-3/ it looks around at the world,
Бу бэйэтэ олус кэрэ,/ 1-3-2-2/ and this is beauty,
Бу бэйэтэ, дьицэр, улуу./ 1-3-2-2(2,14)/ and this is something grand.

(Note: the size of the Yakuts/ Sakha sonnet is not the same as in its English translation).

National, traditional peculiarities are shown in the Yakut mentality and are primarily reflected in its lexis – fine, exquisite metaphors and similes, rich abilities for producing local sayings. These peculiarities are often shown in the thematic and composition of the sonnet. For example, there are both oral and written traditional metaphors on such notions like trees, sun, horse (key elements of visual symbolism for the Sakha). But even in such metaphors poets open something new; they make their own interpretations of a known phenomenon. Iven Gogolev used the traditional musical instrument "khomus" to symbolize inseparable unity and the bond of two loving hearts. The use of color should be noted as one of the main peculiarities of poetical similes and epithets. As it’s known, the color white ("уруц, мацан") has been called "the most beloved color of the ancient Yakut." White was given the most respect in epithets, which carried on in Yakut sonnets.

Furthermore, philosophical sonnets are common as a major theme of Yakut poetry. For example, the sonnets of Ivan Gogolev and Michail Efimov both reflect a multitude of images of the world; their dark and light sides, as well as their dual conflicting views in their poetical outlook. Philosophical sonnets display the poet's pondering about time and meaning of life. They reveal the image of a national motherland and give predictions about what awaits the Sakha people. Besides that, poets find unlimited opportunities to bring to light and evoke general matters of the individual in specific or historical ways; it gives the Yakut sonnet artistic volume and grandness. Poets propagate a sacred belief of advantageous influence of the beauty of the world onto their people; the old pride is true here, that the poet believes in the only form of happiness is to bring "good to their people."

The love sonnets differ in their own ways. Here, there is a traditional image of a beloved — a woman, be it a wife or mother. This can probably be explained by an "oriental mentality" of the author, from where the classical Turkish form comes from. The portrait of a beloved, depicting her long hair, eyes and her smile: “long hair flowing down like a glow of moon” ("ый тохтул5ан баттахтаах") and in very traditional Sakha belief it is compared to “a sacred birch tree” ("аар хатыцца"), “rich sounding khomus” ("этигэн хомуска"), “a goddess Aiyysyt” and looks like “the light of the life, the goddess Iyehsit” ("Олох сырдыга", "сырдык Иэйэхсит").

Consequently, having studied the literary canon, the Sakha poet introduces new images into the discussion – "a sonnet Lady," an image of writer’s wife. There is also an image of mother, which symbolizes the gratitude to destiny, acknowledgment of power of wisdom and tranquility. Here there are thoughts about moral and ethical questions of life, which gain convincing power through memories of childhood. In all, sonnets about motherhood has a motivation concerning sadness and search, the search of the beloved, in this case the nurturer, with imagery of her warm breath, as well as suitable expressions concerning the idea of an eternal bow and gratitude towards mothers.

In all known forms of sonnets, except its satirical form, one can find meditations about the unity of nature and human soul. Landscapes act as a reflection of social life and dialectical activities. Philosophical themes of the beauty of the world receive both intellectual and emotional expressions in the space of sonnet and this theme is a rather traditional one in the Sakha lyrical poetry. That’s why their is a bond between our people and the character in the given sonnets, seen as the basis of philosophical revelation of a nationalistic mentality, or the lyrical “I” in the Yakut poetry.

The canon of classical sonnets was introduced into the Sakha language when they were first translated. Our poet, Semen Rufov, produced several translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and he made them ten-steps in Sakha instead of traditional fourteen-step. The poet explained that change by the lack of tonic syllabicity in the Sakha poetry and our very light word stresses. If he remained in a fourteen-step size, the sound of the poem in Sakha would be too stiff. So he observed how the poems would sound to the Sakha people, if they would be good to listen to it or not.

Содур олоххо то5о олорор? /10/ why does he/she lead sinful life?
Суобаhа суохтары кемускээриэ? /10/ to protect the disgraceful?
Албыны кистээн кене оцорор /10/ to cover the truth by the lie
Абааhыны айыы дэттэрээриэ? /10/ and to call the bad as the good?
То5о сирэйин тэтэркэй имин /10/ why do his cheeks get reddened
Тууйар, оцоhуу ецунэн сыбаан? /10/ artificially?
Кулуктуу сатыыр дьицнээх кэрэтин /10/ why does s/he cover the true beauty
Келдьун киэргэли салама ыйаан? /(3,74) 10/ by unnecessary salama?
("salama" is a sort of decorative rope)

Critics have said this could be said by a truly Yakutian poet: antithesis of “sin-esteem” is seen as contradiction of "abahyy" (devil) and "ayii" (holy spirit). To search for artificia, falseness is compared to needlessness of putting on extra ornaments. Thus, preserving the poetical idea of Shakespeare, Rufov used elements and images of the Yakut poetical system and folklore to strengthen the poem. While reading the Rufov’s translations one can forget their English origin due to the very rich Yakut elements which allow readers to feel artistic peculiarities of this native tongue.

While writing his translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Rufov implies some peculiarities of traditional Sakha poetry, like morpheme and sounding harmony of lines. Another characteristic feature are frequent verbal rhymes which end up syntactically finished in thought. The author wants to fit traditional prerequisites in for the Sakha audience, thus using laconic, accessible, sincere words.

Viewed from one side, translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets by Semyon Rufov are a bright example of our world literature heritage, and from another they represent some samples of the classical Yakut sonnet's flexibility. If we first consider its rhythm, metric, content and dialectical structure in the Yakuts sonnet form, we can assume that its nationalistic characteristics are reflected in classical forms of sonnets as well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Scantily Clad Info Dump, Forms, Translations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.