The symbolism of natural images in the lyrics of Z. Dudina

The theme of nature has always occupied a significant and special place in Mari literature. Poets and writers celebrate the beauty of their native nature, express love and respect for it in their works. This is confirmed by both literary classics (recall S. Chavain's "Grove" – the first work of fiction in the Mari language, written in 1905) and the works of modern poets (A. Ivanova, A. Timirkaev, V. Izilanova, Z. Dudina, N. Emykan, etc.).

Nature is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for them. Each natural image is to a certain extent an element of the native and national landscape (for example, in Russian literature, "images of willow, birch appear in Rubtsov often as a symbol of the Motherland, national destiny" ^[15]). Natural images "become a means of symbolizing various states of the human soul" ^[14]. It is in nature that poets seek analogies (symbols) of human life; with the help of natural images, their aspiration to high ideals is conveyed. Natural images-symbols always carry a deep, hidden meaning, create the subtext of the work. The method of symbolizing nature is almost always a form of the poet's reflection on the essence of the world and on the fate of man.

In modern literary and cultural science, the symbolism of various natural images and phenomena is widely studied [see, for example: 5; 13; 14; 15; 16]. However, most of these studies are based on the material of Russian poetry.  

The purpose of this article is to use the material of lyrical texts included in the collection of the modern Mari poet Zoya Dudina "Kuanyshym, kuemndal ..." (Rejoiced, hugging a birch tree ... – 2012) to identify the symbolic meaning and artistic functions of natural poetic images that represent the philosophical attitude and worldview of the author and characterize the lyrical heroine in a certain way.

Note that the article is a continuation of the research available in the Mari literary science on the poetry of Zoya Dudina ^{[6; 11; 10]}, on the philosophical component and poetics of her work, including the research of the author of this publication ^{[7; 8; 9]}. However, in the aspect we have highlighted, Zoya Dudina's lyrics are being investigated for the first time.

According to M.V. Kazakova, in a number of Finno-Ugric peoples, natural images are associated with their traditional way of life, which takes place in close proximity to nature and is perceived as something unified with man ^[2]. The lyrical heroine Zoya Dudina attentively watches the dawn and the awakening of nature, listens to the singing of birds with deep interest, enthusiastically follows the life of the people, her relatives. Both of these substantial layers in the poems of Zoya Dudina exist equally, they are inextricably linked at the philosophical and artistic level (man is inextricably linked with nature, the laws of their being are the same, hence psychological parallelism, anthropomorphism as the most important principles of their artistic representation).

Natural images symbolize, first of all, the state of mind of the lyrical heroine associated with her value attitude to her small homeland: she is truly happy, she is overwhelmed with a sense of pride for her people and a devoted love for her native expanses. Addressing her friend, in the poem "Myyn mlandem" (My Land), the lyrical heroine states:

Pincheran cueret,Kande Kakshan seret,

Alzharan eret –

Myyn mlandem.

Serwyn guy pasuet.

My taman pamashet,

Erykan kalyket –

Shochmo elem ^{[2, p. 12]}

(Your birch grove with pines,

Blue coast of Kokshagi,

Your scarlet dawn –

My land.

The field is yours, like a green outfit.

The honey taste of your spring,

Free people –

My homeland)

[Subscript translation of quotations from the poems of Z. Dudina into Russian here and then everywhere is ours. – N.L.]

In this small fragment, several natural images appear: a birch grove (we pay attention to the fact that it is not homogeneous, but open to the "habitat" of other trees), a blue river bank (not brown and not gray, as usually happens, but some special blue), a scarlet dawn (certainly saturated-bright color), a field resembling the green ceremonial clothes of a Mari woman (serwyn is "the name of women's outerwear made of green or black cloth worn for prayer and for a wedding" ^{[1, p. 318]}), a spring with honey (pleasant, sweet!) taste. All these images, inserted, it would seem, into a traditional meaningful context ("my homeland", "my land" – love and affection for the native side), are symbolized in the author's consciousness, united in meaning, and in them "the author will see deep philosophical meanings", "wildlife will become a place of spiritual transformation" ^[13] lyrical heroine. All these images, created with the help of semantically specific epithets and comparisons, are united around the concept of "free people" – it contains the "deep philosophical meaning", "seen through" by the author: Zoya Dudina sings of her native "silver people", who earned good fame by work, as well as by a free spirit (disposition):

Pasha, eryk kumyl dene poro l?m-nerym sulenShiy kalykem ^{[2, p. 12]}

(By work, by the spirit of freedom, he earned a good reputation

My silver people).

Free and natural movement is the law of nature; the main condition for the development of the people, the factor of the flowering of national consciousness, in the understanding of Zoya Dudina, is also freedom – freedom of mind, spirit, feeling. She is presented as the life motto of the lyrical heroine herself, who, addressing her relatives, declares that she is ready to defend her even in the most difficult circumstances of life:

Tan ozyrkan onchylan my om shogo suken,Rodo-vlakem ^{[2, p. 12]}

(Before a ferocious storm, I will not kneel,

My family).

A similar symbolic semantics is also present in the poem "Shere nur – Shernur" (Sweet field – Sernur). Zoya Dudina also begins her reflections in it with the theme of a small homeland; similar figurative means are used to describe native expanses: "blue-blue sky", "honey water", "honey grass". The author compares his ethnic relatives, neighbors, relatives with free, hardworking and selfless bees – it is these qualities symbolized in this natural image that are important for the author and in his native people.

The natural and harmonious "being" of nature provides spiritual comfort for the lyrical heroine, this being is represented anthropomorphically. The natural images and the image of the lyrical heroine are united by kinship relations in the family: the mother for the lyrical heroine is the blue sky (Kande–kande kava chylt torase avam gay - Blue–blue sky exactly like my mother), the father is water (It is in the soap kodo poro achamla – Water It remained to me as my kind father), the earth – grandmother (Perdyn noysho mlande torase kovam guy – The earth tired of the cycle, like my grandmother living far away).

Continuation of such comparisons:And pushe?ge, peledysh – izay den e?gaila

Aralat, ?rchyktat tukymem ^{[2, p. 13]}

(And the trees and flowers are brothers and sisters–in-law

They protect and propagate my generation).

These natural-human juxtapositions have a deep symbolic meaning, each juxtaposed pair of images embodies a certain type of existence and destiny, predetermined by the laws of nature and ancestral traditions. Each pair of images has its own role in relation to the lyrical heroine: the sky-mother – to meet, accompany and wait (Vashliesh, uzhata and vucha); the earth-grandmother – to blame, comfort and stroke (Shyltala, shymata and vechka); the water-father – to teach the wisdom of life in a kind way (Tudo myym iyash tunykten – He taught me to swim); the trees-brothers and flowers-daughters–in-law - to preserve and multiply her kind. All natural images-symbols are united by complicity in the fate of the lyrical heroine and her kind. The lyrical heroine, in turn, is inspired, her veins are filled with a "sweet field" (Chamois).

Zoya Dudina asserts the initially organized unity of the world (heaven, earth and water) and spiritual harmony – as a consequence of a properly organized life (human by analogy with natural). The feeling of this harmony comes to the lyrical heroine in her small homeland, in her native Sernur. The poem "Sweet Field – Sernur" ends with a rhetorical question expressing freedom and harmony of the soul:

...Mo yot mlande mylam?Ketch saskan... ^{[2, p. 13]}

(Why do I need someone else's land?

Although it is fertile ...).

The harmony of the human soul (shyp chonem – quiet heart) is correlated with the image of a bird (lark), the features of which a person acquires in his homeland (lightness, feeling of flight, calmness, creative impulse):

P?rtylam da liyam shuldyra?she aideme,Shyp chonem turiy muro yikan ^{[2, p. 13]}

(I will return and be an inspired person,

My quiet heart sings like a lark).

In the poem "Lui modmo ver" (The Place where the marten played), in which Zoya Dudina recalls the Mari actor and poet Yivan Kyrlu, who played in the first Soviet artistic sound film "A Ticket to Life", who performed in it the Mari song "Oh, lui modesh" (Oh, the marten plays), a lot of natural images, the main one of which (it is indicated in the title of the work, in the sense is a dynamic natural picture) is the game of a marten, a "regular" of the former Sernur region. The search for the lyrical heroine of the place where, according to the memories of old-timers, a marten played for Yyvan Kyrly (it turns out to be a beautiful and springy light meadow, to which a path leads out among a black and dense spruce forest), acquires symbolic meaning – this is a person's search for himself, truth, a difficult path to happiness, spiritual, personal, creative self-realization, in which the motherland is of great importance:

Lopka Pamash, Yoshkar Pamash decLuktesh aydem Shemkozher.

En tamle Shere nur uzhargysh,

Kozhla yolgorno – sip-chewer.

Kyrla yolden you sipcheverym,

Izi yalem chaplandaren,

T?nalan shochmo kalyk semym

Jo?galtaren: "Lui modmo ver"... ^{[2, p. 18]}

(Wide Spring, to the Red Spring

A Black spruce forest brings out a person.

The most delicious Sweet field has turned green,

The path in the middle of the spruce forest is densely bright.

Kyrla walked on this beauty,

Glorified my village,

Peace with the melody of the native people

Filled: "The place where the marten played"...).

The place where the marten played is perceived in the poem as a source of inspiration and creativity, a factor of spiritual and creative growth of a person who allows to glorify his people and his small homeland, which, in turn, is also associated with a place where a marten plays merrily, that is, a place that is extraordinarily beautiful (Mr olykan), where calm on the soul (... Muam laskam), a place that will always attract to itself (chon ?zhm? ver).

Many natural images inserted into a certain ideological and thematic context receive a specific philosophical meaning that differs from the traditional (folklore) and widespread literary and artistic interpretation of them - in this case we can talk about individual and personal images-symbols in the lyrics of Zoya Dudina. For example, in the poem "Kugez toshkemyshte" (In the backyard of the ancestors), the lyrical heroine experiences the departure from the life of her parents:

Om Pale: Mogai yikym luktyn,Vis-vis oyyrla vozhsho dene?

Om pale, jozhga mom kalasysh?

Oh, to? myshudym taya?

^{[2, p. 27]}

(I don't know what sounds it makes

Chamomile, parting with the roots?

I don't know what the sedge said?

I don't see who bowed the clover?).

Flowers and herbs are defenseless before the scythe, symbolizing danger and death. The lyrical heroine is not only aware of herself as an orphan, she also says that her family has "mowed down" like green grass. In this context, the plant images used in the poem (chamomile, sedge and clover) are perceived as symbols of deep loneliness and human defenselessness before the world. For other Mari poets, the more common meaning, for example, of the image of a daisy, is the expectation of love in serene youth ("loves – does not love"). So V. Izilanova read: Myyat kaem kechan kozhlash / Peledysh dene muzhedash ^{[3, p. 189]} – And I go to the sunny spruce forest / To guess at the flower). She also recalls chamomile in the context of withering and death (the last stage of human destiny) [see about this: 12, p. 155]. In most modern poetic texts, the image of a daisy is used in the context of a love theme, not a philosophical one.

In the poem "Eryk nergen" (About freedom), symbolized images of nettles, quinoa and burdock are given. The lyrical heroine Zoya Dudina, a strong and free personality, persistently fights with these plants (plucks them with her hands, coughs, cuts with an axe), but not only because they are simple, everyday garbage for her, but also because they are the garbage of the whole planet (el kushtyra), interfering with the normal life of people (burn the body, clog up the field, cling and slow down make it difficult to move). But in the poem, these plants are presented not only as a symbol of natural garbage. The lyrical heroine reflects on the complexity and heterogeneous function of any phenomena of natural and human life. It reminds of the medicinal properties of these "hated" plants that have saved more than one human life. So, nettle, it turns out, promotes good blood clotting, burdock helps with headaches, and quinoa was eaten during the hungry years, it helped the native people survive.

"TYLECH VARA: / ULAM MO MY /ERYKAN?" ^{[2, p. 78]} (After that: / Am I / free?) – the poem ends with such an unexpected question for the reader of the lyrical heroine. The author translates his reflections on the philosophical problem of the essence of freedom and a free person. A free person is not someone who spontaneously (reflexively, thoughtlessly) and recklessly "smashes" the annoying "garbage" of life, but someone who is able to think and act deliberately, analyzing all life facts and phenomena deeply, from all sides, without losing sight of their positive sides. And it is important to remember that outwardly unpleasant and unnecessary is not always harmful and useless.

In the poem "Lemegorz" (Juniper), the lyrical heroine identifies herself with juniper. Juniper, in her view, is a symbol of all kinds of failures and suffering (it is difficult to rush up like other trees, there are no bright colors). There is no personal joy in the lyrical hero, like a juniper, every time trying to hide in front of the rain bending him down (a symbol of life's difficulties). However, juniper, as evidenced by the experience of the Mari people, has always been used in everyday life, it was associated with the salvation and well-being of the family, clan, people. According to pagan traditions, it was set on fire to exorcise evil spirits, and before Easter it was fixed over the door as a security force. He was "tortured" for the benefit and help of a person; the lyrical heroine is tortured by suffering, and her nerves are at the limit:

ry? shogem shoksho keche yymalne –Yr dech onchych k?lesh lyvyrgash.

Lemegorz mo ulam mlandyvalne?

Sadlanak mo tchat kogartash?

^{[2, p. 42]}

(I stand still under the hot sun –

It is necessary to duck before the rain.

Juniper, what am I on earth?

Is that why they're trying to burn me?).

As in the previous poem, in "Juniper" the symbolism of the natural image is multifaceted, and through it opens the complex inner world of the lyrical heroine, as well as the author's concept of man. Juniper's life is full of suffering, but people need him, just as the fate of a person who consciously chose the path of public service cannot be easy.

In the poem "Tumo" (Oak), Zoya Dudina openly talks about her love for her native people. In the desire to leave a memory in the people about herself and help her people in their further development, the lyrical heroine plants an oak tree. In the popular view, the oak is a symbol of nobility, longevity, strength, courage, endurance, fertility and loyalty.

My shyndem windows onchyko tumym –Lije semje kuatle, shyma.

You pushe?gyla kushsho u tukym,

Odarlanyl, Saskatchewan tulanen ^{[2, p. 58]}

(I'll plant an oak tree in front of the window –

Let his songs be strong, gentle.

Let a new generation grow up like this tree,

Branching, multiplying with fruits).

She wants to preserve in the future generation not only the strength of the family, but also pagan traditions, the faith of the ancestors of Chimari (Osh Mari), sacred groves, an indispensable attribute of which, in addition to linden and birch trees, was an oak. Thus, the oak is a symbol of memory, loyalty to the social, spiritual and moral traditions of the people.  

So, natural images occupy a significant place in the lyrics of Zoya Dudina. The landscape in the artistic system of her collection "Rejoiced, hugging a birch ..." became a picture of her world, "a criterion for evaluating this world and a means of survival in it" ^[13]. Natural images express not only various internal states of the lyrical heroine, but also various aspects of human existence. Natural images are anthropomorphic (often the lyrical heroine herself appears in the form of natural images) and symbolic, they carry a deep philosophical meaning. Natural images-symbols express not only the individual author's perception of the world and man (lark as an expression of freedom and harmony of the soul; chamomile, sedge and clover as symbols of deep loneliness and human defenselessness before the world, etc.), they also revitalize the ethnic worldview traditions of Mari, with which Zoya Dudina is closely connected (natural environment as a place of spiritual awakening; oak as a symbol of the Mari faith, the physical and inner strength of the people; the unity of the world in the correlated images of heaven, earth and water, etc.). The author often combines them in the same poem, for example, the image of juniper is not only an individual author's symbol of failures and suffering, but also a symbol of the healing power of nature in relation to a person (popular perception).