In the works of the famous Kyrgyz akyns-democrats Toktogul and Togolok Moldo, there are some valuable thoughts about the meaning of life and the health of people.
For example, in their poems about old age, the akyns describe the psychological state of elderly people. For instance, Toktogul depicts this as follows:
My strength has left me,
My youthful years have slipped away.
Before the people, I am bent,
Old age has taken my waist.
I used to walk straight,
Old age has taken my knees.
My strength has left me.
My lively years have left me.
Old age
Has bent me at the waist,
Has weakened my knees.
And Togolok Moldo described it this way:
With each passing day, old age
Takes away my strength.
My joints have loosened,
Old age has taken my legs.
A dull pain in my bones —
Old age has taken my peace.
It is known that most elderly and old people generally have a weakened immune system, which is a dire harbinger of a whole range of diseases. Joint diseases develop first — a very common ailment among the elderly.
In old age, metabolism slows down, the body’s energy production decreases, and its reactivity diminishes. At this age, the body’s resistance to infections decreases. Toktogul describes the physical condition of elderly people in his poem as follows:
My legs have become weak,
The rosy glow has left my face.
The warmth has left my chest,
The joy has left my life.
My skin has sagged,
Old age has taken my vitality.
The strong muscles are gone,
The blush has disappeared from my face.
The former interest in pleasures has vanished.
The skin has sagged —
This is what you have done to me,
old age...
Togolok Moldo tried to give a more complete description of the state of an old person:
My stomach has been disturbed by old age.
From my youthful, apple-like face,
Old age has stolen my beauty.
My legs have become helpless —
Old age has weakened them.
Girls loved me for my courage —
Old age has taken it away forever.
The onset of old age is primarily judged by changes in the blood vessels of the eyes, which are located closer to the brain. The first signs of cataracts appear in the outer layer of the eye or in the lens, and a person begins to see objects in the distance worse. Elderly people often say:
My eyes have failed me, I have lost my sight.
About hearing:
An old person does not lie, they just hear poorly.
It is known that the living differs from the non-living by three properties: the ordered flow of energy (the transfer of necessary food for the cell and the removal of waste), reproduction, and adaptation. If we consider the processes occurring in a living organism based on the law of materialist dialectics regarding the unity and struggle of opposites, we can notice that assimilation predominates over dissimilation, which creates conditions for the development of the organism.
In childhood and youth, a person grows and gains strength. Maintaining internal stability is vital for the organism. Blood pressure, blood composition — all changes in the body are regulated by the hypothalamus — a part of the brain. Togolok Moldo wrote:
At twenty, thirty years,
I was a carefree youth
In the prime of my life.
At twenty-thirty years,
The time for joy comes —
The time of the young man.
However, growth and development of the organism cannot continue for many years; in old age, the process of dissimilation begins to suppress assimilation, i.e., the process of destruction begins to prevail (the body accumulates a large amount of fats, hormones, and sugar in the blood, which ultimately leads to its destruction).
In folk wisdom, it is said: In the time of old age, a person resembles a child.
In old age, the activity of a person's psyche decreases, and indifference to the surrounding world appears. Old people say: What is worse than anything in the world? This cursed old age.
Viral infections, colds, and other diseases undermine the strength of the weakening body, and diseases progress day by day. K. Marx noted that illness is "a life constrained in its freedom." One of the conditions of freedom is the coincidence of what I must do with what I want and can do. In a sick person, there inevitably occurs a rupture between the necessary, the desired, and the possible, reducing the possibilities of satisfying material and spiritual needs, and subsequently, these needs themselves may also decrease.
There is nothing absolutely permanent in the world; everything is interconnected, everything moves and changes. This is what Toktogul expresses in the following lines:
This world is not eternal,
And we will all someday
Leave this life.
Who among us will reach the end
Of this boundless Universe?
The akyn wrote that a short life should be lived fully, completely, without sorrows, without diseases, in a good state of spirit. These reflections stand in opposition to religious notions of the transience of earthly existence.
With irony and sarcasm, Toktogul speaks about Islamic dogmas regarding the paradise afterlife, calling death "useless wealth."
The excerpts we have examined from their works testify that Toktogul and Togolok Moldo considered the material world to be the beginning of the Universe and all manifestations of life within it. Unlike religious teachings, they sought the causes of various phenomena and changes in nature within nature itself. In the creativity of the akyns, a progressive tradition can be traced in the search for artistic images, expressiveness, and emotional impact not in mystical constructs, not in religious ecstasy, but in reality itself, in its inexhaustible diversity, in the grandeur and power of nature, which is viewed not as a dark force opposing man but as a life-giving source of his activity.
It is precisely these aspects of the best works of the akyns that determine the enduring value of their poetic heritage for the people.