[h2]About the poem "The Tale of Manas".
The creative individuality of the writer is most vividly manifested in the poetic vocabulary — the lexicon of the work. The foundation of "The Tale of Manas" as a Russian-language work is, of course, Russian vocabulary. It is presented, as required by the laws of the folk epic, in various speech variants (everyday, colloquial, military, jargon, etc.) and different stylistic layers (common vocabulary, conversational, vernacular, elevated, emotional, etc.).
In "The Tale of Manas," where, metaphorically speaking, heroes and warriors coexist organically, the author's active use of two speech layers draws attention — Old Slavic words (zlatо, glas, polon, kryla, zertsalo, pred, etc.) and colloquialisms (patsan, starshoy, baba, tysyacha, obaldel, etc.). Both of these layers are artistically motivated: Old Slavic words associatively lead the reader into the depths of epic time, while colloquialisms bring the epic heroes closer to our modernity.
Kyrgyz vocabulary in "The Tale of Manas" is mainly represented by proper names — anthroponyms (names of people), zoonyms (names of animals), toponyms (names of geographical objects), ethnonyms (names of ethnic groups), mythonyms (names of fictional objects in myths and fairy tales) and everyday vocabulary that is unknown or little known to the Russian reader in Kyrgyzstan (ashpozhchu — cook, tavak — wooden dish, chylbyr — horse's lead, tentek — rascal, nike — marriage ceremony, dobulbas — battle drum, surnay — zurna, flute, etc.). Translations of such words and expressions are provided partially in the text of the work and partially in the dictionary attached to it.
And finally, about the poem "The Tale of Manas". M. Baidzhiev, who, by the way, is the author of several works on Kyrgyz versification, faced a difficult question: what meter to use to convey the verse of "Manas," consisting of seven to eight-syllable syllabic lines? After all, in Russian versification, syllabics (the presence of the same number of syllables in a line regardless of the number of stresses) went into the past back in the 18th century after the reforms of Trediakovsky and Lomonosov, which established syllabotonic verse (a system of constructing verse based on the correct alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables). And Baidzhiev chose a four-foot iambic meter — a two-syllable meter with stress on the even syllables, which has become classical in the Russian language.
This is a very successful solution: first, the number of syllables in the line is almost preserved (eight); second, it takes into account the presence of a constant stress in the Kyrgyz language on the last syllable.
The tale of ancient times
Lives today, in our days.
A story without edge or end
The Kyrgyz people created,
Inherit from son to father
Passed from mouth to mouth.
In the rhyming of the verses, M. Baidzhiev achieved commendable adequacy. The poetic form characteristic of "Manas" is "djira" ("jyr"), which knows no regularity in the arrangement of rhymes. Here, stanzas are replaced by tirade groups of lines with the most diverse ways of rhyming. Thus, the text above has two tirade groups: a couplet with adjacent rhymes (aa) and a quatrain with alternating rhymes (abab).
Rhyme endings are repeated consecutively or intermixed with others in several lines: from three to ten to twelve. Often the rhyme arises unexpectedly — detached from previous homogeneous rhymes. Some lines do not rhyme at all. All these techniques enhance the artistic expressiveness of the verse, emphasizing the dynamism and continuity of the epic narrative.
A tale borne by the people,
Having gone through bloody years,
Sounded like a hymn of immortality,
Boiling in hot hearts,
Calling for freedom and victory.
To the defenders of the native land
This tale was a faithful friend.
Like a song carved in granite,
The people keep it in their souls.
With great poetic skill, M. Baidzhiev also uses other figurative and expressive means characteristic of the epic "Manas": redif and tautological rhyme, anaphora, assonance, alliteration, constant epithets, repetitions, parallelism, inversion, phraseologisms, etc. In other words, the poetics of "The Tale of Manas" is largely adequate to the poetics of the epic "Manas." This means that the Russian-speaking reader who comes into possession of M. Baidzhiev's book will gain a fairly complete understanding of the Kyrgyz epic, will be introduced to its themes, ideas, and images, and will enrich their spiritual and emotional world. At the same time, they will appreciate the book itself — bright, profound, innovative.
Thus, "The Tale of Manas" is a unique work, one of a kind. First, it is a poetic rendition of the first book of the trilogy — the actual "Manas" in its entirety, not just one episode, as in "The Great Campaign." Second, the translator-interpretator is a bilingual writer who does not need a literal translation. Third, "The Tale of Manas" is an original work created based on folkloric primary sources.
M. Baidzhiev's "The Tale of Manas" can be used not only for reading but also as a teaching aid for studying the epic "Manas" in secondary and higher education. In both cases, it is advisable to familiarize oneself with the introductory article by Academician B. M. Yunusaliev "The Kyrgyz Heroic Epic 'Manas'."
In the book "Tashim Baidzhiev," published in the series "The Lives of Remarkable People of Kyrgyzstan" in 2004, its author, Mar Baidzhiev, movingly recounts his visit to the prison cemetery of the former Karlag (Karaganda camp), where his father was buried in 1952. Standing by the nameless grave, the son mentally conversed with him:
“I served your 'Manas,' your native language. To the best of my ability, I did everything so that the great creation of our people would be known and admired by the whole world… As long as my heart beats and my mind works, I will continue your work. I swear before your ashes, at your grave.”
And Mar Tashimovich — Tashim Uulu Mar — remained true to his oath. By creating "The Tale of Manas," he became, metaphorically speaking, the first Russian-speaking Manaschi. With the release of his book, "Manas" enters the expanses of the Russian-speaking cultural and artistic space, gaining a new sphere of existence in a vast historical time.
The filial duty, bequeathed by God, is fulfilled.
The Traditional Feature of the Epic "Manas"
