The image of the cypress in Morkhadzhi Narmaev’s poem “Fourteen bogatyrs”

This article is the first to examine the poem “Arvn dѳrvn baatr” (“Fourteen Bogatyrs”, 1972) by Kalmyk poet and war veteran Morkhadzhi Bambaevich Narmayev (1915–1995), dedicated to the theme of the Great Patriotic War, including its Russian translation. The study utilizes a historical-functional approach (the theme of war in the context of personal and historical memory); a descriptive method (analysis of the original literary text and its poetics); and a comparative method (analysis of the original work and its Russian translation). The author clarifies the genre definition of the work as a poem-legend, whereas in D. Dolinsky’s translation it is a narrative poem. This work reveals the plot-forming role of the cypress as a natural monument to soldiers who defended their homeland in brutal battles on the Black Sea coast. It also traces the use of Russian lexeme in place of the Kalmyk designations for cypress (aһr, цаһан зандн), and reveals the tree’s symbolism and semantics (sorrow, grief, mourning, eternal life) in the ethnic cultures of various peoples. The author’s comparisons of cypresses to a parade formation and a guard of soldiers are highlighted by the appearance of this evergreen tree. While in his poem “Rzhev — Əрәсән хотн” (“Rzhev, a Russian Town,” 1963–1965) the image of the birch appears as a symbol of Russian womanhood and the Motherland-Russia, in the poem “Fourteen Bogatyrs” under analysis, the image of the cypress is a symbol of the defender of the Fatherland. The article also examines the poetics of the work (title, structure, chronotope, character system, artistic and pictorial devices and techniques), the poem’s Russian translation, which is not equivalent to the original text, and explores the motifs of personal and historical memory of the Great Patriotic War. The multinational cast of the work’s main characters — fourteen soldiers, all named — creates a collective portrait of the Red Army during those most difficult years of trials for all the peoples of the USSR. The refrain of military brotherhood manifests the patriotic fervor of the Soviet people, who heroically rose to defend their native Fatherland. The poem’s past and present demonstrate the heroic connection between generations, including the author’s frontline soldier.

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