Kazakh Historical Epics and Epical Tradition Epopeyas Históricas Kazajas Y La Tradición Épica
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ARTÍCULOS UTOPÍA Y PRAXIS LATINOAMERICANA. AÑO: 24, n° EXTRA 5, 2019, pp. 103-112 REVISTA INTERNACIONAL DE FILOSOFÍA Y TEORÍA SOCIAL CESA-FCES-UNIVERSIDAD DEL ZULIA. MARACAIBO-VENEZUELA. ISSN 1315-5216 / ISSN-e: 2477-9555 Kazakh historical epics and epical tradition Epopeyas históricas kazajas y la tradición épica K KABDESHOVA ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4783-5705 [email protected] Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty ZH RAKYSH P AUYESBAYEVA ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7574-072X ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7716-9715 [email protected] [email protected] Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Al-Farabi Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty T ALBEKOV K ALPYSBAYEVA ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2481-663X ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8240-732X [email protected] [email protected] Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Al-Farabi Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty ABSTRACT RESUMEN Historical epics have great significance in world Las epopeyas históricas tienen un gran significado en literature. Kazakh historical epics were created by folk la literatura mundial. Las epopeyas históricas kazajas poets. In the study, authorial historical epics are fueron creadas por poetas populares. En el estudio, las compared with heroic poetry and historical epics. In the epopeyas históricas de autor se comparan con la narrative, common motives are defined between the poesía heroica y las epopeyas históricas. En la historical epics by folk poets and the heroic poetry; the narrativa los motivos comunes se definen entre las attributes are listed differentiating the former from the epopeyas históricas de los poetas populares y la heroic epics. The subject of this research is the poesía heroica, se enumeran los atributos que historical epics made by folk poets, their place in the diferencian a las primeras de las epopeyas heroicas. El Kazakh literature, the ancient motives, epical traditions tema de esta investigación son las epopeyas históricas in the structure, plot of compositions of this category. hechas por poetas populares, su lugar en la literatura kazajo, los motivos antiguos, las tradiciones épicas en la estructura, la trama de composiciones de esta categoría. Keywords: Historical epic, author, epical tradition, folk Palabras clave: Epopeya histórica, Autor, poets, improvisation. Improvisación, Poetas Populares, Tradición épica. Recibido: 05-09-2019 ● Aceptado: 19-10-2019 Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana publica bajo licencia Creative Commons Atribución-No Comercial-Compartir Igual 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Más información en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ KABDESHOVA et al. Kazakh historical epics… 104 1. INTRODUCTION When studying the history of any nation, its sources, facts, literature, culture, etc. shall be taken into account. That said, there is a lot that literature can provide for cataloging history. Genres of literature such as yearbook, genealogy, heroic poetry, historical poetry, epics, tales, and stories provide information about historical events and historical heroes. After Kazakhstan gained independence, those historical epics banned from research in the Soviet era and strange to the scientific community have been published, and their research has been started. Vitality, liberty, and love for Motherland of the nation that fought with the enemy and injustice are one of the main ideas of historical epics. The poetry praising the patriotic pathos has gained its appreciation in the world literature. For example, the Egyptian pyramid texts regarded as literary composition tell about the life and adventures of the person in that tomb. The ‘Iliad' of Homer tells of the world- famous ten-year war between the Greeks and Trojans, and his ‘Odyssey' describes the Odyssey's trip to his wife, Penelope, from Ithaca, after the end of the war (Akhmetzhanova et al.: 2015, pp. 240-241). The Indian epic ‘Mahabharata' (800-400 BC) describes the formation of the nation, and ‘Ramayana' (about 200 BC) tells of Rama's quest to rescue his beloved wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana. In the composition s found in the Library of Assyria's king Asurbanipal (647-627 BC), the struggle and heroic deeds of ancient kings, gods, and queens of ancient Mesopotamia such as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, and Gilgamesh are described. The history of the entire human race has been longing for a peaceful life after having troublesome times. They never forgot their heroes that brought peace to their land. That is why the best samples of the world literature have been devoted to the deeds of the heroes. 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS The Kazakh people, who had occupied the Great Steppe, have had enough heroic sons. Historical and political events in the Kaganate, Khanate, and colonial eras involved the direct participation of heroes. In those times, the aqyn, zhyrau, and poets who were always among the people, narrated the history of the country in the form of poetry and passed it down through the generations. ‘The concept of zhyr, zhyrshy comes from zhar. Zhyr, yir, ir in Tatar, Kyrgyz and other Turkic languages means a poem or a rhyme, while in Kazakh poetry it means a rhyme, term which is not divided into verses, in the form of a long speech with a free rhyme having seven, sometimes eight syllables’ according to Prof. Y. Ismailov who shares his opinion on zhyrshy suggesting that, ‘In the Buryat-Mongolian language the zhyrshy and sheshen has the same origin, khurchi, khurchin - to play a golden violin or a gulchin - an honored woman, a soson - sheshen – meaning a smart woman, flower, respected by aqyn-zhyrshy and sang in their epics (Ismailov: 1996). Most Kazakh poets, who lived in the XV-XIX centuries and at the beginning of the ХХ century, were illiterate. Therefore, their poetry was created orally and spread among the community, and only later they were written on paper. For example, the great poet Zhambyl Zhabayev (1846-1945) improvised his epics and kept them in memory and spread to the people orally. Abdilda Tazhibayev, Kapan Satybaldin, Kalmukan Abdykadirov, Gali Ormanov, Tair Zharokov, who were his literary secretaries in the Soviet era, helped to write down and publish the composition s that the old poet remembered. To date, many authors of historical epics and their main heroes such as batyr , historical individuals have not been thoroughly familiar to the typical reader and scientific community, and therefore many of them have not received due appreciation in the national literature and history. In the context of the Soviet ideology, there were shared opinions about some poets such as Zhambyl, Nurpeis and some batyr such as Amangeldy, Suranshi, Isatai, Makhambet, and popularization was carried out among the community. The names of dozens of other heroes, poets were ignored, and their compositions were kept in literary archives. Above, it was mentioned that the compositions of folk poets were created orally and passed down in the form of word of mouth. It is known that in the history of the world culture, the improvisational art was also in Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana; ISSN 1315-5216; ISSN-e 2477-9555 Año 24, n° Extra 5, 2019, pp. 103-112 105 the composition s of bards, minnesingers, sasans, and scalds. There were famous European improvisers such as Tommaso Sgricci, Eugen de Pradell, Adam Mickiewicz, and Max LangerSchwartz. Many Kazakh folk poets created their composition s orally till the October Revolution, and some poets - till the middle of the twentieth century, maintaining the tradition of oral literature. Folk poets, along with their own composition s, kept the memory of those of other aqyn-shyrau, bii, and sheshen, sal-Seri of aitys, of epic epics and spread them among the community. For their improvisational talent they gained sympathy and an excellent reputation among the people in the community. ‘In the Kazakh society, making verses, i.e., poetic art, was not an occupation or something to learn, but it was only an outward form of thought, a way to express ideas through talent. Making a verse or zhyr sometimes required efforts to reflect and rectifying errors in it, but sometimes the poetry came out spontaneously, like a stream, and the poet in this case used prose and sang incessantly and without any effort for rhyming. In sudden situations such as sending soldiers to war, decapitating the khan, people would wait for a poet to tell the story, and there the verses were made right away. Moreover, those who would sit and reflect did not do poetry. They did not memorize their rhymes, or do recording on paper, but just uttered when it was needed' (Atash: 2013). When the written literature developed and the books were published, interest in the improvising art decreased, and its scope was narrowed. Nowadays, the improvisational tradition is kept in the form of aitys. This trend has remained in the Kyrgyz and Karakalpak nations along with Kazakhs. Folk poets improvised extensive and sophisticated samples of epics, as well as major epic epics. The subject of this research is the historical epics made by folk poets, their place in the Kazakh literature, the ancient motive s, epical traditions in the structure, composition, plot of composition s of this category. The scenes of intense clashes for the independence of the high steppes and the independence of the country were described in historical al epics, epic compositions, and in authorial historical poems with expressive language. ‘Historical epics are a part of the Kazakh folklore, which has been a model to showcase the country and sovereignty with an incredible spirit, from generation to generation. It is well-known that the study of the idea of national liberation, which was widely depicted in them, was limited in the Soviet-era’ (Albekov et al.: 2017).