Пал Генай, Йынгы-Кушыргы
Mokshis crouch low in the white-moss hollow...*
The pines have settled down to sleep…
Blue-pale light hides in the mist’s kokoshnik,
Autumn spills its gold into the keep...
Sparks rain from the "koza" down to Kokshaga,
A fisherman freezes, spear in the night...
The echo swells a hymn to the geese’s courage —
Island sand will keep their tracks till light...
Wolves will howl up at the stars, careful,
Elk will start, and fox, and badger, too...
Handfuls of cranberry, rowan clusters
Shurale will scatter with his left hand through...
Spruces slice the water in the lakes,
Waters mirror spruce-tops, deep and still,
Pines cast bronze across the pine-wood brakes,
Pine-woods shrive the sins we carry still...
Hush and glass will shroud my Mari land,
Thought will sink into winter’s long design,
The Manichaean bear will go to sleep at last,
And some kind of meaning might draw nigh...
Glossary*
- Mokshis — capercaillies, wood grouse.
- "Koza" — iron grate mounted on the prow of a dugout canoe. Fishermen burned resinous pine-splints in it for lucheniye — spearing fish by torchlight on dark autumn nights.
- Shurale — an anthropomorphic mythic forest spirit known to Mari, Tatars, Bashkirs, and other peoples of the Volga-Ural region.
- Kokshaga (Malaya and Bolshaya) — forested rivers in Mari El, tributaries of the Volga.
- Manichaean bear — moskal', a colloquial name for a Russian/Muscovite. Used here as the dualist enemy counting bones.
Рисунок сгенерирован: Microsoft Copilot
