PROVERBS * *

 "Without death, you will not die," used to say Michael Grigorievich. But how to understand this proverb? What kind of philosophy is behind this maxim, which repeats the simple truth. Without death, you will not die … 

Emphasis is on the first word. Apparently, this is not the mere negation of suicide, contrary to people's worldview. Suicide on such a perception is a great sin. Another proverb says "Death is terrible by your sins." (Recall the popular belief of the sorcerers who cannot die until someone else does not take from them the sin of relationship with the evil spirit.)

 Michael Grigorievich slept four hours a day but believed even those four hours were lost. The best time for him was tea time. "Oh, to live in your own presence!" - He kept saying at such moments.

 To live in your own presence ... Again, something incomprehensible to the modern perception and rationalistic mind.

 "Don't do good deeds, and then you will not be cursed" - is one of his favourite sayings. That person always intended one thing: to do good and live by the Gospel ...

 This is strange! The proverb excludes hundreds of others, speaking about the power and necessity of good. But it is only at first glance. Recall how rushed Don Quixote was to do good, liberate a little shepherd tied to an oak, and later, the same shepherd jumped at the poor knight with abuse, accusing him of all his troubles. Folk wisdom is ambiguous and multi-layered.

 "Wealth gives birth to mind," - says a proverb. No, "Loss is to augment mind," - says another. Which of them to believe? And the whole point is that they do not contradict each other. Simply, each of them is suitable in certain circumstances. Perhaps the first is composed by philosophers, the second by merchants, but it may, on the contrary, probably be for both. Can we assume that an average person becomes wiser as with good fortune and a loss, that only for fools it does work neither one thing nor the other?

 Nothing is more infectious than reading the Dal's Book of Proverbs. Caught once your attention, the book firmly grabs you; you do not want to be alone, encroaching on the innermost. But proverbs are not equal, so reading the book of Proverbs is deceptive. Your consciousness adapts and switches not only in meaning but also in the magnitude of emotional impulses. Interest is rapidly becoming unnatural, painful and intrusive. Perception is dulled. Soon appears the illusion of complete understanding, full contact with the folk wisdom. In fact, the sense hides behind the line farther and more profoundly, as if considering you unworthy of her.

 And how can all the folk wisdom be contained in one, even such a big book? Many thousands of proverbs gathered together in one place somehow do not play and may also interfere with each other. They are crowded in the book. They have no air to breathe. They live only in the context, in the element of everyday language.

 What a lively, full-blooded thing it becomes each of the spoken language's proverbs (even a lousy one)! Nevertheless, (a blessing in disguise!) the meaning and beauty of most good proverbs could be understood when thinking it over, that is when reading ...

 Let us open a manuscript collection of proverbs, which is dated 1824. Judging by the handwriting and font selection, the collector was educated. He began the manuscript by saying, "You can't get rid of the devil with an "Amen!" "The gang is strong because of the leader," - says next. If you read without pondering, it just gets annoying. But let's think about it.

 "They argue but leave the words for peace" - what is it? It turns out that when people fight, there is no time for talk; let the blood of each other in silence. Words are suitable for a quiet conversation; only you can avoid battle in a discussion.

 The proverb sounds relatively modern.

 "Above the forehead, ears do not grow." It seems understandable, but the main point here is that no one can comprehend more of his capabilities.

 We read further: "The thief does not always steal but always takes," "They sing to you, and give us head-ups," "Guest does not stay long but sees a lot (especially from overseas, we would add on my own), "A hungry wolf will unscrew the locks," "Sorry for a girl, but we lost a guy."

 Whatever it goes, there is a mystery. Our modern perception is superficial. We are poorly penetrating into the depth and meaning of such proverbs.

 "Knowing the enemy, why not have the feast?" "Reluctantly go with your husband if there are no takers."

 Even two such excellent proverbs, but placed side by side, interfere with each other, and for this case also, there is a proverb: "One talks well, two talk gaudy." In fact, is it possible to read the second proverb without understanding the first? But even if we know first, we want to wait to switch to the theme of women's emancipation ...

 The alphabet is big, years pass fast, and time is short. So let's go further: "The drums are loud behind the mountains, and when they brought to us, they sound like baskets," "The goitre is full, but the eyes are hungry," "The stock will not damage the sack," "The serpent dies, but it grabs the potion," "Mother Superior takes the glass, and sisters take the bucket," "A frightened animal runs far away," "Throw bread back, it will come from ahead."

 ... I want to write them down all. But how to understand even this proverb about bread? What does that mean? Is the tighter the sack with food behind the back, the farther you can go?

 In the letter "F" an anonymous collector, a contemporary of Pushkin, recorded such sayings: "The fox will not muddy the tail," "For lazy, there is always a holiday," "People walk without making noise, but if we put the foot, always a bang," "Horse in the collar works as it can."

 Over the last proverb and the previous, a modern man thinks and thinks (the sayings above are not about peasant transport). "We sit at the party because of people, and people, because of us, do not sleep at night. "Not everyone immediately gets what is said here about the thieves, secret night robbers.

 The proverb "A young moon doesn't shine in one night" was created by a woman. It is about an inexperienced, very young husband or a lover, but it is also ambiguous, as the expression "Mother-night, everything went all right."

"Bear is guilty that it ate a cow, and the cow is wrong that it has gone into the woods," 

"Not everything grayish is the wolf," 

"They do not hit upon the age. They hit into the ribs," 

"Don't sing with the butt if there is no voice," 

"Neither this nor that; it was boiling and then got burnt,"

 "For a rotten product, a blind customer is needed," 

"There are no wizards for a sin," 

"The ardent horse needs not the stick, but the cart-load" (about a willful wife ),

 "The dog's foot doesn't know how to lie on the plate,"

 "One devil is not the devil at all," 

"I'll give you a bone: you can gnaw it, or you can throw it "(about a married daughter), 

"By the dog's hair, its name is given," 

"Hit the soot, stroke the soot, any way you get black," 

"The front one is a road for the last one" (in a pessimistic sense of the deceased, in the optimistic - about the newborn).

 Let's take at least a short respite. In this example, consider a proverb: "The spilled doesn't live fully." What broad associative capabilities of those several words! Of course, it tells nothing to a man who cannot think metaphorically. He will not recall this proverb at the sight of after-thunderstorm clouds, wounded in the war man, will not come to mind at the view of the ruined house.

 Let's see what is written next:

 "Old traditions, strong love," 

"The dog barks even at the bishop,"

 "Get off someone else's horse in the middle of the dirt,"

 "Your own sore is a big lump," 

"People with a lot in common are reluctant friends," 

"The blind leads the blind,"

 "A small tear in the youth becomes a great hole in the old age," "Something propped the old devil to run,"

 "Fight with the son, hide behind the stove, fight with the son-in-law, run away from the house,"

 "This is not a disaster if the money is gone,"

 "Bear it the head; you are pinned down in the bones," 

"Grieve for youth as about the county" (health), 

"A calf died, more bread in the barn" (i.e. blessing in disguise).

 No, alphabetical order, whatever you say, is not suitable, a simple enumeration of almost nothing when dealing with proverbs. But, of course, one such saying, "Grace can brag even in the court," may be the subject of a separate discussion. But we have no time for such talks...

 "Who has bile in the mouth, has also everything taste bitter," "Having stolen the Breviary hear, O Lord, my plight!", "The money has no eyes" (compared with the fact that "money does not smell")," "They drank at Fil's place, and yet Fil got beaten," and "He praises the foreign land, but doesn't put his foot over there."

 There are sayings for every occasion, for any contemporary phenomenon, and the moral maximalism of many proverbs does not age:

 "What you do not know how to praise, do not criticize," "What's terrible, that is honest," 

"A buffoon is not reliable in friendship," 

"An obvious sin creates a little guilt,"

 "A daring belongs to God, and the drunk staggers by the devil," 

"Do not love the agreeable; love the contrarian,"

 "The Truth is brighter than the sun,"

"The sleep is a brother of death,"

 "Sow with tears, reap with joy."

 It is seen that the collector wrote with a quill pen. Bold cross cancelled this inscription: "This notebook I can remember, I wrote back one year ago, in 1824, the month of January, the 5th of the eve of the Epiphany, 1825 of January, the 10th day".

 The missing signature reveals the author's modesty and reluctance to any vanity. But after that, more than three hundred excellent proverbs are written down. Here are some of them:

 "Near the king is near the honour, near the king is near death," "For a fugitive, there is one way, and for the pursuer - a lot," "The kingdom of the blind has the blind king,"

 "On the road, father and son are comrades," 

"Bends without care, and when breaks, it doesn't bother," "Where is the king, there and the horde."

 In each such line, the history shows, and other sayings sound for a modern mind almost cryptic:

 "A rope is in the beard, and cover-up is in the water," 

"It looks at water, but the fire burns,"

 "Head lice have seen the water, and people heard laundry being done,"

 "Good silence could stand for the answer," 

"The blind cries because he doesn't see a thing," 

"Two bows and both are strong," 

"Good news, if there is time to eat," 

"It feels good to beat someone who cries," 

"Nobles need beautiful service,"

 "The hand is killed by the hand, and the leg lifts the leg."

One can guess the proverb "The mare lies, and dough-trough runs" talks about the man and the woman. But what does this proverb mean: "The key is stronger than the castle"? Or: "Miller is rich with the noise"?

 It is not clear, and the expression "Between the two naked." "Without nursing, one will not gain the enemy," apparently meaning that not every kindness and friendship is good. (Maybe this is close to a proverb: "Do not do good, do not get scolded.") And what does this proverb mean: "The eagles fight - dashing guys get the feathers?" The best proverbs are ambiguous, the average ones are linear and two-dimensional at best, and the poor ones are boring and straightforward. Also, the perception of proverbs was multi-faceted. The more global the proverb's meaning is, the more it has local interpretations. Take a well-known proverb: "From a song cannot throw out a word." Treating proverbs superficially, we need to notice that the proverb is not about the song but something more meaningful and profound. For example, it is about human life, and not necessarily a happy and carefree life, like a bird's song. Then, the "word," which can not be thrown out of the song, can represent some inevitable events (marriage, conscription, etc.).

 It is hard to resist the temptation not to quote a few more proverbs from this amazing notebook:

 "The need changes the law,"

 "God will inflow on the quiet, but the playful inflict it on himself."

 "Only for adults couch potatoes are in honour."

 "If you rob the beggar, the money will smell of the beggar's bag."

 "An innocent soul, an unjust death,"

 "Do not be afraid of the plaintiff, but fear the lawyer."

 "He talks too much from the mind overflow."

 "Look back, check whether the town is on fire."

 "A weak prince gets licked by calves."

 "An old crow doesn't crow without reason."

 "A well-fed Sexton will share donations even with the priest."

 But there is no end to the proverbs... As we can see, the proverb, even hidden within the book or manuscript, does not die altogether. Moreover, the saying does not disclose their wealth to emotionally non-awakened and ignorant folklife readers.

 For some unknown reason, folklore experts sometimes put a proverb alongside a saying, a genre boundary that is generally not noticeable. The saying can be called any figurative expression. Phrases may have no meaning at all but only music and rhythmic appearance, amusing hearing with sound mix and exclamations ("Oh, Christmas trees, sticks in the dense forest," "Pullout of teeth," "Blood and milk," etc.). The saying was present everywhere. Teaching children how to count went, like: "Two, three - wipe your nose," "Nine, ten - water weight." "Eleven, twelve - on the street, people meddle."