The Tengri Songs by Bair Dugarov: Myth and History

Abstract

Introduction. Thе paper provides a first analysis of The Tengri Songs (2017) by the Russian-language Buryat poet Bair Dugarov which has proven quite a milestone in literature of Mongolic peoples. It seems essential to identify certain poetic and versification features inherent to works of national poets. Goals. The work aims to reveal mythological traditions and historical realities in B. Dugarov’s Tengri Songs, and to examine the role of genre, composition and rhythmic organization of verses in semantics of poetic discourse. Methods. The paper applies semantic-hermeneutical and versification analyses of the poetic discourse. Results. Bair Dugarov who writes in Russian and lives in the Eurasian cultural space harmoniously combines the East and the West in his works. His poems reflect the reality both in terms of national specificity, and in that of global cultural space and multiethnic society. The semiotically complicated text of The Tengri Songs reflects a new stage in the poet’s creative development, the latter dealing with artistic comprehension of history, spiritual heritage of the Mongolian world and a search of the author’s lyrical self-expression. Conclusions. In mythological perspective, the image of the Heaven (Sky) represents the fatherly principle, the Sky as God ruling destinies of not only humans but also all that exists in the Universe. The poet draws his own history of the Great steppe through emphasizing certain portraits, geographical names and significant events. As for versification patterns applied, a most essential is one that ascends to Turko-Mongolian poetic traditions. It is necessary to acknowledge the unique use of figured text arrangement means which emphasize the abundance of the author’s creative potential and, thus, become a part of meta-text structure of the work in general.