Folklore Intertext of S. G. Chavain's Novel "Elnet" (Paremiological Level)

Kudryavtseva Raisiya Alekseevna Doctor of Philology Professor of the Department of Finno-Ugric and Comparative Philology at Mari State University 424002, Russia, respublika Respublika Marii El, g. Ioshkar-Ola, ul. Kremlevskaya, 44, kab. 503 kudsebs@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

Belyaeva Tatiana Nikolaevna PhD in Philology Associate Professor at Mari State University. 424002, Russia, Republic of Mari El, Yoshkar-Ola, 44 Kremlevskaya str., room 504 beljaeva1978@rambler.ru

The object of research in this article is the novel "Elnet" by the founder of Mari literature S. G. Chavain ^{[14; 15]}, which belongs to the stage of formation of Mari national literature and is marked by vivid signs of artistic folklore.

As D. N. Medrish notes, "in young national literatures, the genre trends that dominated folklore usually prevail" ^{[8, p. 243]}. And, indeed, the first four decades of the twentieth century in the history of Mari national literature were characterized by a strong focus on folklore traditions, genres, images, motifs and stylistics. It should also be noted that the historical time itself, the sign of which was an attempt not only of social emancipation, but also of national self-affirmation of the people, strengthened the interest of Mari writers in folklore and mythology, because it was in them that the origins of the national identity of the ethnos, the origins of the "moral beliefs of the people", its "moral ideals of good and evil" were "hidden". (F. I. Buslaev). Hence, the researcher's appeal to the folklore and mythological origins of Mari prose, the methods of artistic development of folklore material at the initial, as well as at subsequent stages of the development of Mari literature can be a good help for determining the specifics of the national worldview and artistic and aesthetic consciousness of the Mari people.

Folklore traditions in the formation and development of the national novel are currently an urgent topic of research [see, for example: 3; 5; 13]. In Mari literary studies, this topic was mainly touched upon in the works of the Soviet generation of researchers [see, for example: 1; 4; 12]; at the present stage, their efforts have almost not found continuation, and to date there is no special study of folklore as an artistic phenomenon either in relation to the novel or in the framework of studying the history of Mari literature, in general.

         In Chavain's novel "Elnet" there are quite a lot of folklore texts inserted into the work without any transformations and modifications ("full-text quoting" of folklore material) and realizing certain artistic tasks of the author. Among them are the multi–page legend "Ninchyk-patyr", folk songs of various themes and stylistics, as well as proverbs and sayings that make up the paremiological level of the folklore intertext of the novel "Elnet" and occupy a significant place in its artistic structure.

A proverb is usually characterized as "a genre of folklore, an aphoristically concise, figurative, grammatically and logically complete saying with an instructive meaning in a rhythmically organized form" ^[10], and a proverb is described as "a well–known expression, usually figurative, allegorical, which, unlike a proverb, does not constitute a whole sentence and does not have an edifying meaning" ^[9].

Mari researchers do not distinguish proverbs and sayings, in Mari both phenomena are united by one word "Kalykmut" - "folk word" – and are considered as a single genre of Mari folklore. Let us give, for example, the arguments of the famous Mari scholar-folklorist A. E. Kitikov about this genre: "Kalykmut – kalyk oypogo arshashyn ik posna uzhashizhe. ... Kalykmutyshto aydeme ilyshyn chyla yyzhyzhe koesh: e?yn kuan den oygyzho, voshtylmyzho da shortmyzho, tunykten oylymyzho da kargymyzhe, vursymyzho. But tudyn chumyr shlyshyzh poro da onchyl shonymashan, onchyk ?zhsh?, chonym tarvatysh. ... kalykmut – kalykyn ertyme ilysh kornyzho, pashazhe, ilysh-ylazhe da ush-akylzhyn, yylmyzhyn shrtn poyanlykshe. ... Kalykmut – ilyshym ikteshlen da sylnyn kalasen puymo oypogo genre" ^{[6, p. 3-4]} (Proverbs and sayings are one of the components of folklore heritage. ... Proverbs and sayings reflect all aspects of human life: a person's joy and his grief, his laughter and tears, his teaching and cursing, swearing. But his general spirit is with kind and advanced thoughts, calling forward, touching the soul. ... proverbs and sayings are the path traversed by the people, their work, life and the golden wealth of their mind and language. ... Proverbs and sayings are a genre in which life is generalized and reflected in artistic and verbal form" [Translation of all Mari quotations into Russian here and then everywhere is ours. – R. A., T. B.]). Accordingly, the importance of studying paremias is largely due to the fact that they are "interesting not only as a means of communication, but also as a means of knowing the national character of the people, penetrating into the system of its values, in the repository of diverse cultural information. It is paremics that contains a set of opinions developed by the people as a linguistic and cultural community, makes it possible to discover the most significant values that have developed in the ethnic consciousness, reflecting the philosophy and psychology of the people" ^[11]

Being a way of representing conceptual content (as L. B. Savenkova notes, "they contribute to the appeal to general ethnic and even universal values" ^[11]), proverbs and sayings warn the person perceiving them, summarize the national experience, ridicule certain phenomena, their properties, comment on the appearance or character of a person, may have didactic meaning (they give advice, teach life wisdom), contain the philosophizing of the collective author.

In Chavain's novel "Elnet", devoted mainly to the pre–revolutionary life of the Mari people (the chronological framework of the narrative in the novel is the 1912-1918 years; the novel ends with the awakening of popular consciousness during the October Revolution and the Civil War), proverbs and sayings mainly summarize the people's experience ("mera?ym she?gel yolzho puksha" – "The hare is fed by the hind legs"; "Ikshyve tyyn uketym ok shinche, e?ynym mom uzhesh, ere yodesh" – "Children do not know poverty, they always ask what they see from others").

There are also, but much less often, proverbs and sayings that teach life wisdom ("Shortyn, oigyren, nimomat yytash ok lii" – "You can't achieve anything with tears") and contain the philosophizing of the people ("Zhap ala-mogai cherymat paremda" – "Time cures any disease").

At the same time, in each specific case, their artistic function in the text is specific.

Quite a lot of research works have been devoted to the study of the functions of paroemias in a literary text, but almost all of them are based on Russian [see, for example: 2; 7; 11; 16] or foreign [see, for example: 17] literary material. Among the main functions of proverbs and sayings, they name such as "a means of organizing a narrative text" ^{[2, p. 32]}, a means of individualizing the characters of the characters and the narrator (a means of speech characteristics), a way of expressing the author's position in a literary text, a way of representing conceptual content, a means of aesthetic influence on the reader, "one of the means, creating the creative handwriting of an individual author" ^[11].

Let's highlight the main artistic functions of proverbs and sayings in Chavain's novel "Elnet".

1. Paremics as a way of representing conceptual content and author's axiology Opkyn klat gych mardezhla lektyn kaya, but klatysh puren, ?dyrim solalta, k?shk? k?zen kaen, umbake cho?eshta.

Mari nimolanat ?ryn kodesh. Tev tylanet ?dyr, tev tylanet s?an! Shortyn, oigyren, nimat oytash ok lii.

Mari ?dyryn v?tazh gych en chaple imnym luktesh da opkyn pochesh kaya ^{[14, p. 334. Italics and bold italics are ours everywhere here and further on. – R. A., T. B.]} (The ogre, like the wind, flies out of the barn, but, returning to the barn, steals the girl, rising up, flies away into the distance. Marie remains surprised. Here's a girl for you, here's a wedding for you!

Tears won't get you anywhere. Marie takes the most beautiful horse out of the barn and goes after the ogre).

This paremic turn is taken by us from the fairy tale included by Chavain in the text of the novel about a three-headed ogre who tricked Marie into stealing her bride (she is told by Grigory Petrovich Chachi, whose image in the novel is clothed with many folklore texts). The proverb captures the determination of the fairy-tale character to return his bride at all costs, which, in fact, he does, but he is overtaken by death from an ogre, after which his sister revives him with the help of living spring water, and in the end, Marie saves both her sister and her bride, and the whole Mari world from Cannibal families: Imne-vlak opkynym yrshesh toshken-chumen, lashtyrtyl torrat... Tylech vara opkyn tukym mlande ?mbalne pyten.

Mari den akazhym da chapleydyrym imne-vlak chodyr nerashyshke konden shuktat.

... Chapledyr mariyyn vatizhe liesh. ... Tyge mari opkyn dech utlen ... ^{[14, p. 341]} (The horses, kicking and crushing, completely crushed the ogre…

After that, there was no kind of cannibals on earth.

A man, his sister and a nice girl were taken by horses to a forest corner. ... A nice girl became the wife of a Mari. ... So Marie got rid of the ogre...)

A proverb with didactic content (never give up before difficulties and go to the bitter end) is inserted into the episode of the main character's reflections on modern social life. Grigory Petrovich Vetkan correlates with the fabulous cannibals those who physically and morally oppressed his native people before the revolution: Tide yomakym kolmekizhe, Grigory Petrovich chot shonash tale: "Kuze opkyn-vlak dech utlash?.. Vet zemstvo chief, police officer, Pankrat Ivanychshe, a stranger kashakshe – opkyn ogytyl mo?.." ^{[14, p. 341]} (After hearing this tale, Grigory Petrovich thought deeply: "How to get rid of cannibals?.. After all, the zemstvo chief, and the bailiff, and Pankrat Ivanovich, and the crowd of Strangers – aren't there cannibals?..").

The meaning of the proverb becomes the ideological leitmotif of the character's further actions and thoughts. Grigory Petrovich discusses with Ivan Maksimovich the fate of Mari in the tsarist war, unnecessary to the people, about a possible saving revolution and about the awakening of the Mari population against the background of general protests: Rossiy muchko kresanyk pudyranymash sharla. Mari kalykat ?myr muchkyzho l?dyn ilymyzhym kudaltysh, shuko chytymizhe k?rl?. My Elnet olykyso pasham oilem. Ketch-kuze gynat, Elnet olykesh mari kalyk kugu protestym yyten ^{[14, p. 345]}. Accordingly, the proverb turns out to be directly correlated with the artistic concept of the novel – with the idea of the liberation of the people from captivity, with the author's axiology based on the ideas of self-respect, courage, freedom and the value of human volitional efforts.

         The representation of the author's axiology is also contained in the following fragment of the novel, which contains a parody:Makaryn saryshke kayymizhe ok shu. Chuzhgan kuva mezhnech ergyzhym pesh chamanen. Ava kumyl tygae: shydyzh godym vursen pytara, shydyzhe pushlanymeke, ikshyvyzhym adak chamana. Makarym avage molo ikshyvyzh dechat chot yrata. Tug ogyl gynat, mogai avan shke ikshyvyzhym saryshke luktyn koltymyzho shuesh: tushechyn mgyzh? ala tolman, ala uke? ^{[14, pp. 352-353]} (Makar does not want to join the army. The wife of a stranger is very sorry for her youngest son. The mother's heart is like this: when she is angry, she scolds a lot, anger will dissipate, she feels sorry for her child again. A mother loves Makara more than her other children. Even if it's not like that, what kind of mother wants to send her son to war: will he come back from there, or not?).

         To the Mari proverb about the "softness" and kindness of the mother's heart, common in Mari folklore in different versions (see, for example: Avan shydizhe shoshym vochsho lum gaye: shuko vozesh, vashke shula ^{[6, p. 20]} – The mother's heart is like spring snow: it falls a lot, melts quickly), Chavain addresses in the episode receiving someone else's Makar summons to the army. If in other episodes the mother of a Stranger Makara (the wife of a Stranger Wasp) almost always acts as a socially oriented character (the wife of a rural rich tyrant), practically merged with her husband (an ethnospecific property of female images in traditional Mari prose) and, accordingly, is marked by a negative author's connotation, then in this episode the author presents her as a character of a universal type and softens his attitude towards her, focusing on the most important universal values (a mother's heart, a mother's soul, humanity, selfless kindness and caring for children).

         The conceptual meaning is also laid in the proverb "Zhap ala-mogai cherymat paremda" ("Time cures any disease"), used by the author in Chacha's reflections on Sakara, who reminded her of the Mari hero (N?nchyk-patyr), about her first love and about her experiences associated with it: Chachi gyn, "N?nchyk patyrzhym" uzhash tyge yn liesh manyn, shonenat ogyl. Chodyrashte vashliymyzhat ynde kok tylze koklashte mondaltash talyn, omo uzhmyla vele chuchesh. Tudo pervyirakshe samyryk sonarzym yatir marte shonen koshtyn. But mom yytet, ilysh tugai, zhap ala-mogai cherymat paremda. Chachiat chodyrash vashliyme mariym erkyn-erkyn mondash talyn yle, but tudo adak Chachi onchylno shoga, shinchazhymat Chachi ?mbach ok oyiro ... ^{[14, p. 215]} (And Chachi did not think that there would be a chance to see her N?nchyk-patyr. And their meeting in the forest two months ago has now begun to be forgotten, it seems like a dream. At first, she thought about the young hunter all the time. But what can you do, life is like that, time heals any disease. And Chachi started to slowly forget the guy she met in the forest, but here he is again standing in front of Chachi, not taking his eyes off Chachi ...).

The appeal to the popular saying in this fragment is caused by thoughts about the futile mental anguish and expectations of the girl and about the possibility (inevitability) of healing from love feelings. This folk wisdom, reinforced by the author's reasoning about fate, will be confirmed in the subsequent parts of the novel by plot (Chachi will connect his life with Grigory Petrovich, and their love will be so organic and deep that it will permeate all aspects of their life relationships).  

         The saying "Mera?ym she?gel yoljo puksha" ("The hare is fed by the hind legs") (other variants of its verb part in the Mari language: ashna – contain, utara – save) Chavain uses Sakar and Grandfather Leventei in a retrospective episode of hunting (an experienced Leventei teaches young Sakar the wisdom of hunting): Sakar adak pudeshtaren koltysh. merера nalyn shuymyla yrlyn kayysh. Tug gynat oy typlane, p?rdal-p?rdal, umbake kaya. Leventei kugiza den Sakar Mera? pochesh kurzhych. Leventei kugiza den Sakar Mera? pochesh kurzhych. Measure? utlen oy kert. Sakar, pokten shuyn, toshkale. Leventey kugiza vujym r?zaltysh:– Yndizhe she?gel yolzhym vele pudyrtenat...

merера she?gel yolzhym y?neshtaren kudalesh. Onchyl yolzho e?ertash vele. Sadlan Merah kudal oy kert. Merahym she?gel yoljo puksha ^{[14, p. 180]} (Sakar fired again. The hare fell as if thrown away. But nevertheless, he did not calm down, spinning, moving forward. Grandfather Leventey and Sakar ran after the hare. The hare couldn't escape. Sakar, catching up, stepped on him with his foot. Grandfather Leventei shook his head:

– Now you've only broken his hind leg... the hare is running, leaning on his hind legs. Therefore, the hare could not escape. The hare is fed by the hind legs).

This episode is a very characteristic ethnically significant picture of the traditional Mari world; with the help of a saying summarizing the experience of the people, the author fixes in it both the image of his industrial life (hunting), and the laws and nuances of natural life, and folk speech, and folk ethics and pedagogy. The natural and calm harmony of the world, the safe and understanding environment of young Sakara, presented in this episode, are dissonant with the world of adult life of this character.

The author puts the grown-up Sakara back into the situation of seemingly the same traditional hunting.  Sakar chases the beast with the same interest and excitement. However, now the author draws attention to his incredible concern and existential activity (instead of the natural movement of things) caused by social problems: Sakaru, who owes his rich "creditor", certainly needs to catch something, preferably more substantial, in order to finally get rid of the annoying debt.

Leventei, who is still taking care of Sakar in his adult life, also has a difficult life story: Leventeylan is necessary for the horror of shuko t?knen... Ikshyve-vlak shochash talynyt. Chiktashat, pukshashat k?lesh. Ikshyve tyyn uketym ok shinche, e?ynym mom uzhesh, ere yodesh. Adak shkezhat shke ikshyvetym e? shot denak onchynet. Tev tunam Leventey kugiza smolalyk puym ruash talyn. Tulech vara seems to be shyzhym, ur shumo dech onchych, zhapym resin zavodyshto ertara" ^{[14, p. 74]} (Leventey had to experience a lot of troubles ... Children began to be born. It is necessary to dress and feed. Children do not know poverty, they always ask what they see from others. And you also want to support your children as well as others. That's when Grandfather Leventey began to cut wood suitable for resin. After that, every autumn, before the start of the squirrel hunt [lit. [protein. – R. K., T. B.], spent time at the resin factory). The saying used by Chavain, "Children do not know poverty, they always ask what they see from others" is not only a means of social characterization of the character, but also a way of affirming family values that occupy an important place in the author's concept of the novel.  

2. Paremics as a way of expressing the author's attitude (evaluation) to the character

The most striking example of the saying as a way of expressing the author's attitude to the character we see in the words of a girl named Sandyr, whom Chachi met when she first came with her father to work for Someone else's Wasp (this is an indirect form of expressing the author's position): ...Sandyr. Tide ?dir pesh talyn shiesh gynat, shke er Chuzhgan-vlakym vurs: – Nuno sharashizhe pushkydyn sharat, yes, that's the same as that.

Teve kyzyt tynar kalyk pogynen shiesh. Chuzhgan kugiza pesh pushkido kumylan, shonat. Teat una tunar me?ge kokla gych "poro e?" dek tolyn ulyda. K? shincha, ala tudo poro kumylan, ala tudo shkezhak shkenzhym poro kumylanlan shotla, kalyklan sayym yytem, shona? But tudyn porylyksho shkange vele paidam konda. Tudyn poro kumyljo memnan yalyshte shukyzhym k?chash kolten.– Osyp kugiza tynar osal gyn, molan vara ty tudlan shiyash tolynat?

— Chachi yodesh.– Chumyr mlandynam tudo pogen nalyn gyn, ilash molo yn uke gyn, kushko kaet?

Pyym purlat da tolat ^{[14, pp. 171-172]} (…Sandyr. Despite the fact that this girl worked vigorously [lit. threshed. – R. K., T. B.], constantly scolded Strangers:

– They gently lay down, but they put stones at the head of the bed. Now so many people, having gathered, are threshing [grain. – R. K., T. B.]. They think that the grandfather is a Stranger with a soft heart. So you came to the "good man" after so many kilometers. Who knows, maybe he has a kind heart, maybe he considers himself kind, thinks that he is doing good to the people? But his kindness only benefits him. His kind-heartedness sent many in our village to beg.

– If Grandfather Wasp is so angry, then why did you come to him to thresh? Chachi asks.

– If he took all our land, if there are no other ways to live, where will you go? You will grit your teeth and come).

The alien Osyp is presented in the work as an intelligent, sociable, eloquent, but merciless, cunning and cruel person who takes advantage of people's weaknesses, their helplessness and hopelessness, profiting from the wage labor of the poorest part of the Mari peasantry. The proverb is designed to convey the duplicity of the Alien Wasp: external (in words) kindness, but in reality (in fact) – anger and hatred. It is enough to recall his insidious plan to save his own son and send poor Sakara to the tsarist army instead of him – this is one of the many episodes of the novel that unfold into a concrete picture the main idea of the popular saying used by Chavain for negative connotative purposes, ideally fitting into the semantic context of the rationalist rich man. The proverb is supplemented with negative evaluative expressions that deepen and socially concretize its meaning – direct (Chumyr mlandynam tudo pogen nalin ...) and ironic (Teat una tunar mege kokla gych "poro e?" dek tolyn ulida; Tudyn poro kumyljo memnan yalyshte shukyzhym k?chash kolten).3. Paremics as a means of plot organization

Proverbs and sayings in Chavain's novel can act as an engine of both event and psychological plot.

To illustrate the first type of paremic text design (paremia as a means of organizing a proper narrative text), we present the following fragment (the first chapter of the first book of the novel, the fifth part of it): ?dyr porsyn kandyram kolta. N?nchyk-patyr porsyn kandyra dene Opkynyn polatyshkyzhe k?za. Ik plemysh miya – Opkyn, chara o?ylash?s?m shogalten, malen kiya. Ninchyk-patyr tudym tushakynak kestenje dene peren lashtyrta. ?d?r?m nal?n, purymo rozhsho dek miya. The first ?d?r?m k?z?kten kolta. Vara shke k?zash talesh. K?Zen shumizh godym p?nch?-patyr den Tumo-patyr v?ra?ym rual koltat. N?nchyk-patyr ves t?nyashke mgesh p?rdyn vola. – Ilyshashem ulo gyn, tshak liizhe, kolyshashem ulo gyn, k? liizhe, – manesh.

Vusht shokten, tshakyshke is free to go ^{[14, p. 167]} (The girl lets down a silk rope.

Ninchyk-patyr climbs up a silk rope to the Opkyn's dwelling. Comes into one room – Opkyn sleeps, exposing his bare chin. Ninchyk-patyr crushed him there with his brush. Taking the girl, he goes to the entrance [lit. the hole through which he entered. – R. K., T. B.]. First of all, he picks up the girl. Then he starts to rise himself. At the very end of the ascent, the Pnch-patyr and Tumo-patyr cut off a thick rope. Ninchyk-patyr has slipped back into another world.

"Let it be a feather bed if there is still life for me, let it be a stone if death awaits me," he said.

Falls noisily into the feather bed).

This fragment is taken from the legend of Ninchyk-patyr, which comes to Chacha's memory during her work at the resin factory (she can not cope with her thoughts about Sakar's brave act, he is a real Mari hero in her eyes); the legend is entirely inserted into the text of the novel. According to the author's cursory remark, Chachi heard it in the autumn from a man who was chopping resin trees in the forest; she notices that it is very interesting (shoya pesh o?ay is a very interesting fairy tale ^{[14, p. 163]}).

The saying "Ilyshashem ulo gyn, t?shak liizhe, kolyshashem ulo gyn, K? liizhe" (Let it be a feather bed, if there is still life for me, let it be a stone), of course, is a plot-forming part in the legend (the safe "landing" of N?nchyk-patyr will give him the opportunity to continue fighting for life, for happiness with his beloved girl: he meets his grandfather, a white bird, and gets out to the surface of the earth, shames the P?nch?-patyr and Tumo-patyr, celebrates the wedding) – it is here that her role as the engine of the event plot is visible. 

Ninchyk Patyr is a Mari hero, unimaginably strong – both physically and intellectually, brave, free, kind, fair, quick–witted and strong-willed. This folklore image and the proverb accompanying its life story "Let it be a feather bed, if there is still life for me, let it be a stone" become a source of self-reflection of Chacha (psychological plot line). She recalls a recent case when she, a strong girl by female standards (perhaps because she is also from the family of this hero, she reflects), could not give a worthy rebuff to a stranger Makar; she represents Sakara as a potential winner in such a fight, at the mere memory of which her heart begins to beat violently and to which she conceded even her beloved teacher Grigory Petrovich, who hitherto seemed to her the best person in the world: But keezhym, shiyash miyymyzh godym, Chuzhgan Makarym se?en oy kert. Makarym k?ksh? sarai gychshe vigak unchyli shuash k?lesh yle. Tev chodyras mari tunam tushto liesh yle gyn, Makarym ala-kush shua yle. Tudo kernakak N?nchyk-patyr tukym ... ^{[14, pp. 168-169]} (But in the summer, when I went to threshing, I could not defeat Someone else's Makar. Makar had to be sent upside down from his high shed. And if there was a person there, met in the forest [lit. the forest man. We are talking about Sakara. – R. K., T. B.], at least I would throw Makara somewhere. He is, indeed, from the family of N?nchyk-patyr ...). In this context, the proverb is a reflection and expectation of the same saving "feather bed" that was prepared for the folklore character, and for the "heroes" of the reality surrounding her – first of all, for the poor village youth Sakara who liked her, as well as for the touchingly respected by her and special in everything (clothes, speech and manners) rural Vetkan's teacher, and even for herself. In terms of events, each of them in the novel is not prepared for a "feather bed", but a lot of "stones", which each of them overcomes and survives in his own way.

The proverb in the plot–forming function "... er – cas dech ynanrak" ^{[14, p. 282]} (... morning is more convenient than evening) Grigory Petrovich calms the crying Chachi, who ran away from the son of a rich man - a stranger Makar, whom she was forcibly married, and, trying to be calm himself, ponders his further actions to save the poor girls. Thus, the saying becomes the beginning and engine of the psychological lines of the plot. Grigory Petrovich's thoughts and feelings are changing – from empathy for the poor girl to soulful reflections, from which the image of a charming and close to him by nature woman arises. Chachi, suppressing self-pity, turns with all his soul to Grigory Petrovich, intuitively anticipating his future happiness: Grigory Petrovich books lashtyklymyl oilen kai. Tudo "knigan" seems lastykshe Chachin kumylzhym Grigory Petrovich dek chakrak da chakrak shupshesh. Grigory Petrovichyn oylen charnymizhlan Chachi shke oygyzhym mondysh, Grigory Petrovichym tuge chamanysh, tygai chamanymash umbakizhe pesh nyzhylge shizhmashysh savyrnen kertesh ... ^{[14, p. 283]} (Grigory Petrovich spoke as if leafing through a book. Each page of this "book" drew Grigory Petrovich more and more to her heart. By the end of Grigory Petrovich's speech, Chachi forgot about her grief, she felt so sorry for Grigory Petrovich, such a pity in the future [in the morning, when the night has already passed. – R. K., T. B.] can turn into a very tender feeling ...). Accordingly, the intonation accompaniment of the plot text also changes – from dramatic to lyrical.

              So, the proverbs and sayings used in the novel "Elnet", in one way or another represent the creative portrait of the founder of the Mari national literature Chavain. We are faced with a writer with a folk worldview, brought up on folk culture and in the living language of Mari folklore. The semantic component of the proverbs and sayings used by the author is an integral part of the conceptual world of the novel and the basis of the author's axiology. Forming a folklore intertext in the novel, they also influence its narrative structure, plot movement, participate in the process of creating characters, they are also important in the context of the author's assessments of the depicted events and phenomena.