The Wind Motif in the Language of M.Y. Lermontov's Works

Li Xilian ORCID: 0000-0002-0326-5384 PhD in Philology Postgraduate, Department of Russian language, faculty of Philology, Moscow State University n.a. M.V. Lomonosov 119991, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, 1 lixilian527@gmail.com

The wind is one of the most important natural images in Russian literature, the artistic functions and symbolic meanings of this image are diverse, this is especially evident in the works of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1841).

Wind was considered as a subject of research in linguistics, for example, in the article by N.A. Segal and A.Ya. Martynyuk "The concept of WIND in Russian-language media texts", which is devoted to identifying the features of the image of wind in Russian linguoculture and media texts. The authors emphasize that "the image of the wind is a fragment of the linguistic picture of the world, important for understanding and comprehending the features of the conceptualization of reality" ^{[1, pp. 51-57]}. It is noted that "in mass media texts, the concept of wind, represented by the lexemes wind, calm, storm, typhoon, tornado has a sharply negative connotation, which does not always correlate with the denotative meaning of the lexemes in question and does not fully coincide with their linguistic and cultural understanding" ^{[1, pp. 51-57]}.

The wind in Russian poetry is considered in the book by Mikhail Epstein "Nature, the world, the hiding place of the universe ...". For example, in Nekrasov's poetry, "the wind is not a soft, gentle breeze of an ideal landscape, but not a fierce whirlwind of a stormy landscape, but a mournful wind on a bare field: "the wind howls sadly", "the mournful wind drives", "the wind blew angrily into the ears", "the wind sang something mockingly", "the autumn wind ... moans plaintively", "the wind whistles in the meadows". ^{[2, p. 154]}. The author notes that "the wind most directly conveys the feeling caused by nature, because it is her soul and breath, that's why it is accompanied by epithets related to the state of the soul: angry, sad, mournful, plaintive and mocking" ^{[2, p. 154]}.

Researchers pay attention to the fact that in the poetry of the XVIII-XIX centuries, tropes predominate, including those words that denote a wind of considerable strength (whirlwind, storm). In the XVIII century, cataclysms of a social nature are compared with them, such as war, rebellion – military storms, in the XIX century – these are primarily personal experiences, in connection with which stable images arise: everyday (earthly) storms, a whirlwind of passions. "Among the formulaic in this period are comparisons of a horse (or a hero on a horse) with a whirlwind. The lyrics of the XIX century are characterized by a comparison of dance (mainly waltz) with units of the denotative class <wind> (most often with a whirlwind): a whirlwind of dance, a storm of waltz, a whirlwind of waltz, etc." ^[3].

According to L.M. Shchemelova's definition, "a motif is a stable semantic element of a literary text, repeated within a number of folklore (where the motif means the minimum unit of plot composition) and literary and artistic works ^{[4, p. 290]}. The author clarifies the concept of the term in relation to Lermontov's work: "In the works about Lermontov, the term "motive" is used expansively, firstly, to denote a group of poems connected by thematic unity - "providential motives", "prison motives" – and, secondly, to characterize a number of works of different times that have an open political or socio–journalistic character: civil motives political motives <...> In this aspect, the problems of Lermontov's poetry are analyzed in articles devoted to the motives of freedom and will, action and feat, exile and others, as well as in the theme of the motherland that is closest to the concept of motive" ^{[4, p. 291]}.

The wind seems to be one of the most important motifs in Lermontov's works. To investigate this motive, it is necessary first to consider the interpretation of the nuclear lexeme wind. The direct meaning of the word wind is given in the Small Academic Dictionary edited by A.P. Evgenieva: "the movement of the air flow in the horizontal direction" ^[5]. In the etymological dictionary of N.M. Shansky, it is determined that wind is a common Slavic word, of an Indo–European character, which is formed with the help of the suffix tr (cf. Greek iatros "doctor" with the same suf. -tr-) from the same basis as to blow. It was originally the name of the god of the winds ^[6]. The explanatory dictionary ^[5] presents the following nouns semantically related to the wind: wind, wind, breeze, storm, blizzard, blizzard, hurricane, marshmallow, aquilon, whirlwind, whirlwind, whiff and gust.

As the Poetic subcorpus of the National Corpus of the Russian Language shows ^[7], in Lermontov's poems and poems, nouns with the semantic component ‘wind’ have a high frequency of use (272): wind (79) in 45, wind (11) in 9, breeze (24) in 15, storm (81) in 51, blizzard (8) in 8, blizzard (10) in 8, hurricane (4) in 3, marshmallow (2) in 2, aquilon (3) in 2, whirlwind (22) in 17-ti, a whirlwind (5) in 5, a whiff (4) in 4, a rush (19) in 17 works.

Lermontov's wind is often associated with freedom and loneliness. In the poem "I love the chains of blue mountains ..." (1832) ^[8] one can find a comparison of a lonely poet with a misty moon, a blue valley and the wind:  

One day with such a moon I was riding a dashing horse,

In the space of blue valleys,

Like the wind, free and alone.

The motif of loneliness is emphasized by the definitions of loneliness, siraya, and the storm is equated with misfortune in the poem "The yellow leaf beats on the stem ..." (1831) ^[8]: the heart trembles before misfortune, like a leaf before a storm. No one cares about the fate of a leaf blown far away by the wind, as well as the fate of a young man who found himself in a foreign land:

The yellow leaf beats against the stem Before the storm:

The poor heart is trembling

Before misfortune.

<…>

What is the importance if the windMy lonely leaf

It will take you far, far away;

Will she regret it

A branch of siraya.

The spiritual loneliness of the poet is often associated with the image of the wind.

In the poem "Sad bells ringing ..." (1831) ^[8] the wind is personified with a lonely traveler:  

And if the wind blows, the traveler is lonely,Suddenly it will run through the grass of the cemetery

Lermontov's most favorite image is a horse, primarily because it is associated with the motive of freedom.

The word steppe often appears next to the word horse. In the poem "The Prisoner" (1837), freedom is an impossible dream ^[8]. The poem begins optimistically. The lyrical hero imagines himself as free as the wind:

I 'm a younger beautyFirst I 'll kiss you sweetly,

I'll jump on the horse later,

I'll fly to the steppe like the wind.

The wind token is used in two stanzas and is a symbol of freedom, but in the second stanza this freedom is only for the horse, and the lyrical hero is in captivity:

A good horse in a green fieldWithout a bridle, alone, at will

He jumps, is cheerful and playful,

Tail in the wind spreading…

<…>

I am lonely – there is no joy:

The walls are bare all around

In many of Lermontov's works, the motif of fate sounds.

One of the typical metaphors is the phrase storm of rock, for example:

Both darkness and cold are embraced

My soul is tired;Like an early fruit, devoid of juice,

She withered in the storms of doom

Under the sultry sun of being.

"I look at the future with fear..." (1838) ^[10]

Like a southern fruit, devoid of juice,It withered in the storms of doom

Under the sultry sun of being.

"My future is in the fog..." (1836-1837) ^[8]

The connection between the storm and the rock is also in the phrase fatal storms, characteristic of romantic poetry:

He loves storms evenAnd the pentz of rivers and the noise of oak trees.

"My Demon" (1830-1831) ^[8]

When, driven by a fatal storm,Hisses and rushes with his foam,

She remembers everything about that bay.

"June 1831, 11 days" (1831) ^[8]

In Lermontov's poetry, the wind becomes the source of many sounds, for example, in the poem "Reed" (1832), the wind is endowed with a voice ^[8]:

And as if animated,The reed spoke –

That's the voice of a man

And the voice of the wind was.

In the poem "Leaf" (1841), the wind whispers with a plane tree near the Black Sea ^[8]:

There is a young plane tree by the Black Sea;The wind whispers to her, caressing the green branches;

Note that sound images play a big role in creating the image of the wind.

Lexemes that implement the wind motif in Lermontov's poems are often combined with verbs, adjectives and nouns of sound. For example, the wind howls, whistles, noises, the wind knocks with a howl, I heard the wind noise, the wind is noisy, a rumble with the wind, etc. There are similar phrases with the words storm, blizzard and blizzard: the howl of a rebellious storm, the howl of a fierce storm is heard, the storm whistles, roars, noises, the howl of loud storms, noisy storms, the blizzard is noisy, whistling, singing and the blizzard roars. Here are a few excerpts:

 And the wind howls like an animal.Give me a bunch of gold now,

From the stable of the best horse

"During it lived and was ..." (1835-1836) ^[8]

The wind is swaying wet, stuffyThe tops of the trees, and with a howl he

Knocking on the windowsills…

<…>

<Shumi>, shumi, the wind of the night,

Play freely in the sky…

"Night" (1830-1831) ^[8]

The blizzard is noisy and the snow is falling,But through the noise of the wind a distant ringing

"The blizzard is noisy and the snow is falling..." (1831) ^[8]

In addition, in Lermontov's poetic texts, the wind is often personified. Such an image of the wind we meet in the poem "Boyar Orsha" (1835-1836) ^[8]:

He did not build them in the same way,Where before he lived without worries,

Where now the wind only lives…

In Lermontov's poems, the wind can be personified in the image of a sad person, the author animates the forces of nature, the landscape seems to come to life in the poem "Aul Bastunji" (1832-1833) ^[8]:

And Selim is waiting – he sits for an hour and two, Walking in the field, the mountain wind cries, 

And the grass is waving under the window.P.A. Lekant notes that "Lermontov paid tribute to the poetics of the sea as a symbol of freedom, will, spaciousness <...> calm, idyllic pictures are replaced by stormy, rebellious ones: Waves play, the wind whistles ... ("Sail" 1832); there is a storm motif, the ocean rises next to the symbol of the sea: What is life without suffering a poet?

And what is the ocean without a storm? ("I want to live..." 1832)" ^{[9, pp. 200-201]}.  In the poem "Sail" (1832) ^[8] you can simultaneously meet the words wind and storm. The sail is a symbol of the poet's own life, and his inner worries are transmitted through images of waves, storms and wind:

Waves are playing – the wind is whistling,And the mast bends and hides…  

<…>

And he, the rebellious one, asks for a storm,As if there is peace in the storms!

The longing of the lyrical hero for his Homeland is especially pronounced in the poem "On a dark rock above the noisy Dnieper ..." (1830-1831) ^[8], in which the wind takes on the appearance of an enemy, which causes concern for the lyrical hero:

My tree is the wind neither at night nor during the day

Can't leave alone;

And, tearing off the leaf, breaks and bends,But from the shore into the waves will not break in any way

In many poems, words realizing the motif of the wind are used in figurative meanings that convey the inner state of the poet.

For example, the description of the hero's soul in the poem "Izmail Bey" (1832) ^[8] is associated with the word storm, which is used figuratively - "strong emotional excitement" (MAS) ^[5]:

He had a burning soul,And the storms of the south were reflected in it

With all its terrible beauty!

The motives of mental restlessness, a passionate thirst for change, movement, and new impressions run through all of Lermontov's work.

The antithesis of rebellion and peace, freedom and bondage defines the meaning of many of his works. Rebellion, peace and freedom are connected in Lermontov-romanticism with nature. The antithesis of earthly storms and heavenly storms identifies human passions and natural elements:

Like him, I'm looking for oblivion and freedom,Like him, when I was a child, I was burning with my soul,

I loved the sunset in the mountains, the foaming waters,

And the storms of the earth and the storms of heaven howl.

"Do not think that I am worthy of regret..." (1830) ^[8]

The metaphor of the storm of passions sounds in the poem "From the album by S.N. Karamzina" (1841) ^[8]:

I also love in the old years,In the innocence of my soul,

And the storms of noisy nature,

And the storms of secret passions.

The sea, mountains, and sky are typical images of a romantic landscape in Lermontov's works, in these descriptions lexemes with the semantic component ‘wind’ convey the feelings of the lyrical hero and the peculiarities of his inner world. Lermontov had a special love for the Caucasus, this passion of his is expressed through the metaphor of the storm in the poem "Blue mountains of the Caucasus, I greet you!.." (1832) ^[8]:

How I loved your storms, Caucasus! those desert loud storms,

To which the caves as guardians of the nights respond!..

The word wind has the same meaning as the wind, which in modern explanatory dictionaries is defined as outdated, bookish and poetic.

It is noteworthy that Lermontov most often uses the wind lexeme associated with the image of the moon, sunset, night or fading day. Here are a number of examples:

The wind seemed to be blowing, and the day was at sunset,Throwing a shawl or a hood on cotton wool

"Sashka: A Moral Poem" (1839) ^[8]

The cool night wind glides over them,When through a thin window curtain

The moon is looking–the immodest moon!

"Litvinka" (1832) ^[8]

The moon floated in smoke without raysBetween damp mists; night wind

"Julio" (1830) ^[8]

The diminutive form of the breeze is also often used in Lermontov's poems. For example, in the poem "Mtsyri" (1839) ^[8] the breeze occurs three times in the meaning of "light, weak wind" (MAS) ^[5].

And now, in the misty heightsThe birds sang, and the east

Got rich; a breeze

<…>

I sat down and listened;

But it stopped with the breeze.

<…>

Perhaps he is from his heights

Hello farewell will send me,

Will send with a cool breeze…

The word blizzard in Lermontov's poems is often associated with a sense of eternal evil, despondency.

Next to the word blizzard, it is no coincidence that the adjectives eternal, terrible, dull are found: an eternal blizzard is raging ("View of the mountains from the steppes of Kozlov", 1838); in the cold forest in the terrible hour of a blizzard ("Excerpt", 1831); And sometimes the dull whistle of a playing blizzard made them shudder ("Sashka", 1839). The word blizzard is usually accompanied by the verbs to make noise, roar, sing and rage:

At the height of granite rocks,Where only blizzards can be heard singing

"The Demon: An Oriental Tale" (1841) ^[8]

Sings on a branch wild and dry,When there is noise around, a blizzard rages

"Bastunji Village" (1832-1833) ^[8]

The word wind in Lermontov's poetry is characterized by phrases with different adjectives. Along with common language, stable, such as violent wind, south wind, field wind, mountain wind, cold wind, damp wind, wet, stuffy wind, there are author's phrases: awakened wind, scattered wind and noisy wind.

The motif of the wind in Lermontov's prose works is of great importance for describing the psychology of heroes in relation to nature. In the novel "Hero of Our Time", 5 words with the semantic component "wind" were noted: wind – 22 word usage, storm – 12, blizzard – 3, whirlwind – 2 and gust – 3.

The wind in Lermontov's novel acts as a precursor to events that we don't know about yet. For example, a passing officer has not yet seen the hero, and nothing is happening yet, he is just listening to Maxim Maksimych's story about Pechorin:

... In the rain, in the cold, hunting all day; everyone will freeze, get tired – but nothing for him. And another time he is sitting in his room, the wind smells, assures that he has caught a cold; the shutter will knock, he will shudder and turn pale; and in my presence he went to the boar one on one ^{[10, p. 14]}.

It is noted here that Pechorin makes a contradictory impression on Maxim Maksimych: his endurance to cold, fatigue, but fear of colds, unpredictability of mood, behavior.

The story "Maxim Maksimych" is adjacent to the story "Bela", it is important for the gradual disclosure of the character of the hero. The officer-narrator, having met Pechorin for the only time, draws his portrait and sees the reflection of the inner contradictions of the hero in his appearance:

...A strong constitution, capable of enduring all the difficulties of nomadic life and climate changes, not defeated by either the debauchery of metropolitan life or the storms of the soul; ^{[10, p. 56]}.

The storm token in the characterization of the hero has a figurative meaning associated with his inner spiritual world, his mental state. Strong emotions, experiences are not able to break Pechorin. The narrator at first glance it becomes clear that Pechorin is a strong man, both physically and mentally.

The story "Taman" is conducted in the first person, in this part the wind is associated with a typically romantic seascape: There is not a single image on the wall – a bad sign! The sea wind rushed into the broken glass ^{[10, p. 66]}. The sea wind is a symbol of freedom, independence. The wind personifies, helps Pechorin to hear the conversation of a blind man with a girl on the seashore: She went up to the blind man and sat down next to him. The wind at times brought me their conversation ^{[10, p. 67]}. The wind is also associated with happiness – a loved one sails with a fair wind: Tell me, beauty," I asked, "what were you doing on the roof today?" - I was looking at where the wind was blowing from. – Why would you? - Where the wind comes from, happiness comes from there.^{[10, p. 73]}.

 The story "Princess Mary" from the second part of the novel is written in the form of Pechorin's diary, it begins with his arrival in Pyatigorsk at the healing waters, where he meets Princess Ligovskaya and her daughter Mary. Pechorin surprises the reader with an enthusiastic description of the beauty of nature, the view from the window, the petals of flowering cherries: The branches of flowering cherries look at my windows, and the wind sometimes strews my desk with their white petals ^{[10, p. 79]}.

The recording was made on the day of arrival in Pyatigorsk on May 11, and here the wind accompanies his state of mind, creates one of the details of natural beauty – white petals on the hero's table. The description of nature in this entry is used as a means of revealing his condition. Pechorin has not yet encountered any representative of the "water society", his thoughts are pure. There is another entry in the diary that proves the hero's ability to admire nature, to subtly feel its beauty:

I don't remember a morning more blue and fresh! The sun barely emerged from behind the green peaks, and the fusion of the first warmth of its rays with the dying coolness of the night brought a kind of sweet languor to all the senses... leafy bushes growing in their deep cracks showered us with silver rain at the slightest breath of wind ^{[10, p. 156]}.

This description of the early morning before the duel, conveying the feelings of the hero, simultaneously symbolizes the character of Pechorin. He admits the possibility of his own death and loves life and nature more than ever: the fusion of warmth inspired sweet longing, the wind in his perception of the world breathes and creates a silver rain. Here, breathing is the author's synonym for the word blow.

Lermontov repeatedly emphasizes Pechorin's love for nature, his deep, inextricable connection with it: I like to ride a hot horse on high grass, against the desert wind; I greedily swallow the fragrant air and direct my eyes into the blue distance, trying to catch the vague outlines of objects that are becoming clearer and clearer every minute ^{[10, p. 103]}. Wind for Pechorin can be an important condition for a favorite pastime.

In the story "Princess Mary", the phrase mountain wind occurs twice together with the verb refresh in the description of Pechorin's return to Kislovodsk after a chase and awakening from a heavy sleep of fatigue:

When the night dew and the mountain wind refreshed my hot head and my thoughts returned to normal, I realized that it was useless and reckless to chase the lost happiness ^{[10, p. 169]}.

I sat down by the open window, unbuttoned my archaluk, and the mountain wind refreshed my chest, which had not yet been calmed by the heavy sleep of fatigue ^{[10, p. 169]}.

The wind token in these notes is important for understanding the character of the hero: the wind not only refreshes the head, chest, putting thoughts and body in order, but also brings Pechorin back to reality, makes him think about his further actions.

In the story "Princess Mary" the lexeme storm occurs four times, it is used in direct and figurative meaning. If in the direct meaning of the word storm means "bad weather with a strong destructive wind" ^[5] and has a negative meaning, then in this recording made by Pechorin after meeting Vera, storms are beneficial, bringing good, purifying his soul. Pechorin seems to hope that fate, perhaps, gives him a second youth, and then a genuine interest in life, a desire to give joy, love will return: Oh, how glad I was to feel this! Is it not youth with its beneficial storms that wants to come back to me again...? ^{[10, c. 103]}.

In the last entry about the events in Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, analyzing the past, Pechorin comes to the conclusion: I am like a sailor, born and raised on the deck of a brigand brig: his soul has got used to storms and battles, and thrown ashore, he misses and languishes, no matter how his shady grove beckons, no matter how bright it is for him the peaceful sun... ^{[10, p. 173]}.

Here the words storms and battle are contextual synonyms: not only weather storms and battles with enemies, but also life adversities that must be overcome, strong emotions – all this is necessary for Pechorin not to be bored, not to feel useless. And the sail, as in Lermontov's poem of the same name, is a symbol of the life that Pechorin aspires to – a life full of storms and anxieties.

Thus, all the marked lexemes associated with the semantic component ‘wind’ can be correlated with characteristic Lermontov motifs, such as loneliness, freedom, fate, sound, death, mountains, sea, horse and others.

The motif of the wind in the novel "The Hero of Our Time" is important for conveying feelings and describing the inner state of the characters in relation to nature. The wind often precedes future events, enhances the expressiveness and rhythm of the narrative. For the hero, the wind is a symbol of freedom, will, happiness and life's hardships, emotional experiences. These images play an important role in understanding Pechorin's character.

Russian Russian literature The present research is of great practical importance, its results can be used in the process of learning the language of Russian fiction, including the work of M.Y. Lermontov, they are also important for mastering the vocabulary of the Russian language.