Ethnosemiotics of color meanings in the work of the Khanty poet V. S. Voldin

Kashkareva Alena Petrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-5181-5539 PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Philological Education and Journalism, Surgut State Pedagogical University 628405, Russia, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Surgut, ul. 50 Let Vlksm, 10/2, room 408 alynochka_6@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Safonova Natalia Nikolaevna ORCID: 0000-0001-7436-0285 PhD in Philology Ph.D. (Philology), Academic Title of Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Philological Education and Journalism, Surgut State Pedagogical University 3/1 Proletarsky Prospekt str., Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, 628405, Russia alynochka_6@mail.ru

The problem of the regional identity of the Khanty–Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, its search is a modern trend in humanitarian scientific research (see the works of V. V. Gavrilov ^{[7; 8]}, T. A. Sirotkina ^{[15; 16]}, etc.). Following Doctor of Philology D. V. Larkovich, we believe that the space of the region is "a place of realization of life–creating human potential" ^{[11, p. 44]}. Vladimir Semyonovich Voldin (1938-1971) is the poet of Khanty literary literature, whose work reflects from the standpoint of ethnosemiotics a certain code of the worldview of the Khanty people and provides opportunities for studying and determining the regional characteristics of artistic texts.

Without philosophical, cultural and ethnological understanding of the centuries-old ethnic and religious-mythological traditions of space exploration, rooted in the culture of the peoples of the North of Russia, it is impossible to understand the ethnosemiotics of the texts of the authors of Khanty literature. In ethnosemiotics, the science of signs and sign systems of various ethnic groups, the analysis is based on the perception of a sign, primarily as a metaphor, analogy and symbol. Ethnosemiotics comes into contact with ethnology and geosophy, the basic elements of which are the connection of spirit, soul and body, which is expressed in the unity of religion, soul and culture in the world picture of each nation.

Color is inextricably linked to the national cultural context. The linguistic representation of color is described in scientific works by both foreign scientists ^{[24; 25; 26; 27; 28 and others]}, as well as Russian ones ^{[1; 4; 6, etc.]}. However, the linguistic and cultural aspect in color designation and color perception remains poorly understood.

Ethnographer V. M. Kulemzin was one of the first to describe some ways of color designation among the Khants. The symbolism of color is presented in sufficient detail in V. I.'s research. Spodina "Color and its place in the geo symbol" ^[18]. The color classification of the Hunts is indicated in the research of N. M. Taligina. One of her works is devoted, in particular, to the traditional color triad (white – red – black) and color symbolism in the sphere of the sacred among the Khanty people ^[20]. A. A. Shiyanova conducted a structural and semantic analysis of color meanings in the Khanty language and came to the conclusion: "Color meanings in the Khanty language convey a special linguistic picture of the world, which is a set of knowledge about the world reflected in the semantics of a given language" ^{[23, p. 752]}.

K. P. Cheremisina writes about the symbolism, the sacredness of color and the philosophy of color perception in the Khanty culture in his works ^{[21; 22]}. The author notes: "The criteria of the sacred and profane are pivotal in the reconstruction of the world model in the Khanty worldview" ^{[21, p. 3]}. In the article "The philosophy of color perception in the Khanty worldview", the researcher defines the meanings of the main colors: "White is associated with a good divine principle, beauty, health, well-being. Red means the sun, fire, blood, strength, male sexual energy, and black means old age, death, misfortune" ^{[22, p. 61]}.

The poet's choice of a certain color (color combination) accompanying a particular image is a way of translating the status of the event/phenomenon he is evaluating, i.e. color designations perform a meaning–generating function in the space of the author's literary text, in our case, the Yugra text. The ethnosemiotic perspective of our research allows us to comment on the ideological content and mental nature of the poetic work of Vladimir Voldin, a representative of the Khanty people.

Studying the lyrics of V. S. Voldin's research was conducted on the material of the book "So Molupsi: poems and poems in Khanty and Russian languages" ^[5]. This is the only collection in which there are works translated into Russian by poets V. Nechvoloda, L. Reshetnikov, N. Kasyanov, E. Kiyan, G. Kiselyov. The collection consists of two parts, the first contains poems and the poem "Tak Molupsi" ("Strong Malitsa"), the second contains poems in the Khanty language.

The work uses historical-cultural, linguistic-cultural, comparative, descriptive methods, techniques of continuous sampling, contextual analysis, comparison, generalization, classification, systematization of material, as well as the technique of component analysis of color values.

Let's turn to the work of the Khanty poet, radio journalist, editor of the national broadcasting, collector and popularizer of folklore Vladimir Semyonovich Voldin. On the Yugra Literaturnaya website, Voldin, an artist, is described as an amateur author who posthumously received the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug- Yugra Governor's Award in Literature in 1999 ^[10]. His life was tragically cut short at the age of 33, but during this short period he managed to write many inspired poetic works imbued with love for his people, the nature of Yugra, reflecting the identity of the Khanty people.

Creativity of V. S. Voldina is studied in our country and abroad. The works of T. V. are known. Voldina, G. V. Zakharova, E. P. Kargapolova, N. A. Lyskova, E. A. Nemysova, V. V. Ogryzko. The Hungarian literary critic Peter Domokos wrote about the importance of Voldin the poet in the formation of Khanty literature in the monograph "The Formation of the literatures of the Small Uralic peoples" ^[9]. In his essay "Songs of the Reborn People", Yeremey Aipin called Vladimir Voldin "one of the most gifted poets", an artist "original, demanding of his work. <...> He sought to comprehend the deep in everything he touched, whether it was music, oral folk art or poetry. I have always strived for great generalizations" ^{[2, p. 2]}.

In 2018, the First Regional Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the birth of V. S. was held. Voldin, based on the materials of which the collection was released. Thanks to this scientific event, the fund of materials devoted to the analysis of the poet's work was replenished: articles by R. R. Asmandiyarova ^[3], L. G. Purtova ^[13], A. N. Semenov ^[14], V. L. Syazi ^[19]. To date, there are no special studies that would be devoted to color values in the works of Vladimir Voldin. Only in some scientific materials there are mentions of coloratives functioning on the pages of the author's poetry collection.

In the study of colorative vocabulary in poetry V. S. Voldin, we focus on the ethnosemiotic aspect of color meanings, reflecting the worldview of a man of the Khanty people – a breadwinner, defender of the house, hunter, fisherman, reindeer herder – a person for whom the ethnic picture of the world is inextricably linked with nature, with his native places – Yugra.

In the poem "So Molupsi" V. S. Voldin writes that he finds all the answers to questions about the meaning of life, about the search for happiness, about fate in the tales and songs of his people. This confirms that the author's linguistic worldview of Vladimir Voldin is based on the principles of the ethnic worldview of the Khanty people and reflects its concepts:

I often think about people and their destinies.

What did the great-grandfathers see as bright happiness?

I'm looking for an answer in fairy tales and songs. ^{[5, p. 9]}

The poet knows and describes folk signs based on the wisdom of his ethnic group:

Deep dew fell –

It will be good afternoon tomorrow.

The float is dancing dazedly –

So the river sensed the rain.

Will there be mushrooms and berries for the future –

Taiga will tell me about everything ^{[5, p. 26]}.

In the poem "Sorum Ov" Vladimir Voldin refers to the religious and mythological picture of the world of the Khanty people, telling about the sacred trees that the ancestors worshipped:

Yar is steep on Kazym.

He is covered with legends.

Great-grandfathers are here with you

They brought gifts to the trees:

Money, your idols,

Skins of a captured animal ^{[5, p. 28]}.

Mythological perception is reflected in the light lexeme, which is considered a light lexeme having the meanings "clear, understandable, best, kind, beloved". The light token symbolizes goodness, well-being, joy, has divine power, connection with the god of the Upper World, Torum. Voldin gives such symbolic meaning and power to the Word in the poem "Melodies of Spring Songs": "In an ancient, as if Ob, motif / Streams of new, bright words" ^{[5, p. 25]}. This is also mentioned in the poem "Fly, my song": "Under the Khanty sky, over the rich land / Sounds, my word, light and winged" ^{[5, p. 34]}. In addition, the light lexeme is represented in the following semantic combinations (the poem "So Molupsi"): bright happiness, bright morning, bright dream.

A word in poetry by V. S. Voldina also has the symbolism of red – the color of the Middle World, the world of all living things. He is associated in Khanty's worldview with both beauty and danger. The red color is also associated with fire, power. K. P. Cheremisina notes that "red – the color of blood and fire – is one of the Khanty's favorites when decorating clothes <...> and symbolizes the Middle World – the world of the living", it is "known as an impulsive, aggressive beginning <...> objects red colors carry negative symbols <...> if you dream of a red thing, then you definitely need to wait for trouble – this is a kind of warning" ^{[22, pp. 60-61]}.

 In the poem "Khanty", the symbolism of the Word in the lyrics of V. S. Voldina is conveyed by the light verb "blazes" and supplemented with an associative image of the northern lights: "This word is the northern lights / Let it blaze in the polar haze" ^{[5, p. 26]}. There is an image of a bright flame in the sky, like the northern lights. The ethnosemiotics of the perception of the Word is conveyed by a metaphor that includes the image of a natural phenomenon characteristic of the northern regions.

Red (crimson, brown) for Voldin, the poet, is also the color of blood (the name of the red color in the Khanty language just comes from the word "blood"): "The sunset brought down the sky on the grass, / The blood stained the blue with crimson..." ^{[5, p. 10]}; "And the brown scar trembles angrily on cheek..." ^{[5, p. 11]}.

Metaphorically, the sensations in the perception of color meanings during the bear's attack on the lyrical hero are conveyed: "blood stained the blue with crimson" ^{[5, p. 10]}. It can be argued that there is an overlap of meanings contained in the coloratives red and blue: a sense of danger to a sense of calm. These colors, combined in the traditional clothing of the Khanty people, are opposed by the elements they designate – fire and water. Such a coloristic technique allows the reader to follow the change of states of the lyrical hero, to feel this contrast.

Black is also symbolically represented in some poems – the color of the Lower World, associated in the philosophy of the color perception of the Khanty people with evil, death, fear and grief. In describing the attack of a bear on a man in the poem "So Molupsi", the author uses this colorative, including it in the structure of the comparative phrase "like a black cloud", to characterize the image of the beast. In the same passage, there is an equally significant example – the comparative phrase "like burning coals" in the description of the terrible eyes of a bear. The color of burning coals is a combination of black and red, which combine "evil, power, danger" in semantics:

I know a bear can do that.

He is a shaggy cloud and black-like…

His paws are terrible, his fur with a red tan.

Like burning coals, the eyes of a beast. ^{[5, p. 9]}

According to the ideas of the ethnos, the bear is the son of the heavenly god Torum, a representative of the three worlds. The cult of the bear is a characteristic feature of the worldview of the Khanty people in general and the Khanty men in particular, the phenomenon of the Ob-Ugric culture ("bear oath", "bear tongue", "bear holiday"). It must be admitted that over time the bear turned from a totemic to a commercial animal, therefore, the ideas and rituals of the commercial cult of the ethnic group associated with it were formed, but the fear of a predator did not weaken the superstitious attitude towards it, which was reflected in the lyrical collection of the author.

The specifics of the Khanty man's activity in all key aspects are defined in the poetry of Vladimir Voldin. The lyrical space of the author presents the traditional way of life of the Khanty people, based on fishing and hunting. In the poems "On hunting trails" ^{[5, p. 22]}, "The Hunter" ^{[5, p. 23]}, the lyrical hero calls hunting work and designates the qualities that a male hunter should possess (dexterity, patience, courage, strength, inspiration, courage, calmness, vigilance).

In the description of the process of hunting and extraction of fur-bearing animals, we find coloratives associated with images of animals: black, red, fiery, red, silver. These color designations do not have symbols, they convey perceptually the color of fur or the color of eyes, among them there are coloratives-periphrases: a red beast – a red fox, a black beast – a black fox: "His paws are terrible, the wool with a red tan" ^{[5, p. 9]}; "A red beast and a black beast" ^{[5, p. 16]}; "He is stupid and ridiculous, like a red-eyed grouse..." ^{[5, p. 13]}; "Here is a fox in a fiery skin / Creeps up from behind a stump" ^{[5, p. 22]}.

With love, the image of a woman is presented in Voldin's lyrics. The Khanty woman for the lyrical hero Voldin is a skilled craftswoman, a hardworking and caring hostess. The image of a woman in the perception of Voldin, the poet, is associated with the swarthy color.

I've been looking for you, I've been waiting for you,

And I don't believe my eyes, I met him!

She is sweet, slender and dark-skinned,

But I'm afraid to bend over to you. ^{[5, p. 33]}

The swarthy skin tone symbolizes various semantic connotations, but in the culture of the Khanty people it is associatively associated with strength and health – the ability of a woman to continue the family.  

The rainbow colorative reflects the mood of the lyrical hero – kind and joyful – before an early meeting with his beloved, for whom he has a special gift: "I bought a shawl as a gift of a cute / rainbow, beautiful fabric / With a painted pattern" ^{[5, p. 16]}.

In the description of pines in the lyrical space V. S. Voldin can be compared to a girl in an epithet containing the colorative "red" – red-faced. As N. M. Taligina writes, "a red-faced girl (woman) was considered the standard of beauty" ^{[21, p. 93]} in the traditional culture of the Ob Ugrians and Samoyeds: "And from the red-faced pines / There is a resinous smell" ^{[5, p. 30]}.

The poet's poems are dedicated to his native places on the Nazym and Kazym rivers. V. L. Syazi writes: "The image of the Motherland in the poetry of V. S. Voldina is conceptualized. In the poet's work, the image of the Motherland is unthinkable without the native taiga, animals, fish, the Khanty people and the native Khanty language of the poet. Through the image of a discreet but beloved northern nature, the poet expresses his love for his Father's land" ^{[19, p. 50]}. For example, in the poem "At the fishermen" ^{[5, 31]} or in the poem "Kazim runs along the ancient plagues" ^{[5, p. 28]}.

A. N. Semenov notes the amazing ability of V. S. Voldina: "The ability to hear the voices of the surrounding world and, above all, the voices of native nature (taiga and forest, grove) and native culture ("legends", "tales of grandfathers", "songs")" ^{[14, p. 19]}. These places are inextricably linked with the image of the house in the poetry of Vladimir Voldin. The house, in the image of which the whole North acts for the lyrical hero Voldin, is associated with coloratives reflecting the colors of nature. Their color perception shows the individual picture of the poet's world: white, light, blue / bluish, green, mottled, spotted, red/ red, yellow. In the representation of color meanings, metaphor (transparent hands of the sun), periphrasis (blue – sky, blue ribbon – river), comparisons (sky – spotted deer skin), personifications (blades of grass watching, green eyes open) are used.

The northern nature, in the description of the beauty and originality of which the author's linguistic picture of the poet's world is reflected, is presented in each poem. "The theme of nature occupies one of the central places in the work of V. Voldin. For him, nature is a living being that lives its own life. The forest "lives, whistles, screams", the forest "plays, laughs", the leaves whisper something to the wind, the sun has a "yellow eye", the forest is a "wonderful friend" for him" ^{[3, p. 57]}.

The coloratives in the poem "In Summer" are most vividly and variously represented, which is explained by the colors of this time of year:

The forest is spreading under my feet

Variegated yagel carpet,

And from the red-faced pines

There is a resinous smell…

The grasses are curling, the brushes are reddening,

The yellow eye looks at the sun.

I'll come check on you. ^{[5, 30]}

"The poet strives to show us the discreet beauty of the North at different times of the year. And for him, the nature of the North is beautiful at any time of the year. In summer, she spreads a "mottled yagel carpet" for him, and in winter – in a fur coat" ^{[3, p. 57]}. Let's compare the color values that characterize different seasons: Summer (mottled, red-faced, reddish, yellow), autumn (golden), spring (light), winter (gray). These coloristic features can be found in the poem "My North": "Did the gold set fire to the forests – / So the hour of suffering at the villages" ^{[5, p. 26]}. In the poem "In Spring": "There is a time of bright fun, / When, languishing like spring ice. / With a premonition of a spring thunderstorm / The Taiga sky is full" ^{[5, p. 24]}. In the poem "So Molupsi": "Today I am a guest with them. / Songs are spinning / In the frosty February gray skies" ^{[5, p. 13]}.

The functioning of color meanings in the work of Vladimir Semyonovich Voldin, a poet who deeply feels and reflects reality through the prism of his special worldview, is undoubtedly an element of the poetics of his work and is closely interrelated with the history and culture of his people. The choice of a unique color background for each lyrical plot is an undoubted feature of Voldin's style as an artist, a sign of his coloristic talent.       

Summing up our research, it is important to note that an analysis of the works of the Khanty poet translated into Russian was carried out, and this circumstance does not allow us to take into account the fact that there could be much more shades of colors indicated in the Khanty language, they are not always translatable. Thus, researcher Z. P. Sokolova writes that "the Khants have 16 descriptive names out of 17 white names, 10 descriptive names out of 11 black and red names" ^{[17, p. 261]}. Poetic texts inevitably have an overlap of meanings in the perception of the author and the translator in their reproduction in Russian. N. L. Lyskova also writes about this, emphasizing, for example, that the poems of V. Voldin and N. Kasyanov are "independent works, they are united only by the commonality of the theme. Russian Russian translation of V. Voldin's poem from the Khanty language reflects the specifics of the agglutinative and therefore more specific Khanty language, in comparison with the Russian inflectional language, which is inflectional, more abstract and therefore more concise" ^{[12, p. 74]}. And this is indeed the case: when translating, for example, such important author's color values are lost, which are in literal translation, as "my heart shone with cranberries", "golden and beloved Khanty word" (translated "this is a very expensive word"), "golden pine nuts" (translated "like hot nuts") ^{[12, p. 74]}.

In any case, the analysis of translated poetry allows us to understand to one degree or another both the inner world of the poet and the reflection of the linguistic picture of the world of the Khanty people in his work:

1. The white – red – black triad, which acts as a universal symbol of the culture of the Khanty people, manifests itself in the lyrical work of Vladimir Semyonovich Voldin, representing semiotic, value and philosophical and ideological meanings transmitted by colorative vocabulary: white / light - goodness, well–being, joy, divine power; red – blood, beauty, strength, fire, danger; black – death, evil, misfortune.

2. Colors in the description of nature have a contemplative, functionally symbolic character associated with the individual author's picture of the world; the light lexeme "light" replaces the meaning of the colorative "white" in the translation text; the symbolic color triad of the Khanty people consists of the lexemes "light (= white)", "red" and "black", which have an ethnosemiotic character associated with the constants of the Khanty people's worldview (Upper – Middle – Lower World); the individual author's worldview combines perceptual, generally accepted in world culture and ethnosemiotic perception of color;  symbolically, the combination of colors in one context gives rise to a new perception (for example, the contrast in the combination of red (fire) and blue (water) reflects a sharp change in the state of the lyrical hero, and in the combination of black (death) and red (danger, strength) – an increased sense of danger); metaphors and comparisons are used in the representation of color, periphrases, epithets, personifications, emotionally colored vocabulary.

3. Voldin's color designations are a significant part of the world, the image of northern nature, the image of a Khanty man, they form an integral part of the conceptual sphere of the ethnos. The lyrical hero of the poet is endowed with the voice of his people. The cultural and economic diversification of the ethnic group is reflected in the color vocabulary and symbols, the chosen coloristic techniques.

The color nominations in V. S. Voldin's lyrics are a source of knowledge about the culture and traditions of the Khanty people; they are also involved in the process of author's modeling of the image of the world; in an original contextual environment they contribute to the realization of the semantic potential of the national axiological paradigm of the ethnos.