하얀배 THE WHITE SHIP - Chingiz Aitmatov

 

 

 

The White Ship

하얀배

Chingiz Aitmatov

 

 

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE:

MESSAGES FOR THE KIRGHIZ IN CHINGIZ AITMATOV'S THE WHITE SHIP

Elmira Köc"ümkulkïzï

 

INTRODUCTION

 

In his novella The White Ship1, written in 1970, Chingiz Aitmatov contrasts the Kirghiz of the past with their present-day descendants. The main hero of the story is a seven-year old boy who, for some reason, has no name. He does not remember his parents. When he was still very young, they had separated. His mother left him in the care of her father, the old Momun, who lives in an isolated outpost in a forest preserve high in the mountains overlooking the lake Ïsïk-Köl. She herself had moved to the "city" which, in the context of Kirghizstan, means the capital Bishkek. There she had remarried and had neither time nor opportunity to visit her son. The boy's father, a sailor, had also remarried and long forgotten his son. But the boy longs for his father and imagines him to be on the white ship cruising on the blue waters of the Isïk-Köl. Almost every day he climbs up a mountain cliff and watches the white ship through his binoculars. Altogether there are three families living on the outposts. The boy's grandfather Momun and his second wife, Momun's son-in-law Orozkul who is married to Momun's other daughter, Bekey, and Seydakmat with his wife Güljamal.

 

The story which unfolds in The White Ship has been interpreted in different ways.2 The understanding the reader brings to the story depends very much on his/her background. For the Kirghiz, The White Ship offers several important messages, which a Western reader might easily overlook. Unlike in his previous stories (Face to Face; Jamila; Farewell, Gulsary) which essentially center on the contemporary life of the Kirghiz, in The White Ship, Chingiz Aitmatov raises the prospect of their future by reminding them of their past.

Accordingly, my discussion is divided into three parts: The Past, The Present and The Future of the Kirghiz within the context of The White Ship.

 

 

 

THE PAST

 

Until the October Revolution of 1917 the Kirghiz people were nomads. They lived in yurts, moving from one mountain pasture to another with their horses and sheep. In the descriptions of our elders, the mountain pastures were green, with lots of high grass, close to mountain springs. Their main food came from hunting and from their own domestic animals like sheep, goats and horses. They enjoyed drinking kïmïz, fermented horse milk. Living in the high mountain pastures, breathing fresh air and drinking pure water from the springs, the Kirghiz had no problems with diseases. They were healthy and strong. Their ancient beliefs were shamanistic and they worshipped the sky, the sun, the moon, the mountains and the water.3 They lived in harmony with nature, with animals and birds. Kirghiz tribes related their origin to animal ancestors. This belief is reflected in tribal and personal names. There are tribes called Bug"u (Deer), Bes" Kaman (Five Boars) and Sarï Bag"ïs" (Yellow Elk). Common are male personal names such as Börübay 4 (Wolf), Bug"ubay (Deer), Koc"korbay (Ram), Ükübay (Owl), Bag"ïs"bek 5 (Elk), Arstanbek (Lion), S"umkarbek (Falcon), Kïyg"ïrbek (Hawk), Botobek (Small Camel), Kozubek (Lamb), and Jolbors (Tiger). Female names are also connected with animals, such as Suusar (Marten), Maral (Deer), Karlïgac" (Swallow), Sonokan6 (Wild Duck) and Ayc"ürök (Wild duck as beautiful as the moon).

 

In The White Ship, Aitmatov retells the ancient legend of the Bug"u tribe which trace its ancestry to a deer, the revered Horned Mother Deer. Significantly, in the Kirghiz version Aitmatov identifies the Horned Mother Deer with the goddess Umay ene.7 No one from the Bug"u tribe would touch the deer. Everyone protected them. When a Bug"u met a deer, he would dismount and yield way to it. The young Bug"u men would sing songs in their Kirghiz mother tongue in which they would compare the beauty of their beloved girl with the beauty of a white deer.8

 

However, later they started to hunt deers and cut off their antlers to put them on graves to honor their dead. Soon no more deers were left, the mountains and the forests remained empty,

...then people came into the world who had never seen deer, they would only talk about them as a legend.9

 

Now the words of the men were meaningless when they compared the eyes of a young girl to those of a young deer. It was just a convention when a young girl would say to a young man: "your body is shaped like a deer".10

 

According to the shamanistic beliefs of the ancient Kirghiz, everything in nature had its spirit. The shamans played an important role in their society. They had the power to talk with the spirits of animals, trees, water, stones and heal the sick. They also were singers, and as oral poets it was their obligation to preserve their ancient traditions and legends.11 This is one of the reasons why the little boy in The White Ship, whose grandfather had taught him the Kirghiz customs and beliefs, treats rocks as living beings. He thinks they can hear him. He even gives them names like "Töö tas"" (Camel shaped stone), "Börü tas"" (Wolf stone), "Eer tas"" (Saddle shaped stone), "Kas"abaÙ" (Grey maned wolf), "Tanke tas" (Tank shaped stone). The boy also talks to the trees, to the flowers and the grass.12

 

Because the main food of the ancient Kirghiz came from hunting, they had to kill animals. But they were careful not to kill them in large numbers. Most likely they asked the animals for forgiveness before killing them as it had been the practice among hunters of the Siberian Turkic tribes.13 Domestic animals would be offered as a sacrifice to the spirits of their ancestors. This custom is still honored by old Momun in The White Ship. When a group of young Kirghiz men seek refuge from a heavy snow storm in Momun's house, he kills a sheep for them. Aitmatov could have skipped the prayer and could have just said that Momun killed a sheep for them. But it was important for Aitmatov to relate the ancient custom of a sacrificial offering. In the presence of the young boy the old man prays:

Oh, Horned Mother Deer, you are our Umay ene with the great spirit and noble character, I sacrifice this black lamb with a white spot on its head for you. You have saved your sons from dangerous places and a severe blizzard. Your white milk with which you nourished our ancestors saved us, your motherly compassion and your kind heart saved us. Do not forsake us, do not abandon your tribe on steep passes and on slippery paths. Protect us from rough streams, from enemies with bad intentions, from evil eyes and curses. Always protect our descendants and our home land, which you have presented to us from TeÙir".14

The prayer is said beautifully in rhymes in the Kirghiz version. Unfortunately, today the Kirghiz people have forgotten most of their shamanistic beliefs. They cannot pray with eloquent words like Momun. They just say "Oomiin", passing their hands down their face, as if praying, and that is it.

 

 

 

THE PRESENT

 

 

Soviet Education

 

After the October Revolution of 1917, the lifestyle of the nomadic Kirghiz started to change. They were forced to become sedentary. During the process of collectivization in the early 1930's their horses, sheep and cattle were taken away from them and became the property of the state. People could no longer move freely from pasture to pasture. They had to stay in the collective farms. The close relationship between human beings and nature was lost. The Kirghiz learned how to plow the land. Many elementary schools were opened for them. But despite the fact that they learned to read and write, people in the countryside did not and still do not read a lot. Among the nomadic Kirghiz, to not consult books did not mean being uncivilized. "Their traditional culture was based on the well-spoken word. The Kirghiz did not carry books with them. But they had their living books, the elders, oral poets and epic singers, who could store their historical past in their minds, and pass it orally to the next generation".15 Unfortunately, during the Soviet era, due to repression and restrictions, the role of oral poets and epic singers became more and more passive in the society. Their traditional songs of advice were replaced by Communist Party slogans. The younger generation has almost forgotten their traditions and their historical past. If we take, for example, Sabitjan in the novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, he studied in an "internat", away from his father, Kazangap. He knows a lot about science and other things and thinks highly of himself. But he became a "Soviet mankurt"16, a man who neither knows his people's traditions nor does he want to learn about them.17

 

The Soviet Union was meant to be a classless society and everybody was supposed to have an equal opportunity for education. However, the difference between the urban and rural population was, and still is, such that the people in the villages were kept far behind in terms of their level of education. True, they all, except some older people, can read and write. However, education in the former Soviet Union, in general, was and still is based on reading and memorizing prescribed texts and repeating what the teacher says. Writing term or seminar papers, if at all, was, and still is, merely an exercise in copying from books. As I can attest from my own education, first in a Kirghiz village and later at a university in Bishkek, students are not taught to think critically and they do not ask questions of their teachers.

 

 

Alcoholism

 

One vice which the Kirghiz learned from the Russians is drinking. The problem of alcoholism, particularly in the countryside where many people, young and old, drink excessively, has never been discussed. Teachers in high schools, and even parents, do not have the courage to tell their students and children not to drink vodka, because they themselves drink. Even if they are told by their teachers and parents, they would not listen. In the villages, due to the low level of education, the people do not understand that drinking destroys their lives and those of their children. The problem of alcoholism is one of the main issues which Aitmatov raises in The White Ship. Aitmatov abhores alcohol. He uses every opportunty to make the Kirghiz aware of the abuses of alcohol.18 In The White Ship he condemns Orozkul and Seydakmat for their drunkenness. Orozkul could be called a slave of alcohol. He illegally cuts down trees in the forest preserve and gives them to his friends who reward him with alcohol.19 And he is happy for that. But he is the most miserable person. Because his wife Bekey cannot bear him a child, he beats her, particularly when he is drunk. He hates everybody, including himself. Orozkul is not the only person who drinks. The other character in the story, Seydakmat, the husband of Güljamal, is also an alcoholic. From the perspective of the young boy, Aitmatov describes his own disgust of drunkenness:

And when he came nearer, the smell of alcohol struck the boy's nostrils. The boy hated that ugly stench, the smell which reminded him of Orozkul's cruelty, of the suffering of his grandfather and his Aunt Bekey.20

 

Drunken men and women, young and old, can be seen everywhere in Kirghizstan, but more so in the countryside. No efforts have been made to improve life in the villages. After finishing a low quality high school, the young cannot continue their studies at universities and institutes in Bishkek. For one, they would not pass the entrance examinations, and secondly, if accepted, they would not be able to succeed because almost all subjects are taught in Russian. Life in the village is boring for them. There is a lot of hard work in the fields and some will work but most do not, instead they start to drink vodka. The metabolism of the Kirghiz, not having been used to drinking alcohol in the past, cannot tolerate alcohol.21 If they drink, they get intoxicated quickly. But if they do not stop drinking, what will the future of the Kirghiz be like? What can they teach their children? This problem concerns Aitmatov very much.

 

 

Neglect of the Kirghiz Language

 

Another great concern for Aitmatov is the neglect of the Kirghiz language. This is particularly noticeable among the so-called "intellectuals" in the cities. Most of them speak only Russian. They consider themselves "more civilized" than a person who cannot speak Russian. Because the official language was Russian and everything was conducted in Russian in the cities, people in the villages felt inferior and ashamed for not knowing the language. Most of the Kirghiz parents in the villages wanted their children to learn Russian, but even the level of Russian teaching was inferior in the villages. Besides, most parents did not know Russian. They, as all the people in the villages, felt that they were lesser people, and like Orozkul, they started to despise their native language and their traditional culture. The city with its European-Russian environment became an attraction for them. Like Orozkul, they began to admire city life. Orozkul, for example, wants to get rid of his simple wife and marry a city woman:

How splendid it would be if I could marry one of those beautiful singers who sing with the microphone in their hands while moving their hips. It is known that such women only care for men in high positions. What a sight it would be, if I could put on a tie, go out with her and my beautiful wife would take my arm and walk side by side with me. The two of us would go to the movies cutting through crowds. Would that not be splendid?! My wife's high heels would click on the sidewalk and her perfume would dazzle the people who pass by. They would turn to sniff the perfume like hounds that had caught a scent". Would that not be great?! And then she would bear me a son.22

 

He continues to "dream":

I would enroll my son in law school and teach my daughter to play the piano. You can tell the city children at once. They are clever. They do not like the rude language of the village. From an early age they speak Russian fluently. Of course, that is the way it should be, otherwise where will the poor (Kirghiz) language of the old fool, Momun, lead us? I would buy my children everything they asked for if they only would call us "Papochka, mamochka" [dear father, dear mother] in Russian.23

 

Here, Aitmatov raises the issue of Russification. Through Orozkul's point of view, Aitmatov openly states the necessity of knowing the Kirghiz language. It is true that those fluent in Kirghiz, but not in Russian, could not amount to much. However, it does not mean that the Kirghiz language is "poor" and "rude" as Orozkul thinks. People, like him, have not listened to the singers of "Manas" nor have they read the written versions of any other Kirghiz epic song or story. It has been said that the Kirghiz language lacks scientific terms. If Kirghiz had been the official language and the language of instruction in universities and institutes during the Soviet period, it would have enriched its vocabulary with scientific terms. Unfortunately, even today Kirghiz is not the official language in practice, neither is it the language of instruction in Bishkek. People like Orozkul, even many intellectuals who prefer to speak Russian, cannot see the beauty and the richness of their native language. If the Kirghiz language would have been poor, Aitmatov could not have become an internationally known writer. His cultivated and expressive Kirghiz, which he learned from his grandmother and later from his aunt Karakïz, while living in the Kirghiz village of S"eker, enabled him to become a "writer who can paint with words".24 Aitmatov attributes his exceptional love for his Kirghiz mother tongue to the influence of his grandmother:

It may well be that she herself didn't suspect it, but my grandmother inculcated in me the love for the mother tongue. The wonder of the mother tongue is a mystery. only the native word known and perceived in childhood can fill one's soul with the poetry engendered by a nation's experience, stir in a human being the first sources of national pride, provide the esthetic savoring of the multi-dimensional and multi-functional nature of the language of one's ancestors.25

 

True, Aitmatov writes also in Russian. He is bilingual in both languages to a remarkable degree. But it does not matter whether Aitmatov writes in Russian or in Kirghiz. His Kirghiz soul is evident in his Russian versions.26 "Chingiz Aitmatov--is first of all, a Kirghiz writer, then a Soviet writer".27 Aitmatov's love and care for the Kirghiz language can be seen in the blessing of the Mother Deer, when she brings two children, one boy and one girl, the only survivors of an ancient Kirghiz tribe, from the Yenisey to the Isïk-Köl:
This land [Ïsïk-Köl] will be your homeland, said the Horned Mother Deer. Plow the land, plant seeds, breed cattle and catch fish. Thus, live here in peace and prosperity for thousands of years. May your tribe multiply, and may you always be blessed with many children and be surrounded by the many animals you raise.28 May your future generations not forget their mother tongue which you brought with you from far away and which is refined when spoken and sounds like music when heard. May your descendants always sing proudly about their people and their country in their mother tongue. Don't be inferior to other people, be equal to them. From now on I will be your Umay ene for you and your descendants and I will be with you forever"29

 

 

 

THE FUTURE

 

Given the above stated facts that alcoholism and the disregard for the Kirghiz language and culture are wide-spread, what does this hold for the future of the Kirghiz? Towards the end of the story Aitmatov presents a very tragic picture. Everybody is drunk, including the women: "His Aunt, Bekey, too, was drunk and the stench of alcohol made him feel sick".30 The boy tries to talk to his grandfather who is rolling outside in the mud and dirt. He, too, is drunk. The boy is getting sick from the laughter of the people in the house and from the smell of alcohol:

The inside of the house became hot and smelly with the mixed stinky smell of their sweat and the stench of alcohol. The boy lay in torment and wanted to throw up. He closed his eyes and he heard the noisy people chomping, swallowing, puffing, and devouring the flesh of the Horned Mother Deer and offering each other ustukan 31 and clinking their greasy glasses, throwing the gnawed bones into an empty bowl and he was sickened by all of these.32

 

The boy cannot accept the fact that the person who shot the Horned Mother Deer, the personification of Umay ene, was his own grandfather, even though Orozkul forced him to do it. After all, he was the one who had told him the legend about the Mother Deer. The boy believed in everything that his grandfather had told him. He can no longer endure the crimes of the grown-ups and swims into the river and dies. Nobody notices it. And the author once more brings up the drunken people singing a distorted version of a traditional song meant to be sung during the holy month of Ramadan:

 

Adïr-adïr toolordon,
Aygïr minip tüs"öbüz.
A düynödö ne kïzïk,
Tuugandar,
Aykïrïp arak ic"ebiz! 33

 

From the mountain ranges,
We come down on a stallion.
What is there for us in the other world?
Hey, Brothers,
Let's be merry and drink vodka!

 

 

The original version of the song belongs to the genre of the Jaramazan songs which usually have several four-line verses:

 

Adïr-adïr toolordon,
Aygïr minip biz keldik.
Aygïr bas"ïn tartalbay,
Us"ul üygö tus" bolduk.

 

From the mountain ranges,
We came riding on a stallion.
Unable to hold back the stallion
We came to this yurt.

 

In my childhood, when I lived in mountain pastures with my grandparents, young men from neighboring settlements would ride up to our yurt after sunset during Ramadan and sing such songs. First we would listen to their songs and if they sang well, my grandmother would go outside and give them small gifts, such as freshly-baked bread and kurut (small balls of dried and salted sour milk), and tie around their waists embroidered sashes. In return, the young men would sing to us kind wishes in verses. My grandmother would also give them her blessing (ak bata). Jaramazan songs are no longer popular. They lost their significance among young people like Seydakmat who now distort them according to their own liking. As we can see in the story, with the exception of the old Momun and his grandson, no one seems to care any longer for the traditions of the Kirghiz.

 

In my understanding of the story, Aitmatov is not optimistic about the future of the Kirghiz. Otherwise why would he have linked the Umay ene, the goddess of life and fertility, with the Horned Mother Deer who is so brutally killed? Does this not mean that the Kirghiz have cut themselves off from their future? Does the killing of the Mother Deer/Umay ene not mean the demise of their culture and their future as Kirghiz?34 Aitmatov leaves the reader with the notion that the people in the countryside, including the young and the old, will continue to drink vodka as a result of their low level of education. There was no way that he could keep the young boy alive. The death of the young boy, a symbol of the future, is "another image of the destruction of the Kirghiz way of life".35 As much as it was impossible for him to survive among people like Orozkul, Seydakmat and others like them, who could give him nothing in terms of education, tradition and cultural values, the boy would have fared no better had he received his education somewhere away from his grandfather, "the primary representative of Kirghiz culture in the story".36 Most likely, he would have become a mankurt like Sabitjan in The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years.

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

1 The following discussion is based on the Kirghiz version of the The White Ship (Ak keme) published in Üc" tomdon turgan c"ïgarmalar (Works in Three volumes), vol. II, Frunze: Kïrgïzstan Basmasï, 1982. As has already been observed by Svat Soucek, "National Color and Bilingualism in the Work of Chingiz Aitmatov," Journal of Turkish Studies, v. 5 (1983), pp. 93-95, Aitmatov's Kirghiz version differs from the Russian/English versions. These differences have been italicized in the quotations cited. I very much appreciate Professor Ilse Cirtautas' knowledge about the culture, history and literature of the Central Asian Turks. Her course on "The Kirghiz Writer Chingiz Aitmatov" which she taught in Winter 1997 at the University of Washington, gave me a deeper understanding of Aitmatov's works. I decided to write my paper on The White Ship because there are important messages for the Kirghiz in this novella that are not being discussed among the Kirghiz themselves.

2 For an Uzbek interpretation, see p. ? (Muhammad Ali Axmedov). Valuable insights are given in Joseph P. Mozur, Parables from the Past: The Prose Fiction of Chingiz Aitmatov, Pittsburg, PA: Pittsburg University Press: 1995, pp. 60-72, and Anthony J. Qualin, Searching for the Self at the Crossroads of Central Asian, Russian and Soviet Cultures: The Question of Identity in the Works of Timur Pulatov and Chingiz Aitmatov, Doctoral Dissertation (manuscript), University of Washington, Seattle, 1996, pp. 36-50.

3 In The White Ship, grandfather Momun teaches the boy an ancient Kirghiz song which expresses their worship of the mountains. The song has the following lines: "My mountains Ala-Too and Tenir Too, you are a protective wall and a bastion for my people!" C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982 (II), p. 23.

4 bay -- lit.: rich, generous. The word is added to male names as a distinctive appellative.

5 bek -- lit.: leader, added to male names as a distinctive appellative.

6 kan -- diminutive suffix, sonokan "dear wild duck". The suffix is identical with the word qan/xan>uzb. xon: Kizlarxon, Diloramxon, Olmaxon, etc.

7 See C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982 (II), pp. 52, 99. The goddess Umay, protectress of children and fertility, has been worshipped among the Turkic peoples since ancient times as manifested in the Kül Tegin Inscription (8th century A.D.). She is referred to as Umay ene ("Mother Umay") among the Turkic peoples of the Altay mountains, the Tuvans, the Kirghiz and the Uzbeks. The Khakas revere her as the placenta or the umbilical cord of a new-born child, the essence of life, the human soul, see O. Nahodil, "Mother Cult in Siberia", in: V. Diószegi, Popular Beliefs and Folklore Tradition in Siberia, Mouton & Co: The Hague, The Netherlands, 1968, p. 463. Kirghiz women still call upon the spirit of the Umay ene at the birth of a child and when children are sick. The hero Manas was born with the help of Umay ene (Manas. Entsiklopediya, vol. II, Bishkek 1995, p. 312).

8 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982 (II), p. 53.

9 op. cit., p. 55.

10 ibid., p. 55.

11 K. Nora Chadwick, and Victor Jirmunsky, Oral Epics of Central Asia, Cambridge: University Press, 1969, p. 234.

12 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982, (II), p. 57.

13 see E.A. Alekseenko, "The Cult of Bear Among the Ket (Yenisey Ostyaks)", in: V. Diószegi, op.cit., p. 177 (with reference to the Altay Turks).

14 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982 (II), p. 99.

15 Notes from a presentation by Professor Ilse Cirtautas on "Uzbek Memoirs and Historical Novels" at the University of Washington, February 28, 1997.

16 see p.

17 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982 (III), p. 36.

18 Aitmatov also refers to the drunkenness of some characters in The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years and in Farewell, Gulsary, but alcoholism is not a major issue in these works as it is in The White Ship.

19 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982 (II), p. 61.

20 ibid., p. 115

21 As among the Kazakhs, Russian alcohol had been introduced to the Kirghiz in large quantities during and after World War II.

22 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982, (II), p. 60.

23 ibid., p. 60.

24 Notes from Professor Ilse D. Cirtautas' lecture course "The Kirghiz Writer Chingiz Aitmatov," taught in Winter Quarter 1997,

25 Svat Soucek, op. cit., p. 72.

26 Munavvarkhon Dadazhanova, "Both Are Primary: An
Author's Translation is a Creative Re-creation", Soviet Studies in Literature, vol. XX, (Fall 1984), p. 75.

27 T. S. Subanberdiyev, C"ingiz Aitmatov v sovremmen-
nom mire: avtor--kniga--chitatel' (Chingiz Aitmatov in the Modern world: the Author, the Books and the Reader), Frunze: Kïrgïzstan, 1989, p. 13.

28 Here Aitmatov uses a traditional phrase of blessing said to newly-weds: "AldïÙardï bala basïp, arkaÙarga mal tolsun" (May many children step in front of you and cattle multiply behind you). This is just one example of the writer's use of phrases and formula which are part of Kirghiz oral tradition.

29 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, 1982 (II), p. 52.

30 ibid, p. 121.

31 boiled meat with bones.

32 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, op. cit., p. 123.

33 C"ïÙgïz Aytmatov, op. cit., p. 129. This verse is rendered differently in the Russian/English version. Chingiz Aitmatov, The White Ship, translated by Mirra Ginsburg, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972, p. 160:
From the humpy, humpy mountains
I have come on a humpy camel.
Hey, humpbacked merchant, open the door,
We shall drink bitter wine.

 

34 Anthony J. Qualin, op.cit., p. 49.

35 ibid., p. 49.

36 ibid., p. 46

 

 

 

http://depts.washington.edu/centasia/kirghizbulletin.htm#white

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.fantasticasia.net/?p=156

 

 

http://www2.usdf.com/mission/kyr.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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