Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/458

 434 Modern Riissiati Popular Songs.

cases, an image derived from nature ("nature-picture"), and as a parallel to it some fact of human life, or some emotion felt by the singer corresponding to this image.

" 'Tis not a mist, 'tis not the silvery dew Lies o'er the land and veils each leaf. No ! 'tis my eyes that fail to note the view, My eyes of grey grown dim with grief

As with the birch-tree, though the breeze be still, Yet through its curling twigs a rustling goes ; So through my restless heart, without a cause. Shoot throbs of pain, though it no sorrow knows."

Symbolical parallelism is also the basis of many old folk- songs.

Comparing the form of the cliastushka with that of the old verses, it may easily be remarked that it is distinguished from the latter by rhyme, which enters into all the dias- tus/iki, and by rhythm, which is founded on an artificial, literary, metrical system.

Distinguished by its metrical composition from the typical old poetical specimens, the cliastushka has at the same time many features which show its close relation to the ancient poetry. To begin with, some cJiasUishki are real products of the corruption and decay of the old songs, the fragments of which are revived in a new form approach- ing to that of short, literary verses. The intimate connec- tion of the chastnshka with the ancient poetical tradition is particularly traceable in the methods of producing poetry. The old songs became, as it were, a cradle for the newer ones. In fact, the poetical images and symbols which occur in the chastushki, being similar to those of the old poems, show a direct and close continuity between the modern and old productions. For example, in the old poetry the cuckoo is a symbol for a melancholy woman ; in the same sense this symbol occurs in a cJiastiisJika: —