The poetics of things in Khasyr Syan-Belgin’s Poem about the Great Patriotic War

The relevance of the article is determined by the understudied nature of the poem genre in Kalmyk poetry of the 20th century, including the works of the People’s Poet of Kalmykia, Khasyr Syan-Belgin. The purpose of the article is to study the previously unexplored poem “Balta erǝtǝ alchur” (“Honey-colored patterned handkerchief”, 1958) by the poet about the Great Patriotic War in terms of its poetics. The novelty of the research is due to the semiotic approach to the function of an object in the plot of a work, the comparative-comparative method in the folklore tradition of the Kalmyk folk song, the Kalmyk fairy tale, and the author’s poem. The patterned silk handkerchief of a girl, given to a young man who is leaving to serve in the army, became a symbol of her love and loyalty, as well as a protective amulet. During the Great Patriotic War, this object performs a protective function: it stops the bleeding of a wounded hero, and then it becomes an identification marker like a red flag, indicating the achievement of a military objective – the capture of an enemy height. The folklore tradition of the Kalmyk folk song (a girl’s handkerchief as a love gift for a young man leaving for military service) and the Kalmyk fairy tale (a handkerchief as a means of reviving a deceased husband) in the poem by a contemporary Kalmyk poet is complemented by the category of heroism in the image of a defender of the Fatherland. The plot-forming function of the object in this poem, starting with the title, conveys the symbolism of love, duty, and heroism. Russian Russian translation of the work entitled “Silk Patterned Handkerchief” (1959) was published over the years in Kalmyk, both in Russian translation and as a poem. 

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