Agafonushka

Appearing only in the eighteenth-century collection of Kirsha Danilov, the song “Agafonushka” contains several parodic, satiric, and humorous inversions of epics, most of which were recorded later as separate short works. The title is an affectionate form of the masculine name Agafon, which in the past was a fairly common Russian name. B.M. Dobrovolskii and V.V. Korguzalov (1981: 594–95) have divided this “anti-epic” into two broad sections: (1) lines 1–47, consisting of several illogically connected parodies, and (2) lines 48–72, belonging to the epic subgenre nebylitsa (Ivleva 1972). The opening (lines 1–7) inverts the beginning of the bylina about Solovei Budimirovich in Danilov’s volume by turning a broad and expansive spatial setting into specific places in a peasant house. Thus the initial lines of that song, “High, high is the sky, / Deep, deep is the ocean-sea,” in “Agafonushka” become “The high height—was a stove under the ceiling, / The deep depth—was under the floor.” The next episode (lines 8–19) can be called a “mock epic” since the depiction of a duel between two bogatyrs is transformed into a battle between a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law who, in place of a hero’s weapons, use assorted household items. Instead of defeating an enemy of Kiev or slaying a monster, the women kill “one scrawny chicken.” The following short section (lines 20–26) offers a parody on the idealized clothing of a bogatyr, in particular the exaggerated description of the dress and buttons that Dyuk wears in the bylina bearing his name. The remaining lines in the first part constitute a series of impossible situations and conclude with another inversion of an epic battle. The last part, as is typical for a nebylitsa, contains a chain of absurdities such as “A gray pig wove a nest” or “Ships were cruising through the open field.” Thus “Agafonushka” presents a combination of disparate episodes that have little logical development and have no clear motivation. The traditional raised tone, language, characters, descriptions, and actions in Russian epics have been turned inside out and have been replaced with objects and features from everyday peasant life. The last line, “This was the old song—these were the deeds,” concludes many of the bylinas in Kirsha Danilov’s collection. It should be mentioned that “Agafon-ushka,” probably because of its satiric and parodic character, contains some passages whose meaning is unclear even to a person closely familiar with the language of Russian folklore. Agafonushka On the Don, on the Don—in a hut on a house, On steep banks—on a stove on firewood, The high height—was under the ceiling, The deep depth—was under the floor, 5 And the wide plain—was a hearth before the stove, The open field—was under the benches, The blue sea—was the water in the washtub. Near the white city wall—near the millstone, There was shooting—with spindles, 10 The canons and muskets—were clay pots, The planted banners—were brooms, The sharp sabers—were kokoshniks, ^* The heavy maces—were shemshuras, ^† These shemshuras belonged to women from Tyumen. ^‡ 15 A mother-in-law battled and fought with her daughter-in-law, Making an attack on the city millstone, Over a pie and over barley bread, They battled and fought all day till evening, They killed one scrawny chicken. 20 To this fight and to this great battle Ran out a strong and mighty bogatyr— The young Agafonushka, Nikita’s son. His fur coat—was made of pig’s tails, It was trimmed with pain and lined with fever, 25 The buttons-—were boils and sores, The buttonholes—were itchy scabs. At that time an old man was lying on a plank bed, ^* He was counting his army—he shit in his pants. An old woman—young in mind— 30 Sat down to shit—she sang songs. The blind ran—they saw with their rears, The headless ran—they sang songs, The holeless ran—they farted, The noseless ran—they sniffed. 35 Then an armless person stole something in a shed, The armless one put it in a naked man’s shirt. A tongueless one—was taken to torture, The hanged ones—listened, Those slashed to death—escaped into the forest. 40 To this fight, to this great battle, Then ran out three mighty bogatyrs. The head of the first mighty bogatyr— Was smashed through with pancakes, The legs of the second mighty bogatyr— 45 Were broken with straw, The belly of the third mighty bogatyr— Was ripped through with guts. At the same time and at the same hour, Brothers, on the sea a barn was burning 50 With turnips, with boiled turnips. In the middle of the blue Khvalynsk Sea— Was growing a thick oak. On that thick damp oak— A gray pig wove a nest, 55 It wove a nest on the oak, And it raised children—grayish piglets, Piglets with small stripes. They ran everywhere on the oak, They looked in the water—they wanted to drown, 60 They looked in the field—they wanted to run away. Ships were cruising through the open field, A gray wolf was sitting at the helm, A red fox was egging him on: “Keep to the right, keep to the left, then go where you want.” 65 They looked at the sky—they wanted to fly away. High up there a mare was flying in overalls, A devil saw a bear flying, It was carrying a brown cow in its claws, In a mortar a chicken gave birth to a lamb, 70 Under the hearth a cow laid an egg, In a pen a sheep gave birth to a calf. This was the old song—these were the deeds. Source: Kirsha Danilov, Ancient Russian Poems, 2nd ed. (Moscow, 1977), pp. 141–42.