DYNAMICS AND CONSTANCY OF POETRY
The Mankind and the Nature have always being changed with passage of time or centuries. But the poetry has never been changed. Comedy by Homer , the ancient poet and the poems by XXI century’s poets have a common character. This is the excitement of people. This emotion or charm resulting from the poetry exists forever or are independent from the passage, character of human being and from the social changes. The genuine essence of the poetry will never be disappeared and its affection character remains unchanged. So this is the constancy of the poetry, I believe.
I would like to speak about the content of my poem written based on the theme of an ancient Mongolian myth, as below:
As soon as the King returned his Palace after a successful fighting made an extra-ordinary decree and invited all poets with talent and ecstasy to this palace. Three hundred poets gathered from every corner of the country and entertained for three months. 270 poets who came to the Palace-warming celebration were awarded by brocade and silks and they were pleased with the King’s favor and went home. But 30 poets who wrote tragic poems were imprisoned in a strict regime for three months because everybody enjoyed the time. When all these poets suffered in a dark corner of the prison only three of them in such a hard circumstance wrote joy and happiness songs with no time to rest their pens. 27 poets were released and awarded by brocade and silks and saw off respectfully to their long trip providing them a coach pulled by the two strong horses.
The three courageous poets passed through the King’s trial were sat on a pedestal made of gold and crowned them to glorify.
After that many years have passed and one of the poets lost his talent and ecstasy in the happy life of the Palace. The second one wrote his poems as his King wants and glorified His Excellency. The other one looked for the “true”. But his life was unusual and worried by His Excellency. He eulogized the “true” forever. It is said that the poet who wrote the Horse Riders Epic was selected by this way. Unfortunately, the name of the writer is unknown but the Epic is being preserved , until today. Except poets who else are able to climb up to the top his creativity devoting all his life and remain unknown?!
In a period with such many diversified events of the informational century representing the poetry is really a matter of courageousness. Therefore, the poet of the century as aforesaid and the poet of his XXI century have the same destiny.
After all these I can say that the poetry is not dependent on the time , but it has a constant feature.
TWO:
Mongolia is the cradle for the great migration of the Mankind. In Mongolia there are historical places where ancient people started their life 500,000-700,000 years ago. There are some remains of creative works by people from the primitive community on rocks. In IV-I century B.C artists from the primitive community society left their art works on the walls and ceiling of the caves by their artistic conception. All these works with its real and abstract portray and with its symbolization and presentiment became an important art works because all these reflect a colorful thinking.
By this way our ancestors who lived in the Inner Asian Cradle created invaluable art works and only some of them moved to other places looking for favorable natural conditions. The embryos of poetry of Mankind should be eventually originated from the Primitive Community. It is sure that the Cradle of Mankind preserves the unique wonder of the Human civilization the heritage of poetry. In this case we should speak about the heritage of Mongolian Poetry, starting from the epigrams of double lyric which consist of only two words or two lines to the epic poems to be intoned for consecutive 20 to 30 days.
Mongols created valuable heroic epic poems such as Secret of the Mongols, Jangar etc. which are the same value as Illiada and Odyssey Greek, Ramayana and Panchatantra India, Song of Roland France and World of Igori’s Regiment Russia which are the selected few quintessence of the Mankind. The “Jangar” was written surely 1000 years ago or more longer before and the Secret History of Mongols about 800 years ago.
Four stanzas of verses of Rubay” written by Omar Khaiyam from ancient Persia, tanka or five stanzas of verses of Handful of Sand” by Isakava Takuboku, Japan, three stanzas of verses by Matsyo Basyo Khaiko, Japan, four stanzas of verses of Rosary of Treasury Suvashid by Gungajaltsan, Tibet, narrative verses called Coming Birds by Rabindranaat Taagur, India and sonnet or 14 stanzas of verses by oriental poets are considered as the rosary of treasury of the world poetry. The “Triads” written with philosophical profound meaning.
It is often that Mongolians inherit verses and books from mouth to mouth learning by heart. The epic song of Thousands of Treasury intoned by Parchin, epic singer had 5000 stanzas of verses. At the beginning of the XX century this epic poem was written on the paper. The epic poem of The Old Vise Khan lived for 150 years had 14000 stanzas of verses. Apart from this, 400 years ago the poems read by Tsogt taij, patriotic poet of Mongolia engraved by his aides on the rock. There are many stone books of this kind in Mongolia. There were found many verses and ballades written on the birch-bark and the most famous one the Golden Horde Script on the Birch-Bark was found in the valley of the Volga river. It is one of the melodic songs from the XIII century. Mongolians not only engraved their verses and ballades on the rock and wood but there are many examples of immortalizing with and silver. With a view to mention only one example, for making Sunduin Jud or a brief of the Mystic Studies used 54 kg gold and 460g of silver. There are many examples of this kind.
Mongolia is rich in the variety of poetry and they are meaningful. Mongolian colorful poetry is rich with teachings and doctrines of Khaan , state officials, evidences, oaths, grief and common sense of ordinary people and with meaningful aphorism with wisdom. The doctrines of the Great Chinggis Khan is called Oyun tulkhuur and collection of the verse written by Khuvlai Khaan is called Opinion at the Chun Shan mountain and the Togoon Temur Khaan wrote Verses of Regret when he left the “Daidu”. Sonodiyn Gilgutey, one of the Chinggis’s paladins and heroes told verses at the corpse of His Excellency, the Great Chinggis Khaan. The Queen Mandukhay the clever when Her Excellency ruled the Great Mongolian Empire took an oath telling verses in front of the Eight White Palaces of the State. All these verses became valuable in the treasury of the Mongolian Poetry.
So, all Mongols starting from the great emperor to the ordinary people contributed to create the treasury of the Mongolian Poetry. The two poems called the “History of an Orphan Argued wittily with the Nine Paladin’s of Chinggis Khaan and Story of Two Sacred Horses of Chinggis Khaan are the proof of this.
Alongside this, many Mongolian poets wrote their verses and works in foreign languages. There were over 200 poets wrote their verses and works in Chinese from the periods of Yuan dynasty to the Chin dynasty. The Sadness Songs written by Agay prince, Mongolian poet from the XIII century Yuan dynasty are being kept until today. Pu Sun Lin who wrote 16 volumes called Interesting notes in a big Gher became very famous in Chinese literature with this work. We khew, later on, that she was a Mongolian and the author of the book of “Wonderful Event of Ancient Time and Today” which always was and is the most interesting book for Mongolians from generation to generation.
Writing books in the Tibetan Language among the Mongolians became tradition from XIV century and we have more than 200 Mongolian writers who wrote their main works in the Tibetan language in the last three centuries. All these works consisted of 1-16 volumes, each. Twelve Creatures by Buddha by Choiji-Odser, Janlav Tsogzol by the Lofty Brilliance Zanabazar and the Colorful Ballade of a Cuckoo by Sumbe Khamba Ishbaljir are the best ones among those books written by the Mongolians in Tibetan the language.
Mongols studied Indian literature and translated into the Mongolian language for generations. Finally, in the XVII century the Mongols summarized all translated Indian works in 335 volumes and named it “Ganjuur” and “Danjuur” which became a marvelous contribution to the intellectual treasure of the Mankind. About 5000 works are included in the above-mentioned two volumes. The oriental colorful poems by the Vanchinbal’s or Injinash, Gulrans and others born 5 poets in a family in the Mongolian literature occupy respectful position.
Unfortunately, now we are unable to mention many poets because a unique lifestyle of nomads the best writers of many marvelous works of Mongolian Poetry were hidden. The names of writers of Secret History of Mongols, Geser and Jangar which are the peaks in Mongolian literature have been kept in secret for generations in the centuries of historical back. Many writers left their works forgotten their names. The Fifth Gobi Khutukhtu Danzanravjaa, a genius Mongolian poet who wrote his many marvelous poems and pallades was born in the x²x century. At that time, his works were spread out among public from mouth to mouth. But only in the 1960’s readers of today became familiar with his works. Within this 40 years Mongolian readers and researchers acknowledged him as being an outstanding poet.
The poetry collection written by Ravjaa were published twice. But his works written in Tibetan unfortunately have not yet been, so far, familiar among public. Nevertheless ,Khutukhtu Danzanravjaa, the Mongolian enlightener and poet deserves to be enlished among the quintessential writers of this planet who have their shares in the poetry treasury of the Mankind.
After Ravjaa Dashdorjyn Natsagdorj (1906-1937) leads the representatives of the new Mongolian Poetry. In the second half of the xx century Begziyn Yavuukhulan (1929-1982) made reform in Mongolian Lyric Poetry. We consider that these outstanding poet were born by Mongolian people for the oriental and world poetry. The poetry by D.Natsagdorj and B.Yavuukhulan has a distinctive feature compared to the world poetry. Their works were translated into the languages of more than 50 nations and published and their voice became familiar to their friends in every corner of the world.
Taking this opportunity for few minutes I am pleased to introduce Mongolian poetry but not in detail to my friend of oriental poets with the same pens.
THREE:
The fate of a poet should pace with its own time but it is not always noticed in that time. But in the other time when they did not live may conquer the readers of that time. I believe that many wonderful poems written by friends who are present at this forum will enlighten readers of the xx² century or more later on.
Everything has always been under changes. We see that the media where poetry is born has been changing. We can notice that the existence of poetry is gradually being restricted. It is not like the period of Ashoka Khan in India when people were enlightened by Buddhist poetry and lived in peace. In the period of Tan Dynasty in China poets such as Li Bay, Du Fu etc. wrote their poem of sadness and almost all people imitated writing similar verses. In XIII century Mongols communicated with verses, during their hirse riding. In XIII century poets surrounded by a circle of nobility in the Pushkin avenue in Moscow people were patient to hear poems written by Russian poets for hours. In Ulaanbaatar used to be long queues after publication of a new collection of poems, some years ago.
But today people live in a troublesome condition under a heavy burden of the market risk. Today, Mankind suffers from mechanization, automation and provision of various electronic equipment and urbanization. The way to the heart of the human being became very narrow due to the time and spatial constraints. But everybody has concrete sense of poetry, so we should seek the way to get to the heart of readers even through the hole of a needle in order to bring them the light. And I consider that of the xx² century poetry through an optimistic and bright window.
I hope that our poetry would enlighten the peacefulness passing over the limited and gloomy world in the people’s mind as ancient Greece poets were appointed to stop wars between powers, enjoying diplomat rights.