Metaphor, epithet, personification and the imagery Belarusian writing actually reaches for - forest, field, river, and the seasons that structure the year.
I can read and construct figurative language grounded in the imagery Belarusian writing actually uses.
Подивіться на ці приклади. Чи можете ви помітити граматичну закономірність?
Залатая восень прыйшла ў пушчу.
Golden autumn came to the forest.
Над ракой стаяў сівы туман.
Grey mist stood over the river.
Вецер плача ў коміне цэлую ноч.
The wind cries in the chimney all night.
Я чытаю Купалу ў арыгінале.
I read Kupala in the original.
Зверніть увагу на виділені частини. Що у них спільного?
| Trope | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Метафара | names one thing as another | залатая восень |
| Эпітэт | a defining adjective | сівы туман, гаротная доля |
| Увасабленне | gives a thing a will | вецер плача |
| Параўнанне | likens with як | белы як снег |
| Метанімія | names by association | чытаю Купалу |
| Гіпербала | overstates | сто разоў казаў |
Folk poetry uses a fixed stock of adjective-noun pairs, and a reader recognises them the way an English reader recognises the deep blue sea: сыра зямля, цёмны лес, чыстае поле, буйны вецер, гаротная доля. They are not chosen for accuracy; they are chosen because they are the pair.
The recurring material of Belarusian writing is landscape and season:
A metaphor built from this material reads as native. One built from the sea or the mountains reads as imported, and that is worth knowing before you write.
Сіні and блакітны divide the blues; сівы is the grey of hair, mist and antiquity together, which is why сівая даўніна works and a plain шэры would not.
A trope translated from another literature is the fastest way to sound foreign, even when every word is correct. If an image does not sit in the material above, it is worth asking whether a Belarusian writer would have reached for it.
Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу C1
Вправи для практикиTypical errors: importing imagery from another literature, and breaking a standing epithet pair.
Importing imagery from another literature
Forest, field, river, road, хата are the native material.
Breaking a standing epithet pair
Сыра зямля, чыстае поле, цёмны лес are fixed.
Choosing the wrong grey or blue
Сівы for mist and age, шэры for plain grey.
Piling tropes without a plain line between them
Imagery needs plain prose around it to register.
Залатая восень прыйшла ў пушчу.
Golden autumn came to the forest.
A metaphor and a personification in one line.
Над ракой стаяў сівы туман.
Grey mist stood over the river.
<em>Сівы</em> carries age as well as colour.
Вецер плача ў коміне цэлую ноч.
The wind cries in the chimney all night.
Personification of the standard kind.
Я чытаю Купалу ў арыгінале.
I read Kupala in the original.
Metonymy: the author stands for the work.
Сцяжына вяла яго ўсё жыццё ў адзін бок.
The path led him one way all his life.
The road as a fate - a standard Belarusian figure.
Практикувати в курсі
Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу C1