Tale
Zarbulmasal
Not translated into English
Muhammad Sharif Gulxaniy · 1820
Synopsis
In a world of birds, the owl Yapaloqqush wants to marry off his son Kulonkir and sends to ask for the hand of Kunushbonu, the daughter of Boyo'g'li. The price of the bride is discussed: the father of the bride-to-be demands a thousand estates, and he wants them in ruins. As no one owns any, a way has to be found to supply them, and each side backs its arguments with a story or a saying, so that the narrative fills with nested fables.
Context
The book was written on the khan's orders. Its author says he placed four hundred sayings in it, and studies count about three hundred, of which two hundred are drawn from the language of the people, spread across many nested tales. The animals, mostly birds, each represent a human type, and the satire targets the social and political order of the time. The motif of the ruined estates comes from an anecdote of Nizami, which the author extends into a whole tale. The book was lithographed in Kazan in 1890, then in Tashkent on several occasions, and translated into Russian in 1951.
Who it is for
In Kokand Turkic, with no French version. A language dense in proverbs, many of which are lost in translation. It is better to know that the qalin was what the boy's family paid to the girl's.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the continuation in Uzbek of the Kalila and Dimna tradition, it was reissued in Tashkent in 1974 and in 2000.
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The pages consulted to check this page.