Dahl folk proverbs. Dahl's proverbs (from the book “Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people”) Dahl Russian proverbs and sayings

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal

Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people

Naputnoe

“Will, will this collection ever be published, with which the collector has cherished his life, but, parting with it, as if the matter was over, I don’t want to leave it without a parting word.”

This introduction was written in 1853, when the analysis of proverbs was completed; let it remain now, when the fate of the collection has been decided and it has been published.

According to the established procedure, one should go on a search: what is a proverb; where did it come from and what is it suitable for; when and what editions of proverbs were published; what are they; what sources did the current collector use? Scholarly references could brighten things up, because it seems that Aristotle already gave a definition of a proverb.

But only a little bit of all this can be found here.

Scientific definitions are now little in use, the age of scholasticism has passed, although we still cannot shake off the rags of its sedate mantle.

The times when the benefits of science or knowledge to which the book was dedicated were explained in the introduction are also gone; Nowadays they believe that all conscientious work is useful and that the benefits of this cannot be undermined by tales.

Scientific searches, antiquity, comparisons with other Slavic dialects - all this is beyond the capabilities of the collector.

Analysis and evaluation of other publications should end with a direct or indirect modest recognition that ours is better than everyone else.

The sources or reserves for the collection were: two or three printed collections of the last century, the collections of Knyazhevich, Snegirev, handwritten sheets and notebooks, reported from different sides, and - most importantly - living Russian language, and more speech of the people.

I didn’t delve into any antiquities, I didn’t sort through ancient manuscripts, and the antiquities included in this collection came from printed collections. I looked through the old manuscript alone and took from it something that could even now pass for a proverb or saying; this manuscript was presented to me by gr. Dm. Nick. Tolstoy, I gave it to M.P. Wait a minute, and from there it was printed in its entirety, as an addition, to the collection of proverbs by I.M. Snegireva.

On this occasion, I must say my sincere thanks to all the willing donors, helpers and supporters; I don’t dare name anyone, fearing, out of forgetfulness, to miss too many, but I can’t help but name with gratitude Mr. Dm. Nick. Tolstoy, I.P. Sakharov and I.M. Snegireva.

When the latter’s collection came out, mine was already partly selected: I compared his edition with Knyazhevich’s collection and used what was not there and was not found with me and which, moreover, in my extreme understanding, could and should have been accepted.

In the Knyazhevich collection (1822) there are only 5300 (with dozens) proverbs; added to them I.M. Snegirev up to 4000; Of this entire number, I have removed up to 3,500 completely or not accepted in the form in which they were printed; In general, I took hardly more than 6,000 from books or the press, or about fifth beat my collection. The rest are taken from private notes and collected by hearsay, in oral conversation.

During this comparison and choice, timidity and doubt attacked me more than once. Whatever you say, there is no escaping arbitrariness in this rejection, and even more so, reproach for it. You cannot blindly reprint everything that has been published under the name of proverbs; distortions, sometimes by cleverness, sometimes from misunderstandings, sometimes simply by clerical errors and typos, are beyond measure ugly. In other cases, these errors are obvious, and if such a proverb came to me in its original form, then the correction or choice did not make it difficult; but the trouble is that I could not limit myself to these cases, but had to decide on something regarding those thousand proverbs, for the correction of which I did not have the correct data, and throwing them out would not mean to correct.

Not understanding the proverb, as often happens, you consider it nonsense, believe that it was invented by someone for a joke or is incorrigibly distorted, and do not dare to accept it; en it's true, just look straight. After several similar cases or discoveries, you will inevitably become intimidated and think: “Who gave you the right to choose and reject? Where is the limit to this intelligibility? After all, you are not typing flower garden, A collection“and you begin again to collect and place everything in a row; let it be superfluous, let others judge and sort it out; but then suddenly you come across lines like the following:

Everyone knows that the wicked live flatteringly.

Years passed in the bustle, there was always sadness.

Where there is unfeigned love, there is true hope.

Luxurious and stingy measures of contentment are unknown.

The young man was walking down the Volga, but he came across death not far away.

Before death one must not die, etc., etc.

What do you want to do with such sayings of the confectionery wisdom of the twenties? Throw it away; but there were about another thousand of them, and just as many dubious ones, with whom you don’t know what to do, so as not to be accused of arbitrariness. Therefore, due to the difficulty of such rejection, and partly by looking at it, you cannot save yourself from every sin - and this collection includes many empty, distorted and dubious proverbs.

Regarding decency when rejecting proverbs, I adhered to the rule: everything that can be read aloud in a society that is not perverted by stiffness, or excessive guesswork, and therefore touchiness, should be accepted into my collection. To the pure everything is pure. Blasphemy itself, even if it were to be found somewhere in popular sayings, should not frighten us: we collect and read proverbs not just for fun and not as moral instructions, but for study and search; That's why we want to know everything that is. Let us note, however, that sharpness or brightness and directness of expressions, in images that are unusual for us, do not always contain the indecency that we see in this. If a man says: “Why pray to that God who does not have mercy”; or “I asked for a saint: it came to the word to ask for the damned,” then there is no blasphemy in this, because here gods And saints to strengthen the concept, people are named who were appointed for the sake of holy, divine truth, but do the opposite, forcing the offended and oppressed to seek protection also through untruth and bribery. The proverb itself, striking us with the convergence of such opposites, personifies only the extremity and unbearability of the perverted state that gave rise to such a saying.

That one must go to the people for proverbs and sayings, no one will argue about this; in an educated and enlightened society there is no proverb; one comes across weak, mutilated echoes of them, transferred to our morals or corrupted by a non-Russian language, and bad translations from foreign languages. High society does not accept ready-made proverbs, because these are pictures of a life alien to it, and not its language; but he doesn’t add up his own, perhaps out of politeness and secular decency: the proverb hits not in the eyebrow, but right in the eye. And who will commemorate good society a harrow, a plow, a mortar, bast shoes, and even more so a shirt and underwear? And if you replace all these expressions with the sayings of our everyday life, then somehow a proverb does not come out, but a vulgarity is composed, in which the entire hint comes out.

As a national property, as a global citizen, enlightenment and education go their way by eye, with a level in hand, tearing off bumps and bumps, leveling holes and potholes, and bringing everything under one canvas. In our country, more than anywhere else, enlightenment – such as it is – has become a persecutor of everything native and popular. Just as in recent times, the first sign of a claim to enlightenment was shaving the beard, so direct Russian speech and everything related to it were generally avoided. Since the time of Lomonosov, from the first stretching and stretching of our language along the Roman and German block, this work has been continued with violence and increasingly moving away from the true spirit of the language. Only very recently did they begin to realize that the devil had bypassed us, that we were circling and straying, having lost our way, and that we would end up who knows where. On the one hand, the zealots of the ready-made foreign, not considering it necessary to first study their own, forcibly transferred to us everything in the form in which it came across on foreign soil, where it was suffered and worked out, whereas here it could only be accepted with patches and polish; on the other hand, mediocrity has vulgarized what, diligently, she tried to bring from her native life into the glove class. Cheremis on one side, watch out on the other. Be that as it may, it follows from all this that if you do not collect and preserve folk proverbs in time, then they, supplanted by the level of impersonality and colorlessness, by a haircut to a comb, that is, by national enlightenment, will flow out like springs in a drought.

The common people more persistently preserve and preserve their original way of life, and in their inertia there is both a bad and a good side. Fathers and grandfathers are a great thing for him; Having burned himself more than once with milk, he blows on the water, incredulously accepting the newness, saying: “Everything is new and new, but when will it be good?” He reluctantly gives up on what he unconsciously sucked in with his mother’s milk and what sounds in his little-worked head in his coherent speech. Neither foreign languages nor grammatical speculations confuse him, and he speaks correctly, correctly, accurately and eloquently, without knowing it. I will express my conviction directly: a person’s verbal speech is a gift from God, a revelation: as long as a person lives in spiritual simplicity, as long as his mind has not gone beyond reason, it is simple, direct and strong; as the heart and mind become discordant, when a person becomes clever, this speech takes on a more artificial structure, it is banal in the dormitory, but in the scientific circle it receives a special, conditional meaning. Proverbs and sayings are composed only at the time of primitive simplicity of speech and, as branches close to the root, are worth our study and memory.

“Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people”- one of the most famous works of the Russian ethnographer and writer Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl. The work, published in 1862, contains more than thirty thousand sayings, riddles and proverbs.

The collected sayings give an idea of the culture, life and philosophy of life of the Russian people. The publication is also a monument to oral and written speech of the 19th century. All sayings are written down in living folk language, and terms and phraseological units related to crafts are also presented. Additional sources for the book were collections of the 18th century, private notes, and works by D. Knyazhevich and I. Snegirev. This auxiliary material made up a fifth of “Proverbs and Sayings of the Russian People.”

In his work, Dahl abandons his fascination with terminology and leaves the reader to independently delve into and reason about the meaning of this or that saying. The author calls himself a “collector.” The book is preceded by an introductory article - “Naputnoe”. The rest of the volume is devoted directly to samples of small folklore.

When compiling a book, Dahl did a tremendous job: collecting phrases by ear, in oral conversation. Use already published proverbs it was necessary to be careful; there were “empty”, “distorted” expressions. It was necessary to reject phrases with typos or signs of misunderstandings. This entailed the risk of excluding authentic sayings from the collection. Thus, the main part of the collection is devoted to phrases recorded among the people.

Dahl defines a proverb as an “involuntarily broken exclamation” that cannot be composed on purpose. These are catchphrases that were used throughout the entire territory of residence of the Russian people. People have invented amazingly successful words and ways of expressing thoughts.

Dahl also distributed the collected phrases into thematic groups. In the book you can find sayings about God and faith, about happiness, wealth and luck, about good and evil, about family and animals, as well as about many other aspects of spiritual and material life, including the elements of nature, agriculture, phrases about quirks. A total of 178 topics are presented, covering the entire picture of the world of Dahl’s contemporary man. In addition, the book contains riddles, tongue twisters, and jokes.

Folklore existed even in the pre-literate era. Studying the Dahl collection gives a historical insight into the life and beliefs of people, the mentality and general culture of the people.

Dal Russian proverbs and sayings: read and download

We compiled 2 collections of Dahl's proverbs, based on available information in open sources, and recorded them on Yandex disk in .doc format. To download proverbs, follow the links provided and click “Download”

V. I. Dal “Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people (by topic):

V. I. Dal “Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people (topics in alphabetical order):

Dahl's proverbs by topic:

Here we will simply list subgroup topics, to which Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl divided Russian proverbs and sayings in his book:

Baba - woman, Take care - extravagance, God - faith, Wealth - prosperity, Wealth - squalor, God - oath - guarantee, Chatterbox - spy, Scold - hello, Past - future.

Faith - sin, Faith - confession, Faith (riddles), Faithful - knowledgeable, Faithful - reliable, Guilt - merit, Will - bondage, Theft - robbery, Universe.

Where, Grief is trouble, Grief is insult, Grief is consolation, Guest is hospitality, Certificate, Thunderstorm is punishment, Revelry is drunkenness.

Far - close, Yard - house - household, Girls' fortune-telling, Children - homelands, Days, Good - mercy - evil, Boredom, Prosperity - squalor, Fight - war, Friend - foe.

The ride is a cart.

Groom - bride, Animal - creature, Life - death.

Care - experience, Envy - greed, Riddles, Enthusiasm - revelry - dissipation, Loans, Law, Reserve, Titles - classes, Health - illness, Agriculture.

Games - fun - catching, Fanaticism - split, Fanaticism - hypocrisy.

Kapa - thunderstorm, If only, Treasury, Punishment - mercy, Punishment - disobedience, Punishment - indulging, Punishment - recognition - humility, Punishment - threat, Slander - falsehood, Cry of the nosy, Konanye (lot).

Love is not love.

Months, World - quarrel - dispute, Much - little, Rumor - glory, Youth - old age, Fraud - theft, Husband - wife.

Supervision is the master, Title is the name - nickname, The people are the world, The people are the language, Inheritance is a gift, The beginning is the end, The authorities are the order - obedience, The authorities are service, Untruth is a lie, Untruth is a deception, Accident is a surprise.

Loneliness, Loneliness - marriage, Failure - quickness, Neatness, Caution.

Memory - remember, Food, Occasion - reason, Weather - elements, Search - find, Peace - movement, Help - by the way, Time - measure - success, Proverb - saying, Praise - boast, Truth - falsehood, Truth - untruth - lie, Holiday, Sayings - jokes, Gratitude, Decency - politeness - custom, Choruses, Sayings, Reason - excuse, Reason - effect, Quirk, Space - crampedness, Misdemeanor - sin, Request - consent - refusal, Directness - guile, Path - road, Drunkenness.

Work is idleness, Joy is sorrow, Thought is determination, Plant is agriculture, Craft is craftsman, Craft is projectile, Kin is tribe, Homeland is foreign land, Rose is one, Rus' is homeland.

Wedding, Matchmaking, One's own - someone else's, One's own customs, Family - relatives, Fairy tale - song, Tongue twisters, Cattle - animal, Courage - courage - cowardice, Laughter - joke - fun, Humility - pride, Temptation - temptation, Temptation - example, Consciousness - evidence, Dream, Neighbor - boundary, Quarrel - abuse - fight, Elements - phenomena, Severity - meekness, Court - extortion, Court - truth, Court - order, Fate - patience - hope, Superstitions - signs, Essence - appearance, Happiness - luck, score.

Mystery - curiosity, Patience - hope, Silence - noise - screams, Decay - vanity, Confusion - stupidity, Trade, Tory - stinginess, Cowardice - flight.

Murder is death, Please is service, Intelligence is stupidity, Moderation is greed, Perseverance, Condition is deception, Service is refusal, Learning is science.

Good - bad.

King, Color - suit.

Man, Man - signs, Honor - honor, Miracle - wonder - tricky.

Panache.

All people are like people, one Jew in a yarmulke.

The Jew asks to go to heaven, but he himself is afraid of death.

For a Jew, a soul is worth less than a penny.

The Jew does not know what shame is.

The Jew, like a demon, will never repent.

The Jewish synagogue is the home of demons.

Jews are visible demons.

Demons and Jews are the children of Satan.

To get to know the Jews is to get in touch with demons.

There is no need for a demon if the Jew is here.

Jew in the hut, angels from the hut.

What God pleases is unsuitable for a Jew.

The Christian tears of the Jew will be shed in hell.

A baptized Jew is like a tamed wolf.

I am ready to smoke the liquid and incense just to get money.

What is sinful to God is funny to the Jew.

Then you make the Jew laugh when you anger God.

Jewish children are worse than rats in a cage: they will harm good people and corrupt Christian children.

Wherever there is a Jew, there is a bribe - such is his habit.

The Jew will treat you to vodka and then give you a drink.

The Jew already has your penny, but you drink and drink.

The Jew has your penny, but you can drink some more.

You cannot understand the Jew until the sheep's skin is removed from him.

The Jew did not forge his own nose, God gave it to the Jew.

The children of a Jew from a Christian mother are all monkeys.

Like the Jew, so is his stench.

Then the Jews are so different from us, so that we don’t identify ourselves.

The Jew and the dead will get out of the loop.

The Jew will say that he was beaten, but he will not say why.

A Jew is like a pig: nothing hurts, but everything groans.

A Jew is like a pig: nothing hurts, but everything squeals.

Next to a Jew there is no living, but howling.

To shelter a Jew is to let a wolf into a stable.

The house was nice, and the Jew settled in it.

To cook porridge with a Jew is to poison yourself.

It's like messing with nettles with a Jew.

A flattering Jew in poverty, a monster in power.

Where there are Jews, always expect trouble.

Where there is a Jew's hut, there is trouble for the whole village.

There are no roses without thorns, there are no troubles without Jews.

If only he had known everything about the Jew, he would not have died.

The Jews love to surrender into captivity, so that they can then surrender to the enemy.

The Jew lives - he chews bread, but does not reap.

The Jew waves his tongue, and the man plows at him.

Tea, Jew, are you tired of sitting on a man?

A Jew would eat money if the man didn’t feed him bread.

When a Russian dies, then the Jew eats.

A Jew is not a wolf - he will not climb into an empty barn.

Jewish hands love other people's works.

To be treated by a Jew is to submit to death.

If you rub against a Jew, you'll get a demon.

The Jew gives, but the fool takes.

God does not order you to be friends with a Jew.

He is God's enemy who is a Jew's friend.

Get involved with a Jew and you will become a Jew yourself.

The love of a Jew is worse than a noose.

Serving a Jew is to the delight of the demon.

To serve a Jew is to betray one's own to the enemy.

A Jew, like a rat, is strong in a pack.

Expect harm from every Jew!

There are no fish without bones, and no Jews without anger.

Believe your eyes, not the Jewish speeches.

The whole truth is that all the lies come from the Jews.

In the Jews of lies, in the fields of rye.

The field is sowed with rye, and the Jews are sowing everything with lies.

The Jewish tongue always lies, as if it were rubbing a radish.

The Jew is fed up with deception.

The Jew is talkative with his tongue and unclean with his hands.

The Jew thinks that he does not steal, but only takes what is his.

Every Jew is looking into our pocket.

You can never fill a Jew like a bag with holes.

Whatever a Jew looks at, he immediately withers.

And a well-fed Jew always has hungry eyes.

The Jew gave him a cookie; whatever you want, you can buy.

In order to achieve benefits, a Jew is always ready to be baptized.

Money always paves the way for the Jews.

The Jew is already looking at his grave, and still saving money.

The Jew profits from our destruction.

Do not expect profit from the Jew, but expect destruction from him.

I profit from Russian death.

Don't look for the Jew - he will come.

In Rus' they didn’t die of hunger until the Jews stopped them.

When we give freedom to the Jews, we sell ourselves.

Keeping away from the Jews is half the salvation.

It’s easier to devour a goat alive than to transform a Jew.

You can't beat the scab out of a lousy Jew.

A leech will pump and fall off, but a Jew will never.

The fluid will stop sucking blood when it gets tired of breathing.

There are no good Jews, just like there are no good rats.

Pray to God and beware of the Jews.

A Jew is only good in the grave.

Only a dead Jew will not bite anyone.

The Jew is already looking to his grave, and trembles over every penny.

Hold on to the penny so it doesn’t go to the Jew.

It was not the Jew that overpowered us, but fear that crushed us.

To kill a Jew, you must not do business with him.

The Jew is afraid of Epiphany water and the village club.

With a holy fist and in the Jewish face.

If you want to live, drive away the Jew!

Both the Jews and the mosquitoes, they all bite for the time being.

It's good where there are no Jews.

So that God does not become angry, do not let the Jew on the threshold.

Current page: 1 (book has 34 pages in total)

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal
Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people

Naputnoe

This introduction was written in 1853, when the analysis of proverbs was completed; let it remain now, when the fate of the collection has been decided and it has been published.

But only a little bit of all this can be found here.

Scientific definitions are now little in use, the age of scholasticism has passed, although we still cannot shake off the rags of its sedate mantle.

Scientific searches, antiquity, comparisons with other Slavic dialects - all this is beyond the capabilities of the collector.

Analysis and evaluation of other publications should end with a direct or indirect modest recognition that ours is better than everyone else.

Everyone knows that the wicked live flatteringly.

Years passed in the bustle, there was always sadness.

Where there is unfeigned love, there is true hope.

Luxurious and stingy measures of contentment are unknown.

The young man was walking down the Volga, but he came across death not far away.

Before death one must not die, etc., etc.

Going down to the vernacular, sometimes allowing ourselves to express ourselves with a proverb, we say: “Try on ten times, cut once.” We did not come up with this saying, but, having taken it from the people, we only distorted it a little; people say more correctly and more beautifully: “Try on ten and estimate, cut off one.” In St. Petersburg they also teach the multiplication table: two times three, five times six; in our schools they say: twice three, and the people say: two three or two by five, three by six etc. Lesson: unreasonable, reckless work is often useless - the proverb will never be expressed under our pen: “Cut and sing songs; if you start sewing, you’ll cry”; or: “Keep up the noise, there won’t be a dull time.” Is it possible to express a deep thought more coherently, brighter and shorter than in the proverb: “You cannot look at death like the sun with all your eyes”; This proverb of ours came, I don’t know how, to the Frenchman Larochefoucauld; in a clever translation, she took after him and is given as an example of his intelligence and eloquence: “Le soleil ni la mort ne peuvent se regarder fixement” (Maximes).

In our everyday life, we only come up with proverbs like these: “It doesn’t spoil the visor; there is nothing to walk with, so with a tambourine; There’s nothing to hit with, just a fist”; Yes, sometimes we translate: “Sing a swan song; a black cat ran between them; and there are spots in the sun; fifth wheel; There’s a stick in the corner, that’s why it’s raining outside,” etc. Do you like these sayings and translations?

But not only can we not compose a single wonderful proverb ourselves, but we even, as it turns out, understand the ready-made ones rather poorly. This has puzzled me more than once. To what extent is it necessary and necessary to explain and interpret proverbs? An incomprehensible proverb, inaccessible to the listener - this is the salt that seizes and does not salt; where should I put it? And to interpret a joke or a hint that the reader himself understands is vulgar and cloying; These interpretations will take up a lot of space, but the book is voluminous, cramped and without them. Many explanations would require scientific references, and this requires knowledge, sources, and time - in a word, this is a separate and important work. The readers themselves, no matter how few of them there are, are also not the same, everyone can have their own requirements - not the sun, you can’t cope with everyone.

I put, and then already at the time of the right press, the shortest interpretation, an indication where I could believe that this was necessary for many. Recently we saw examples of how strangely and misleadingly our proverbs are sometimes understood and interpreted, even condemned: “People get rich in bulk” was interpreted “from the forcible imposition of goods on someone”; and “Don’t take the dirty linen out of the hut” is declared nonsense, because it is impossible not to sweep the dirty linen out of it, even occasionally, and the hut will be good if you never take the dirty linen out of it. But bulk is understood here to mean a pile of buyers, not goods; if there is a crowd, people pour in in droves, they make money from brisk sales, which is why a lively, busy place is expensive for a merchant, but a place that has been hatched in battle, where the fencers flock out of habit, is twice as expensive. Don't take out the litter like any other undistorted proverb in which the parable lies, it is direct and right, in the literal and figurative sense: the matter is right, just look straight. Figuratively: don’t bring household bills into public, don’t gossip, don’t be a troublemaker; family squabbles will be sorted out at home, if not under the same sheepskin coat, then under the same roof. To put it bluntly: among the peasants, litter is never taken out or swept into the street: this, across half-arshin thresholds, is troublesome, and besides, the rubbish would be carried away by the wind and an unkind person could follow the litter as if following a trail, or following the trail, send damage. The rubbish is swept into a pile, under a bench, in a stove or cooking corner; and when the stove is lit, they burn it. When the wedding guests, testing the bride’s patience, force her to sweep the hut and litter after her, and she sweeps everything again, they say: “Sweep, sweep, but don’t take it out of the hut, but rake it under the bench and put it in the oven so that it smokes.” took it out."

“Need will teach the rolls to eat,” as a parable, was interpreted correctly: need will force them to work and earn a living. “The need is tricky, the need for inventions is too much” - it will give intelligence and, if there was no rye bread, it will lead to the fact that there will be wheat bread. But there is also a direct meaning here: need at home will force you to go to work. “You can’t hide between the plow and the harrow; look for bread at home, and taxes on the side”; Where? The first step is to the Volga, to the barge haulers; This is still an article today, but before the shipping company it was the indigenous, and, moreover, wild, trade of ten provinces; on the Volga, having passed Samara, you come to kalach (bun, pie, kalach, wheat bread). This is a novelty for the horse barge haulers, and it was they, the fathers and grandfathers of today, who coined this proverb.

In terms of intricacy and turn of phrase, another one is similar to this one: “Eat the pies, but save the bread in advance”; it would seem that one should say: “Eat the bread, but save the pies in advance”; but the proverb expresses something else: live freely, if possible, eat pies, and with calculation: eat them so that you don’t eat your bread. “Belly is a villain, he doesn’t remember the old good”; “Keep money for a white (every) day, money for a red day (holiday) and money for a rainy day (in reserve, for trouble).”

“Slavery goes down, bondage goes up”; here we are talking about the same Mother Volga and about the barge haulers, with which bondage is associated, because the deposits are taken in advance, sent home as quitrent, and the remains are drunk. Captivity, that is need, goes down on the water to look for work; up, against the water, goes, or pulls with a strap, bondage. Literally: serf or slave ( captivity) is waiting for the best, because there is no worse for him, he is waiting for mercy and trust for his faithful service: this is ahead of him; bonded but he becomes more and more confused, owes money, eats too much and gains new bondage for himself, term after term; Bondage is rising, everything is intensifying, and in the old days it often also ended in servitude.

But from these few examples it is clear that such explanations, even if the collector had enough of them, would have required several years of time and another hundred sheets of printing.

Let us note, however, in this case that one must interpret and explain proverbs with extreme caution so as not to turn this matter into one’s toy. It is especially dangerous to look with a learned eye for what you would like to find. The application of proverbs to events, even to individuals, namesakes, ancient customs, dubious fables of idolatry, etc. turns out, in many cases, to be a stretch of the imagination. I think, for example, that attributing the sayings: “Lisa Patrikeevna”, “Patrikey himself is third” - to the Lithuanian prince Patrikey, and “Ananya’s grandson is coming from Velikie Luki” - to the Novgorod mayor Ananya - is arbitrariness based on nothing; I even think that “The enemy is strong, he rolls around in blue” does not refer to blue lightning and Perun, but simply hints at a blue caftan as a sign of prosperity, wealth; The evil one lays his snares on everyone, and the blue caftan gets caught. “Doomed cattle are not animals” has also hardly been said among us since the times of idolatry and does not refer to its doom to be sacrificed to the gods, of which there is no memory left among the people anywhere; doomed brute one that is doomed to death by fate, not tenacious, not durable; this is the usual consolation for carelessness, stubbornness, and mercilessness in trouble; the cattle is sick - leave it to the will of God; if she lives, she will live, and if doomed then she doesn't animal, not your life, not your goods, not your property. Trying to explain dark proverbs and apply them to the everyday life that is now before our eyes, we sometimes go far and become wiser, where the casket opens simply, without hiding. To this we must add that the Great Russians, contrary to the Little Russians, have no memory of everyday life; For them everything is limited to the essential and spiritual; antiquity remains in memory and is passed on as long as it concerns everyday life; from this, for a Russian, there is a direct transition to thoughts and conversations about eternity, about God and heaven, and he will not engage in everything else, without outside influence, unless on a special occasion.

So, recognizing proverbs and sayings as coins, it is obvious that we must follow them to where they go; and I held on to this belief for decades, writing down everything that I managed to intercept on the fly in oral conversation. What was collected before me, from the same source, I tried to include, but I didn’t rummage through the books enough and probably left out a lot. So, for example, I couldn’t even cope with Buslaev’s small, but very conscientiously processed collection (Kalachev Archive, 1854), which I first saw in Moscow in April 1860, when half of my collection had already been published. Many sayings of our writers, in their brevity and accuracy, are worth proverbs, and here one cannot help but recall Krylov and Griboyedov; but I included in my collection only those sayings that I happened to hear in the form of proverbs, when they, accepted into oral speech, began to circulate separately. And therefore, in my collection there are book proverbs, but I did not take them from books, unless they had already previously appeared in similar collections and, for completeness, were included in mine. I also have translations - which was noted as a reproach - but I did not translate them, but accepted them because they are spoken; there are distorted, altered ones, but I did not distort them, but heard them or received them in this form; there are sayings from St. scriptures, and they are even for the most part altered, but they were not taken from there by me and were not altered by me, but this is how they are said; there are vulgar, superstitious, blasphemous, falsely wise, fanatical, absurd ones, but I did not invent them; my task was: to collect as completely as possible everything that exists and what it is, as a reserve, for further development and for any conclusions and conclusions anyone wants. They will say: there is a lot of unnecessary rubbish here; true, but no one sees what is thrown away, and where is the measure for this rejection and how can you guarantee that you will not throw away what could have remained? You can reduce the spaciousness; It’s no wonder to select a flower garden from the collection according to your taste; and what you miss is harder to return. If you shorten it, you won’t turn it back. Moreover, I had in mind the language; one turn of phrase, one word, not noticeable to everyone at first glance, sometimes forced me to retain the most absurd saying.

The most common reproach, and also the easiest one, is that this proverb is written incorrectly, it is said not this way, but that way. Undoubtedly, there are cases where such a remark is right and deserves thanks; but every proverb is spoken in several ways, especially when applied to business; It was necessary to choose one, two, many three different languages, but you couldn’t gather them all, and you’d get bored with them to the point of boredom.

Wherever I could correctly get to the radical turn and point out distortions, I did it there, albeit in the briefest notes. Here are examples: “Not until mass, if there is a lot of nonsense”; here the nonsense came through a misunderstanding, instead of ritual, the northern word that is pronounced there: obreni, and means: a woman’s daily routine in the house, cooking, housekeeping at the stove; this can be seen from the meaning of this proverb: “Either go to mass, or lead a ritual.” Another: “It’s not good for us, God for you”; this, apparently, is confirmed by another: “Whatever is not nice to the deacon is thrown into the censer”; but the first one came from the south, it is Little Russian, it is not understood by us and therefore distorted: “It’s not good for us, it’s not good for you, it’s not good for you,” here’s for you, it’s not good for you, it’s not good for you; this word has many meanings: poor, wretched, beggar, cripple, holy fool, unfortunate, for whom they sympathize, close, relative, nephew; This proverb answers ours: “The stepmother was kind to her stepson: she ordered all the cabbage soup to be swallowed in the plot.” The proverb: “Not with children or in front of children, not on children, and sit in honor” is said differently and is changed due to lack of understanding: whoever God did not give children or whose children die as babies (whose children are not standing), he would be glad and I am sitting, and legless, crippled; to solitude and sit in honor: after all, Ilya Muromets was a seat. Not understanding this and attributing honor to the word children, thereby depriving the proverb of its meaning, they corrected the matter by turning sidni into sedni, into an old man with gray hair, and making it out of this: “Not even children have sedni in honor,” that is, an adult, a reasonable person respects old people.

Thus, one word often gives a proverb a different meaning, and if you heard it in one way, and I in another, then it does not follow from this that you heard it more correctly, and I, even less so, that I myself changed it. Let's take an example of this kind, where not only you and I, but also two other interlocutors say the same proverb, each in his own way, and all four will be right: “You shouldn’t call an old dog a wolf” - because it is outdated, no longer fit, don’t consider her a wolf, don’t treat her like an enemy; “Don’t call the priest’s dog a wolf” - no matter how tired the priest is of his greed and his gripes, don’t look at his dog as if he were a wolf, she is not guilty of anything; “You shouldn’t call an old dog daddy”, not father - the answer to the demand to respect an old man not according to his merits; he’s an old dog, but he can’t be considered a father for that; “Don’t call Pop’s dog daddy” is a response to the demand for respect for random people; Whatever you talk about respect for your dad, for your priest, his dog is not your dad; In this form, the proverb is often applied to the favorites of the lords, from the servants. Many such examples could be given: no matter which of these four different languages you choose, you can all say: no, that’s not what she says!

I will note here that ancient lists and collections of proverbs cannot always serve as models and do not at all prove that the proverb was in use word by word, as it is written. The old men were no worse wise in this matter than we are, wanting to correct the proverb, give it a written form, and, as it goes without saying, through this they fell into vulgarity. There are many examples of this. To Pogodinsk. collection 1714 we read: “Being on the wrong side, you must bow your head and have a submissive heart.” Isn't it obvious that there is cleverness and alteration here? To this day it is said: “Keep your head bowed (or bowed), and your heart submissive”; If you apply this to a foreign land, you can start with the words: in a foreign land, on a foreign side, without changing a word afterwards; here everything else was added by the note taker, especially the words: being, must, have.

In Archive collection. XVII century: “A young man was walking down the Volga, but he came across death not long after,” or, as Snegirev corrected it: “not far away”; Is this really a proverb, a saying or something similar? In the Archive: “There is no money, I’ll have to go to bed”; this one is still in use and talks about a drunkard who sits quietly at home, even hiding, if he has nothing to drink; but instead swear must read rushing:“As there is no money, he rushes to bed,” that is, he climbs in and lies still. In the same place, the proverb: “The soul of the old is not taken out, and the soul of the young is not sealed” - is reinterpreted, not for the better: “Until death, of the living, of the old, the soul is not taken out, but of the young it is not sealed.”

In Pogodinsky in 1770: “What the gray hair adorns, what the devil catches more”; Could this really be a walking proverb? This is an essay by a collector, for example: “Grey hair in the beard, and a demon in the rib.”

In the collection Yankova 1744: “Kumishcha, matchmaking - you’ll say goodbye, you’ll miss it”; it doesn't look like anything anymore; Let someone understand this nonsense, in which not a single one of the four words is true, and therefore there is no meaning. Obviously, this is a distortion of the proverb that still lives among the people: “If you marry, if you woo, you’ll sleep it off, you’ll come to your senses.” There could be a lot of such examples; I cite them as proof that at all times there have been stupid scribes and even collectors who were clever, and that by referring to ancient manuscripts, it is not always possible to correct new collectors.

My collection was destined to go through many ordeals, long before printing (in 1853), and, moreover, without the slightest search on my part, but at the enlightened participation and insistence of a person, to whom I do not dare even hint, not knowing whether it would be desired. But people, and, moreover, people of scientific rank, recognized the publication of the collection harmful, even dangerous, they considered it their duty to expose his other shortcomings, among other things, in the following words: “Noticing and eavesdropping on the talk (?) of the people, Mr. Dal, apparently, did not write them down quickly, but introduced them later, as he could remember; That’s why he has a rare (?) proverb written down as it is said among the people. Most (?) of them are seen like the following: he has it written: I will solve this trouble with beans, and the proverb goes like this: I’ll treat someone else’s troubles like beans, but I won’t take them away from my own mind.».

But I had both proverbs, only each in its place, because their meaning is not the same; yes instead I'll tidy up I have written I'll attach it which I still believe to be true. I beat this trouble with beans or I'll spread it on beans; The trouble is not great, it will fit through the gate, you can turn away or get away with it. " I’ll cheat someone else’s misfortune, but I won’t apply it to my own" - completely different; this means: I will eat someone else’s grief with bread, someone else’s sore in the side will not sour, but my own sore is a big nodule, etc.

Further: “He says: God judge your will, and the proverb says: God do your will" There is no doubt that the latter is said, and if I did not have it, then it was possible to point out the omission; but the first one is also said. " God judge your will“- means that there is no one else to judge her, it is not for us to judge her, but we must submit to her without a murmur; or by accepting judge, according to the ancient meaning, for award, do justice - God judge your will means: create, award according to your will.

In total, to prove that rare I have the proverb written down correctly and that most of them noticed erroneously, my righteous judges give three examples, that is, one for every ten thousand, and the third is the most remarkable: “The same infidelity is in the collection (?) of jokes and empty talk; I’ll give one example: he wrote: Not for anything, anything other than other things like that, This empty phrase among the people is expressed (why doesn’t it say it?) like this: Not for anything other than for other things like that; and if anything is better, then nothing more; that's all».

Yes, it seems that's all...

Be that as it may, but regardless of such infidelity in my proverbs, proven by the three examples given here, they found that this collection and unsafe encroaching on corruption of morals. To make this truth more understandable and to protect morals from the corruption that threatens them, a new Russian proverb was invented and written in the report, not entirely coherent, but clear in purpose: “ This is a sack of flour and a pinch of arsenic“- this is what was said in the verdict about this collection, and to this was also added: “By trying to print monuments of folk stupidity, Mr. Dal is trying to give them print authority”... among the places dangerous for the morality and piety of the people are, by the way, the following sayings: “Being blessed is not a sin; Wednesday and Friday are not a signifier for the owner of the house,” etc.

Should I mention after this that hand in hand with the authors of the proverb about arsenic went the conclusion of the connoisseur of the jury, to whom my collection also came without my participation, and that they found it impermissible to combine proverbs or sayings in a row: “His hands are long (he has a lot of power) )" and "His arms are long (he is a thief)"? And then, like there, they demanded amendments And changes in proverbs, and in addition to exceptions, which “may make up more than a quarter of the manuscript”...

I answered at that time: “I don’t know to what extent my collection could be harmful or dangerous for others, but I am convinced that it could become unsafe for me. If, however, he could induce such a respectable person, a member of the highest learned fraternity, to compose a criminal proverb, then he obviously corrupts morals; All that remains is to put it on the fire and burn it; I ask you to forget that the collection was presented, especially since it was not done by me.”

For the sake of truth, I am obliged to say that the opposite opinion to all this was expressed at that time by an enlightened dignitary in charge of the Public Library.

I express all this not as a complaint and denunciation, but, firstly, as an excuse for why I did not publish proverbs earlier than this one, and secondly, to explain our modern life. Without looking in the mirror, you don’t know your own face. Moreover, it seems to me that where we are talking about data for the future history of our enlightenment, everyone is obliged to say what he has evidence in his hands.

This collection includes, in addition to proverbs, proverbial sayings, sayings, proverbs, quick (pure) sayings, jokes, riddles, beliefs, signs, superstitions and many sayings to which I cannot give a common nickname, even simple figures of speech that have conventionally come into use .

About this, learned connoisseurs of the manuscript, who successfully insisted that it remain hidden for another eight years, had the following opinion: “It is a pity that all this was combined into one book: through this he (the collector) mixed edification with corruption, faith with false faith and unbelief, wisdom with stupidity, and thus lost a lot of his collection... It is obvious that the honor of the publisher, and the benefit of the readers, and prudence itself would require two thick volumes to be divided into several books and published separately in them: proverbs, sayings, jokes, riddles, omens, etc.” These arguments did not convince me, but what I least understand is how the danger of poison would be reduced by such fragmentation of the whole into parts; Is it by gradually getting used to poison? In this collection, which is not a catechism of morality, but rather an instruction to customs and society, folk wisdom must come together with folk stupidity, intelligence with vulgarity, good with evil, truth with lies; a person must appear here as he is in general, throughout the entire globe, and as he is, in particular, among our people; what is bad, run away from it; whatever is good, follow it; but don’t hide, don’t conceal either the good or the bad, but show what is there.

Material from TolVIKI

Live without anything, just smoke the sky.
You can't take a fish out of a pond without difficulty.
If there is no good in him, there is little truth in him.
Live and learn.
Everything will pass, only the truth will remain.
There is nothing like leather.
Everyone seeks the truth, but not everyone creates it.
Every work of the master is praised.
They pick up every mushroom, but not every one they put in the back.
Everyone has their own side.
Where the pine tree grows, there it is red.
A stupid person will judge, but a smart person will judge.
He speaks white, but acts black.
The head is not waiting for the tail.
Learning to read and write is always useful.
The master is afraid of the work (and another master of the work is afraid).
A good proverb, not in the eyebrow, but right in the eye.
Good fame is within reach, and bad fame is beyond the threshold.
Good brotherhood is dearer than wealth.
A good deed is to speak the truth boldly.
A good start is half the battle.
Kindness without reason is empty.
A good end to the whole thing is the crown.
Talk for a long time, but do it soon!
A friend is a great thing: you won’t get it soon.
You can't buy a friend with money.
Friendship is friendship, and service is service.
They think silently.
Stand boldly for a just cause! Every mushroom.png
They give two non-scientists for a scientist, and even then they don’t take it.
Make a fool pray to God, and he will bruise his forehead.
Do not repay evil for evil.
And the bird, having fed the chick, teaches it to fly.
And the strength will give way to the mind.
From small things come great things.
An icon and a shovel are made from the same tree.
A drop is chiseling a stone.
The root of the teaching is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
The bird is red in feathers, but the man is learned.
By the way, to remain silent is a big word to say.
Those who know more will get the books.
Whoever is in charge is responsible.
Those who are good at reading and writing will not be lost.
He who fights hard for the truth is a true hero.
Whoever goes to bed and sleeps well.
He who is not lazy to plow will produce bread.
It is better to stumble with your foot than with your tongue.
It is better to give your own than to take someone else's.
Don’t judge people, but take care of yourself!
Peace be with you and I am with you. Where is the harmony? There's a treasure there!
A lot of things are said, but not everything is useful.
It is harmful for the young to lie, and indecent for the old.
The ant is not big, but it digs mountains.
Every Egorka has his own saying
There are many kind people in the world.
On the other side, even spring is not beautiful.
Science teaches only the smart.
Ours were spinning, and yours were sleeping.
It is not the Gods who burn the pots.
Not every word is a line.
A book is not beautiful in its writing, but rather in its mind.
It is not the place that makes a person beautiful, but the person who makes the place.
Don’t think when you start, but do when you start.
If you don't crack the nut, you won't eat the kernel.
It’s not just expensive like red gold, but expensive like good craftsmanship.
It's not hard to do, but it's hard to conceive.
Neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan.
Make new friends, but don't lose old ones.
God revealed science to one bee.
You will learn from the smart, and you will unlearn from the stupid.
A stump is not a village, a stupid speech is not a proverb.
Repetition is the mother of learning.
A saying is a flower, a proverb is a berry.
It is not without reason that the proverb is said.
The truth goes straight ahead, and there is no way around it or around it.
The truth is brighter than the sun.
Idleness is the mother of vices.
The early bird cleans the sock, and the late bird cleans the eyes.
Your own land is sweet even in a handful.
Having done something bad, do not expect good.
Don't leave today's work for tomorrow!
The day until the evening is boring if there is nothing to do.
The word is not a sparrow: you won’t catch it if it flies out.
It was a lie – it just rolled off the tongue.
The old proverb will never break.
An old friend is better than two new ones.
Patience and a little effort.
It’s hard for those who remember evil.
Hurry for a good deed, and the bad will come on its own.
The mind and reason will be convinced immediately.
The scientist leads, the unlearned follows.
Learning is light and ignorance is darkness.
Learn good things, so bad things will not come to mind.
Bread does not follow the belly.
A good proverb in good order.
If you want to eat rolls, don’t sit on the stove!
A bad peace is better than a good quarrel.
What I learned was useful. Know more and say less.