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Vladimir Ivanovich Dal
1000 Russian proverbs and sayings

© Filippov A. N., compilation, 2017

© Kirilenko Yu. P., preface, 2017

© Publishing, design. LLC Group of Companies "RIPOL Classic", 2017

The proverb is not judged 1
Epigraph on the title page of the first edition of “Proverbs of the Russian People” by V. I. Dahl.

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal is famous to a wide circle readers, first of all, as the creator of the famous “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” - the richest treasury of the Russian word.

No less remarkable work by Dahl is his collection “Proverbs of the Russian People,” which includes more than thirty thousand proverbs, sayings and apt words.

The origin of the great scientist is surprising, although in those distant times many Europeans - Germans, French, Scandinavians - considered it good to go to the service of the Russian Tsar and the new fatherland.

Writer, ethnographer, linguist, doctor, Vladimir Ivanovich Dal was born on November 22 (old style - November 10), 1801 in Lugansk, Ekaterinoslav province. Father - Johann Christian Dahl - a Dane who accepted Russian citizenship, was a doctor, linguist and theologian, mother - Maria Khristoforovna Dahl (née Freytag) - half-German, half-French. Dahl's father became a patriot of everything Russian. Having fallen in love with Russia, he strove to develop a love for the Russian language, culture, and art in his children.

In 1814, Vladimir Dal entered the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps. He completed the course, served in the navy in Nikolaev, then in Kronstadt. After retiring, he entered the medical faculty of the University of Dorpat, graduated in 1829 and became an oculist surgeon.

And again - military service. In 1828, a two-year Russian-Turkish war, and Dahl was drafted into the army. He participated in the transition of the Russian army through the Balkans, continuously operating on the wounded in tent hospitals and directly on the battlefields. Dahl's talent as a surgeon was highly appreciated by the outstanding Russian surgeon Pirogov. In 1831, during a campaign against the Poles, Vladimir Ivanovich distinguished himself while crossing the Vistula. He was the first to use electric current in explosives, mining the crossing and blowing it up after the Russian troops retreated across the river. For this, Emperor Nicholas I awarded V.I. Dahl with the Order - the Vladimir Cross in his buttonhole.

Collect Russian words and expressions vernacular Dahl started in 1819. While still in the Marine Corps, he studied literature and wrote poetry. While driving through one day Novgorod province, he wrote down the word that interested him, “rejuvenate” (“otherwise, become cloudy, tend towards bad weather”). And since then, wandering across the vast expanses of Russia, Vladimir Ivanovich did not part with his notes, replenishing them with new words, apt sayings, proverbs and sayings, having accumulated and processed two hundred thousand words by the end of his life!

It is necessary to especially note his acquaintance and friendship with Pushkin. Dahl’s work on the dictionary and his collection of proverbs played a significant role in this. Dahl later recalled how enthusiastically Pushkin spoke about the riches of Russian proverbs. According to contemporaries, great poet, in fact, strengthened Dahl in his intention to collect a dictionary of the living folk language.

Alexander Sergeevich and Vladimir Ivanovich more than once shared the hardships of difficult travels along the roads of Russia, and traveled to the places of Pugachev’s campaigns.

In the tragic January days of 1837, Dahl, as a close friend and as a doctor, took an active part in caring for the mortally wounded Pushkin. It was to Dahl that the words of the dying man were addressed: “Life is over...” The grateful poet gave him a talisman ring. Dahl left notes about the last hours of Alexander Sergeevich’s life.

In 1832, Dahl’s adaptations of “Russian Fairy Tales” were published. It's five o'clock." However, the book was soon banned and the author was arrested. Only at the request of V.A. Zhukovsky, at that time the teacher of the heir to the throne, Dal was released. But he could no longer publish under his own name and signed with the pseudonym Kazak Lugansky. It was under this pseudonym that one of the favorite fairy tales of our childhood, “Ryaba Hen,” was published.

Dahl's works are replete with proverbs and sayings. Sometimes, instead of a detailed description of the hero, his assessment is given only in a proverb: “He... would not have to live like this - from morning to evening, but there is nothing to remember; a week has passed and it hasn’t reached us.” Or: “They didn’t teach you until you lay down across the bench and stretched out at full stretch - you can’t teach them”; “Whoever can, eats him.”

“Proverbs of the Russian People” (1862) and “Proverbs of the Russian People” (1862) and Dictionary"(1864) enriched Russian culture and literature.

In the preface to the book of proverbs, Dahl wrote: “The sources or reserve for the collection were: two or three printed collections of the last century, the collections of Knyazhevich, Snegirev, handwritten sheets and notebooks communicated with different sides, and - most importantly - alive Russian language, and more – the speech of the people.”

It should be noted that even before Dahl, back in the 18th century, proverbs and sayings of the Russian people were collected and published. Examples include “The Letter Book” by N. Kurganov (1769), “Collection of 4291 Ancient Russian Proverbs,” attributed to Moscow University professor Barsov (1770), and the collection “Russian Proverbs” by I. Bogdanovich (1785). The first significant study on Russian proverbs is the work of I. M. Snegirev “Russians in their proverbs” (1831–1834). IN mid-19th century, the main collections of proverbs and sayings were considered to be the collections of I. M. Snegirev (1848, 1857) and the collection of proverbs extracted from books and manuscripts and published in 1854 by F. I. Buslaev.

However, it is Dahl who has the honor of becoming the most accurate, deep and faithful researcher of oral folk art.

The extensive material collected by Dahl forced him to group the proverbs in the collection into headings and sections. These headings often combine opposing phenomena of life, concepts, etc., for example, “good - evil”, “joy - sorrow”, “guilt - merit”; Moreover, everything is assessed in proverbs, because they express the innermost judgments of the people.

Deep wisdom, subtle observation, and the clear mind of the people determined the most expressive proverbs and sayings about literacy, learning, intelligence, and the abilities and intelligence of people. Proverbs condemn talkers, grumpy and stupid people, those who like to make trouble, arrogant, overly proud people.

Many proverbs have spoken about peasant world, about joint work, the strength of the rural community. “You can fight the devil with a cathedral,” the proverb said. “What the world has ordered, God has ordered”, “The world will roar, so the forests will groan”, “Unitedly - not burdensome, but apart - even throw it”, “Peace will solve every matter”...

The book offered to the reader includes only a small part of Dahl’s extensive collection of proverbs and sayings. They are about love, about friendship, about happiness, about wealth, about work and idleness, about life and death, about loneliness, about luck. Notice how fresh and modern they sound!

And how many stable phrases there are in today’s Russian language, the origin of which we no longer think about, but which have a very definite source. Who hasn’t heard a completely modern expression: “It’s all in the bag.” It is from Dahl's collection, and came from a lot that was placed in a hat and then drawn from it.

In almost every section of Dahl’s “Proverbs of the Russian People” one can encounter contradictory materials. And this is natural - after all, real life is full of contradictions. Here it is very important to distinguish between shades, as well as the measure of depth of proverbs and sayings. After all, they were sometimes born under the influence of emotions, and not just many years of observation and experience.

Let's read proverbs characterizing the position of a woman in the family. Many of them have roots in Domostroy: “A woman has a path from the stove to the threshold,” “A chicken is not a bird, a woman is not a person,” “A woman has long hair, a short mind.” But along with them, others are already sounding, of a new kind: “The husband is the head, the wife is the soul,” “A woman’s mind is better than any thoughts,” “It’s a bad thing if the wife didn’t tell.”

There are, for example, proverbs that criticize Russian work and praise, in comparison, German or English work. However, there are few of them; more than those in which the virtues characteristic of other peoples are noted and their abilities are highly valued. This feature of the people's consciousness was subtly captured by N. S. Leskov, who developed proverbs about the skill of the Russian man into a story about Lefty who shoed an English flea.

It is the opposite, the ambiguity of some proverbs that creates the feeling of a people arguing with themselves about all aspects of life.

Dahl's greatest merit is his impartial and truthful, even merciless, disclosure of the material. His collection of proverbs gave an honest, objective picture of reality and expressively characterized the worldview of the people.

The manuscript of the collection was subjected to strict censorship. Some reviews of this work actually accused Dahl of anti-government propaganda, of shaking the foundations and foundations of secular power and Orthodoxy. The collection of proverbs was not approved by the Academy of Sciences either. The political nature of the charges brought against Dahl almost turned him into an opponent of the tsarist power, which he never was. Nicholas I himself opposed the publication of the book, considering it “harmful.”

By the mid-1850s, Dal had completely lost hope of publishing “Proverbs of the Russian People.” Clearly aware, as an honest scientist, of the significance of the material he had collected and realizing that the possible loss of the manuscript would be an irretrievable loss, Vladimir Ivanovich decided to create several handwritten copies. He gave these copies to his friends, in particular Alexander Nikolaevich Aksakov.

Published by the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, “Proverbs of the Russian People” immediately took a prominent place in Russian and world science. This publication was perceived by prominent figures of Russian culture as a valuable and significant contribution to literature - the collection of proverbs began to be viewed as a treasury of folk wisdom and the riches of the folk language.

Attention and interest in “Proverbs of the Russian People” were very great. The collection quickly became a bibliographic rarity, and one had to pay a lot of money for it for that time. In 1877, L. N. Tolstoy asked the Moscow publicist, critic, philosopher N. N. Strakhov to get him a collection of Dahl’s proverbs, but this turned out to be not an easy task. “It turns out that this is one of the most beloved books by Russian readers,” Strakhov wrote in response.

There are many proverbs in the works of classical Russian literature. Undoubtedly, A. N. Ostrovsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and other writers drew proverbs both from life itself and from Dahl’s collection, as the most complete, accurate and authoritative source.

He greatly appreciated and loved the proverbs of L.N. Tolstoy. There are a great many of them in his works and letters; they are organically included in the text and help in a clear and figurative presentation of thoughts. Among Tolstoy's preparations they find even more proverbs; in particular, in the manuscripts containing the characteristics of Platon Karataev, proverbs from Dahl’s collection are copied.

It was from this book that L. N. Tolstoy chose proverbs and sayings when preparing his collection folk proverbs. Extracts for this never-fulfilled collection are contained in notebook No. 12 for 1880.

The great Russian satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote this to the editors of Vestnik Evropy in connection with the names “bunglers,” “walrus eaters,” and others, which he introduced in the chapter “On the Root of Origin” in “The History of a City”: “I don’t argue, maybe this is nonsense, but I claim that none of these names were invented by me, and in this case I refer to Dahl, Sakharov and other lovers of the Russian people.”

V. I. Dahl’s collection “Proverbs of the Russian People” preserved modern sound, moving from decade to decade. V. I. Dal died in 1872. Reprints carried out after his death invariably met with approval and attentive attention from the widest readership.

Ancient proverbs and sayings continue to live today, are applied to modern events, characterize modern people, embodying the great creativity and eternal wisdom of the people.

Yuri KIRILENKO

About God

♦ To live – to serve God.

♦ God is small and God is great.

♦ God is not in power, but in truth. God is not in power, but in truth.

♦ The strength of the Lord is in weakness ( or: in weakness) is accomplished.

♦ What God doesn’t like is not much ( or: not suitable).

♦ God has a lot of mercy. God is not poor at mercy.

♦ God has a lot of everything.

♦ God is merciful, and by his mercy I am not wretched.

♦ God's water runs on God's earth.

♦ God's dew sprinkles God's earth.

♦ Neither the father is before the children, as God is before the people.

♦ About each other, and God about everyone ( bakes).

♦ Everyone is about himself, but the Lord is about everyone.

♦ It is not because of our sins that the Lord is merciful.

♦ God fed, no one saw ( increase: and whoever saw it did not offend).

♦ God will pester ( or: will instruct) and assign a shepherd.

♦ God will give the day, God will give food.

♦ After shearing, the Lord smells warm on the sheep.

♦ God is not like his brother, he would rather help ( or: ask, it will help).

♦ God took care of it far and wide.

♦ If God loves, he will not destroy.

♦ God has plenty of room for the righteous.

♦ If you walk with God, you will reach goodness (the path to goodness, or: you will find a good way).

♦ You can rely on God, you won’t get screwed.

♦ God shows the way.

♦ Man walks, God leads.

♦ God will fall behind, and good people will be abandoned.

♦ Whoever comes to God, God comes to him.

♦ He who loves God will receive much good.

♦ God loves those who love.

♦ God does not sleep - he hears everything.

♦ He who trusts in God does not lose heart.

♦ If God is for us, then no one is for us ( or: against us).

♦ What God does not send, man will not bear.

♦ Everything in the world is created not by our mind, but by God’s judgment.

♦ God's slaves are happy.

♦ God will carry away the menacing cloud.

♦ Man is like this, but God is not like that.

♦ God builds his own. You are yours, and God is yours.

♦ Man guesses, but God performs.

♦ There is God’s wisdom for human stupidity.

♦ Man is with valor, but God is with mercy.

♦ We are with sorrow, but God is with mercy.

♦ He scolds him, but God protects him.

♦ God is not a man ( that is, it will not offend): he will fuck the woman and give the girl ( about a widower).

♦ God pays for bad things.

♦ It’s a terrible dream, may God be merciful.

♦ If God had listened to the poor shepherd, all the cattle would have breathed out ( according to his frequent scolding: May you die!).

♦ God will not give ( or: will not give out), the pig will not eat.

♦ As God lives, my soul lives.

♦ Clever mind, sort out God's affairs!

♦ Everything is from God. Everything from the Creator.

♦ God the Light has everything covered since the beginning of the world.

♦ Divine things are not from man, but man is from God.

♦ You will no longer be God.

♦ You can’t overcome God’s will ( or: not just a translation).

♦ Not according to our will, but according to God’s will.

♦ Not by our mind, but by God’s judgment.

♦ God's warmth, God's and cold.

♦ God will soak you, God will dry you.

♦ We all walk under God.

♦ You walk under God - you carry God’s will.

♦ What God does not give, no one will take.

♦ Whatever pleases God is suitable.

♦ God imposes the cross according to his power.

♦ God knows best what to give and what not to give.

♦ God won’t give - you won’t get it anywhere.

♦ In human affairs, God himself listened ( witness).

♦ God sees who will offend whom ( or: who loves whom).

♦ God waits for a long time, but it hurts.

♦ God hears, but does not speak soon.

♦ God sees, but does not tell us.

♦ You can hide it from people, but you cannot hide it from God.

♦ No matter how wise you are, you can’t outdo God’s will ( peasants' response to innovations).

♦ What the people see, God will hear.

♦ God will find the culprit.

♦ God will punish, no one will indicate.

♦ God is not your brother, you can’t dodge it.

♦ You can’t escape God. From God's power ( or: punishment) you won’t leave.

♦ You can’t get around God’s judgment by the outskirts.

♦ God himself marked him ( or: stained, punished).

♦ Whom God loves, he punishes.

♦ He who is pleasing to God is also pleasing to people ( or: suitable).

♦ In this world we will suffer, in the next we will rejoice.

♦ The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

♦ God judge you! God is your judge! God punish him!

♦ Everyone is equal before God.

♦ You will win favor with God, but never with people ( about ingratitude).

♦ Even God himself will not please the whole world.

♦ Trust in God, but don’t make a mistake yourself!

♦ Pray to God, and row to the shore!

♦ God is God, and people are people.

♦ The king is far away, but God is high.

♦ Whoever does good will be blessed by God.

♦ There is no refusal for those who come to heaven.

♦ And I got up early, but God didn’t bother me ( about failure).

♦ The Lord will not preserve the city, neither the guard nor the fence will preserve it.

♦ If the Lord does not build a house, neither will man.

♦ Without God you can’t reach the threshold.

♦ Begin with God and end with the Lord!

♦ In the morning is God and in the evening is God, and at noon and midnight is no one except him.

♦ Bless, Lord, your wealth!

♦ Praying to God will come in handy in the future.

♦ Prayer is halfway to God ( or: to salvation).

♦ Pray in secret, you will be rewarded in reality!

♦ Ask Nikola, and he will tell you to save me.

♦ Sit, scatter, and look to the sky!

♦ Whoever works cross paths will receive God’s help.

♦ Crossing the cross is a sin on the soul ( i.e., walk in front of the person praying).

♦ Who without crosses ( i.e. without a corporal cross), he is not Christ’s.

♦ With prayer in your mouth, with work in your hands.

♦ Don’t rush, pray to God first!

♦ For Vespers, ring the bell - all the work on the corner.

♦ The first ringing - damn acceleration; another ringing - cross; third ringing - wrap yourself ( get dressed, go to church).

♦ Don’t listen to where the chickens cluck, but listen to where they pray to God!

♦ Whatever comes, everyone pray!

♦ You think recklessly - don’t pray to God.

♦ Prayer is not for God, but for poverty.

♦ Praise be to God, and to you (and good people) Honor and glory.

♦ The light in the temple comes from a candle, and in the soul from prayer.

♦ With faith you will not be lost anywhere.

♦ Without faith they live in this world, but you cannot live in the next.

♦ Save, O Lord, Thy people (and bless Thy inheritance).

♦ Glory to God, so glory to you!

♦ If you don’t say amen, we won’t give you a drink.

♦ You will forget God’s, and you will not receive what is yours.

♦ If God attacks, good people will also attack.

♦ “Lord, have mercy!” – it’s not a sin to say and it’s not hard to carry.

♦ Blessed be the name of the Lord from now on and forever!

♦ A city does not stand without a saint, a village without a righteous man.

♦ Prayer does not look for space.

♦ The short prayer “Our Father” may save.

♦ Amen will not drive away the demon ( or: you won't serve the devil).

♦ Forgive my sins, Lord!

♦ The power of the cross is with us! God and all his saints are with us.

♦ Our place is sacred!

♦ Save yourself at home, but go to church!

♦ You don’t live by bread, you live by prayer.

♦ Church property is the wealth of the poor.

♦ First whiting to the edge!

♦ Don’t sell bread without filling your ass with new things!

♦ The monastery loves dokuku ( i.e. requests and offerings).

♦ They don’t buy icons, they change them ( instead of: don't buy).

♦ Images and knives are not given, but exchanged.

♦ Those who watch Monday will rejoice at the intercession of Archangel Michael.

♦ Lent everyone's tail will be pressed.

♦ One salvation is fasting and prayer.

♦ God will give advice, and so is the meat-eater during Lent.

♦ Fast with your spirit, not your belly!

♦ Obedience is more important than fasting and prayer.

♦ It does not defile in the mouth, but defiles from the mouth.

♦ A candle will not stand before God, but a soul will stand.

♦ Praying to God means not going broke ( that is, you need to take care of the worldly).

♦ We don’t need righteous people, we need saints ( i.e. pleasing to us).

♦ There is time for singing, and an hour for prayer.

♦ Sin under the bench, and himself on the bench.

♦ He eats bread, but does not know how to be baptized.

♦ There are many who repent, but few who turn back.

♦ Food and drink, but no prayer at home.

♦ The priest serves mass while sitting, and the parish ( and the laity) lying down and praying to God.

♦ Miracle workers also know that we are not pilgrims.

♦ As soon as I had to fast, my stomach began to ache.

♦ There is one for the pipe, but not for the candle ( i.e. money).

♦ In anxiety, we turn to God, but in anxiety, we forget about God.

♦ Even though the church is close, walking is slimy; and the tavern is far away, but I walk slowly.

♦ Priests for books, and laymen for donuts.

♦ Pop the bell, and we go for the ladle.

♦ Food is known by taste, and holiness by experience.

♦ The angel of the Lord takes up arms around those who fear God.

♦ Better than scolding: Nikola is with us.

♦ On Nikola’s field there is a common God.

♦ God is not poor, but Nikola is merciful.

♦ There is no champion for us, against Nikola.

♦ Nikola saves at sea, Nikola lifts a man’s cart.

♦ What is lame, what is blind, then to Kozma and Demyan ( about the yard bird).

♦ Save and have mercy on me, Mother Holy Mother of God; and I live in an extreme hut in the village ( or: and the last hut in the village).

About love

♦ Where there is love, there is God. God is love.

♦ The sweetest of all is who loves whom.

♦ There is nothing more loving than how people love people.

♦ It’s nice how people are nice to people.

♦ There is no value against love.

♦ The mind is enlightened by truth, the heart is warmed by love.

♦ Advice and love, that’s all there is to it.

♦ Where there is love, there is advice. Where there is advice, there is love.

♦ Where there is advice (union, love), there is light.

♦ Equal customs – strong love.

♦ One thought, one heart.

♦ For a dear one, it’s not a pity to lose a lot.

♦ For the sake of the dear one, don’t feel sorry for yourself.

♦ I will sacrifice for my beloved and myself.

♦ For a dear friend and an earring.

♦ There is no hate in the sweet, and there is no sweet in the hateful.

♦ Milenek - and the little white thing is not washed.

♦ Love is blind. Love doesn't see anything.

♦ I fell in love like soot hit my face.

♦ I fell in love like a mouse fell into a box.

♦ I fell in love like a face in a puddle.

♦ Love is not a fire, but once it catches fire, you can’t put it out.

♦ When the time comes, you will begin to step on the girl’s foot.

♦ The betrothed is crazy.

♦ Betrothed, mummer - bewitched.

♦ Love begins with the eyes. They fall in love with their eyes.

♦ Melancholy falls on the heart with eyes, ears and lips ( from looks, from speeches, from conversation).

♦ The heart gives the message to the heart. The heart feels the heart.

♦ Where the heart flies, the eye runs.

♦ Where it hurts, there is a hand; where it's cute, there are eyes.

♦ You can’t hide love, fire and cough from people ( you can't hide it).

♦ Love us in black, and in red everyone will love us.

♦ Not good for good, but good for good.

♦ Love us in black, and in white, and everyone will love us.

♦ Satan will seem better than a clear falcon.

♦ An owl will be loved better than a clear falcon.

♦ Villager Yermil, dear to the townswomen.

♦ The devil liked the berry.

♦ Love is evil, and will love a goat.

♦ He turned her (she turned his) head.

♦ When I saw it, my head went spinning.

♦ As soon as I saw it, I didn’t feel like myself.

♦ The cochet sings and gives the news about a cute belly.

♦ Don’t eat a piece, don’t profit ( don't be amused) with a friend.

♦ Will not become boring good piece, a good friend won't get bored.

♦ It will take an hour to see your sweetheart.

♦ To love a friend is to love yourself. You love yourself as a friend.

♦ Love is a ring, and a ring has no end.

♦ A spade and a shovel will separate us.

♦ A handful of damp earth will salt our separation.

♦ Friends are not cramped in the same grave.

♦ Old love is remembered for a long time. Love and remember.

♦ Young friend, like spring ice.

♦ New friend That's a non-statutory plow.

♦ It’s too easy to fall behind and you can’t resist in your mind.

♦ You can’t live without the sun, you can’t live without your sweetheart.

♦ You can’t live without a sweetheart, and you can’t be with a sweetheart ( about separation).

♦ You can’t sit still for a long time if you hug each other.

♦ Dry love ( platonic) only destroys.

♦ Even if it’s not relatives, it curls into your soul.

♦ It’s good to live with someone you love. They live in perfect harmony.

♦ No better game, as in a exchange of glances.

♦ Like calves: where they come together, they lick themselves.

♦ Katka and Mitka fooled me.

♦ Chickens and cupids, and eyes on the sled.

♦ He doesn’t even remember himself with her and doesn’t remember us.

♦ She won’t inhale it. He can't look at her enough.

♦ That the silk ribbon clings to the wall ( girl to guy).

♦ A living friend is not a loss.

♦ If there is a friend, there is an intercessor.

♦ I wouldn’t drink, I wouldn’t eat, I’d still look at my sweetheart.

♦ I would wear you on a necklace and wear it on Sunday.

♦ Without you, my friend, the bed is cold, the blanket is frosty.

♦ Bazheny is not a bore, but a topper.

♦ It didn’t take long, God gave it.

♦ My red berry. My apple is plump.

♦ Little heart, cook the fish with pepper.

♦ The darling’s hand is warm, he loves so much.

♦ Ohokhonyushki, you can’t see it, you know, Afonyushki: I saw the collar.

♦ Ohohonyushki, it’s sickening without Afonushka, Ivan is here, but the situation is bad.

♦ Milenok Ivashka in a white shirt.

♦ My little one in a single row of blue is good.

♦ It’s not the soap that’s cute, it’s the little white face.

♦ Whitewash will not make it look cute. You can't match your temper.

♦ Mila is not white, and I myself am not red.

♦ Love and love, so be it friend.

♦ He loves like a soul, but shakes like a pear.

♦ You are the only one I have, like gunpowder in my eye.

♦ One, like a finger, like a poppy, like a red sun, like a clear month, like a mile in a field etc.

♦ Where there is love, there is attack. Once you fall in love, you become sad.

♦ The sea has grief, love has twice the grief.

♦ Love that you sit at the transport.

♦ Golubchik – steamed cucumber; blooms, blooms, and withers.

♦ Why is the young man whining so zealously?

♦ You can’t help but love, and you can’t help but grieve.

♦ I can’t sleep, I can’t lie down, I’m still sad about my dear one.

♦ Woe is me with you, with brown eyes!

♦ The girl spoiled the boy. The girl brought dryness.

♦ The girl tormented the guy, brought him under his temper.

♦ Brought dryness to my stomach.

♦ The little birds are singing, they give me a little babe.

♦ Darling is not a villain, but dried up to the bones.

♦ I endure because I love everyone more.

♦ She loved me, but didn’t give her anything.

♦ When you love me, love my dog ​​too.

♦ To love evil is to destroy yourself.

♦ There is nothing worse in the world - toothache and girlish dryness.

♦ Women's lies - girlish dryness; Women lie, they give girls dry food.

♦ Not a cute spinning place where there is no cute.

♦ Even light is not sweet when there is no dear one.

♦ No friend: not even the world is nice.

♦ Without you, the white world is empty.

♦ The tower is empty without you.

♦ Without you, the wide yard has fallen silent.

♦ Without you, flowers don’t bloom, and oak trees don’t grow in red.

♦ There are many good ones, but no dear ones.

♦ It’s a pity for the dear one, but I would run away from the hateful one.

♦ For whom I lament, he is not there; The one I hate is always with me.

♦ They had mercy for a long time, but parted soon.

♦ As soon as they go their separate ways, at least drop the whole thing.

♦ One heart suffers, the other does not know.

♦ If only people had not lured me in, I would love her now.

♦ When I began to realize love, then my dear one began to lag behind.

♦ It’s unsalty to slurp, it’s unkind to kiss.

♦ Kissing a married man is not sweet.

♦ You can’t keep up with your sweetheart.

♦ Try not to be nice. You won't be nice by force.

♦ If you are not nice in body, you will not be good at business.

♦ Not nice in body, not pleasing (unpleasant) in deed.

♦ You will force yourself to be afraid, but you will not force yourself to love.

♦ You cannot bind love with the cross.

♦ All fear drives out love.

♦ The frost-bitten hopper does not cling to the stamen.

♦ The priest will tie his hands and his head, but he will not tie his heart.

♦ Don’t tell the truth, you won’t get hate.

♦ He won’t be cuter when he leaves. Nice for the eyes.

♦ I would love from the front, but I would kill from behind.

♦ My heart is in you, and yours is in stone.

♦ Looks at me like the devil is looking at a priest.

♦ Loves a sheep like a wolf. The cat also loves the mouse.

♦ The wolf loves the calf, but where can he get it?

♦ I love you like the devil in the corner. Oh, you are mine - the devil knows what!

♦ Even if you rejoice with the angels, just don’t be with us (just pass us by)!

♦ May God grant you to be a colonel, but not in our regiment!

♦ He has his eye towards you, and you have your side towards him.

♦ With him ( or: Make friends with the bear, but hold on to the ax.

♦ Where harm comes from, there comes dislike.

♦ Where it’s bad, it’s cool.

♦ I don’t love you, it’s bad weather.

♦ I wouldn’t look at an owl.

♦ I wouldn’t look at him like he was a wolf.

♦ As dear to him as gunpowder in the eye.

♦ Love that mother-in-law's fist.

♦ Loves a stick (radish) like a dog.

♦ I love it like a bug in a corner: wherever I see it, I’ll crush it.

♦ Don’t make your enemy a sheep, make him a wolf.

♦ Do not be afraid of a smart enemy, be afraid of a foolish friend!

♦ He can't stand him. Like a sneezing grass.

♦ He won’t let you in for a sit-down. It doesn't let you see it (in appearance).

♦ You hurt my heart.

♦ I have you here ( on the back of the neck).

♦ The hryvnia is as disgusting as a beggar.

♦ He who loves whom beats him. Whom I love, I beat.

♦ Darling hits - he gains more body.

♦ Darling will beat you, just to amuse you.

♦ Wife, don’t love, just look!

♦ Even if you don’t love, just look more often ( i.e. please, serve).

♦ Even if you don’t love, look at it more often!

♦ A mother loves a child, and a wolf loves a sheep.

♦ Loves lard like a cat. And you love, but you destroy.

♦ If you don’t see, your heart breaks; if you see, your heart breaks.

♦ If you don’t see, your soul dies; if you see, your soul is gone.

♦ Together it’s boring, but being apart is sickening.

♦ It’s sickening, but it’s cramped together.

♦ Woe is with you, trouble is without you.

♦ Our matchmaker has neither a friend nor a brother.

♦ I don’t like to love, but I can’t get rid of (refuse, leave behind).

♦ This is a friend at the end of the hand. This friend is all of a sudden.

♦ Hello, my dear, my good one, black-browed, looks like me!

♦ If you love, order, but if you don’t love, refuse!

♦ When you sleep, beauty, rest; If you don’t sleep, answer the demand.

♦ The gray duck is my hunt, the red maiden is my sweetheart.

♦ Move over, drunk, to my side; on my side there is freedom, expanse.

♦ You spread sadness over her shoulders, you spread dryness through her stomach.

♦ Where my betrothed is, there is my mummer.

♦ You can’t outrun your betrothed even on a horse (on shafts, on curves).

♦ Betrothed to the mummer. Betrothed, dressed up, let me look at you.

♦ Whoever marries someone will be born into that one.

♦ Speeches from the sweet eye. Eyes speak, eyes listen.

♦ Loving is hard; It’s harder not to love.

♦ The one who loves whom is sick; and more sickening is the one who does not see it.

♦ The one who loves whom is sick; and more sickening than the one who does not love anyone.

♦ To love is to bear someone else’s grief; not to love - to crush your own!

♦ Even if you drown yourself, you still get together with your sweetheart.

♦ Even if you swim by pilaf, you can have it with your dear one.

♦ To a dear friend circle ( hook) not the outskirts.

♦ To my dear, seven miles is not the outskirts.

♦ I endure from the one I love more.

♦ Darling, beatings don’t hurt for long.

♦ You are my light in the window, the moon is clear, the sun is red.

♦ The free world is not sweet when there is no dear friend.

♦ An old friend is better than two new ones.

♦ Old love is remembered.

♦ If you forget, darling, then you will remember.

♦ The flowers bloomed, but faded; The fellow loved the beautiful maiden, but left her.

♦ Was nice, became hateful.

♦ If you take a closer look, the darling is sicker than the hateful one.

♦ He was good in the morning, but in the evening he became unattractive.

♦ Do not indulge in the hateful: God will take away the dear.

♦ Give me my gold ring, take your silk scarf!

♦ A sheep is for salt, a goat is for freedom, and a girl is for new love.

♦ As short as a girl’s memory. You have a girl's memory.

♦ Everything is up like goats ( through tyn) are looking.

♦ Girls are not people, goats are not cattle.

♦ Don’t bother the evil one: God will take care of the love.

♦ There is no death for an unloved child (For an unloved child).

♦ A girl in a mansion is like an apple in heaven.

♦ Khmelinushka is looking for a stamen, and the girl is looking for a guy.

♦ The crown will brighten up the girl and well done.

♦ The girl got married, so play pick-me-up.

♦ My daughter got married, so prepare the paintings.

♦ It’s time to take the goat to auction ( it's time for the girl to get married).

♦ Then the girl will be born when she is fit to marry.

♦ She should tell her fortune in front of the mirror ( it's time to get married).

♦ After the cover there will be no such thing ( will be a woman).

♦ Good goods will not be left behind.

♦ The girl didn’t show up, but didn’t argue.

♦ A girl’s no is not a refusal. There is nothing more expensive to eat than girlish food.

♦ The girl chases the young man, but she doesn’t go away.

♦ The girl is like a shadow: you are behind her, she is from you; you are from her, she is behind you.

♦ It’s hard to stand a girl, but once you get over her, she’ll start flying on her arm.

Dal Porudominsky Vladimir Ilyich

"PROBERDS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE"

"PROBERDS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE"

“A collection of proverbs is a body of folk, experienced wisdom, the flower of a healthy mind, the everyday truth of the people,” writes Dahl; collecting and studying proverbs means making “some kind of summary and conclusion, a general conclusion about the spiritual and moral character people, about their everyday relationships.” In the work of the people, Dahl is attracted not only by creativity (“the gift of creation”), but more by the creator who possesses this gift: people.

Proverbs have been collected before. Back at the end of the seventeenth century, a set of “Tales or Proverbs of the Most Popular” was compiled, for they “are extremely necessary and useful and are known to be good by everyone.” In the distant past, Professor Ivan Mikhailovich Snegirev served this cause a lot and stubbornly. Snegirev had accumulated about ten thousand proverbs, he also saw reflection in them historical events, social and family life, but believed that proverbs were created in a select, “higher” circle, while the people only accepted and disseminated wise sayings, revealing in them “good nature, mercy, patience akin to Russian.” Metropolitan Evgeniy, one of the then spiritual rulers, called Snegirev’s book “a course in national morality”; The secular lord, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, awarded the author with a diamond ring. Snegirev is a serious scientist, but he did not study proverbs in order to know and understand his people, he believed that he knew the people and understood them, and, based on this, he collected (selected!) proverbs. Snegirev’s collections are called “Russians in their proverbs” and (the later) “Russian folk proverbs” - titles essentially different from Dalev: “Proverbs of the Russian people.”

Snegirev (whatever his views may be) is a scientist, for him proverbs common among the people, tested and sharpened over centuries; there were people trying distribute popular proverbs. It’s funny, however, in its own way and significant: an attempt to implant a proverb among the people is a recognition of its strength and effectiveness.

Catherine the Second (who didn’t even know much Russian) with the help of her secretaries composed “sentiments” like “Mercy is the sovereign’s guardian” or “Where there is unfeigned love, there is true hope.” Already under Dal, at the end of the forties, some anecdotal Kovanko, through the minister Uvarov, presented the Tsar with an absurd collection “ An old proverb will never break, or the experimental foundation of folk wisdom in two parts,” in which “the presentation is of one great thought of the people’s spirit” - love for the sovereign; It is impossible to call the author’s inventions proverbs: “A dog barks at the ruler, so that they say: ah, Moska, you know, she is strong, since she barks at an elephant” (the highest order was to release the book in a second edition).

We do not want to belittle the scientific merits of Snegirev (by the way, highly valued by Dahl), but in his view - “They stripped her of the proverb from her royal-priestly vestments and dressed her in the rags of a commoner and mixed her into the crowd of the rabble” - and in attempts “from above” to introduce a proverb among the people is something latently common; it, this general thing, fundamentally contradicts Dalev’s conviction that proverbs were created by the people and exist only among the people: “Recognizing proverbs and sayings as a running coin, it is obvious that one must follow them to where they go; and I held on to this conviction for decades, writing down everything that I managed to intercept on the fly in an oral conversation” (“to walk on them,” according to the proverb, is said the same as “pick mushrooms,” - already in this shade the way is revealed Daleva collecting!).

No, Dal did not neglect the works of his predecessors; in “Naputny” for his collection, he remembers with kind words both Snegirev and Knyazhevich, who published in 1822 “ Complete collection Russian proverbs and sayings”, and other guardians in a common field with him, even remembers the ancient poet Ippolit Bogdanovich with his attempts to turn a proverb into “confectionery wisdom” (“No matter how much you feed a wolf, he always looks into the forest” for Bogdanovich turned into: “ A fed wolf will not be a dog - feed him, and he looks at the forest"), remembers Krylov and Griboedov, since he “included in his collection” those sayings that he had to “hear in the form of proverbs,” but the main source of his work is not printed collections, and the “living Russian language”, “which he walked through” where he lived untouched, undistorted, this language - among the people themselves.

“In the Knyazhevich collection (1822) there are only 5300 (with dozens) proverbs; added to them by I.M. Snegirev up to 4000; Of this entire number, I have eliminated them completely or not accepted them in the form in which they were printed, up to 3500; 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.” There are more than thirty thousand proverbs in Dahl’s collection, exactly 30,130.

Proverbs in Dahl’s work are often contradictory: people sometimes think differently about one subject: “It’s strange that the body is naked, but the wool grows - even wiser than that.” The people believed in the Tsar: “Without a Tsar, the land is a widow,” but still, “The Tsar is a father, and the earth is a womb,” and then there was a hint from experience: “The sky is high, the Tsar is far away,” “The Tsar is from behind the tine.” not to be seen." The people believed in God: “Whatever pleases God is suitable,” but still, “God hears, but does not speak soon,” and experience is a hint: “Trust in God, but don’t make a mistake yourself!” The people believed in the truth: “He who keeps the truth will be rewarded by God,” but still, “Every Paul has his own truth,” and experience is a hint: “To tell the truth is to please no one,” “The truth is in bast shoes; but lies, even if they are crooked, are in boots.” Dahl explained: “The most blasphemy, if it were found anywhere in folk sayings, should not frighten us: we collect and read proverbs not just for fun and not as moral instructions, but for study and research, that’s why we want to know everything that is.”

Dahl's work, contrary to the title, is not just proverbs; the subtitle explains: “A collection of proverbs, sayings, sayings, proverbs, proverbs, jokes, riddles, beliefs, etc.” In “Naputny” Dahl interprets: a proverb is a “short parable”, “a judgment, a sentence, a teaching, expressed in an oblique manner and put into circulation, under the coinage of the people”; proverb - “a roundabout expression, figurative speech, a simple allegory, a circumlocution, a way of expression, but without a parable, without judgment, conclusion, application; this is the first half of the proverb” (“A saying is a flower, and a proverb is a berry”), etc. But we, without completely leaving the conversation about the composition, let's hurry to building his labor.

The small and voluminous collections of the Dalish predecessors were usually built “according to the elementary order.” There were, however, rare exceptions: the famous scientist Vostokov, for example, arranged a small handwritten collection of proverbs he had in “subjective” order, choosing from the countless wealth of spoken treasures those that revealed human “virtues.” The list of “virtues” itself is unusually characteristic: caution, prudence, frugality, moderation, good behavior; How much one must have wanted to see all this among the people and how it did not fit into the “virtues” that Vostokov had previously written down in the notebook, what the people thought, felt and coined into sayings!..

The novelty of the construction of Dalev’s work is not that the “subject order” of the arrangement of proverbs had never occurred to anyone before, but that Dal did not select proverbs for specific concepts, but did the opposite: he divided the collected thousands according to content and meaning. It’s not always successful (sometimes a proverb can be classified into more than one category - into several categories, sometimes one proverb appears in several categories), but these are trifles, costs, Dahl achieved the main thing: “ folk life in general, both material and moral,” is revealed in his work.

Dahl was aware of the possible costs: “The method of distribution I adopted allows for infinite variety in execution... Depending on the completeness or breadth, the particularity and generality of the interpretation of the proverb, you can move it from one category to another as much as you like and still claim that it is out of place.” But, Dahl chuckled, “any clerk can cut them out and arrange them in alphabetical order,” and thereby provide educated society with a fun game: “riddle out proverbs and find out if they are in the collection.” Dahl was aware of the costs and foresaw reproaches, but he was firmly and unshakably convinced that he was right, he was convinced that he was not mistaken in the main thing: “Usually these collections are published in alphabetical order, according to initial letter proverbs. This is the most desperate method, invented because there is nothing else to grab onto. Sayings are strung together without any meaning or connection, based on their random and, moreover, often changeable appearance. It is impossible to read such a book: our mind is fragmented and tired on the first page with the diversity and incoherence of each line; it is impossible to find what is needed; it is impossible to see what people say about this or that aspect of everyday life; it is impossible to draw any conclusion, a general conclusion about the spiritual and moral characteristics of the people, about their everyday relationships expressed in proverbs and sayings; related to the same matter, homogeneous, inseparable in meaning proverbs are spaced far apart, and the most dissimilar ones are placed in a row ... "

Here is a simple example (insignificant even if you look at Dalev’s countless reserves), but “A poor man has two pennies - a lot of money”: let’s write down a dozen proverbs and sayings from Dal in order to better understand the structure of his work. Here they are - first in alphabetical order:

B - “Wealth with money, wealth with fun”

B - “The wine is dissolved in two: for fun and for a hangover”

G - “Where there is law, there is resentment”

D - “The bow is gilded, the harness is belted, and the horse is unfed”

E - “I went to make money, but I had to live off my own”

F - “Life - standing up and howling”

K - “He who writes the laws breaks them”

M - “The husband drinks - half the house is on fire, the wife drinks - the whole house is on fire”

N - “Covered by the sky, fenced in by the field”

O - “One glass for health, another for fun, a third for nonsense”

P - “I increased the price, gained nothing, but made it cheaper and turned it around twice.”

R - “Rabishche is not a fool, and gold is not a wise man”

S - “Your own corner - your own space”

T - “Bargaining pit: stand straight; Be careful, don’t fall in, if you fall, you’ll be lost.”

C - “What do the laws mean to me, if only the judges were familiar”

Each saying is apt and clever in its own way, but together they don’t yet say anything - they are disconnected: just a dozen folk sayings written out in a row. But here are the same proverbs and sayings as Dahl’s - in content and meaning:

Prosperity is squalor

“Life - getting up and howling”

"Wealth with money, wealth with fun"

“Rubishche is not a fool, and gold is not a wise man”

Yard - house - farm

“Your own corner - your own space”

“Covered by the sky, fenced in by the field”

“The bow is gilded, the harness is belted, and the horse is unfed”

Law

“Where there is law, there is offense”

“He who writes the laws breaks them”

“What do the laws mean to me, if only the judges were familiar”

Trade

“I increased the price, gained nothing, but sold it cheap and turned it around twice.”

“I went to make money, but I had to live off my own”

“Bargaining is a pit: stand up straight; Be careful, don’t fall in, if you fall, you’ll be lost.”

Drunkenness

“The wine is dissolved in two: for fun and for a hangover”

“The husband drinks and half the house is on fire, the wife drinks and the whole house is on fire.”

“One glass for health, another for fun, a third for nonsense”

We admit: it is no coincidence that we wrote out examples from these sections of Dalev’s collection - we remember that Dal revealed hundreds of proverbs to figures Geographical Society family life in Rus'; judging by one of his letters, he also intended, based on proverbs, to show “what exactly the people say” about poverty, about home, about laws, about trade, about drunkenness. By reading two or three hundred proverbs on one topic in a row, you can comprehend the people’s opinion, through the thickness of well-aimed and cheerful words you can see the golden sand at the bottom, the wisdom that has stood for centuries.

“There is no trial or punishment for the proverb” - Dahl did not try, it never occurred to him, not only to smooth out the proverb, but - what could be simpler! - hide: in his work he gave to the people what he owned, without looking back and without hiding. The work came out of his pen unsmoothed, unkempt - red fiery swirls stuck out, catching the eye, as if teasing, sayings like: “The king strokes, and the boyars scratch”, “The butt and the thief - everything fits”, “Lord forgive, into someone else’s let the crate go, help him rake it and carry it out”, “The master for the master, the man for the man”, “Praise the rye in the haystack, and the master in the coffin.” This was included in his collection by the same Dahl who called for the liberation of the peasants moderately and carefully; the same one who advised to beware of the words “freedom”, “will” - they supposedly inflame hearts, and in his collection of proverbs: “Part in everything, but will in nothing”, “The will is great, but the prison is strong”, and here same: “Involuntarily, a horse breaks the tug, if it doesn’t take the chance,” “The mash endures for a long time, but if it goes over the edge, you won’t be able to stop it.”

People whose marksmanship and words of wisdom became a proverb, Russian peasants believed in God and sometimes no less than in God, they believed in a reliable sovereign, for centuries they obeyed the bars and patiently endured oppression and lawlessness. But these same people, the unknown creators of proverbs, became convinced every day that God is not merciful to everyone and that the hope for justice rarely comes true - “There is good, but not everyone is equal”; patience was running out - “Wait like an ox!”, the mash was overflowing - “As long as we are human, happiness is not lost”; Villages, volosts, provinces rose up, swore allegiance to Stenka and Pugach, lordly estates burned, and cities surrendered to the peasant army; Shemyak officials were trembling in fear (“The clerk is a dog breed; the clerk is a sneaky people”), and the pope robbed (“Pop’s belly is sewn from seven sheepskins”) was hiding in his pantry between pot-bellied bags; new proverbs were born.

The cautious Dahl was ready to keep a hundred tales under wraps - let them “rot”, just to sleep peacefully, and he didn’t want to throw out a hundred proverbs from his collection, although he foresaw: “My collection... could become unsafe for me” - and even so, wrong. Dal did not want to throw out a single proverb - it’s a matter of perspective, conviction: Dal did not invent the people with the help of proverbs, but showed how the people are revealed in proverbs, different, often contradictory. The distance here is close in opinion to Dobrolyubov, who also saw in proverbs “material for characterizing a people.” It is curious: from the same inexhaustible source, from Dalev’s Assembly, Leo Tolstoy drew supplies for the speeches of his favorite, the humble and peaceful “do-nothing” Platon Karataev, and the participants of the revolutionary circle, who selected the most seditious, “blasphemous” ones from the “Proverbs of the Russian People” "and made up of them a propaganda (according to Dahl - “inflammatory”) paradise.

Dal felt and understood this inexhaustibility - everyone will find something in the collection. “There are five essences in a radish: trikha radish, sliced ​​radish, radish with butter, radish with kvass, and radish like that,” - the people are inexhaustible, and that is why the spicy radish proverb is so varied in “essences.” In “Naputny” Dahl wrote: “Interpreting a joke or a hint that the reader himself understands is vulgar and cloying... 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, for everyone you won't get sick."

Dahl didn’t miss everyone: a long, almost ten-year history of publishing “Proverbs of the Russian People” begins.

“Will, will this collection ever be published, with which the collector has cherished his life, but, parting with it, as if the matter is over, I don’t want to leave it without a parting word” - with these lines Dahl opens the preface to his work and adds : “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.” It was probably no coincidence that Dahl wanted to “leave now” (and thereby forever) the sad anxiety - “will it happen, won’t it happen when”: the difficult, unequal struggle for the result of thirty-five years of life and work to see the light of day and remain for people , you can’t throw yourself out of the past century - and it turned out well, but your whole heart burns...

The Academy of Sciences, where Dahl's work appeared, instructed two of its members to express a judgment about it - Academician Vostokov and Archpriest Kochetov.

Vostokov’s review is not too detailed and not hostile, although not entirely benevolent: next to fair comments about erroneous interpretations of individual proverbs (Dal listened to Vostokov’s opinion) there is displeasure due to the presence of proverbs on religious topics - “Is it decent?..”. In general: “The collector should review and carefully process his work, which, of course, contains a lot of good things.” The dispassionate, neat academician was not too lazy to note the translated proverbs - and from what language he indicated and wrote down the proverbs literary origin- and named the author...

Punctualist!

Whether it’s the case of an academician archpriest, you can’t say “impassionate” about this - how much ardor, enthusiasm; about this you cannot say “critic”, “detractor” - enemy!.. The archpriest was learned man, participated in the compilation of the academic “Dictionary of Church Slavonic and Russian Languages”, published the first experience in the Russian language of the “science of moral theology”; but you can know and love your language differently, value the nuggets of the people’s mind and words differently, and also have different judgments about people’s morality.

“In my opinion, Mr. Dahl’s work is 1) enormous work, but 2) alien to selection and order; 3) it contains passages that can offend the religious feelings of readers; 4) there are sayings that are dangerous for people’s morality; 5) there are passages that arouse doubt and distrust in the accuracy of their presentation. In general, the merits of Mr. Dahl’s collection can be described as a proverb: it contains a barrel of honey and a fly in the ointment; a sack of flour and a pinch of arsenic.”

This “pinch of arsenic” especially angered Dahl: he could not forget it all, and almost ten years later he wrote in Naputny: “They found that this collection and unsafe encroaching on corruption of morals. To make this truth more intelligible 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.”

Even the “enormous” work, which Dahl seemed to be credited with, is a sin for the archpriest: “Through this he mixed edification with corruption, faith with superstition and unbelief, wisdom with stupidity...”; mixed “verbs of God’s wisdom with sayings of human wisdom” (“this cannot but offend the religious feelings of readers”); " sacred texts mutilated by it, or misinterpreted, or blasphemously combined with idle talk of the people.”

“Temptation comes into the world... in bad books“... “Not without grief, a pious Christian will read in Mr. Dahl’s book”... “One can also include passages in Mr. Dahl’s book that are dangerous for the morality and piety of the people”... About the wisdom of the people, about their pious morality - the archpriest casually, but how to the point - without mincing words: “There is no doubt that all these expressions are used by the people, but the people are stupid and talk all kinds of nonsense”; Dalev’s work is a “monument of folk stupidity” (and Dal believed that it was folk wisdom!).

To match Kochetovsky - as they agreed (and maybe even agreed!) - the review of the “secular” censor, collegiate adviser Shidlovsky. There is no need for a collegiate adviser to play a learned man, but a vigilant husband is useful: he, following Kochetov, repeats about “insulting religious feelings,” and most importantly, does not miss the opportunity to seize “harmful ambiguity.” The section is “Hypocrisy”, and the proverb is “Every tongue praises God”; section “Law”, and the proverb - “Two bears cannot get along in one den.” The very “neighborhood” of other sayings is inappropriate, because it can cause laughter, containing concepts that “should not be in contact”: “His hands are long (that is, there is a lot of power)” and then “His hands are long (that is he is a thief)” - is it permissible? No, it’s unacceptable, it’s absolutely impossible: “Proverbs and sayings against the Orthodox clergy, the treasury, the authorities in general, the service, the law and judges, the nobility, soldiers (?), peasants (?) and serfs are not only useless (!), but, I dare say to say, extremely harmful”...

And here’s a curious feature of zealous “guardians”: they are given Dahl’s work for review, and they all strive both in the lines and between the lines to “discover” the ill-intention, the secret intention of Dahl himself, so they are tempted to convey: “If this collection is the fruit the works of a person who completed a course of study in one of the higher educational institutions in Russia, a person who has been in the service for many years ...”; or: “The government is concerned about publishing more edifying books capable of enlightening the people, and Mr. Dal...” Dal later answered in explanatory note: “I don’t see how it is possible to impute to a person a crime that he collected and wrote down, as many as he could collect, various folk sayings, in any order. Meanwhile, these reviews come back with some kind of sentences for the criminal.”

Baron Modest Andreevich Korf, director of the public library (and he is also a member of the secret committee for supervising book printing), reasoned in his own way: since the goal of Dalev’s work was “to collect everything,” the collection should be printed “in its entirety,” but since this was would be “completely contrary” to the “government’s care for the establishment of good morals”, the collection should be published “in the form of a manuscript... in only a few copies” - and then “the publication of the collection can begin with feedback from the censorship and the Ministry of Public Education”, and in addition - “not except with the special highest permission.” Korf’s most curious thought: “The collection of proverbs, in the form as it was conceived and executed by Mr. Dahlem, is a book for which it should not be readers (!), but learned researchers, not that public that blindly believes in everything printed... but such , which knows how to cultivate bad soil (!).” Dahl wanted to return the treasures taken from him to all the people, and Korf offered (as a mercy!) to keep Dahl’s work for several pundits under lock and key, in the main libraries.

But Korf’s scopal project was not carried out: after a small matter, the highest permission was not forthcoming. Emperor Nicholas, who favorably accepted articles about the stupid Moska barking at the ruler, and generously rewarded the “people's opinion” invented by the “guardians,” did not want to see published the work that the mind, soul and experience of the people revealed in the people’s word.

It's funny: Korf wrote in his review that in proverbs, created by the people,“many false teachings and harmful principles”, “dangerous for our people,” the tsar, baron, and archpriest tried to discourage the people from what they had been coming to in thought and heart for many centuries. The tsar, the baron, the archpriest, and the collegiate adviser tried to strain through their sieve the folk wisdom that Dahl tried to preserve as the greatest value. “Geese in harps, ducks in pipes, crows in boxes, cockroaches in drums, a goat in a gray sundress; a cow in matting is more valuable than anyone else.”

The collection “Proverbs of the Russian People” was published only in the early sixties. On title page, under the title, Dahl put: “The proverb is not judged.”