American Journal Of Philological Sciences
35
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue02 2025
PAGE NO.
35-37
10.37547/ajps/Volume05Issue02-10
Epithets created relating to the four elements
Tilegenova Altinay Ernazar qizi
PhD student at KSU, Uzbekistan
Received:
07 December 2024;
Accepted:
09 January 2025;
Published:
11 February 2025
Abstract:
In this article, we tried to study the peculiarity of the use of epithets, which are a type of tropes in
current Karakalpak lyric poetry, in relation to water, air, fire, and earth, which are considered vital elements, using
the example of the lyric poetry of K. Karimov, J. Izbasqanov, and B. Genjemuratov.
Keywords:
Poetics, image, tropes, epithets, elements of existence.
Introduction:
It is well-known that epithets are the
most commonly used trope in the artistic portrayal of
events, objects, and especially characters in lyrical
works. In this article, we aim to create a literary and
aesthetic interpretation of the usage characteristics of
epithets related to the four core elements: water, air,
fire, and earth, which are the main factors and essence
of life and creation. We will explo
re poets’
perspectives, emotions, and influences regarding these
elements both as a part of life and as creators.
The four elements continue to appear in songs, either
as images or as descriptive objects. They are primarily
used in landscape songs and in conveying the feelings
of the lyrical hero, particularly when natural landscapes
are the focus. Among them, the air element is the most
frequently used, encompassing wind, storm, fog,
whirlwind, and other similar phenomena. Wind is the
most productively used named object within this
category. In J. Izbasqanov’s works, wind is described
with epithets in more than twenty poems, while in K.
Karimov and B. Genjemuratov’s works, it appears in
more than ten poems. However, in most poems, it
remains one of the descriptive objects, and the defining
epithets are often traditional or ordinary. For example:
Unable to find a place for myself,
I embrace the fullness, the cheerful wind, everything.
Like lovers with the cheerful wind,
You were whispering on the golden shore. [1:47]
Autumn is approaching. Cold winds
Have chilled me and drained my strength. [2:99]
Swaying in the silky wind, the willows awakened,
Kisses burned like fire on the lips. [3:55]
The epithets such as cheerful, cool, and silky in the
given examples characterize different states and types
of wind. Cheerful and happy winds are used to describe
pleasant natural phenomena, beautiful and enjoyable
situations, while the epithet "silky" aims to depict
elegant scenery and subtle feelings arising from
admiration of beautiful nature.
The characteristics of the wind are determined by
seasons expressing time with words like autumn,
spring, and summer. The resulting artistic epithets
found in the works of poet J. Izbasqanov (brown
autumn wind, summer wind, morning winds, autumn
winds) and K. Karimov (autumn winds, morning winds)
are connected to the overall content. However, they do
not reflect the feelings and thoughts of the lyrical hero
as images, but rather identify and describe auxiliary
objects.
Among the four vital elements, water plays one of the
most important roles in terms of frequency of use and
degree of depiction. This element (image) is given
special attention in all the objects of our research. For
example:
In the scorching heat like boiling copper
I dream of
The waters of a gurgling spring [4:126]
Rivers and streams with cool water,
You might see along the way. [5:102]
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
36
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
A sip of cool water was shimmering,
In the bird's palm, like a drill. [6:29]
In all examples, water is used as the main qualifying
element of the epithet. Each instance is reflected as a
phenomenon that captures the attention and gaze of
the lyrical hero. In the first example, the lyrical hero's
longing is directed towards water, while in subsequent
examples, we encounter a lyrical hero influenced by the
aesthetics of water. However, the epithets are
traditional and simple. In the description of this water,
there is a complex epithet - silver, which is common to
most poets in Karakalpak lyric poetry. Describing water
as silver has already become an artistic principle of
poets:
The mysterious silver-watered stream laughed
playfully,
I took off my cautious armor from my shoulders. [7:53]
A silver drop from the first leaf
slides down... [8:14]
Let there be silver water in a stone jug,
Let whoever is thirsty quench their thirst. [9:23]
It may seem that silver water is depicted in the
examples in relation to the color of water, but there is
a deep meaning behind this chain of imagery. Silver is
one of the most precious metals, possessing both
natural and divine properties. Based on these
characteristics, writers reflect this chain of epithets. So,
what is the secret behind this classification of water,
and why have all the creators described water as having
the natural properties of silver? “Silver water is
portrayed as a nourishment that awakens the creative
spirit of humans and develops their natural potential.
The poet reflects the creative maturity and productivity
of people nurtured by silver water through numerous
tropes”. In the first example, the stream of silver water,
laughing cheerfully, shimmers in the mind of the lyrical
hero. The silver drop (water) in the second example
was used to artistically depict the beauty of nature in
relation to the natural properties of silver and water,
where attention was paid not to awakening, but to
beauty and aesthetic quality. In the last example, the
silver water chain also describes the natural properties
and divinity of silver and water.
Silver drop, the epithet of water, is one of the most
unique elements used to refer to water in the works of
poets. Additionally, in J. Izbasqanov’s works, there are
sweet floods, green lakes, autumn streams, mysterious
currents, and autumn rain; B. Genjemuratov uses
orphaned Aral, scratchy springs, gusty rain, poetic
birds, night downpour, pearl drops, and crimson ice; K.
Karimov employs epithets such as old Aral, reckless
flood, living water, and silver water. In J. Izbasqanov’s
work, water is mainly used as an element, detail, or
object in reflecting the beauty of nature, and remains
within this boundary. In some of his poems, water is
used as a symbol or image to describe the lyrical hero’s
experiences, but although water as a metaphor or
simile has risen to the level of the main, central image
of the poem, within the epithet it is limited to a detail
or auxi
liary image. For example, in his poem “A word to
a Baxtiyar poet”:
True, it's human nature... your doubts may arise
With snowy storms playing, your lament smoldering,
This sorrow spreading mist over the heart,
I've often overflowed with sweet torrents. [11:338]
The sweet epithet in the song portrays the
lyrical hero’s feelings, depicting the floods as an image
of joyful past memories and emotions, and the water,
indicating that these feelings arose from a positive
event. This, of course, is a phenomenon related not
only to the poet’s shortcomings in artistic exploration
but also to his principles and goals. In K. Karimov’s
lyrics, the water element is depicted as an object of
description, a detail within the poem. Unlike in J.
Izbasqanov’s work, it does
not rise to the level of a
central image in the song. The representation of the
water element with epithets as the main image of the
poem, reflecting the holistic content and serving as the
source of artistic thought and idea, is found in B.
Genjemuratov’s
lyrics. The poet’s poem beginning with
“Black stallions
-
black clouds...” aims to depict the
lyrical hero’s past experiences and an event that
strongly influenced him, with the artistic plot starting
from the onset of rain. The song takes on an artistic
quality in expressing feelings such as separation,
unhappiness, and sorrow through metaphorical
images. Hunters of separation, the moon, and the wolf
are all metaphorical images, but all these tropes are
centered around and connected to the image of rain.
Rain is a manifestation of the water element. In the
song:
Black stallions - black clouds
were whipped by giants in the sky.
The rain that washed the Nukus-Boston stone road
drips into my heart.
It drips into my frozen heart,
drops of an early spring.
Pressing its chest against the deep ravine,
The lost -month dog sighed. [12:111]
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
37
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps
American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN
–
2771-2273)
In the song, the epithets describing the rain washing
the stone road from Nukus to Boston and the droplets
of early spring serve to reveal the entire content of the
plot. In this imagery, epithets play the main artistic role
in depicting water as objective-subjective-real (rain-
sorrow-tears), expressing its natural absorbency and
changing properties artistically.
Elements represented by few and traditional epithets
in the research object are earth and grass. These two
life elements, which are factually independent of each
other, do not conflict in nature or in fiction. The
reflection of earth and fire with epithets is represented
by word combinations such as “silver fields”, “green
shores”, “white gravel coasts”, “camel
-
humped sands”,
“night grasses” in J. Izbasqanov's work; “hundred
-year
waterless deserts”, “yellow sands”, “green fields”,
“water
-
drained land” in K. Karimov’s work; “thousand
-
year-
old pristine, terrible sands”, “thous
and-humped
yellowish
sands”,
“incomprehensible
grasses”,
“shimmering fire”, “sacred fire”, “blazing fire” in B.
Genjemuratov’s work. Among these chains, in terms of
imagery, the “silver fields” presenting landscape
aesthetics in J. Izbasqanov’s work, “wate
r-drained
land” reflecting autumn scenery in K. Karimov’s work,
and “thousand
-year-
old pristine, terrible sands” and
“sacred fire” in B. Genjemuratov’s work can be viewed
as examples where an individual creative approach to
depicting earth and fire elements has been achieved.
Analyzing the epithets created for the four elements of
life discussed in this section, their portrayal of imagery,
and how the poem as a descriptive object sometimes
becomes the central focus of the content, reveals not
only the poets
’ mastery in landscape lyrics and their
skill in using these elements as artistic details and
images but also serves to uncover their creative
philosophical views on life and their aesthetic-
ideological attitude towards these elements.
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