I spent that night at their place. In the morning, after tea, my mother washed me in the tub. She put a new embroidered skullcap on my head and gave me a pair of leather pants, something very necessary for a long winter journey.
When she was taking me to uncle Badri in the hotel, she wanted to give me as a keepsake a string of prayer beads and decorations for my skullcap called «Maryam-Ana»12, but I refused to take them for some reason, saying: «You dont have to do that. I dont need anything. Im going to a rich house.»
Our hotel room was quite average, neither good nor bad.
The man from Yaik who was going to take me there was called Shest-pyat Sapyi. He hadnt arrived to Kazan yet, which is why uncle Badri and I had to wait for him for a week or two.
Finally, our long-awaited Shest-pyat Sapyi arrived and got himself a hotel room right across from ours.
A few days after that, uncle Badri moved my things to his room and, handing me six coins two kopecks each, 12 kopecks all together, left for his home in the village.
Hard as I tried to plead with him so he would stay for at least one more day thats how much I hated to part with him he left anyway, comforting me with different kind words.
After his departure I remained with Shest-pyat Sapyi and his wife.
Both the clothes and speech habits of this man, who came from another city, seemed alien to me.
For example, in the middle of a conversation he would suddenly say: «I am a man advanced in years.» For the life of me, I couldnt understand the meaning of the word «advanced».
Shest-pyat Sapyi wore a fur coat, and its collar and sleeves were trimmed with fox fur. I thought that perhaps he was «advanced» because he was wearing such a fur coat. Later, already in Yaik, I learned that «advanced in years» meant «old».
With the 12 kopecks from uncle Badri I bought myself salt-dried Caspian roach and sunflower seeds.
A few days after that, we packed for the road.
They made me sit on the lap of Shest-pyat Sapyis wife in the sleigh covered in matting, so that I couldnt look around in any direction. They would let me out only when we stopped at a village to have some tea.
I begged them: «Let me walk by the sleigh. Its better that way at least Id be free.» I was not allowed. «Youll freeze to death. Your uncle told us to look after you so you wouldnt freeze», they said.
My uncle instructed that guy, Shest-pyat Sapyi, to bring a good sledge from Kazan, and it was attached to our rear. In front of us was the sleigh of some other folk from Yaik, loaded with various merchandise, so we travelled in a «caravan». For this reason, feeling as if we were prisoners in the enclosed sleigh, suffering a thousand different inconveniences, we finally drove into Yaik in the evening of the eighteenth day of our journey.
In Yaik we stopped at uncle Sapyis. «Well have some tea first, and take you to your uncle and aunt later», they said.
Later that evening, between the two prayers, I went to my uncle and aunt, accompanied by uncle Sapyi.
We met a young woman in a green quilted gown on the road. «This is your aunt, say hello to her», Shest-pyat Sapyi told me, so I greeted her.
Their house was only about sixty feet away. I entered the gates, climbed up a very high set of stairs and stepped onto the second floor
AUTUMN
1906EPITAPH TO MY BELOVED
1906TO MY NATION
1906TO A HOURI
1
It happened on August 30, 1990 see, for example, Ravil Bukharaev, Non-Violent Quest for National Identity: The Case of Tatarstan, Nations and Nationalism Around the Globe, vol. II, Warsaw, 2006. On the past and present ofl the Kazan Tatar people and their culture, see also the following books by Ravil Bukharaev: The Model of Tatarstan under President Mintimer Shaimievu, Curzon Press Ltd., London and St Martins Press, New York, 1999; Islam in Russia. The Four Seasons, Curzon Press Ltd., London and St Martins Press, New York, 2000; Historical Anthology of Kazan Tatar Verse (with D.J. Matthews), Curzon Press Ltd., London, 2000; Saga of Kazan, Slavia, St Petersburg, 2005; Tatarstan:-A Can-Do Culture, Global Oriental, London, 2006; Kol GCalil, Story of Joseph (historical introductory essays and translation of the grand medieval Bulgar-Tatar poem by Fred Beake and Ravil Bukharaev), Global Oriental (Brill), UK, 2010.
2
Translation by David Matthews and Ravil Bukharaev. A new translation of the same poem see on page 127.
3
On April 14, 1886 according to the Old Style (Greigorian Calendar).
4
Uchile means ««three houses»».
5
Apa, in Tatar, means ««auntie»».
6
Bai, in Tatar, means ««a rich man»».
7
Tash Ayak literally means, in Tatar, ««a Stone leg»». This was the name of a place under the walls of the Kazan Kremlin with a bazaar trading there from medieval times.
8
The Suyumbike Tower in the Kazan Kremlin.
9
Tatar dairy product of sour milk somewhat similar to yogurt.
10
Sabantui literally means ««The Plough Festival»», since the time immemorial it is being celebrated in early summer. Sabantui has been included into the UNESCO Immaterial Heritage list.
11
The Fruits of Conversation is a collection of works of literature and folklore, compiled by Kayum Nasyri in 1884.
12
««Mother Maryam»» necklace made out of small beads and shells used as an amulet to protect children against the ««evil eye»».