Erzya songs from the Orthodox Missionary Society collection (Kazan, 1882)
The Erzya Mordvins are the easternmost branch of the Mordvin peoples, a Finno-Ugric nation of the middle Volga region who speak one of the two surviving Mordvin languages (Erzya and Moksha). Their homeland — a territory of forests, river meadows, and black-earth farmland between the Oka and the Volga — brought them into contact with Tatars, Russians, Bashkirs, and many other peoples over centuries, and this contact is everywhere legible in their folk poetry: the Bashkir appears as the threatening stranger, the Kazan road is the road that leads away from home, and the wedding cart jolting along that road is the instrument of the bride's uprooting. Yet the poetry itself remains stubbornly Erzya — its images of doves and apple trees and the transfer of maidenhood are drawn from a tradition with deep roots in pre-Christian Volga culture.
The texts in this file are Songs XXXVI a–д (Обрядовыя свадебныя пѣсни — Ritual Wedding Songs) and Song XXXVII (The Apple Tree) from the first volume of the 1882 collection Образцы мордовской народной словесности (Samples of Mordovian Folk Literature), published in Kazan by the Orthodox Missionary Society. The collection presents each song first in the Erzya Mordvin original (in pre-reform Cyrillic) and then in a Russian prose translation. These songs are classified as обрядовыя (ritual) songs — performed as part of the wedding ceremony itself, not merely described as folklore. They record the emotional and social choreography of an Erzya wedding: the bride's farewell to her maidenhood status (called бояравакс in Erzya, meaning something like noble-girl-status or free-maiden-brightness), her lament over being given away, and the curse she pronounces if her hand is taken against her will.
The wedding sequence moves through several emotional registers. The dove song (XXXVI.а) opens with a heraldic image: the best of doves, with its grey-blue back and green cap, flies to a rich man's threshing floor and begins to pick grain — the bride arriving at the groom's wealthy household. What follows (XXXVI.б–в) is the bride's lament over her бояравакс, her girlhood freedom and social status, which she must now surrender. She considers giving it to the field (but her sisters-in-law would tangle it in weeds), to the forest (her brothers would cut it with the birch trees), to the street (her companions would walk off with it). Finally she gives it to her youngest brother — the only one who can carry it with tenderness. Song XXXVI.г is a cry to the cart-drivers: do not give me to a Bashkir, do not give me to a stranger. I grew up among you, gently sheltered. Take me home to my father's house. Song XXXVI.д is a ritual curse: if you take my white hands, may seventy-seven needles be thrust into yours. And Song XXXVII shifts the register entirely to elegy: the apple tree weeping by the Kazan road, whose roots were beaten by axle-tips and whose branches were broken by wagon-bows — the bride herself, who traveled that road and was broken by it.
XXXVI.а — The Dove
Best of doves, a dove!
A beautiful dove:
The dove's back is grey-blue,
Glowing red are his feet,
Green cap on the dove's head.
As the dove took flight,
The dove flew to a rich man's threshing floor,
Flew to the rich man's grain heap —
He began to pick at the little grains.
XXXVI.б — Where Shall I Release My Girlhood Brightness?
Where shall I release my girlhood brightness?
If I released it across the field —
My elder sisters-in-law go out to weed,
It would be tangled with the grass,
With the grass be thrown away.
If I released it across the beautiful forest —
My elder brothers go to fell oak trees,
My elder brothers will fell;
With the birch it would be cut down.
Where shall I release my girlhood brightness?
Let me wait — I'll release it along the street:
My companions will walk along the street,
With my companions it will stay.
XXXVI.в — To Whom Shall I Give It?
To whom shall I give my girlhood brightness,
To whom give my mastery of the house?
Wait — I will give it to the piece of my heart,
To my youngest brother!
Take it, carry my girlhood brightness,
My mastery of the house;
Carry it gently, tenderly!
XXXVI.г — Cry to the Cart-Drivers
Oh, my cart-drivers, young men!
Oh, my cart-drivers, dear ones!
Do not give me to a Bashkir!
Do not give me to a stranger,
Do not give me to a foreign father, foreign mother!
I grew up among you, sheltered, tenderly kept...
Come — take me home to my dear father's house.
XXXVI.д — The Curse of the White Hands
Do not take my white hands:
It is not yours to take my white hands!
If you take my hands —
Seventy-seven needles
Be thrust into your hands!
XXXVII — The Apple Tree
Best of trees, the apple tree!
Of all trees, the finest apple tree!
Where was the apple tree born?
Where did the apple tree grow up?
It was born beside the great road,
It grew up beside the Kazan road.
The apple tree weeps and weeps,
The apple tree grieves terribly.
Who saw it weeping so?
Who heard it grieving so terribly?
The elm tree saw it,
The elm tree heard it.
"Why does the apple tree weep?
Why does the apple tree grieve?"
— "This is why I weep, elm tree!
This is why I grieve, elm tree:
Against axle-tips my roots were beaten,
Against wagon-bows my branches were beaten.
My leaves flutter and flutter,
My apples shake and fall."
Colophon
Translated by the Uralic Deep Translator tulku (New Tianmu Anglican Church), March 2026.
Source language: Erzya Mordvin (эрзянь кель). The 1882 collection presents the Erzya text in pre-reform Cyrillic alongside a Russian prose translation; this English is derived from the Erzya original, with the Russian translation consulted as a reference bridge for passages where OCR artifacts obscured individual Erzya words.
Translation method: The Erzya text was read directly. The Russian translation of the same collection (also 1882, same volume) was used as a reference bridge — specifically to verify the reading of: (a) the repeated refrain word бояравакс (Erzya: бояраваксъ), which the Russian renders as "боярышничество" (noble-maiden status); (b) individual Erzya words with OCR damage. The English is independently derived from the Erzya, not paraphrased from the Russian.
On бояравакс: The Erzya word бояравакс чинть (literally "boiar-girl-light" or "noble-brightness") has no clean English equivalent. It refers to the bride's maidenhood status — her social freedom, her identity as daughter of her family, her "brightness" as an unmarried woman. The Russian translation renders it "боярышничество" (a quality of being a boyar's daughter — noble status, free-girl quality). I have rendered it throughout as "girlhood brightness," attempting to preserve both the social and the luminous dimension of the word.
On урвалинёнь: Rendered as "cart-drivers" based on the Russian "повозничьки" (cart-drivers, those who drive the wedding wagon). These are the young men who transport the bride from her family home to the groom's household — a central figure in the Erzya wedding ceremony.
On the apple tree (XXXVII): The умарина (apple tree) is a standard symbol in Erzya and Moksha wedding poetry for the bride. The tree grows "beside the Kazan road" — the road is a recurring image of departure and uprooting. The elm tree (уксось чувто) is the witness-tree, the one who asks the question. The language of the tree's roots beaten against axle-tips and branches against wagon-bows describes the physical jolting of the wedding cart — and by extension, the violence of the bride's removal from her home.
Collection provenance: Образцы мордовской народной словесности, Выпуск 1: Песни на Эрзянском и некоторые на Мокшанском наречии (Samples of Mordovian Folk Literature, Volume 1: Songs in the Erzyan and Some in the Moksha Dialect). Published by the Православного Миссіонерскаго Общества (Orthodox Missionary Society), Kazan Guberniya, 1882. Archive.org identifier: vyp_1_obraztcy_mordovskoi_narodnoi_slovesnosti__pesni_na_erzianskom_i_nekotorye_. PD Mark 1.0. No prior English translation of these songs is known.
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Source Text: Erzya original (Songs XXXVI.а–д and XXXVII)
Source: Образцы мордовской народной словесности, Вып. 1 (Kazan, 1882). Pre-reform Cyrillic transcription of Erzya Mordvin. OCR from archive.org — minor artifacts preserved as found.
XXXVI. Паравтненатъ (Ritual Wedding Songs)
а)
Гулькань паро гулька, мазы гулька:
Сырежа гулькань лангозо,
Яксхѳрть мерить пильгензэ,
Пиже шапка гулькань прясонзо.
5. Кода гулька ливтякшнОсь,
Ливтясь гулька сюпавонь токъ лангсъ,
Ливтясь сюпавонь ороккесъ:
8. Кармась гулька зёрнынеть кочксёме.
б)
Кува нолдаса бояраваксъ чинть?
Нолдаволиня паксява.
Уряжонъ молить кочкомо,
Тикше маро кочкави,
5. Тикше маро каявп.
Нолдаволиня мазы вирь ланга, —
Лелянь молить тумонь керямо,
Лелянь кармить керямо;
Килей маро кёрявить.
10. Кува нолдаса бояраваксъ чинъ?
Аштёка нолдаса улицянь кувалма:
Ялганъ улицянь кувадтъ якамо молить,
13. Ялганъ маро сонъ леди.
в)
Кинень максса бояраваксъ чинъ,
Кинёнь максса азорійаксъ чинъ?
Аштекая, максса седёень пелькскемь ялакскв-нёвь.
Саикъ, кантлика мовь бояраваксъ чиненъ,
5. Монъ азораваксъ чинёвь;
6. Баськазь, кодьнезь кантлика!
г)
Охъ, урвалинёнь, алинень!
Охъ, урвалинёнь, тётинёнь!
Илиминкъ макетъ башкирнэнь,
Илимивкъ макетъ апакъ сода ломаннёнь!
5. Илиминкъ макетъ ломанъ тётясъ, ломанъ авасъ!
Монъ тынкъ війсёвасъказъ, кольнёзь эрсёкшнйнь...
7. Адя саимизь дирень тетянь кудостень.
д)
Иля сае монъ ашо кеденъ:
Авулъ тонетъ саймёвь монъ ашо кёдёнь!
Буди саятъ монъ кёдень,
Сиське менъ сисемъ салмукстъ
5. Тонь кедезэть пёзнастъ!
XXXVII. Чувтонь паро умарина (The Apple Tree)
Чувтонь паро умарина,
Чувтонь доброй умарь чувто!
Козой шачнось умарина.
Козой каснось умарь чувто?
5. Покшъ ки чиресъ сонъ шачнось,
Казанъ ки лангсъ сонъ каснось.
Пекъ аварди умарина,
Пекъ сюморди умарь чувто.
Ки неизе пекъ авардн,
10. Ки маризёвь пекъ сюморди?
Уксось чувто да неизе,
Уксось чувто да маризе.
"Мейсь аварди умарина,
Мейсь сюморди умарь чувто?"
15. — "Сексъ авардянъ, уксось чувто!
Сексъ сюмордянъ, уксось чувто:
Ось песъ чавовсть монь корёнёнь,
Чиркесъ чавовсть монь тараткёнь.
Рукшнатъ, рукшнатъ монь лопинёнь,
20. Салдырксэшкатъ монь умарень".
Source Colophon
Source texts retrieved from the archive.org digitization of Образцы мордовской народной словесности, Вып. 1 (Kazan, 1882). Archive.org identifier: vyp_1_obraztcy_mordovskoi_narodnoi_slovesnosti__pesni_na_erzianskom_i_nekotorye_. Pre-reform Cyrillic Erzya text (with ѣ, ъ, і as grammatical letters). OCR quality: moderate; some artifacts in the Erzya (irregular spacing, occasional letter substitutions). Russian translation in the same volume served as bridge reference. Source staged by the Source Text Scout, Life 47, 2026-03-23.
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