MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS Correspondent Ulyana Bakumenko/. "Chukotka is a place where folk tales become real," Tatiana Asadova told me between news casts in languages of the peninsula’s indigenous peoples. On weekdays, she is a reporter, and on weekends she translates folk tales. "You may ask - why? Just because getting here, exactly like in the tales, is very complicated, and those who manage to overcome all the challenges, find themselves in the world, which only few are happy to see."
For several years, Tatiana has been translating into Chukchi the folk tales, which her daughter Samira collects and writes down. The girl is the youngest member of the Russian Union of Writers. The family team has published three books of Chukchi folk tales, which parents must have told their kids inside yarangas (tent-like traditional mobile homes of some nomadic Northern indigenous peoples) in those harsh places even a thousand years ago.
Tales from yaranga
Tatiana Asadova was born amid the tundra, not far from a hard-to-pronounce Chukchi location - Yeronlyplyanai. The Chukchi normally tried to come there expecting a child birth - the people believed - a baby born there will have a happy and long life. Her three kids lost father very early, and Tatiana had to work hard to provide for the family. Prior to being a reporter, she used to tan deer hides.
The kids’ upbringing became the responsibility of granny Tymnekvyna. Everyone around knew that woman very well. She never seemed to be in sorrow or idle. To any question she happily told a most interesting story. Even when with the grand kids, she was always busy doing something. Her favorite "rest" was to collect berries or roots, to cut wood or to fish. During long winter evenings, by the fire in the yaranga, she was telling folk tales to the kids. This feeling of warmth, and the tender, devoted love have prompted the girl’s future occupation.
"I can remember those evenings in our yaranga. I’m sure that even a hundred years later I will recognize that smell of my native home amid the tundra. I can remember a funny thing: my brother and I sit down to listen to granny’s tales. I close my eyes and imagine every picture. I fear to breathe not to frighten off the mystery, and here the granny shouts at my brother Samir -he was secretly throwing meat to the dog, which also was listening and eating. I can remember how upset I was, as granny’s stories were always so wonderful," Samira said.
Every morning, the granny sent out the noisy kids to greet the sun. "We greeted every day. Granny said - Run quickly around the yaranga, but make sure you run from the eastern side, and greet the sun. Brother and I rushed outside, cheerfully greeting a new day. People from cities must be thinking all days are the same, but it’s not so. I can remember absolutely clear every day, every summer. My family has given to me a very happy childhood I’ll never forget," the writer said.
A huge tragedy hit Samira’s happy childhood. At first, the father passed away, and soon after that Samira’s twin brother Samir sank in the river. The tragic events affected the girl greatly. "She was overwhelmed with grief and couldn’t recover for long. My senior son, her brother, told her - put down on paper the folk tales you’ve heard from granny," Tatiana said. "He told her: ‘Granny used to tell us so many stories, and I can barely remember them. Samira, you put them down, and you, mom, help her to translate them into Chukchi.’ Back then it was our remedy. And nowadays, people from across Chukotka call her, come to her asking to put down tales of their families."
Chukchi’s every family has own tales with own characters and plots. Some tales teach kids to become brave, others - to be kind and merciful, or to live in harmony with the nature and to respect it. Every tribe, according to legends, used to have a leader, whose birth opens the story of a certain family.
"Samira, continue writing"
The senior brother brought the first portion of granny’s tales, styled by Samira, to Anadyr (Chukotka’s center). He was happy the sister managed "to remember that happy time." When Samira Asadova was among winners of a prestigious literature competition, they decided to publish the first book of Granny Tymnekvyna Tales. A book of Chukchi’s traditions and stories from the Kanchalan tundra.
"People were telling me: ‘Samira, you’ve written the tales so beautifully, that I can see my granny sitting next to me inside yaranga.’ From across the region, people were asking us to record their tales, but, please, they said, also make them "as beautiful, as those". We’ve collected stories to fit two books, and the local authorities have supported the printing in two languages - Russian and Chukchi. In the third book, Granny Kagle Tales, we present stories about the Chukcki’s Soviet life in the times of dispossession and collectivization. Right now, we are about to publish the fourth book of tales - about deer herders. They are strong men who have roamed across the cold tundra for a thousand years, and their folk tales are filled with heroism, power and at the same time with love for the nature," Samira Asadova said.
At the age of 17, Samira won the 8th Yury Rytkhey Competition - the most prestigious literature contest in Chukotka. The young writer’s first book of tales right after printing was presented at the 23rd Moscow International Book Fair.
Two years later, at the age of 19, she began to study at the Institute of the North’s Peoples at the Gertsen Russian State Pedagogical University. She became the youngest member of the Russian Union of Writers. Professional jury members said unanimously - the kind tales full of wisdom must be preserved for the coming generations as an example of the Chukchi’s outstanding identity.
To have language live on
Work on the unique books had unique obstacles - Tatiana Asadova speaks colloquial Chukchi, and practically does not have the command of the correct language. On the other hand, this is likely to be the secret why their tales are "so native and close" not only for those who live in Chukotka - the granny’s tales are very popular far beyond the region.
Samira Asadova has won prestigious literature competitions. She has graduated from the university in St. Petersburg, but city lights are not attractive to her. In the native region, she said, she can be more useful, at least in keeping the native language.
"The youth know little of the Chukchi language, and that upsets me," Tatiana Asadova said. "Only 30 years ago, all signs in Anadyr were in two languages, and in villages almost everyone spoke the native tongue, and in the tundra, I believe, all did. Nowadays, at some schools classes in our language are optional, and every year the number of people speaking it is shrinking."
The youth wants to have leaders to keep them interested, so that studying the native language became prestigious, she added. "Thus, Samira and I care so much about what we are doing, we know that we promote our unique culture, and we are able to make it available for as many people as possible," Tatiana concluded.