{"id":474,"date":"2023-07-14T20:45:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-15T03:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-usc-dornsife.pantheonsite.io\/alexander-zholkovsky\/?page_id=474"},"modified":"2023-10-10T15:01:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T22:01:10","slug":"bib6","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/alexander-zholkovsky\/bib6\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SOMALI TALE “A SOOTHSAYER TESTED”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexander\u00a0 ZHOLKOVSKY (USC, Los Angeles)<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite the progress made in the creation of Somali written culture over the last 10-15 years,[2]<\/a>\u00a0Somali remains a predominantly oral language. The number of the recorded pieces of verbal art is rather limited as regards both poetry, remarkable for its refined style, and folk prose, consisting mainly of short tales or anecdotes. The \u2018Soothsayer Tested\u2019[3]<\/a>\u00a0stands out among these latter by its philosophical content and consummate artistic form. On three occasions prose narration is interrupted by \u2018acts\u2019 in verse.\u00a0[4]<\/a>\u00a0All this makes \u2018The Soothsayer\u2019 a unique manifestation of Somali \u2018high prose\u2019, situated halfway between poems and regular folktales. Let us examine the tale\u2019s narrative and thematic structure.<\/p>\n

1. The goals of the analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plot of the tale is briefly as follows.<\/p>\n

The sultan calls a famous soothsayer and orders him, on pain of death, to predict what will happen to his tribe in the coming year. The soothsayer tries fortune-telling by beads but his skill betrays him. He moves away from the people, continues his attempts but in vain. Suddenly a serpent speaksto him, they exchange an oath of friendship and the snake tells him (in verse) the desired prediction in exchange for his promise a share of the reward. The soothsayer goes to the sultan and passes onthe prediction: a year of enmity is coming. The tribe gets ready for war in good time and comes out the victor. The sultan rewards the soothsayer with livestock; instead of giving the serpent his share he tries to kill him, but the serpent escapes.<\/i><\/p>\n

The next year, the chief demands another prediction. The soothsayer appeals to the serpent, who forgives him and predicts a drought. The soothsayer goes to the sultan, the tribe gets ready for the drought in good time and manages to survive. The sultan rewards the soothsayer again but once again he avoids repaying the serpent. The sultan wants to know what will happen for the third time. The soothsayer goes to the serpent and returns with the prediction of rain. The tribe has time to prepare the reservoirs for water and avails itself of the generosity of nature in full measure. Everybody is replete and happy.<\/i><\/p>\n

This time the soothsayer drives all the livestock with which he was rewarded to the serpent, begs forgiveness for the past and, acknowledging the serpent\u2019s higher wisdom, asks to be told about the structure of the world and the life in it. The serpent refuses the gift and the friendship of the soothsayer and says: \u2018World there is, but life is not distinct from it. Your life, as you call it, goes as the world goes, for God made the world with many patterns and it is these that rule men\u2019s lives. When war is the pattern of the times all men are at enmity with each other, and thus it was that during wartime you took your sword against me even after I had helped you, and said to yourself, \u201cCut off his head!\u201d And then again, at a time of drought no man is generous to his fellows, so you ran away with all your herds, giving me no share in the sultan\u2019s reward. But when there is a pattern of prosperity\u2026 then you come to me, offering me all you have, not keeping even one animal for yourself. Each time it was the pattern, not yourself, that forced you to do whatever you did.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

What is the immediate impact of the tale? The closure comes, of course, with the final monologue of the serpent, who formulates the innermost meaning of the tale, elucidating in retrospect the manifold peripeties of the plot. This new understanding is unexpected but also well prepared, causing the listener\/reader to experience a powerful shock of recognition \u2013 a sudden grip on the meaning of life as it appears in the tale. One is literally on the verge of exclaiming: \u2018Aha! That\u2019s it! So true!\u2019. How is such an effect achieved? To answer this<\/a> question, we must demonstrate, for the course of the tale as a whole and for each one of its episodes, the way they work for its central conceit, bringing it home on the crest of an aesthetic experience caused by the narrative. In other words, we must identify the function of every component in successfully realizing the theme.<\/p>\n

This calls for a \u2018generative\u2019 description, specifying the text\u2019s derivation from its theme in accordance with the principles of artistic expression.5<\/a>\u00a0This project is an updated version of a traditional literary-critical problem: an attempt to reconstruct, in a painstakingly explicit and graphic step-by-step manner, the creative logic inherent in works of literary art.<\/p>\n

2. The theme<\/strong><\/p>\n

The literary scholar usually begins by groping intuitively for the formulation of the text\u2019s theme. In our case, this is made easier by the serpent\u2019s final words:\u00a0life echoes the structure of the world,\u00a0<\/i>i.e.,people\u2019s actions are not free but determined by fate. This sounds close to the myth of Oedipus,6<\/a>\u00a0except that our tale does not involve two conflicting concepts of causality (fatal inevitability\u00a0vs.<\/i>\u00a0freedom of will). The serpent states that life\u00a0echoes\u00a0<\/i>the structure of the world, not that it is\u00a0determined\u00a0<\/i>by it; indeed, the actions of the soothsayer are\u00a0connected<\/i>\u00a0with the general course of events in the sense that they are\u00a0similar<\/i>\u00a0to<\/i>\u00a0it, rather than that they are\u00a0caused by\u00a0<\/i>it. Never does the tale suggest that the soothsayer attacked the serpent\u00a0because<\/i>\u00a0of<\/i>\u00a0fighting in battles; or that he kept the livestock\u00a0because<\/i>\u00a0of<\/i>\u00a0the drought and general scarcity; or that he felt like giving\u00a0because<\/i>\u00a0he had enough himself and saw generosity all around him. Only in the denouement do we find out that there has always been a connection within each of the three pairs of events, but that it is\u00a0not a causal connection\u00a0<\/i>in the chain of causes and effects but a simple\u00a0similarity<\/i>, based not on the impact of one phenomenon upon another, but on a certain hidden affinity between the phenomena.7<\/a>\u00a0This view is presented in the tale not as merely a correct idea or even a striking truth, but as the most absolute of all truths:\u00a0a revelation.\u00a0<\/i>The theme of the tale thus is:<\/p>\n

A revelation: people\u2019s life is not independent; it is connected with the structure of the world by a relation that is not causal, but rather one of permanent mystical affinity. In short, revelation: life resembles the structure of the world.<\/i><\/p>\n

3. Emplotting the theme<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outlining the overall composition of the \u201cfuture\u201d work can be envisaged as relying on random devices, but they would have greater explanatory power if their choice were determined by the theme. The scholarly legacy of Sergei Eisenstein abounds in instructive examples of detecting the devices that are inherent in the themes they are applied to. Following in his footsteps, let us try to identify devices cognate to our theme,\u00a0revelation: life resembles the structure of the world,<\/i>\u00a0by examining its major components: (i)\u00a0resemblance;\u00a0<\/i>(ii)\u00a0universality<\/i>\u00a0of the revealed law<\/i>; (iii)\u00a0revelation.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

(i) The idea of\u00a0resemblance<\/i>\u00a0naturally predisposes the use of similes and comparisons. The static (eternal, universal) nature of these resemblances and the emphasis on affinities (rather than causality) also favor metaphorical patterning.<\/p>\n

(ii)\u00a0Laws\u00a0<\/i>(of life and nature) are best conveyed through multiple examples illustrating their universality.8<\/a>Both the general rhetorical rule of diversifying the material and the specific task of rendering the laws\u2019 universality prompt the use of the expressive device of maximal, even contrastive, variation.<\/p>\n

(iii)\u00a0Revelation<\/i>, i.e. a profound truth, first concealed from the people and then suddenly, often divinely, made known to them, involves the motif\u00a0recognition<\/i>, or epiphany, which is usually engineered by a narrative reversal, a sudden turn to the opposite course of events, imbuing the plot with suspense.<\/p>\n

Collating the products of the three devices will yield the following outline of the emerging narrative:<\/p>\n

a plot with a sudden turn towards the revelation of the multiple metaphorical correspondences proving that life is similar to the structure of the world.<\/i><\/p>\n

This compositional sketch poses further generative tasks. In order to deploy the device of sudden turn, it is necessary first to formulate the anti-theme, i e. the opposite of the theme, that will provide the initial (pre-reversal) stage of the plot, and find means for concretizing it. It is also necessary to resolve the contradiction between the static nature of the theme proper and the dynamism of its narrative development.<\/p>\n

Let us begin by formulating a statement that is opposite to the serpent\u2019s revelation (\u2018World there is, but life is not distinct from it. This so-called life echoes the structure of the world\u2019). It will look something like: \u2018Life as such exists, but there is no structure to the world\u2019. In composing the tale we will have first to produce the picture of\u00a0life as such that is separate, formless, meaningless, not connected to the structure of the world<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Another relevant aspect of the theme proper is the\u00a0static<\/i>\u00a0nature of the world and life in it, one based on\u00a0affinities\u00a0<\/i>among phenomena. The anti-theme should then paint the picture of a\u00a0dynamic<\/i>, narratively suspenseful beginning of the plot, foregrounding characters\u2019\u00a0interactions<\/i>\u00a0and other\u00a0cause-and-effect relations<\/i>. Since causality is only an illusive appearance, the dynamic interactions must be presented as occasional, ephemeral, incoherent ones. But in order to ensure the eventual readability of the revelation, the portrayal of\u00a0meaningless<\/i>\u00a0life<\/i>\u00a0should be covertly infused with manifestations of the universal law.<\/p>\n

These decisions result in a plot based on contrasting, and then combining, the anti-theme:\u00a0a formless, patternless life, with its ephemeral temporary dynamic interactions<\/i>, with the theme proper:\u00a0eternal static laws representing the metaphorical structure of the world<\/i>.<\/a><\/p>\n

The contradiction between the static law of affinity and the dynamism of the plot has thus appeared in a new light: as a sought-out rhetorical contrast, one not to be eliminated or smoothed out, but rather emphasized, so as to allow a spectacular fusion of its opposite poles in a single plot line. The plot will proceed under the predominance of the anti-theme until a sudden triumph of the theme proper \u2013 a switch from a plot narrative to a meditative mode, a turn not\u00a0in the plot<\/i>\u00a0but\u00a0from the plot to a non-plot<\/i>, to a \u2018non-narrational, lyrical, metaphorical, poetic\u2019 view of the world. It is worth noting that this way of matching the components of the overall theme with their respective means of expression (theme proper\u00a0\u2192<\/i>\u00a0poetic similes<\/i>, anti-theme\u00a0\u2192<\/i>\u00a0plot interactions)<\/i>\u00a0is a remarkable peculiarity of our tale: its, as it were, valuable \u2018artistic discovery\u2019.\u00a09\u00a0<\/a>Thus, we obtain a blueprint of<\/p>\n

a plot with a sudden turn from a story of life as such, with its occasional temporary interactions, towards the poetic revelation of the static proportions between life and the structure of the world, developed with repetitions and contrastive variations.<\/i><\/p>\n

4. Detailing the plot<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next, the plot outline must be developed into concrete situations and interrelations among characters.<\/p>\n

The proportion\u00a0life resembles the structure of the world\u00a0<\/i>can be concretized as follows:\u00a0manifestations of life, for example, people\u2019s actions, resemble the manifestations of the world, for example, the divine phenomena<\/i>. With a threefold folkloric repetition this will yield:\u00a0action 1 resembles phenomenon 1, action 2 resembles phenomenon 2, action 3 resembles phenomenon 3.<\/i><\/p>\n

The device of contrastive variation will have to be applied now both to the divine\u00a0phenomena\u00a0<\/i>and thehuman\u00a0actions.\u00a0<\/i>For the\u00a0phenomena<\/i>, it can resultin, among other possibilities, the set obtaining in our tale. Indeed,\u00a0divine phenomena 1, 2, 3<\/i>\u00a0are represented by\u00a0war, drought, rain.\u00a0<\/i>The first is opposed to the other two as social is to natural; inside the natural elements, the opposition is even clearer:\u00a0rain<\/i>\u00a0is opposed to\u00a0drought<\/i>\u00a0as wet is to dry, abundant to scant, generous to stingy, life to death; while\u00a0war<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0drought\u00a0<\/i>together are opposed to\u00a0rain<\/i>\u00a0as disastrous is to beneficial. As a result the three phenomena supplement each other and, in a sense, cover the world as a whole.<\/p>\n

As for the contrastive variation of\u00a0actions<\/i>, the tale has\u00a0sword stroke,<\/i>\u00a0reneging on a debt, repaying with a surplus.\u00a0<\/i>The first two actions are opposed to the third as violations of a contract are to honoring it, while the first is opposed to the third as active (aggression, generosity)<\/i>\u00a0is to evasive\u00a0(stinginess).\u00a0<\/i>All three actions form an even transition from actively bad to actively good behavior, as if spanning the entire range of possible actions.<\/p>\n

To schematize the way such sets are created:<\/p>\n

(1) For each member of the proportion (actions\/phenomena<\/i>) many possible illustrations are chosen:\u00a0actions \u2192 attacking, defending, stealing, showing stinginess, giving, falling in love, betraying\u2026; phenomena \u2192 war, harvest, earthquake, flood, rain\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

(2) These illustrations are diversified:\u00a0actions \u2192\u00a0<\/i>good\u00a0(defending, giving)\u00a0<\/i>as opposed to bad\u00a0(attacking, stealing, betraying);\u00a0<\/i>active\u00a0(attacking, stealing) vs.\u00a0<\/i>passive\u00a0(being stingy, betraying);\u00a0<\/i>violent\u00a0(attacking, defending) vs.\u00a0<\/i>non-violent\u00a0(stealing, betraying, falling in love)<\/i>\u00a0and so forth;\u00a0phenomena \u2192\u00a0<\/i>natural\u00a0(drought, flood, rain) vs.\u00a0<\/i>social\u00a0(war, harvest, festivities);<\/i>\u00a0top\u00a0(rain, eclipse, eruption) vs.\u00a0<\/i>bottom\u00a0(earthquake, harvest);\u00a0<\/i>earth\u00a0(harvest, earthquake) vs.\u00a0<\/i>water\u00a0(rain, flood);\u00a0<\/i>mountains\u00a0(eruption) vs.\u00a0<\/i>sky\u00a0(eclipse, rain);\u00a0<\/i>good\u00a0(harvest, rain) vs.\u00a0<\/i>bad\u00a0(earthquake, eruption)\u00a0<\/i>and so on.<\/p>\n

(3) From among the diverse\u00a0actions\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0phenomena\u00a0<\/i>that have a common dimension, e.g. being good, positive, beneficial (rain, giving, defending\u2026<\/i>)\u00a0vs.<\/i>\u00a0bad, negative, harmful (attacking, being stingy, betraying, earthquake\u2026)<\/i>,it is necessary to pick out those that differ maximally in other respects as well.<\/p>\n

Each of the\u00a0phenomena (war, drought, rain)\u00a0<\/i>appears in the plot not once but twice: first as prediction, then as fact. The undesirable monotony of these repetitions is avoided thanks to the semantic opposition itself (mental\u00a0vs.<\/i>\u00a0real) and the additional stylistic contrast between verse (rendering the predictions)\u00a0vs.\u00a0<\/i>prose (narrating the events). The opposition is further dramatized by narrative suspense (Will the prediction come true?Will he share the reward?).<\/p>\n

Such are the major moves in the multi-step process of creating the comparisons, repetitions and contrasts that convey the theme proper of\u00a0resemblance.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

As for the anti-theme, it is to be concretized through a plot sequence, i.e. something along the lines of\u00a0the protagonist first acting wrongly, but eventually going right,\u00a0<\/i>except that, in order for this course of events to look \u2018meaningless,\u2019 the change for the better should be deprived of its causal, teleological sense, for instance, the way it is done in the tale: the serpent ignores the misdeeds of the soothsayer and readily agrees to help him again and again and at the end declines what seemed to be the deserved and long-awaited gift.10<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the requirements of the \u2018sudden turn\u2019 construction is combining the main manifestations of the theme proper with those of the anti-theme into a single chain of events. This means that the two sets of manifestations, so far connected only by resemblance, should now be bound by contiguity, that is, form a plot sequence of the protagonist\u2019s actions in the midst of the world\u2019s phenomena.<\/p>\n

Let us combine\u00a0aggression\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0stinginess\u00a0<\/i>with\u00a0the wrong actions\u00a0<\/i>of the character, and\u00a0generosity\u00a0<\/i>with\u00a0correct ones,<\/i>\u00a0i.e.let him\u00a0display aggression and stinginess whenin the wrong, and generosity after mending his ways,<\/i>\u00a0and do so\u00a0in time of war, drought and rain respectively.<\/i>\u00a0Let us also combine the\u00a0revelation\u00a0<\/i>with the\u00a0event providing the sudden turn<\/i>, thus making the\u00a0revelation\u00a0<\/i>the\u00a0denouement\u00a0<\/i>of the plot.<\/p>\n

At this juncture, we obtain<\/p>\n

a plot that from the history of the character who in connection with war and drought does wrong (attacks, displays stinginess) but later, reforming himself, displays generosity in connection with rain, turns to the revelation of what is really important: that all the human manifestations (aggressiveness, greed, generosity) are similar to the divine ones (war, drought, rain).<\/i><\/p>\n

5. Engineering the reversal<\/strong><\/p>\n

To make the shift to the\u00a0revelation<\/i>\u00a0both unexpected and well prepared, the unfolding plot must, on the one hand, contain the material and even the pattern of the future revelation but at the same time keep it hidden from the reader. If in the end it turns out that\u00a0actions 1, 2, 3 resembled phenomena 1, 2, 3 respectively,\u00a0<\/i>then in the course of narrating the plot they must appear quite\u00a0dissimilar<\/i>. Once again, deploying maximal variation is in order, but in a new way now. So far it has been used overtly, letting the reader notice from the start and enjoy the similarity in difference (war, drought, rain\u00a0<\/i>are\u00a0different<\/i>\u00a0as such but\u00a0similar<\/i>\u00a0as\u00a0world phenomena<\/i>; the same goes for the protagonist\u2019s actions). Now the difference between similar entities will have to be pushed to such an extreme that their similarity will become unrecognizable, making eventual recognition all the more startling.<\/a><\/p>\n

The initial opposition\u00a0life vs. world\u00a0<\/i>has yielded the antithesis\u00a0actions of one person<\/i>\u00a0vs. phenomena affecting the fate of people and nature.\u00a0<\/i>This makes the two opposites quite different, but not different enough.Creating unrecognizability is basically a compositional task and calls for compositional means: the dissimilarity of the opposites can be achieved by their maximum separation in the tale\u2019s narrative space. One way of making them non-comparable is splitting the plot into two stories, one internal, or framed, the other external, or framing, to be suddenly fused in the denouement. The inequality of their narrative status will hamper their comparison and make them incommensurable.<\/strong>11<\/a><\/p>\n

To split the plot into a framing story and a framed one, narratives resortto\u00a0message<\/i>\u00a0motifs (songs, recollections, dreams, orders, letters,\u00a0<\/i>etc.).\u00a0<\/i>Our sketch already contains something of the sort: a\u00a0revelation<\/i>, which, along with such motifs as\u00a0presentiment, prediction\u00a0<\/i>and others, is, indeed, a type of\u00a0message<\/i>. Bringing the plot\u2019s\u00a0protagonist<\/i>\u00a0in line with the motifs of\u00a0revelation\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0prediction<\/i>\u00a0and the cosmic scale of the theme will, in turn, prompt the raising of the social rank of the characters (yielding\u00a0divine creatures, kings<\/i>\u00a0and whole\u00a0nations<\/i>) and result in the figure of\u00a0the provider of magic predictions<\/i>. The sequence of\u00a0the actions of the predictor<\/i>\u00a0will naturally form\u00a0the framing story<\/i>;\u00a0the divine phenomena<\/i>\u00a0(war, drought\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0rain)<\/i>, i.e.\u00a0the objects of the predictions,\u00a0<\/i>will constitute the\u00a0framed story.<\/i><\/p>\n

The\u00a0actions of the protagonist<\/i>\u00a0(the framing story) must be connected, plotwise, with the\u00a0events<\/i>\u00a0of the framed story, while at the same time being far removed from it \u2013 in time, place and motivation. With this in mind and in tune with the elements\u00a0generosity\/stinginess\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0right\/wrong,\u00a0<\/i>we can cull from the traditional folktale repertoire the motifs of\u00a0contract, king\u2019s order,\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0reward<\/i>; coordinating this with\u00a0prediction\u00a0<\/i>will result in\u00a0a prediction stipulated by a contract, an order\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0a reward.<\/i><\/p>\n

As a next step,\u00a0the provider of predictions\u00a0<\/i>can be split into\u00a0an oracle\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0a soothsayer,\u00a0<\/i>who will provide the characters of the framing story.\u00a0Contract, order,\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0reward\u00a0<\/i>will play the role of additional links, augmenting the length and flexibility of the plot chain and driving its ends\u00a0(actions\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0phenomena)\u00a0<\/i>even farther apart. As a result, the compositional separation (into two stories) can be supplemented by a separation in the plot (of the two characters), a temporal one (they will communicate\u00a0before and after<\/i>\u00a0the war, i.e. during a time of peace,\u00a0before and after<\/i>\u00a0the drought, etc.), and a spatial one (their meetings will take place outside the main scene of action).<\/a><\/p>\n

These new narrative moves will help foreground the motif of\u00a0revelation<\/i>. The resemblance of the soothsayer\u2019s actions to world events will pass unnoticed through the end, creating a narrative need for an explicit announcement. Once stated, the resemblance will be perceived not as a moral tacked on to the tale, but as the denouement of the plot, i.e. as a long-awaited and necessary revelation clarifying the structure of the story and the world.12<\/a><\/p>\n

The introduction of the motifs of\u00a0contract, order,\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0reward\u00a0<\/i>will also further develop the motif of \u2018meaningless life as such\u2019 by engaging the reader\u2019s attention with the superficial, causal aspects of\u00a0actions<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0phenomena,\u00a0<\/i>i.e. questions like: Will the soothsayer manage to make the prediction? Will he honor the contract? Will he be punished by the serpent? Will they make peace in the end? and so on. Although the tale concerns the fortunes of an entire people and Fate itself is involved in them (\u2018I am\u2026 Fate,\u2019 says the serpent), most of the time the plot focuses on the everyday needs of an average man: his attempts to avoid punishment, do his job, get a reward, and handle his debts.<\/p>\n

An even more ambitious task is to project the tale\u2019s anti-theme, i.e. the\u00a0meaninglessness and transitoriness of life,\u00a0<\/i>onto the storyline of the\u00a0divine oracle.\u00a0<\/i>To do so, let us turn the\u00a0oracle\u00a0<\/i>into a character of the framing story and link him with\u00a0the soothsayer<\/i>\u00a0by\u00a0materialistic property relations —\u00a0<\/i>via the motifs of\u00a0contract\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0reward<\/i>. Let us also make\u00a0the oracle\u2019s predictions,\u00a0<\/i>important and correct as they are, into\u00a0separate predictions valid for one year only<\/i>\u00a0and pertinent to only one (internal) storyline,\u00a0<\/i>and what\u2019s more, limit them to forecasting\u00a0specific events<\/i>, rather than intimating\u00a0ultimate eternal truths about the world as a whole.<\/i>\u00a0Finally, let us use the problematic character of predictions to heighten the suspense (Will they come true?), further widening the gap between the\u00a0oracle\u2019s predictions\u00a0<\/i>and his final\u00a0revelation.<\/i><\/p>\n

At this still intermediate but fairly advanced stage we can stop our simulated generation of the tale\u2019s plot:<\/p>\n

Motivated by an order and the promise of a reward, a soothsayer concludes a contract with an oracle about prediction; they communicate in a special place and at a special time. As predicted, war, drought and rain one after another occur. The soothsayer is rewarded each time but acts respectively aggressively, stingily and generously towards the oracle. In the end, the oracle reveals to him that the actions of people, including those of the soothsayer\u2019s, have an affinity with the course of world events: life resembles the structure of the world.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

1<\/a>\u00a0This is a condensed version of the article published in Russian in the Russian-language journal Narody Azii i Afriki, 1 (Moscow, 1970).<\/p>\n

2<\/a>\u00a0See\u00a0M.Moreno,\u00a0<\/i>Il Somalo della Somalia, Roma, 1955;\u00a0M.Galaal, B.W.Andrzejewski,\u00a0<\/i>Hikmad Soomaali, London, 1956;\u00a0B.W.Andrzejewski, Muusa Galaal,\u00a0<\/i>A Somali Poetic Combat, Michigan, 1963;\u00a0B.W.Andrzejewski, I.M.Lewis,\u00a0<\/i>Somali Poetry, Oxford, 1964;\u00a0Shire Jaamac Achmed,\u00a0<\/i>Gabayo, maahmaah iyo sheekooyin yaryar, Mogadishu, 1965;] and also various publications in the magazines\u00a0Iftiinka Aqoonta<\/i>\u00a0(1966, N1-6) and\u00a0Horseedka<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

3<\/a>\u00a0\u2018Faaliyihii la bilkeyday\u2019, \u2013\u00a0Galaal, Andrzejewski<\/i>: 49-61.<\/p>\n

4<\/a>\u00a0The poems were composed by Muuse Galaal; see\u00a0Galaal, Andrzejewski<\/i>: v.<\/p>\n

5<\/a>\u00a0See\u00a0A.Zholkovsky,<\/i>\u00a0La poetica generativa di Eisnstein, in Cinema e Film, 1967, 3;\u00a0A.K.Zholkovskii, Yu.K.Shcheglov,<\/i>\u00a0Strukturnaia poetika \u2013 porozhdayushchaia poetika, in: Voprosy literatury, 1967, 1 (English version: Structural poetics is generative poetics, in: Ed. by\u00a0D. Lucid,\u00a0<\/i>Soviet Semiotics, Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978).<\/p>\n

6<\/a>\u00a0i.e. the myth\u2019s explicit meaning and not those archetypal oppositions reconstructed by scholars (see\u00a0Claude Levi-Strauss,<\/i>\u00a0Anthropologie structurale, Paris, 1958). Remarkably, in Sophocles\u2019 \u2018Oedipus Rex,\u2019 fate triumphs in the plot (borrowed from the myth) but the protagonist (Oedipus) proves equal to fate. Sophocles achieves this by structuring the tragedy as an investigation conducted by the suspect himself, resulting in his sentencing himself to a punishment carried out by himself.<\/p>\n

7<\/a>\u00a0This is similar to Leibnitz\u2019s \u2018monadic\u2019 view of the world, according to which every entity, or\u00a0monad<\/i>, is designed like a clock: it reflects the Universe not because the Universe (through other monads) affects it, but because there is a pre-established harmony between the changes in all the monads, creating a false impression of an interaction.<\/p>\n

8<\/a>\u00a0\u201cHow does this thesis [the implacability of time in a text by Ovid]\u2026 turn into an artistic image and obtain persuasiveness and strength? \u20181. A bull gets used to a yoke, a horse to a bridle, a lion loses its rage, an elephant starts to obey its master\u2026 2. Fruits become sweet, grapes fill with juice, granules ripen in an ear of corn\u2026 3. A tooth of a plough, a stone, a diamond, is ground down\u2026 4. Anger and grief abate\u2019. Objects are taken from all possible spheres of reality\u2026 so that they supplement each other, presenting together a\u2026 complete picture of the world, while the subjects\u2026 display different and sometimes opposite qualities\u2026 and are evenly scattered within each appropriate sphere.\u201d (Yu. Shcheglov,\u00a0<\/i>K nekotorym tekstam Ovidiya, in: Trudy po znakovym sistemam, 3, Tartu, 1967: 173-174.)<\/p>\n

9<\/a>\u00a0About the notion of \u2018artistic discovery\u2019 see:\u00a0L.A.Mazel,\u00a0<\/i>Estetika i analiz\u2019, \u2013 \u2018Sovetskaya muzyka\u2019, 1966, 12: 20-21.<\/p>\n

10<\/a>\u00a0The effect of \u2018meaninglessness\u2019 also has a narrative function: by making the reader feel dissatisfied with the narration it suggests the existence of a hidden meaning. The problem will be resolved in the ending, when the illusiveness of plot connections, especially from the point of view of the serpent, becomes clear.<\/p>\n

11<\/a>\u00a0Compare the plot of the Babylonian \u2018Dialogue of the Master and the Slave about the Meaning of Life,\u2019 which consists of ten episodes; in each, the master orders the slave to make certain preparations (to go to the court, to help a friend, etc.), then listens to his speculations about the futility of these intentions and cancels his order. In the last episode, the master, who is now convinced of the futility of life, decides to die and gives the corresponding order, stipulating, among other things, the burying of the slave together with his master. Thus the slave, who at first acted only as a discussant and executor of the orders, becomes the object of the last and most fatal one.<\/p>\n

12<\/a>\u00a0The combination of a wise remark with a denouement ending in a punch line is a widespread device in Somalitales, e. g.:<\/p>\n

Once a man gave shelter to a boy but did not feed him. At night a hyena came, took the boy and carried him away. The greedy man caught up with the hyena, snatched the boy away and said to him, \u2018 True, I didn\u2019t give you food last night, but now I did save you from the hyena. Do I deserve your gratitude?\u2019 \u2018No, you do not,\u2019 the boy said. \u2018You don\u2019t like it when something falls into someone else\u2019s mouth –you just wanted to keep the hyena hungry!\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

The plot resembles our tale in that the apparent change in the man\u2019s behavior (from bad to good) also exhibits the preservation of the status quo (denying food, this time to the hyena), as captured by the punchline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":355,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-474","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTHE SOMALI TALE "A SOOTHSAYER TESTED" - Alexander Zholkovsky<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/alexander-zholkovsky\/bib6\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE SOMALI TALE "A SOOTHSAYER TESTED" - 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