Poems of Kalmyk poets about the rainbow in the folklore aspect

In Kalmyk oral folklore, the rainbow as a meteorological phenomenon is on the periphery of the worldview of the nomadic people. This is probably why the theme of the rainbow was not widely spread in Kalmyk lyrics of the 20th century. Few poems by S. Baydiyev, D. Kugultinov, V. Nurov, A. Tachiev, E. Tepkenkiev, N. Sanjiev are addressed to the image of the rainbow - classical (solh) and incomplete (dohln emgn = lame old woman). These works have not yet been the object and subject of research. Let us consider how such poems by Kalmyk poets reflected the worldview of the nomadic people through the prism of their beliefs and ideas about the relationship between man, nature and religion. Why do some of these authors polemicize with the popular designation of an incomplete rainbow as a lame old woman, offering their own versions of its name. Let us find out to what extent the color spectrum of the rainbow in the poems of poets reflects similar coloring in the oral folklore of the Kalmyks. We will determine the connection between the image of the rainbow in Kalmyk lyrics and the folklore aspect, revealing, using examples of selected texts by Kalmyk authors, their appeal to the concept of an incomplete rainbow, designated by the semantics of “lame old woman”, showing the transformation of the name of this atmospheric phenomenon in their works. Let us turn to the poems of Mongolian and Buryat poets about the rainbow in a comparative and contrastive way to clarify the common and different approaches to the depiction of this natural phenomenon. The absence of cosmogonic legends about the origin of the rainbow among the Kalmyks determined the appearance of authorial legends in the prose of A. Dzhimbiev and R. Khaninova. It has been revealed that the small number of poems in Kalmyk lyrics on the rainbow theme is due to the equally rare reflection of this atmospheric phenomenon in the worldview of the people, in their folklore. The classical rainbow is present in two texts by D. Kugultinov and N. Sanjiev, in one of them it is compared with a heavenly bow (weapon). The incomplete rainbow is presented in six texts by S. Baydiyev, V. Nurov, A. Tagiyev, and E. Tepkenkiev. For many poets, such a rainbow is endowed with the anthropomorphic features of an elderly woman. S. Baydiyev proposed in the controversy his own renaming of the rainbow as the heavenly hoop of the wheel. E. Tepkenkiev compares a rainbow to a magic rocker. The palette of an incomplete rainbow is conveyed in different ways: in quantitative terms (seven, forty nine), in color (by default; red, yellow, blue). None of the poets have a story about the origin of the rainbow. Unlike the cultures of other nations, where the semantics of the rainbow is ambivalent (dangerous or benevolent), in Kalmyk beliefs the rainbow is endowed with positive connotations. In Buryat and Mongolian lyrics, the classical rainbow appears in the form of a bridge, a road, a skipping rope.