Russian folk sayings hide a lot of interesting things. Their interpretation is a fascinating occupation both for specialists and non-professionals. We propose to consider in our article the well-known saying: “My hut is on the edge, I don’t know anything” - its meaning and significance.
Fear the silence of indifferent people
There is such a maxim that teaches that one should fear more indifference than negative emotions, it seems like this: "With the tacit consent of the indifferent, all the troubles on earth occur." It’s not just that we protect those to whom everything is “light-hearted”, but we remind you that those who are indifferent preach inaction and cannot, for example, do evil. Thus, of course, they may be to blame, but on a par with someone else.
The saying "my hut is on the edge, I know nothing" haunts the same vice.
Usually this was what people who lived on the very edge of the village said, that is, their hut was really on the edge. Then, over time, such a physical location turned into an almost metaphysical and figurative one and began to express a certain principle of lifestyle.
Russian people and famous proverb
Actually, as N.A. wrote Berdyaev: “The soul of a Russian person is of a collective nature, and the soul of a European is individual.” And it is true. Remember the peasant communities, the Soviet Union, when people were almost forcibly tied to the collective and turned inside out and presented to the public even the most secret and secret events of personal life. For example, there was such a thing as a “friendly court”. Its main purpose is to make some moral assessment of a person’s behavior, even his personal, private life. Then many, probably, would like to say: “My hut is from the edge, I don’t know anything” - but it was impossible.
Proverb and Modernity
Now, with us it is the other way round: people help each other only in borderline, crisis situations, when it is impossible not to help. For the rest, they prefer to stay in the shade and go about their business. On the one hand, we can make such censure to such representatives of our nation, but on the other hand, such an increase in individualism is justified. Firstly, because the speed of our life leaves almost no time for solving other people's problems, we would be able to cope with our own. Secondly, it is likely that if a person is trouble-free, like a Kalashnikov assault rifle, then he will simply be used whenever the opportunity arises. Therefore, it’s sometimes safer to say: “My hut is on the edge, I don’t know anything” - and “pretend to be a hose”. And now the time has come for unexpected literary rapprochement.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zhvanetsky
Our famous comedian and satirist beat the famous proverb in his work "Fenya, my wife." There the plot is this: a man in the first person tells how he married successfully. When he is blamed for his indifference to almost everything, starting from political events and ending with a granny who fell on the street, the hero answers in a truly author's style when the reader does not understand: Michal Mikhalych jokes, or he is in all seriousness. Anyway, it’s so funny that kind of. If the hero is asked about something, why so, why this way, he says: "This is not for me, this is for Fenichka." Everything ends eloquently, with the words: "Everything is up to Baubles!" And it could end like this: “My hut is on the edge!” A saying, as we see, for all occasions. "Hut" Zhvanetsky stylistic in this context is not suitable.
Albert Camus. "Outsider"
Now we move on to another author and genre. In his famous novel, the famous Frenchman brought out the image of a man indifferent to everything. Refrain of the novel: "I do not care." Camus had his own tasks, he wanted to create a visual image of a man of absurdity, but only specialists know about this. The average reader sees in front of him only a very apathetic person.
The novel begins with the well-known lines “Today my mother died. And maybe yesterday - I don’t know. ” At the funeral, he is tormented by heat, and before the coffin he mortally wants coffee and smoke, and smoke even harder. In other words, grief does not interest him too much. Merceau is not going to drop a tear in the eyes of strangers, and he does not feel much loss, his relations with his mother were cool.
The same story with love. Only the nearness of death takes the hero out of a numbness of being.
Thus, we hope that we were able to show that the saying "my hut is on the edge" has a universal meaning. In principle, it can be used by both Russian and French, but to us it is nevertheless closer in spirit and style.