THE CHILD’S THOUGHT IS IN A STONE

From "Stories from America" by Mikhail Fomin

Since my father had graduated from a Russian school and spent most of his life among Russian-speaking people, he was purposefully learning Yakut, writing down Yakut words in his writing pad.

There were a lot of idiomatic expressions in it. One of them had become a stumbling block for me. It ran: "The child’s thought is in a stone"…"The child’s thought is inside a stone?"…"The child’s thought is like a stone?"…" The child is always thinking hard about a stone?"… Since I was a child I didn’t know the exact meaning of this expression. I was too shy to ask my father about it.

Later, when I became a grown up, I came across this expression in Alexei Kulakovsky’s collection of articles. I discovered its meaning, origin and usage.

In my mind eye I saw my remote ancestors: having come of age young men are carried away by hunting for wild reindeers on the Aldan river’s stony rocks. Hunting on the stony rocks is such an exciting adventure for young people! And their hearts are in the stone rocks all the time! And their old-aged parents are left alone at home. How difficult for them to keep house, take care of themselves without their sons! And the old parents complained: "The child's thought is in a stone!"

On the day of my departure from New York Miss Parker, who was to see me off, said to me - "My Mother who is living in California is to make a stop at this airport on her way to another city. She is eighty. After your departure I must stay and wait for her ".

"Who does your mother live with? Is she able to travel alone at her age?" I said.

"Mother is living alone. My brother and sister are living and working in different places. And I have been living in New York for a long time," said Miss Parker.

Having seen my surprise Miss Parker added:

"It’s a custom here in America that parents advanced in years live on their own, keeping house .And their grown up children live separately.

Only Native Americans, the Indians, have the good custom of taking care of their old parents, living together with them. As far as I know, nations of Russia have also such a tradition".

"The child’s thought is in a stone"… Nevertheless, grown up children of Yakut people, besides hunting, took care of their old parents, living with them, being considerate of them, feeding them by hunting …

"The Yakut language is so amazing: each proverb, each saying illustrates the past life of Yakut people so vividly," I thought, flying on board an airplane.

Translated by Diana Sofronova