Semiotics of the unnamed in Lesya Ukrainka’s poem “One word”

Abstract

The poem “One Word” (1903) by Lesya Ukrainka appears to be one of the least known and appreciated amongst the poetess’ literary works. So far, there has been a Soviet interpretation of the poem with the researchers’ claim that the image of a political prisoner depicted in the poem is inspired by a Ukrainian revolutionary poet and political exile Pavlo Grabovsky. Furthermore, the key version to define the term “unnamed word” was established by Agatangel Krymsky’s in his first review of the poem (“Critical and Philological Remarks on Flies in the Ointment”, 1906) regarding the word “will” commonly used in the Yakut language. To avoid unambiguous reading, the author foresees the possibility of replacing the subtitle of her poetry, i.e., instead of “Tales of the Old Yakut” she suggests a subtitle “A Tale of the Native from the North”. Thus, it will be more than obvious to claim that the poetess had to focus on the uncertainty and definite ambiguity of a sacred word which an enlightened scribe could hardly explain to the illiterate natives. As such, the plot scheme of the poetry in question is based on the structural-semiotic mechanism of ancient children’s game based on guessing the word (real terms or abstract concepts) conceived by the presenter (or a group of people) by means of describing them without direct naming. For that reason, we find it challenging to trace how the author creates a pseudo-imagological effect of “misunderstanding” and “misinterpretation” through the phenomenon of an unnamed word.