https://www.proz.com/kudoz/russian-to-english/folklore/3599624-%25D0%25B1%25D1%258B%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B8%25D1%2587%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8.html&phpv_redirected=1

былички

English translation: memorates

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Russian term or phrase:былички
English translation:memorates
Entered by: stasbetman

13:13 Dec 10, 2009
Russian to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Folklore / Ethnography
Russian term or phrase: былички
I am translating of ethnographic study of different types of comparative folklore.

While I could probably translate "былички" as "legends" or "fables" in a non-technical translation, those terms (probably) refer to other thing in this text. At least, the author will probably distinguish between легенды and былички in a later discussion, and "fables" refers technically to a certain genre of tale that contains anthropomophic animal protagnists, etc.

In this context, былички refers to the genre of fairy tales that involve лешие, водяные, etc.

I cannot use the following terms: Fable, fairy tale, legend, parable, tale.

Is there a technical word I am missing here?
Chris Lovelace
Argentina
Local time: 01:53
memorates
Explanation:
Быличка — жанр несказочного прозаического фольклора, история о встрече с нечистой силой, незримым миром.
Быличка отличается от легенды и сближается с бывальщиной тем, что она не апеллирует к традиции, а рассказывает историю из современной жизни, произошедшую с самим рассказчиком, но чаще — с его знакомыми или знакомыми его знакомых. Как и бывальщина, быличка описывает повторяющиеся события, которые могут случиться и со слушателями. В отличие от легенды и предания, быличка и бывальщина не объясняют некую реалию, а предостерегают или рассказывают о том, что в жизни бывает.
Быличка отличается от бывальщины и сближается с легендой своим обращением к чудесному, выходящему за пределы наблюдаемого мира.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Быличка

Memorates
A technical term for narratives describing how the speaker personally encountered a supernatural being or experienced a paranormal event, which he/she interpreted in terms of traditional beliefs. Some scholars, but not all, extend the term to cover those where it is a close relative or friend of the speaker who had the experience. Such accounts are excellent evidence for the currency of a belief and its emotional and social implications, but they have been less collected than legends.
http://www.answers.com/topic/memorates

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Note added at 31 мин (2009-12-10 13:45:16 GMT)
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Legends, fabulates (byval’shchiny/бывальщины), memorates
(bylichki/былички) – not “tales” (skazki/сказки)
http://209.85.135.132/search?q=cache:GgiscrNqAEUJ:www.clas.u...

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Note added at 35 мин (2009-12-10 13:49:06 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Nice one)) look up for "memorates"
http://books.google.com/books?id=-s36xYcqG1EC&pg=PA127&lpg=P...
Selected response from:

stasbetman
Ukraine
Local time: 09:53
Grading comment
Thanks. The references sold me on this gloss, despite some other good answers.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +2memorates
stasbetman
4 +1bylichki
Dylan Edwards
4the parables
Alexandra Taggart
3fairie folklore
Anton Konashenok
3spirit lore
Samantha Payn


  

Answers


24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
fairie folklore


Explanation:
The 'fairie' spelling is used intentionally to distinguish from the fairy tales in the modern sense and to include creatures grimmer than those pixies commonly implied nowadays by the 'fairy' variant.

Anton Konashenok
Czech Republic
Local time: 08:53
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in EnglishEnglish
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30 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
memorates


Explanation:
Быличка — жанр несказочного прозаического фольклора, история о встрече с нечистой силой, незримым миром.
Быличка отличается от легенды и сближается с бывальщиной тем, что она не апеллирует к традиции, а рассказывает историю из современной жизни, произошедшую с самим рассказчиком, но чаще — с его знакомыми или знакомыми его знакомых. Как и бывальщина, быличка описывает повторяющиеся события, которые могут случиться и со слушателями. В отличие от легенды и предания, быличка и бывальщина не объясняют некую реалию, а предостерегают или рассказывают о том, что в жизни бывает.
Быличка отличается от бывальщины и сближается с легендой своим обращением к чудесному, выходящему за пределы наблюдаемого мира.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Быличка

Memorates
A technical term for narratives describing how the speaker personally encountered a supernatural being or experienced a paranormal event, which he/she interpreted in terms of traditional beliefs. Some scholars, but not all, extend the term to cover those where it is a close relative or friend of the speaker who had the experience. Such accounts are excellent evidence for the currency of a belief and its emotional and social implications, but they have been less collected than legends.
http://www.answers.com/topic/memorates

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 31 мин (2009-12-10 13:45:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Legends, fabulates (byval’shchiny/бывальщины), memorates
(bylichki/былички) – not “tales” (skazki/сказки)
http://209.85.135.132/search?q=cache:GgiscrNqAEUJ:www.clas.u...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 35 мин (2009-12-10 13:49:06 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Nice one)) look up for "memorates"
http://books.google.com/books?id=-s36xYcqG1EC&pg=PA127&lpg=P...

stasbetman
Ukraine
Local time: 09:53
Does not meet criteria
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in UkrainianUkrainian
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thanks. The references sold me on this gloss, despite some other good answers.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  DTSM
10 mins
  -> Спасибо

agree  Judith Hehir: Impressive references.
7 hrs
  -> Thank you
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
spirit lore


Explanation:
I think this term could be used for tales involving water sprites, wood sprites and other nature-inspired spirit presences.

Samantha Payn
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:53
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
bylichki


Explanation:
Given the number of distinctions that need to be made, it may be best to keep the Russian term.
The following links give some idea of how the term bylichki is used in relation to other terms:

Among the latter are the bylichki (sing. bylichka), tales mainly about the lesser demigods and spirit-beings, wood demons, water nymphs, spirits of the dead, who populated the familiar universe of the Russian peasantry. This form of memorate, or tale about events that had supposedly taken place in real life and were 'remembered' by the story-teller, shows deeply entrenched patterns of belief about the relationship between the natural and supernatural world in the traditional rural community. Bylichki are still being recorded today. The folk tales known as skazki (sing. skacka), on the other hand, are pure fiction and lack a sacral dimension. Yet here too, especially in the 'wonder' or 'magical' tale (volshebnaya skazka), there are mythical layers encrypted in poetic language. It is in the wonder tales that the frightening and enigmatic Baba-Yaga appears. The byliny (sing. bylina), which mostly relate the exploits of the early heroic defenders of Kievan Rus, blend myth with history, while legendy (religious legends) and dukhovnye stikhi (sacred verses), in which figures from the Old and New Testaments, saints and hermits meet with ordinary folk, blend myth with Christian piety. The last three forms, in contrast to the bylichki, ceased to be part of a living tradition about one hundred years ago. Echoes of myth may be heard in many other folkloric forms. Especially important are spells and incantations, in which Russia is particularly rich.
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exwarrup.html

Bylichki are short and told in the first person or about someone known to the speaker. In vivid and emotive language, the tellers underline the veracity of the narrative by describing a landscape, people and objects familiar to the listeners (this is particularly evident in G--'s narration).
It has become common in folklore scholarship in Russia to determine the level of belief in supernatural phenomena by the narrative type through which information is conveyed, the scale running from simple statement of an actual belief to bylichka (narrative relating a personal experience), to byval'shchina (fictionalised narrative with vestigial relationship to actual beliefs) to skazka (understood to be purely fictional). The same supernatural figures may occur in all of these, though each type of tale reveals its own characteristic themes, motifs and structures. In the opinion of one of Russia's leading folk tale scholars, by the second half of the twentieth century, "the beliefs themselves have disappeared irreversibly from folk perceptions" and "bylichki and byval'shchiny have either disappeared or are undergoing transformation, evolving from memorates ... into skazki ... Only here and there do they continue to exist in the memory of elderly people" (Pomerantseva 1975, 5-6).
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2386/is_1_111/ai_6268...


Dylan Edwards
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:53
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  DTSM
12 hrs
  -> Thank you, Dmitry
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1 day 8 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
the parables


Explanation:
Short stories, supposedly true ones http://www.thefreedictionary.com/parable but I would not exclude a fib as any true story, as usual, is modified when being told from mouth to mouth during a long period of time.

Alexandra Taggart
Russian Federation
Local time: 10:53
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in RussianRussian
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