Maironis ir „Maironiai“, „Maironiškiai“

ONA KAŽUKAUSKAITĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language MAIRONIS AND MAIRONIAI, MAIRONIŠKIAI KEYWORDS: place name, pseudonym, personal name. Šiemet minime mūsų tautos dainiaus kunigo Jono Mačiulio-Maironio (1862–1932) 150-ąsias gimimo metines. Slapyvardis Maironis, įsitvirtinęs žmonių sąmonėje1, vis dar galutinai neišaiškintas. Dabar palaikomos dvi versijos. Ankstesnioji, iškelta literatūrologės Vandos Zaborskaitės: „Pseudonimas sietinas su Maironiškių kaimu, kuriame gyveno jo dėdė, taip pat Mačiulis. Be to, netoli poeto tėviškės buvo dar Maironių kaimas“ (Zaborskaitė 1968: 94). Antrajame monografijos Maironis leidime V. Zaborskaitė minėtąją citatą papildė pastaba – informacija, kurią jai suteikęs žurnalistas, rašytojas Valentinas Gustainis (1896–1971): „Greičiau kaip kuriozas nurodytinas Maironio bendravardis XVI a. Italijoje: Preclarissima... scripta... Francisci de Mayronis [...]“ (Zaborskaitė 1987: 83). Prieš trisdešimtį metų apie asmenį, pavarde Maironis, gana įtikinamai svarstyta Bernardo Brazdžionio (1907–2002): Mayronis gyvenęs XIII–XIV a., gimęs apie 1280 m. Prancūzijoje Mayrones vietovėje, teologijos ir filosofijos daktaras, parašęs gausybę teologinių-filosofinių traktatų, „kūrybingam teologijos studentui J. Mačiuliui bus palikęs neišdildomą įspūdį tiek savo asmenybe, tiek savo vardu“ (Brazdžionis 1992: 99). Slapyvardžių specialistai aiškina, jog tikri vardai, kitų asmenų naudojami kaip slapyvardžiai, „nėra atsitiktiniai, o pasirinkti vadovaujantis tam tikrais idėjiniais bei estetiniais motyvais, atlieka svarbią funkciją kūrėjo saviraiškoje (Mačiulis 2008: 63). Lietuviškų slapy- 1In 2008, when Dr. Vita Ivanauskaitė-Šeibutienė, a scholar, asked local residents in Girdiškė, Šilalė District, to tell her about Juozapas Čerkeliauskas (1857–1926), who had served as parish priest there for more than two decades and had a huge church built in the small church town, the author of religious writings who signed himself with the pseudonym Mainionis, they said: “An interesting detail: the echo between the two pseudonyms—Mainionis and Maironis—and the latter’s widespread popularity led to J. Čerkeliauskas becoming Maironis in popular memory... (It is written in Šidlavas: Čerkeliauskis, builder of the Girdiškė churches, Mairuonis)” (Ivanauskaitė-Šeibutienė 2010: 119). O. KAŽUKAUSKAITĖ. Maironis ir Maironiai, Maironiškiai 113 The register of pseudonyms states: “The most popular and famous Lithuanian pseudonyms are formed on the basis of the names of Lithuanian regions (ŽEMAITĖ, AUKŠTAITĖ), places, most often birthplaces (MAIRONIS, LINKUVIS, KLAIPĖDIŠKIS) [...],” (Mačiulis 2004: xlvii). Bearing in mind that both explanations of the origin of the pseudonym Maironis are possible, J. Mačiulis has added a comment in the latest dictionary of pseudonyms: “Note. The opinion of the renowned researcher of Lithuanian literary history Vanda Zaborskaitė (1922–2011) concerning the origin of Maironis’s pseudonym is universally accepted. Although the scholar calls B. Brazdžionis’s opinion2 bizarre, it is permissible to think that her explanations and the poet’s may, possibly, complement one another” (Mačiulis 2011: 307). This essay does not seek to investigate the origin of the pseudonym Mairónis. The focus is on the place name Mairóniai, “a village in Kelmė District,” which has to be edited for the forthcoming Dictionary of Standard Lithuanian (BŽ). It seems that along the way the word itself (the root word?) Mairónis is also becoming clearer. The Dictionary of Place Names (VŽ) lists three villages named Mairóniai: in addition to the one mentioned in Kelmė District, there are also villages with this name in Joniškis and Zarasai districts (VŽ 2002). The latter two are not included in BŽ; apparently the one associated with Maironis was chosen as the more important. While searching for an illustration of the word Mairóniai in the readily accessible online Wikipedia, the following information seemed significant: “After the manor was partitioned, a village began to take shape around 1927; until 1933 the village was called Saudininkai (renamed in honor of the poet Maironis, who died in 1932).” For a moment, I wanted to enter a paraphrased version of the sentence. However, the Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia, which includes only the Mairónius of Kelmė District, makes no mention of any connection with the poet’s pseudonym (VLE 2008: 49–50). So what of the village of Maironiai mentioned by V. Zaborskaitė—is the village of that time the same as the present-day one? During Maironis’s lifetime, in 1923, Lithuania’s first general population census was conducted. On the basis of its data, the Register of the Names of Lithuania’s Inhabited Places was compiled and published in 1925 (LAV 1925). It was surprising that it recorded no villages named Maironiai (nor any Maironiškiai). It would seem implausible that the census takers had bypassed the nearby area around the birthplace of a living poet who had already become a legend. (Especially since: 2This qualification is necessary because in the monograph V. Zaborskaitė mentions not B. Brazdžionis but V. Gustainis, who showed her information about a sixteenth-century Italian with the surname Maironis. B. Brazdžionis is probably referring to the same Italian-born Mayronis, who lived in the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries. The Italian, the medieval philosopher Franciscus de Mayronis, is also mentioned by Antanas Vaičiulaitis in the article “Maironis in Encyclopedias and Lexicons,” published in the fourth issue of Aidai in 1983 (Vaičiulaitis 1990: 255–258). 114 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 85 “[In 1922,] while Maironis was still alive, a street in the city center of Kaunas was named after him. Streets in Garliava and Raudondvaris were also named after Maironis.” (Famous People of Kaunas: Commemorating Their Memory. Maironis. Electronic reference work). Until the complete Dictionary of Lithuanian Place Names has been published, we seek the information we need in the Name Archive collections held at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language3. A slip in the alphabetical index of place names collected from spoken language (VGK), dated 1935, states: “Maironiai village, Kelmė district, Raseiniai county. The village got its name from the poet Maironis.” On the reverse it explains: “Maironiai. The village of Maironiai came into being after the Great War, when Juozapava Manor and Saudininkai village were divided up under the Land Reform Law.” The abbreviation ank. is noted, indicating that the response was based on a specially prepared questionnaire for recording place names, carried out in 1935–1937 (Vanagas 2008: XV). A second village named Maironiai is attested in the index of place names from spoken language by informant J. Verbušaitis in 1978 as a village in the Pociūnai district of Joniškis district: “after the bourgeois land reform,” renamed from the former Jakiškiai Manor. Only the Maironiai in this district was included in the 1959 reference book Administrative-Territorial Division of the Lithuanian SSR (LATP 1959). A homestead known by the form Maironys in Imbradas County, Zarasai district, is recorded in the 1935 place-name questionnaire. Villages called Mairóniai in Joniškis, Kelmė, and Zarasai districts are recorded in the Administrative-Territorial Division of the Lithuanian SSR reference book (LATS 1972: 59, 111, 364). Thus, according to residents’ survey responses, the name Mairónių was given to the villages during implementation of the Land Reform Law, when the former manors were reorganized. The data from the index of historical place names collected from printed sources and manuscripts (IVK) corroborate residents’ accounts. The place name Mairóniai is not an old historical name. The 254th issue of the bulletin Vyriausybės Žinios, dated June 22, 1927, reports: “Acting pursuant to § 701 of the Land Reform Law (Vyr. Žin. No. 200, item 1351), the Land Reform Board announces the changes to the names of estates divided into villages, approved by the Ministries of Agriculture and the Interior.” (Vyr. Žin. 1927: 254, 2). This issue (p. 5) names the village of Maironiai, which was given this name in place of Gaidiškiai Manor, formerly in Ežerenai4 County, Imbradas district. In the same 3 I thank Dalia Sviderskienė, a staff member of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language’s Name Research Department, who helped conduct the search in the place-name indexes. 4 The city was called Ežerėnai from 1919 to 1929, replacing the name Novoaleksandrovsko, imposed by imperial decree in 1836, which itself had replaced the former historic Selonian name Zarasai (Vanagas 1996: 259–297). O. KAŽUKAUSKAITĖ. Maironis ir Maironiai, Maironiškiai 115 In the July 5 issue No. 255 of Government Gazette, based on the same grounds, it is reported that Juozapavos Manor, the Saudininkai grange, and the village of Saudininkai, together with the plot Barsukinė, are renamed the village of Maironiai (Vyr. Žin. 1927: 255, 5). In the November 22 issue No. 262, also on the basis of the Land Reform Act, plot No. 57 of Rautenzija Manor in Paupinė Rural District, Ežerėnai County, was assigned to the village of Maironiai [in Imbradas Rural District] (Vyr. Žin. 1927: 262, 6). The changes to all the names listed above were signed by Jokūbas Stanišauskas, head of the Land Reform Board. The brief informational reports do not explain why those two villages in present-day Kelmė and Zarasai districts were named Maironiai. While searching for Maironiškiai, the place Maironiškis was discovered. It can easily be identified by the IVK reference to the Vyriausybės Žinios of February 18, 1929, No. 292, which lists changes to the names of estates divided into villages: the former name of the estate, Šakiai Farmstead in Lapės district, Kaunas County, was changed to the new name Maironiškis Farmstead (Vyr. Žin. 1929: 292, 27). Apie Maironiškį yra rašęs Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas (1869–1933). Straipsnyje, paskelbtame netrukus po Maironio mirties, jis pasakojo, kaip Maironis, būdamas Kauno kunigų seminarijos rektoriumi, seminarijai priklausiusiame Šakių palivarke, už penkių kilometrų nuo Neries, rūpinęsis suteikti auklėtiniams „visus kultūrinius patogumus“. Tuo tikslu 1929–1931 metais buvę griaunami ir perstatomi senieji pastatai, o naujuose korpusuose įrengti bendrabučiai, biblioteka per du aukštus, susirinkimų salė. „Jei [auklėtiniai] žinotų, kuriomis sąlygomis mes ten pat mokėmės, kas dieną poterėlį sukalbėtų už a. a. taupų buvusį savo rektorių Maironį. Dabar jam teatsilyginta Šakių palivarką praminus – Maironiškiu.“ (Tumas-Vaižgantas 1933: 239)5. Aldona Ruseckaitė, director of the Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum in Kaunas and an expert on the poet’s life and work, shares her impressions and discoveries: “While working in the archives, poring over documents, I came across the name ‘Maironiškis.’ I had found it in Vaižgantas’s memoirs, but there was nothing specific—I could not figure out where it might have been, and I could not get a lead. Then, in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, I found a whole bundle of documents that make it clear that in the autumn of 1928 the Land Reform…” 5 Incidentally, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas was the first to collect place names from spoken language and prepare instructions for recording them (Vanagas 2008: XIII). The Lithuanian government also honored Vaižgantas: it named Juozapava Manor in Imbradas district, Ežerėnai County, and Kompąčizna Manor in Linkuva district, Šiauliai County, as Vaižgantas villages (Vyriausybės Žinios, June 22, 1927, No. 254); the IVK contains no data attesting that Vaižgantai was a historical place name. 116 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 85 Board resolution No. 3960: “To name the Šakiai farmstead in Lapiai rural district, Kaunas County, the ‘Maironiškis’ farmstead.” In reality, it was not easy to find it. No official information. But one Saturday, driving around Kaunas and repeatedly wandering off to the side, we finally managed to reach “Maironiškis.” [...] In the grounds of “Maironiškis,” in the huge yard, perhaps some kind of event should be held this year so that local people, too, could learn about it. The postwoman said that the buildings had belonged to the Seminary, but she had never heard of “Maironiškis”... After all, everything is so close—right beside Sargėnai.” (Ruseckaitė 2012). Even now, Kaunas residents drive along Maironiškių Street in the former Maironiškiai microdistrict, in what is now Šilainiai. The Maironiškiai cemetery has survived. The answer about the names can again be found in the archive of living speech forms of place names: “The village of Mairóniškiai, located in the western part of the Kaunas suburbs. This village was established around 1926–27, when the lands of Linkuva Manor were distributed among farm laborers. The name was given in honor of the poet Maironis.” Maironiškiai is recorded in only one gazetteer (LATP 1959: 157): the village belonged to the Užliedžiai local district of Kaunas County, eight kilometers from the local district center of Romainiai. Its administrative affiliation later changed, from village to microdistrict. However, the question arises as to whether there was a village of Maironiškiai near the poet’s family home. An entry can be found in Kazimieras Būga’s Nomina propria, the archive of proper names, on a slip not written in the scholar’s own hand: “Mairóniškiai sd. Betyg. A. Urb. A. V.” The abbreviation sd. means village, Betyg. means Betygala; the others have not yet been deciphered. The village of Betygala lies in the same surroundings as Maironis’s family home: Pasandravys is eight kilometers from Betygala (Kviklys 1958: 556). Maironis’s “parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were residents of the Betygala area” (Zaborskaitė 1987: 7). Maironis used to visit there. There is insufficient data to locate a place near Betygala that may have been called Mairóniškiai. Somewhat farther away, about thirty kilometers from it, in Pajieslys local district of Kėdainiai District, there are the villages of Meiróniškiai and Meironiškėliai. These two place names have not been found in Maironis’s biographies. It cannot be ruled out that the Mairóniškiai in Būga’s archive is a spoken variant of the historical land name Meiróniškiai, once again associated in sound with the great poet’s pen name... The scholars of the Onomastics Department will professionally explain the etymology of the villages in the Dictionary of Lithuanian Place Names, Mairónių and Mairóniškių. Having reviewed the available material from an outsider’s perspective, it seems that those villages were named in Maironis’s honor. The fact that, by a government decree in 1927, the county of Raseiniai O. KAŽUKAUSKAITĖ. Maironis ir Maironiai, Maironiškiai 117 The fact that the church village of Saudininkai in Kelmė rural district began to be called Maironiais also does not contradict V. Zaborskaitė’s account of Maironis’s birthplace—the Pasandravys manor house—located nearby, a dozen or so kilometers away. This impromptu investigation contradicts the prevailing account that the pen name Maironis derives from a place name: the priest and poet Jonas Mačiulis, during his first years of study at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy in 1888–1890, wished to call himself Maironis, inspired by Maironis, the medieval doctor of theology and philosophy, and his works. In 1891 he signed Maironiu beneath the poem “Ne teip senovės žmonės gyveno” (Brazdžionis 1992: 99). At that time, there simply were no places called Mairóniai, Mairóniškiai in Lithuania. ŠALTINIAI VGK: Vietovardžių, užrašytų iš gyvosios kalbos, kartoteka. Saugoma Lietuvių kalbos instituto Vardyno skyriuje. IVK: Vietovardžių, užrašytų iš istorijos šaltinių, kartoteka. Saugoma Lietuvių kalbos instituto Vardyno skyriuje. Kazimiero Būgos kartoteka Nomina propria. Saugoma Lietuvių kalbos instituto Vardyno skyriuje. LAV 1925: Lietuvos apgyventos vietos, Kaunas. LATP 1959: Lietuvos TSR administracinis-teritorinis padalinimas, Vilnius. LATS 1972: Lietuvos TSR administracinio teritorinio suskirstymo žinynas 1, Vilnius. Vyr. Žin. 1927: Vyriausybės žinios, Nr. 254, 255, 262, Kaunas. Vyr. Žin. 1929: Vyriausybės žinios, Nr. 292, Kaunas. LITERATŪRA B r a z d ž i o n i s B. 1992: Nuo Zvalionio iki Maironio. – Kultūros barai 9/10. [Perspausdinta iš Aidai, 1982, 5.] I v a n a u s k a i t ė – Š e i b u t i e n ė V. 2010: Ąžuolai Girdiškės bažnyčioje, arba netradiciniai altoriai tradiciniuose žemaičių pasakojimuose. – Ąžuolas folklore ir kultūroje, Vilnius: Vilniaus pedagoginio universiteto leidykla. K v i k l y s B. 1968: Mūsų Lietuva 4, Bostonas: Lietuvių enciklopedijos leidykla. M a č i u l i s J. 2004: Lietuviškieji slapyvardžiai, jų ypatybės ir egzistavimo priežastys. – Lietuviškieji slapyvardžiai: lietuviškos spaudos iki 1990 m. slapyvardžių sąvadas 1, 2. Sudarė ir parengė J. Mačiulis. Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka. 118 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 85 Mačiulis J. 2008: Lietuviškieji slapyvardžiai, jų ypatybės ir egzistavimo priežastys. – Apie lietuviškuosius slapyvardžius, Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka. Mačiulis J. 2011: Lietuviškųjų slapyvardžių aiškinamasis žodynas, Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka. Ruseckaitė A. 2012: Antrasis laiškas – ko, ašarėle, ko tu per skruostą... – Nemunas, 22–23. Tumas-Vaižgantas J. 1933: Maironis – statytojas. – Vaižganto raštai 19, Kaunas. Vaičiulaitis A. 1990: Maironis enciklopedijose ir leksikonuose. – Literatūra ir kalba 21, Vilnius: Vaga. [Perspausdinta iš Aidai, 1983, 4.] Vanagas A. 1996: Lietuvos miestų vardai. Parengė V. Maciejauskienė. Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. Vanagas A. 2008: Įvadas. – Lietuvos vietovardžių žodynas 1: A–B, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla. VLE 2008: Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija 14, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. VŽ 2002: Vietovardžių žodynas. Parengė A. Pupkis, M. Razmukaitė, R. Miliūnaitė. Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. Prieiga per internetą: <http://vietovardziai.lki.lt>. Zaborskaitė V. 1968: Maironis, Vilnius: Vaga. Zaborskaitė V. 1987: Maironis. Antras leidimas, Vilnius: Vaga. Žymūs Kauno žmonės: atminimo įamžinimas. Maironis. Elektroninis žinynas. Prieiga per internetą: <http://atminimas.kvb.lt>. Gauta 2012 11 06 MAIRONIS AND MAIRONIAI, MAIRONIŠKIAI Summary The data from the card files of the Onomastics department at the Institute of the Lithuanian language shows that the place names Maironiai, Maironiškiai and Maironiškis are not old Lithuanian names. In 1927 place names Maironiai and Maironiškiai were given to villages in present-day regions of Joniškis, Kelmė and Zarasai when implementing the Land Reform Law (Žemės reformos įstatymas) parcelling out the land of big estates. Šakių palivarkas (Šakiai folwark) in Lapės rural district in Kaunas county which belonged to Kaunas seminary was renamed as Maironiškio palivarkas (Maironiškis folwark) in 1928 in honour of Maironis who at that time was a rector of the seminary. As can be seen from the question- O. KAŽUKAUSKAITĖ. Maironis ir Maironiai, Maironiškiai 119 naires of place name registration dating from 1935–1937, respondents recall that new place names were created in honour of the poet Maironis. There is a parallel with another case in 1927 when the Lithuanian authorities took a decision to give the name Vaižgantai to two villages in honour of the Lithuanian writer Juozas Tumas–Vaižgantas, who was not related to these places. The analysis of place names shows that the priest and poet Jonas Mačiulis, who signed his poem „Ne teip senovės žmonės gyveno“ (published in 1891) as Maironis for the first time could not have create his pseudonym on the basis of the Lithuanian place name as some researchers suggest. The most probable explanation could be Bernardas Brazdžionis version that the young poet had the idea to use the surname of the philosopher from the Middle Ages Franciscus de Mayronis as his pseudonym when he studied his works in Saint Petersburg Imperial Roman Catholic Theological academy during his first years of studies in 1888–1890. KEYWORDS: toponym, pseudonym, personal name. ONA KAŽUKAUSKAITĖ Lietuvių kalbos institutas P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius [email protected] 120 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 85