Uzbekistan state world languages university d. U. Ashurova m. R. Galieva

Water is powerful

…water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone (M.Atwood); A persistent drop of water will wear away even the hardest stone (Autumn Morning Star); Moving water . . . has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes (Roderick Haig-Brown);

Water is miraculous and sacred

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water (L. Eiseley); Water is the grand epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power, or its beauty (S. J. Hale); Water is to me, I confess, a phenomenon which continually awakens new feelings of wonder as often as I view it (M.Faraday); I believe that water is the closest thing to a god we have here on Earth. We are in awe of its power and majestic beauty. We are drawn to it as if it’s a magical, healing force. We gestate in water, are made of water, and need to drink water to live. We are living in water (A.Z. Moores); Water is intrinsically linked to the mystery and excitement of discovering new worlds (Fennel Hudson);

As is seen from the examples, in the English language water is considered to be a miraculous phenomenon the nature of which people cannot understand (a magical, healing force, awakens new feelings of wonder, mystery and excitement). In Uzbek linguoculture the stress is put on the sacred nature of water and related to such notions as faith, sin, the Heaven and God:

Ўзбек халқи учун сув доимо муқаддас саналган. Ноннинг ушоғи ҳам нон бўлганидек, сувнинг томчиси ҳам сувдир. Сувнинг бу дунѐда муқаддаслиги, азизлиги рост.

The idea of holiness of water goes back to the history of religious views of Uzbeks affiliated first to Zoroastrianism and then to Islam. First, according to Zoroastrianism and its sacred book Avesta, water as well as fire was regarded as sacred elements of nature that has a purifying power and that’s why everything connected with water had to be kept pure and far from everything that could harm it. In Avesta, water is merely a liquid manifestation of light and splendor and regarded as glowing, resplendent and divine, mother of life, creator of mankind. Therefore, those who commit sin by making water dirty are regarded as sinners and are promised to be sent to hell: “Покиза сув ва ѐниб турган олов қаршисида гуноҳлиқ қилган зотнинг дўзахда топгуси жазоси бу дунѐнинг жамийки дарду озор- ларидан мудҳишдир”... (“Вандидод”, 4-фаргард, 54-банд).

In Islam, water considered to be a source of creation. Thus, according to Koran, all things in the world, including people, were created from water: барча жонли мавжудотни сувдан (пайдо) қилганимизни кўрмадингларми?” (Анбиё сураси).