"ir"is -- ire Russian [yar'] means "rage.".

(ira -- anger) "ira" is Latin "anger"" Cf. Pokorny (1, 501)

In examining Bely's own etymological connections I have frequently consulted: Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch (Bern: 1959) and Carl Darling Buck, A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages (Chicago: 1949).

re -- time [vremya]. The Russian word for 'time" contains the combination re. The Russian word is etymologically related to the concept of "turning", cf. Latin verten, or English "vertent year." There may be a closer connection with Indo-European root *uer meaning "to turn." CF. Pokorny,( I, 326 ff.).   Here Bely moves from the sound to the next association.

Rea or Rhea is the wife of Saturn/Chronos and the mother of Jupiter.

rei Latin pl. goods, possessions. Plural of res (Oxford Latin Dictionary,1625). Bely may however be referring to the root *rei (cf. Meillet, 140).

Uranos. Personification of the sky. When Uranos (sky-heavens) covers Gaia, the earth, the result is twelve children --The Titans. Uranus is the Latin form. Greek used Ouranos. Bely moves from the biblical myth of creation to the classical Greek myth of the creation.

Uhr-alte German for "age-old, ancient." It should actually read "Ur-alte." Bely mixes (confuses?) two German forms. The German Uhr meaning "hour" or "time" is etymologically related to English "hour," Latin "hora," etc. The prefix Ur- meaning "very old, the original" is, however, most likely derived from (her)aus, i.e." coming from."

ar For his own etymological and philological associations Bely relies on Meillet, Max Muller, and Brugmann. Much of what Bely uses (without referencing) resembles the work of A. G. Preobrazhensky, Etimologicheskij slovar' russkogo yazyka, (M 1910-1914), who also quotes Brugmann, Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen, Strasbourg 1902-1904. and Meillet, Introduction a l'étude comparative des langues indo-européenes, Paris 1903. (Bely's archives include reference to the Russian translation of Meillet's work published in Yuriev, 1914. The section that follows on "ploughing" is taken from Mueller, Lectures, 283.

Thus the burden of years A version of Bely's own poem "Vremja" (1907) from Urny, (1966, p.328). Thanks to Mikhail L. Gasparov and Anatole Shaikevich at the Computer Fund of the Russian language (CFRL) for this identification.

oran'e transliterates the Cyrillic script. There is the Russian verb [orat'] "to plow."

arti Lithuanian "to plow"

arjan Gothic "plow"

in Greek -- aroun As Bely and his typesetter switch back and forth between languages and fonts, they make numerous typographical errors. I have examined the English original of Müller's work that contains many of the examples which follow. Where the errors are clear, I have inserted corrections into my English translation.

to-ear Indeed English does have the obsolete verb "ear" meaning to "plow." OED.

instruments of ploughing Müller (Lectures, 283 ff.) mentions that the "comparison of ploughing and rowing is of frequent occurrence in ancient languages." (287). Beck discusses the words related to "plow." p. 495.

a-atrum Latin

arotron Greek.

arklas, also ar-klys in Lithuanian

arad Welsh. Bely's "ar-adr" is likely an error.

or-adto Czech

(o)r-alo Old Slavonic for a "plough." Notice the lack of transition between the Roman and the Cyrillic font.

ero, ira, ero, ire, terra, earth, airtha, Erde. * Sanskrit, old-German, Gallic, Latin, Gothic, English, German. Bely gives eight words, but only seven languages. He also juxtaposes the Gothic and English references. For this root, cf. Pokorny 1, 787. Mueller Lectures, 284-285 transitions from the root "ar" to the Greek era and Sanskrit ira.

The Russian version repeats incorrectly the word "ero." Bely probably intended to follow Mueller's progression from the Greek era. Not ero, but era is Greek.

ira Sanskrit

ero is Old High German

ire Gaelic

terra Latin

earth English An interesting connection of the word for "plowing" "ear" combining with the suffix "th." The connection between the action of plowing and the concept of earth is explored by Pokorny, (I, 62)*ar(e upside down) "pflügen" to plough and the old German eard, ierd meaning "gepfluegtes land." plowed land. Also cf. Pokorny (I, 332) *er- (*er-t-, er-u-) Erde.

airtha Gothic. Bely has transposed English and Gothic in his note.

Erde German "earth"