«I also recognized him by his fingernails...» (Indirect words of Abay)

Abstract

The article raises the most relevant issues related to Abai studies. Abai's poems were analyzed in a textual context. An assessment of Abai's civil position is given, which is still interpreted negatively. The author identifies and analyzes the information contained in the research and memoirs concerning Abai's personal life, compares them with the archival heritage. Was conducted textual analysis of such poems as «Olen-sozdin patshasy, soz sarasy», «Bay seyildi, bir beyiledi», «Boyi bilgan, sozy zhylman», «Segizayak». Explanations were given about the words and phrases «kiya», «Ak shom», «Tabytyn», «kakkan», «saspak». The poems reflecting the poet's civic position were also analyzed. The text comments of the poet presented in the published collected works were taken into account. Conclusions about the scientific sequence of text analysis are presented.