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Red Sorghum
Spanning three generations, this novel of family and myth is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of staggering horror set against a landscape of gemlike beauty, as the Chinese battle both Japanese invaders and each other in the turbulent 1930s. A legend in China, where it won major literary awards and inspired an Oscar-nominated film, Red Sorghum is a book in which fable and history collide to produce fiction that is entirely new and unforgettable.
359 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1987
About the author
Mo Yan
285 books1,288 followersModern Chinese author, in the western world most known for his novel Red Sorghum (which was turned into a movie by the same title). Often described as the Chinese Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller.
Mo Yan (莫言) is a pen name and means don't speak. His real name is Guan Moye (simplified Chinese: 管谟业; traditional Chinese: 管謨業; pinyin: Guǎn Móyè).
He has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 for his work which "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary". Among the works highlighted by the Nobel judges were Red Sorghum (1987) and Big Breasts & Wide Hips (2004), as well as The Garlic Ballads.
Chinese version: 莫言
Mo Yan (莫言) is a pen name and means don't speak. His real name is Guan Moye (simplified Chinese: 管谟业; traditional Chinese: 管謨業; pinyin: Guǎn Móyè).
He has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 for his work which "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary". Among the works highlighted by the Nobel judges were Red Sorghum (1987) and Big Breasts & Wide Hips (2004), as well as The Garlic Ballads.
Chinese version: 莫言
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October 20, 2017
رواية رائعة بكل المقاييس، مو يان يسرد في هذه الرواية ما رَآه بعينه او ما تم اخباره به عن تاريخ عائلته في قريته والمناطق المحيطة بها الارض التي تزرع بالذرة الرفيعة الحمراء.
أساطير وابطال وصعاليك. بدون رتوش وتفخيم يسرد هنا تاريخ عائلته من حياة جده التي كان بها حمال الى قاطع طريق وقاتل الى زوج احدى الثريات.
تدور احداث الرواية في مطلع القرن الحالي حيث الفوضى تسود الصين صراع بين الوطنيين والشيوعيين الى غزو اليابان للصين ومقاومة الشعب الصيني.
حياة الصينيين يستعرضها الكاتب بشكل رائع من عادات وتقاليد الى الحياة البائسة لهذا الشعب المكافح والذي تعرض خلال تاريخه الى الكثير من المحن والشدائد.
وصف الطبيعة والحقول رائع يجعلك ترى المواقع كأنك تراها، والشخصيات مثيرة والاحداث مثيرة تجعلك تترقب نهايات كل حدث في هذه الملحمة الرائعة.
احداث دموية التي اختارها المؤلف وكثرة القتل والمعارك بين ابطال حقيقيين وصعاليك متسلقين وأساطير كتبت عن ابطال هذه الفترة الدموية من تاريخ هذه القرية بشكل خاص والصين بشكل عام .
فعلا استمتعت بها
أساطير وابطال وصعاليك. بدون رتوش وتفخيم يسرد هنا تاريخ عائلته من حياة جده التي كان بها حمال الى قاطع طريق وقاتل الى زوج احدى الثريات.
تدور احداث الرواية في مطلع القرن الحالي حيث الفوضى تسود الصين صراع بين الوطنيين والشيوعيين الى غزو اليابان للصين ومقاومة الشعب الصيني.
حياة الصينيين يستعرضها الكاتب بشكل رائع من عادات وتقاليد الى الحياة البائسة لهذا الشعب المكافح والذي تعرض خلال تاريخه الى الكثير من المحن والشدائد.
وصف الطبيعة والحقول رائع يجعلك ترى المواقع كأنك تراها، والشخصيات مثيرة والاحداث مثيرة تجعلك تترقب نهايات كل حدث في هذه الملحمة الرائعة.
احداث دموية التي اختارها المؤلف وكثرة القتل والمعارك بين ابطال حقيقيين وصعاليك متسلقين وأساطير كتبت عن ابطال هذه الفترة الدموية من تاريخ هذه القرية بشكل خاص والصين بشكل عام .
فعلا استمتعت بها
November 3, 2023
ذرت سرخ یک کتاب باشکوه از مویان نویسنده سرشناس چین است ،او داستان رنج بی پایان یک ملت را گفته، روح خالص چین را مجسم کرده، ضیافتی پرشور از آدمها و رنگها آفریده اگرچه که رنگ سرخ و قرمز آن بیشتر است ، داستان شگفت انگیز مرگ انسان ها را گفته و در کوتاه سخن نمایی کامل از چین در اواسط قرن بیست را خلق کرده است .
مویان با استادی حکایت سه نسل از یک خانواده چینی را بیان کرده ، با انبوه سنت های آنان و انبوه مصائبی که با آن روبرو شده اند ، ناامنی ، قحطی ، حمله ژاپنی ها و البته مائو ، مویان محوریت داستان شگفت انگیز خود را نابودی روستا و قتل و عام ساکنان آن قرار داده و با حرکت در زمان گذشته و آینده حوادث و اتفاقات داستان را به هم ارتباط داده است . داستان مویان سرشار از انواع وحشی گری ها و خشونتی فجیع است ، هر چند مویان با طنز تلخ خود کوشش کرده از سیاهی داستان کم کند اما حکایت او سرشار از قتل و غارت و تجاوز است .
نویسنده با مهارت تاریخ ، سنت ، افسانه و داستان را بهم تنیده ، پدربزرگ ، مادربزرگ ، پدرکه شخصیتهای اصلی داستان او هستند سمبل و نمادی از مقاومت در برابررنج های زندگی هستند ، هر یک از آنها در کوران جنگ دل در گرو عشقی دارد و برای بقا می جنگد .
طنزو زبان تلخ استاد مویان در ذرت سرخ گویا به اوج خود رسیده است، او هیچ ابایی از هجو رسوم و سنت کشور خود ندارد ، برای نمونه پدربزرگ زمانی عاشق مادربزرگ شده که پای کوچک و بسته شده او را دیده (بستن پای دختران سنتی به قدمت هزار سال و عملی و بسیار وحشیانه و خطرناک بوده ) یا خوردن گوشت سگ ( مویان این کار را به این دلیل که سگ ولگرد قبلا گوشت مرده انسان را خورده به نوعی آدم خواری غیر مستقیم می داند ) . یا ازنگاه نویسنده علت مرغوبیت شراب مزرعه مادربزرگ افزودن ادرارانسان به آن بوده است . البته به نظر می رسد مویان نگاه انتقادی کم رنگی نسبت به حاکمیت حزب کمونیست و شخص مائو داشته ، در حالی که فجایع زمان مائو ابعادی به مراتب بیشتر از اشغال چین توسط ارتش ژاپن داشته اما مویان بسیار کم به آن پرداخته است .
کتاب ذرت سرخ را می توان تابلویی کوچک اما شگفت انگیز از چین و سنت و رسوم آن دانست ، تابلویی که مویان با استادی آنرا کشیده و رنگ آمیزی کرده ، اگرچه که از رنگ سرخ بسیار استفاده کرده و خواندن فجایعی مانند آنچه بر سر مادربزرگ دوم آمده یا داستان جنگیدن با ارتش سگها بردباری و شکیبیایی لازم دارد اما مویان اثری فراموش نشدنی آفریده که بسیارارزش خواندن دارد .
مویان با استادی حکایت سه نسل از یک خانواده چینی را بیان کرده ، با انبوه سنت های آنان و انبوه مصائبی که با آن روبرو شده اند ، ناامنی ، قحطی ، حمله ژاپنی ها و البته مائو ، مویان محوریت داستان شگفت انگیز خود را نابودی روستا و قتل و عام ساکنان آن قرار داده و با حرکت در زمان گذشته و آینده حوادث و اتفاقات داستان را به هم ارتباط داده است . داستان مویان سرشار از انواع وحشی گری ها و خشونتی فجیع است ، هر چند مویان با طنز تلخ خود کوشش کرده از سیاهی داستان کم کند اما حکایت او سرشار از قتل و غارت و تجاوز است .
نویسنده با مهارت تاریخ ، سنت ، افسانه و داستان را بهم تنیده ، پدربزرگ ، مادربزرگ ، پدرکه شخصیتهای اصلی داستان او هستند سمبل و نمادی از مقاومت در برابررنج های زندگی هستند ، هر یک از آنها در کوران جنگ دل در گرو عشقی دارد و برای بقا می جنگد .
طنزو زبان تلخ استاد مویان در ذرت سرخ گویا به اوج خود رسیده است، او هیچ ابایی از هجو رسوم و سنت کشور خود ندارد ، برای نمونه پدربزرگ زمانی عاشق مادربزرگ شده که پای کوچک و بسته شده او را دیده (بستن پای دختران سنتی به قدمت هزار سال و عملی و بسیار وحشیانه و خطرناک بوده ) یا خوردن گوشت سگ ( مویان این کار را به این دلیل که سگ ولگرد قبلا گوشت مرده انسان را خورده به نوعی آدم خواری غیر مستقیم می داند ) . یا ازنگاه نویسنده علت مرغوبیت شراب مزرعه مادربزرگ افزودن ادرارانسان به آن بوده است . البته به نظر می رسد مویان نگاه انتقادی کم رنگی نسبت به حاکمیت حزب کمونیست و شخص مائو داشته ، در حالی که فجایع زمان مائو ابعادی به مراتب بیشتر از اشغال چین توسط ارتش ژاپن داشته اما مویان بسیار کم به آن پرداخته است .
کتاب ذرت سرخ را می توان تابلویی کوچک اما شگفت انگیز از چین و سنت و رسوم آن دانست ، تابلویی که مویان با استادی آنرا کشیده و رنگ آمیزی کرده ، اگرچه که از رنگ سرخ بسیار استفاده کرده و خواندن فجایعی مانند آنچه بر سر مادربزرگ دوم آمده یا داستان جنگیدن با ارتش سگها بردباری و شکیبیایی لازم دارد اما مویان اثری فراموش نشدنی آفریده که بسیارارزش خواندن دارد .
January 19, 2016
***************************************
For about eight years (1937~1945), northeastern China was occupied by Japan. This brutal invasion occurred coincidentally within the 23 years of the Chinese Civil War (1927~1950). For someone who might not be at least superficially familiar with the appalling conditions of these two wars of attrition fought upon a countryside already devastated by poverty and organized crime, it might appear that this book contains far too much gratuitous horror.
But for someone like Mo Yan, who was born and raised in Shandong Province (completely taken over by Japan), it might constitute family memory and cultural history.
Red Sorghum is at least a work of historical fiction. But it appears much more than that.
Told as a first person narrative, this tale betrays the nationalism, racism, and sexism of that fictional narrator, permanently marked by his times and traumatic heritage. An individual of a later 20th century Chinese lifespan, this man’s experience of that earlier time is found through flashbacks of family memory that play out in bits of seemingly disjointed montages. But as the book progresses these bits assemble in the readers mind into a more complete picture.
The manner in which Mo Yan organizes these bits and pieces are masterfully presented so that the reader is at first transported by a poetic lyricism that emotionally tears the heart so, that the reader is now as deeply in love with the land and the region as would be a native.
The many characters are flawed but humanly seductive such that one becomes attached to them as though they are family—despicable but endearing. We become bonded to these folks and their homeland. Mo Yan’s prose is so well crafted that it is this beauty that enmesh us into this world.
We are now trapped.
We are trapped because it is this region and these people who are doomed to participate in this particularly tragic and grotesque portion of 20th century history. Mo Yan sees to it that we are complicit with them and experience with them this horror.
And his very powerful prose that so beautifully describes each flower and star and fish and drop of dew—also describes in awful detail every part of the horror these souls find themselves a part of.
These details are not easy for a reader to experience. And they last longer than many readers will want to endure. But these Chinese protagonists represent real people who were subjected to much worse for decades.
How would we react in such a time? Would we be heroes? Would we be bastards? Would we even survive? Who would we be afterwards?
As Second Grandma observes:
"You revere heroes and loathe bastards, but who among us is not the 'most heroic and most bastardly'?
This book is lyrically beautiful and mercilessly horrific. But this story could be told in no other way.
For about eight years (1937~1945), northeastern China was occupied by Japan. This brutal invasion occurred coincidentally within the 23 years of the Chinese Civil War (1927~1950). For someone who might not be at least superficially familiar with the appalling conditions of these two wars of attrition fought upon a countryside already devastated by poverty and organized crime, it might appear that this book contains far too much gratuitous horror.
But for someone like Mo Yan, who was born and raised in Shandong Province (completely taken over by Japan), it might constitute family memory and cultural history.
Red Sorghum is at least a work of historical fiction. But it appears much more than that.
Told as a first person narrative, this tale betrays the nationalism, racism, and sexism of that fictional narrator, permanently marked by his times and traumatic heritage. An individual of a later 20th century Chinese lifespan, this man’s experience of that earlier time is found through flashbacks of family memory that play out in bits of seemingly disjointed montages. But as the book progresses these bits assemble in the readers mind into a more complete picture.
The manner in which Mo Yan organizes these bits and pieces are masterfully presented so that the reader is at first transported by a poetic lyricism that emotionally tears the heart so, that the reader is now as deeply in love with the land and the region as would be a native.
The many characters are flawed but humanly seductive such that one becomes attached to them as though they are family—despicable but endearing. We become bonded to these folks and their homeland. Mo Yan’s prose is so well crafted that it is this beauty that enmesh us into this world.
We are now trapped.
We are trapped because it is this region and these people who are doomed to participate in this particularly tragic and grotesque portion of 20th century history. Mo Yan sees to it that we are complicit with them and experience with them this horror.
And his very powerful prose that so beautifully describes each flower and star and fish and drop of dew—also describes in awful detail every part of the horror these souls find themselves a part of.
These details are not easy for a reader to experience. And they last longer than many readers will want to endure. But these Chinese protagonists represent real people who were subjected to much worse for decades.
How would we react in such a time? Would we be heroes? Would we be bastards? Would we even survive? Who would we be afterwards?
As Second Grandma observes:
"You revere heroes and loathe bastards, but who among us is not the 'most heroic and most bastardly'?
This book is lyrically beautiful and mercilessly horrific. But this story could be told in no other way.
May 15, 2022
"In late autumn, and during the eighth lunar month, vast stretches of red sorghum shimmered like a sea of blood. Tall and dense, it reeked of glory; cold and graceful, it promised enchantment; passionate and loving, it was tumultuous."
"In the ninth day of the eight lunar month 1939 my father, a bandit's offspring past his 15th birthday, joined the forces of Yu Zhan'ao, a man destined to become a legendary hero, to ambush a Japanese convoy on the Jiao-Ping highway."
"Are you a member of the Communist Party?" he asked derisively. "Not the Communist Party," the young man replied, "and not the Nationalist Party. I hate them both!"
************
This is a fictional work of five interlocking novellas by 2012 Nobel Prize laureate Mo Yan. It tells the story of a rural family in Shandong China over a fifty year period in the mid-20th century. It was published in periodicals and adapted into a 1987 film by Zhang Yimou with Gong Li. Zhang's film is only surpassed by the words of Mo Yan.
'Red Sorghum' is set during the invasion of 1939. A fifteen year old boy Douguan joins in the bloody ambush of a Japanese convoy by a gang of bandits. His uncle had been skinned alive for sabotaging a conscripted labor team. On the way to an arranged wedding with a rich leper his mother Dai fell in love with her sedan bearer Yu, now leader of the unit.
'Sorghum Wine' tells about the murder of the leper and how Dai came to inherit his distillery. The county magistrate, who sold her as a child, suspects she is involved. When Yu arrives at the distilling compound he is hired as a laborer by Dai, who is pregnant with Douguan. She ignores him until he introduces his secret ingredient of urine into the wine vats.
'Dog Ways' takes up the tale after the Japanese burn down the town. Beauty, a young girl hiding in a well, is rescued by Douguan who will try to marry her. Douguan and Yu survive among corpse eating dogs. The few men left alive fight feral beasts of dead owners. One of Doughan's family dogs leads a pack of six hundred and attempts to bite off his testicles.
'Sorghum Funeral' describes the burial rites of Dai, who had become a resistance hero, attended by thousands. Love had withered as Yu left Dai for another woman, Passion, while Dai shacked up with his rival. The procession is attacked by the communist Jiao-Gao army who rout Yu's secret society. Both are ambushed by the nationalist Leng Detachment.
'Strange Death' begins with the arrival of Japanese troops at the town. They savagely gang rape and murder the villagers. Passion and her young daughter get caught in the invasion. Yu brings them to Dai's distillery to either heal or bury them. Passion is possessed by a wild animal spirit. Doughuan's son returns years later to exorcise the stink of civilization.
The writing in this book is vivid and the scenes brutal, yet at times perversely comic. The 14th century novels 'Outlaws of the Marsh' and 'Three Kingdoms' have been cited by Mo as influences. His stories comprise a mythical family history told by the grandson of Yu. It is entertaining reading, but definitely not for the weak of stomach or faint of heart.
"In the ninth day of the eight lunar month 1939 my father, a bandit's offspring past his 15th birthday, joined the forces of Yu Zhan'ao, a man destined to become a legendary hero, to ambush a Japanese convoy on the Jiao-Ping highway."
"Are you a member of the Communist Party?" he asked derisively. "Not the Communist Party," the young man replied, "and not the Nationalist Party. I hate them both!"
************
This is a fictional work of five interlocking novellas by 2012 Nobel Prize laureate Mo Yan. It tells the story of a rural family in Shandong China over a fifty year period in the mid-20th century. It was published in periodicals and adapted into a 1987 film by Zhang Yimou with Gong Li. Zhang's film is only surpassed by the words of Mo Yan.
'Red Sorghum' is set during the invasion of 1939. A fifteen year old boy Douguan joins in the bloody ambush of a Japanese convoy by a gang of bandits. His uncle had been skinned alive for sabotaging a conscripted labor team. On the way to an arranged wedding with a rich leper his mother Dai fell in love with her sedan bearer Yu, now leader of the unit.
'Sorghum Wine' tells about the murder of the leper and how Dai came to inherit his distillery. The county magistrate, who sold her as a child, suspects she is involved. When Yu arrives at the distilling compound he is hired as a laborer by Dai, who is pregnant with Douguan. She ignores him until he introduces his secret ingredient of urine into the wine vats.
'Dog Ways' takes up the tale after the Japanese burn down the town. Beauty, a young girl hiding in a well, is rescued by Douguan who will try to marry her. Douguan and Yu survive among corpse eating dogs. The few men left alive fight feral beasts of dead owners. One of Doughan's family dogs leads a pack of six hundred and attempts to bite off his testicles.
'Sorghum Funeral' describes the burial rites of Dai, who had become a resistance hero, attended by thousands. Love had withered as Yu left Dai for another woman, Passion, while Dai shacked up with his rival. The procession is attacked by the communist Jiao-Gao army who rout Yu's secret society. Both are ambushed by the nationalist Leng Detachment.
'Strange Death' begins with the arrival of Japanese troops at the town. They savagely gang rape and murder the villagers. Passion and her young daughter get caught in the invasion. Yu brings them to Dai's distillery to either heal or bury them. Passion is possessed by a wild animal spirit. Doughuan's son returns years later to exorcise the stink of civilization.
The writing in this book is vivid and the scenes brutal, yet at times perversely comic. The 14th century novels 'Outlaws of the Marsh' and 'Three Kingdoms' have been cited by Mo as influences. His stories comprise a mythical family history told by the grandson of Yu. It is entertaining reading, but definitely not for the weak of stomach or faint of heart.
January 10, 2013
لأصحاب القلوب القويّة...أوصي بهذه الرواية.
لما اتخذت القرار بالتوقف عن إكمالها شعرت بالراحة.
ثلاثمائة صفحة بالتمام والكمال ومن ثم أعلنت استسلامي...فلست من أصحاب القلوب القوية...هذه الرواية لا تناسبني نهائيا...مشاهد العنف والقسوة فيها بلغت أعلى درجات ما قرأت للآن...إنها بالنسبة لي قصة رعب مليئة بالروح العنصرية والنزعة القومية.
تدور أحداث الرواية في الفترة ما بين 1927-1940، حين احتلت اليابان شمال شرق الصين، وتروي أهوال الحرب بين الطرفين وحكايات المقاومة الصينية ضد الشياطين اليابانيين كما وصفهم الكاتب، إضافة للظروف التي سادت تلك الفترة داخل الصين من فقر وجريمة منظمة واغتصابات وقتل وتدمير وتشويه...لعب فيها قطاع الطرق دورا كبيرا.
مو يان الحائز على جائزة نوبل للآداب ��عام 2012...يريدني أن أعيش معه تفاصيل تلك الحرب، وأن أتعاطف معه...ولكنني فقدت ذلك التعاطف تجاه الطرفين...بسبب القسوة المتبادلة بينهما...بل حكايات الرعب الخارجة عن حدود الإنسانية...فأي حرب تلك التي تبيح سلخ جلد رجل حي...أو التباهي بتقطيع أوصاله...وعرض المشهد البشع أمام جمهرة من أهله!!!...حتى وإن كان ما يرويه جزءا من الحقيقة التي قد تكون وصلت لأبشع من ذلك.
مو يان يروي حياة أجيال من أسرة واحدة...في جزء من الريف الصيني...مضمنا روايته ما يحيط بتلك الأسرة من عادات وتقاليد وقيم وتفاصيل حياة وطقوس زواج ووفاة، مرورا بطعامهم وشرابهم و��ناعتهم لنبيذ الذرة...وربما بداية هذا ما أعجبني في الرواية...التفاصيل التي لا يرويها لك إلا صيني عاش في تلك البيئة.
مو يان مغدق بالتفاصيل وماهرٌ في وصف كل ما يحيط بالمكان والشخوص ليحاصرك في قلب الحدث ويشدك لتكون جزءا منه...ويأتي بتشبيهات وصور بديعة للطبيعة في أشد المشاهد قسوة...ويراوح في المشاهد بالزمن بين الماضي والحاضر...وخليط من الذكريات والخيال...ليعيد تركيب أوصال روايته...وحقول الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء شاركتهم البطولة فشكلت خلفية سحريّة لأغلب مشاهدها...تنحني وتخبئ وتخفي و تحزن وتُطعم...بل أطلق عليها أوصافا جعلت الحياة تدب فيها.
مو يان حتى في إهدائه أول الرواية يستخدم مفردات قاسية
" وكم أود لو أنتزع قلبي الذي تَشَرَّبَ بزيت الصويا، وأقطعه إرباً إرباً، وأضعه في ثلاثة أوانٍ، وأوزعه على حقول الذرة الرفيعة؛ تكريماً لكم أيها الأبطال! تكريماً لكم أيها الأبطال!"
هي لوحة ملحمية واقعية غرائبية تجمع بين الواقع والخيال...وبتعقيدات عوالم ماركيز...مع جذور ضاربة في التراث الصيني القديم
ولكنها بالغة القسوة..
February 20, 2013
“With this book I respectfully invoke the heroic, aggrieved souls wandering in the boundless bright-red sorghum fields of my hometown. As your unfilial son, I am prepared to carve out my heart, marinate it in soy sauce, have it minced and placed in three bowls, and lay it out as an offering in a field of sorghum. Partake of it in good health.”
Land is an altruistic asset. It belongs to no one; neither to its possessor nor to the ruthless capturer and not even to the industrious farmer who survives on its souvenirs; apathetic to worldly narcissism, does it shines in its benevolent vitality. If the land could speak it would spin tales of worship and treachery; if it could cry it would wail for the corpses cuddled in its core and one day, the red sorghum would desists from transforming into a fiery liquid, shying away, fearing the stark resemblance of the scarlet wine to the gory mayhem on its very land.
“Start skinning! Fuck your ancestors and skin him!” shouted the interpreter." The Japanese commander says to skin him. If you don’t do a good job of it, he’ll have his dog tear your heart out”. The knife in the lonesome butcher Sun Five’s hand trembled as he begged Uncle Arhat’s forgiveness for cleaning his blood soaked body with cold water ; skinning the man alive like a cattle suspended on a hook. Sun Five breathed his last humanly air while he pierced the shining blade in Arhat’s moist dermis and somewhere between heart wrenching screams and primitiveness of exposed tissue; Sun entered sadistic chambers of hell. Killing and getting killed became a way of life to the citizens of Gaomi Township. Families slaughtered, men skinned alive, women raped, employed as sex slaves; it was a hemorrhaging mockery of the very land that took pride in its humanity. Death completes human suffering. Love and hate amalgamates into a vaporizing sensation dissolving the final string of civilization; life is overwhelmingly frightening. Was Arhat heroic for enduring horrendous tortures for being a faithful servant to his birthing land?
The elongated sorghum stalks clapped through the swirling air welcoming the young, beautiful bride with the most exquisite golden lotuses (lily-feet) as the sedan braved the bronzed sweaty shoulders of its dancing carriers. Dai Fenglian was all of sixteen when her father married her of to Shan Bianlang , a rumored leper for couple of mules. As she traveled though the black soil of the sorghum field, the Northeastern Gaomi Township waited for its mistress. A quintessentially docile daughter like many other Chinese girls;Dai endured the agonizing foot-binding ritual – a cultural norm during feudalism, primed herself for a marriageable suitor and lived a sheltered life. Dai was a fearless soul defying the authoritative patriarchal society. She dared to love Yu Zhan’ao- the young sedan carrier; took over the wine distillery after Shan’s death, tricked Spotted Neck-a local bandit from raping her and solely inspired the vengeance of Arhat’s death by pledging to the God of Wine. She gave her life a rebellious possibility charting its own consequences and eccentricities. Was she heroic after all in her succinct existence? Did her pleading to the heavens for her life make her any less a victor?
“Is this death? Will I have never again see this sky, this earth, this sorghum, this son, this lover who has led this troops into battle? My heaven you gave me riches, you gave me thirty years of life as robust as red sorghum. Heaven since you gave me all don’t take it back now. Forgive me, let me go. Have I sinned? Would it have been right to share my pillow with a leper and produce a misshapen, putrid monster to contaminate this beautiful world? What is chastity then? What is the correct path? What is goodness? What is evil? You never told me, so I had to decide on my own. I loved happiness, I loved strength, I loved beauty; it was my body, and I used it as I thought fitting. Sin doesn't frighten me, nor does punishment. I'm not afraid of your eighteen levels of hell. I did what I had to do, I managed as I thought proper. I fear nothing.”
Dai saw the sorghum grow in her fields frolicking in the sun, standing tall in the rain and yielding the fiery scarlet wine after its harvest. Were the chaste crimson sorghum stalks Gaomi’s heroes?
“The glorious history of man is filled with legends of dogs and memories of dogs; despicable dogs, fearful dogs, pitiful dogs”.
Yu Zhan’ao was a man of many traits; a gambler, murderer, adulterer, a lover, a father and eventually a hero in the anti-Japanese revolution. A bastard that he was dearly loved Douguan’s mother and stepmother. Yu Zhan’ao was a man of integrity. He obeyed Dai like a diligent soldier in the 1939 Black River Massacare to avenge the death of many of his people. Yu was the triumphant idol now, one who lived like a pitiful dog nevertheless, fought like a ferocious animal claiming victories on his perished land. But, the nakedness of his vacant heart froze his heroic endeavors in the frosty graves of his loved ones.
Mo Yan’s metaphorical saga nostalgically maps heroic virtues through the landscape of his hometown of Northeastern Gaomi Township; a paradoxical ground that once flourished in prosperity of human grit and kindness was now a cauldron of heinous crimes howling at the ill-fated blackened cinders. Gaomi was plagued just like its former resident Shan Bianlang perishing in its own pitiful existence.
"At one time the site had been a wasteland covered with brambles, underbrush and reeds; it became a paradise for foxes and rabbits. Then a few huts appeared and it became a haven for escaped murderers, drunks, gamblers, who built home, cultivated the land and turned it into a paradise for humans driving away the foxes and wild rabbits, who set howls of protest on the eve of their departure. Now the village lay in ruins; man created it and man had destroyed it. It was now a sorrowful paradise, a monument to both grief and joy, built upon ruins."
The accentuated elegiac impression of the appalling devastation, reeks of imperialist nihilism; irony of human ambitions. We construct houses; raise our families merely to see them being annihilated by outsiders sheltering their own. Yu Zha’ao questioning the dying Japanese combatant about the existence of his family and whether he loved them, and if so why would he guiltlessly slaughter their ( the Chinese populace) kin ;cites the anguish of two men – one on his death bed and the other fretting his own death; slamming bullets in his wounded chest. Mo Yan’s symbolism of life and death surpasses the familiar grounds of human hostilities delineating the sarcasm of the rising red sun flying high on the Japanese flag whilst it eclipses bleeding the Chinese frontiers. The red sorghum wine that once got its peculiar scrumptious taste from Yu’s urine, now, seeps into the ground serenading its distillers. Mo Yan bleeds his deepest sorrows through the verses blurring the lines between the past and present depicting the end of feudalism and the rise of Japanese imperialist incursion. The laudable tale chronicled by Dai Fenglian’s third generation embarks on the end of the Japanese invasion during WWII following an anti-Japanese ambush by Commander Yu. It spans from the 1929- the first year of Republic wandering all the way through the Cultural Revolution; witnessing inhumane crimes of rape, slaughter and numerous horrendous war crimes. Mo Yan underplays the political aspects of the Japanese-Sino war putting human life on a valuable didactic dais. He diligently scripts history through the eyes of his villagers and their kin; the desolation of loss and the emptiness that chases a rewarded vengeance. The veneration of the ancestors, as every descendant has a generation that endured darkness darker than hell. The idea of colonial power – act of imperialist pursuit of a nation, itself is a cowardly act. Slaughtering the fearless and ambushing agricultural lands; how can one take pride in destroying lives while trying to improvise their own? And in the end, the acquisition of land is futile if all it gives are the graves of blameless souls.
The concluding passage of the novel delineates the narrator’s resentment of importing “hybrid sorghum” into the Gaomi’s fields spoiling the authenticity- undesirable outsiders. I speculate whether the Hainan sorghum stalks was an allegory to Japanese establishing naval bases on Hainan islands in South China Sea; blocking outside communication in China necessary of arms import and related materials or was it to signify that bastard children of Japanese descents were undesirable in China. The disdain of the vulgarity in hypocritical affection by the urban societal dogma shows the loss of harmony in acknowledging noble sacrifices.
“Heroes are born, not made. Heroic qualities flow through a person’s veins like an undercurrent ready to be translated into action."
Yan’s heroes are not Mao’s preferred comrades but ordinary people who fight for their survival in most corrupt yet heroic ways. They are unconventional, passionate, rebellious and brave; they may not have inherited monetary affluences, but demonstrated mutinous arrogance and undying grit.
“This was a great victory..... China has 400 million people. Japan has 100 million. If 100 million of us fought them to death they’d be wiped out, but there’s still 300 million of us.”
Dai- who dared to love a bastard and stand up for her rights, Yu Zhan’ao- who never let his pitiful surrounding hamper his audacity, Passion- who braved the horrendous sex crime, Douguan – for being an honorable at a young age, Douguan’s wife- who got her first period while hiding in a cave embracing her death brother, Uncle Arhat- for being loyal to his kin and enduring the agonizing torture, Sun Five – for sacrificing his human existence for sullied lunacy and numerous other citizens of Gaomi Townships and above all the very earth where the deep-rooted sorghum still bow to blazing sun; all of them are heroes. They rebelled against feudalism, poverty, love, abhorrence, imperialism and most of all human greed. Approximating the demeanor of the bold sorghum stalks, they stood tall and when autumn befell they sacrificed their world saluting the heroic spirit of Gaomi Township.
"....The yang of White Horse Mountain and the yin of the Black Water River, there is also a stalk of pure-red sorghum which you much sacrifice…wield it high as you re-enter a world of dense brambles and wild predators. It is your talisman, as well as you family’s glorious totem and a symbol of the heroic spirit of Northeast Gaomi Township!"
Yan’s characters are not judged by their individual demeanor but by their cohesive valor. Therefore, I chose to do the same. I let go of all those prejudices of several Goami’s residents and recognized the obvious. The text is bounded by nameless heroes who drank their wines and never kowtowed to the Emperor in Japan’s holy war.
New wine on the ninth of ninth
Good wine from our labour, good wine!
If you drink our wine,
You'll breathe well, you won't cough.
If you drink our wine,
You'll be well, your breath won't smell.
If you drink our wine,
You'll dare go through Qingsha Kou alone.
If you drink our wine,
You won't kowtow to the emperor
On the ninth of ninth you'll go with me
Good wine, good wine, good wine!
**(the song taken from the namesake film by Zhang Yimou)
Every now and then when reading a remarkable book it becomes crucial to pen copious notes; precious to be wasted on an epigrammatic appraisal, making it even harder to articulate the treasured sentiments. So, without thinking much, I decided to pour my heart out, just as Mo Yan.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2019
Sorgo rosso narra le vicende di una famiglia durante una delle crisi più sanguinose e violente della storia della Cina. La modalità scelta dall'autore è quella di una ricomposizione non lineare degli eventi, sul filo della memoria più che della successione cronologica dei fatti; ne risulta una narrazione caotica e ridondante, ma anche dinamica e stimolante. È esattamente in questo modo che Mo Yan schiva il cronachismo, componendo un quadro grandiosamente epico, nel senso letterale del termine, tanto da richiamarmi l'Iliade -per quanto questa sia probabilmente una deformazione dovuta alla mia formazione occidentale. Il romanzo è un bagno di sangue, ma diversamente dal McCarthiano Meridiano di sangue, è un'epopea: il sangue versato è quello di un popolo, non quello di individui e l'opera non è un inno alla perdita dell'anima, ma una sua continua e disperata ricerca. Anima che sembra aleggiare nei luoghi, forse rappresentata proprio dal Sorgo rosso, il cereale che ha nutrito corpo e spirito di un'intera popolazione. La prosa è venata di un lirismo dosato con equilibrio dall'inizio alla fine (detto da uno che ne schifa l'abuso).
Se ne esce storditi e ammutoliti.
Se ne esce storditi e ammutoliti.
February 18, 2014
You can say I've developed a pretty healthy obsession with Mo Yan's writing. So healthy that I read his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (which was beautifully crafted - and long), I watched interviews of him with subtitles, I'm going to get the movie "Red Sorghum" and watch it, just because it's after this book right here, not because I particulary enjoy Chinese movies, I've started taking more interest in China's development (the whole of it, not just the last 150 years) because their ancestry fascinates me, and above all that, I think I'm ready to read his entire work. As in, right now. I'm currently working on the first half of Big Breasts and Wide Hips and loving that one too.
Plot, let's first do a little plot summary:
China. The Shandong family is a typical chinese rural family, following tradition, living the old life and not knowing of any other way to lead their existance. Their story is told in the span of three generations, since the 1920s, with a lot happening until the 1930s, and then with some more things happening up until the 1970s. The official span is 1923 through to 1976, but I was never sure which were when, because it's extremelly non-chronological (which is apparently a known trait of Mo Yan's), and you keep getting confused as to what is what and who is who. This family owned a distilery and made a type of alcohool called "sorghum wine", out of the "sorghum", which is a fodder plant, used to feed any type of livestock that might grow around. Which, also, as you might have noticed from the title of this book, grows red in the Northeast Gaomi Township. Afterwards, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (google it: I found out its span: 1937 to 1945) they were resistance fighters, trying to block the Japs' plans in their area.
The minute you start reading it, you notice the writing. If you're like me, and this isn't your first Mo Yan book, it seems almost weirdly familiar to once again drown in it. It's tense, compact, it's his typical language, even though this is his first ever published novel and the one I read was his last. It's written in first-person, which I most commonly loathe, but once again I'm proven that somegeniuses people can excell at this job. His narration is extremelly fluid and doesn't ever stop on the way or decide to become less entertaining - it is a constant voice that you keep listening to throughout his book and it guides you through the maze that is "Red Sorghum".
Speaking about "Red Sorghum"..in the first half, it's everywhere. On every page. At every corner. The rural background is made of it. It's the area's God. It almost seems like this book's Universe is formed of only it, and it's present wherever things happen: good things, tragedies, deaths, marriages, history - the sorghum is there to supervise the people. Rarely do you see such a natural element take an important role in the story, but then comes Mo Yan, who makes almost a character out of this fodder plant and gives it the all-knowing, all-seeing, a little menacing role. After a while, you get jaded and cloyed with it, but it nonetheless represents a powerfull image in the book.
About image - the scenery is once again flawless. Black earth, red sorghum, milky water, it all adds up to a story background that sometimes surpasses the story itself and makes it even more rich when it doesn't, as it gives soul to not only the people, but the places it talks about. I kept being mesmerized at how much of Mo Yan's work is based on his observation of the world around him and how detailed the reproduction of that world on paper is. Clearly, one of his best traits as a writer is the ability to ignite in his reader's mind the blazing image of something, of anything - his power to put his own view into his reader's eyes. He was born to be a writer, if only for that.
Once again, his writing is also able to take on a very dark shape and tear the fictional world's seams apart. Twenty-something pages in, you get a scene in which a couple of horses are killed - that's brutal. And then, as a bonus, just a few pages later, you get the skinning of Luohan, at the orderd of the Japanese soldiers. Filled to the tops with this kind of visceral imagery, the book is a roller-coaster, where you never know if you should expect a hanging or a bouquet of flowers. No, seriously.
Because I read it in Romanian, I had to corelate between my version and an English version if I wanted quotes; after about three or four times I did that, I got annoyed by having to read half a page of one of them and half of the other to find out if I was looking at the same thing. My favorite, out of the ones I picked, remains - "Surrounded by progress, I feel a nagging sense of our species regression."
Why it got five stars? First of all, I still like "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out" much more than this one, but they're both spectacular works and they make such a harsh introduction for the reader in the mind of someone who experienced things us whites have probably never gone through. It's bewildering, having to take all of the information in, but if you understand where Mo Yan is getting at, you are in for an awesome thrill. This book is, on a much higher level than almost everything else published between the 80s and now, everything a reader wants: it's a thriller, it's a phylosophical study, it's a romance book, it's enriched with the dance between life and death, between their meanings, it's a history book, a political essay and also a light pat on the shoulder, letting you know just how good you'll never, ever get to be.
I'll now very happily go and continue on with "Big Breasts and Wide Hips", after which I'll probably start "The Garlic Ballads". I have in no way, not even illegally, happened to get my hands on some 6 works of Mo Yan's from the mighty Internet. I can't be blamed for developing an obsession. That's my History teacher's fault.
The movie "Red Sorghum" came out in 1987, the same year as the book, and got a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. I'll watch it, then I'll report back. Over.
Plot, let's first do a little plot summary:
China. The Shandong family is a typical chinese rural family, following tradition, living the old life and not knowing of any other way to lead their existance. Their story is told in the span of three generations, since the 1920s, with a lot happening until the 1930s, and then with some more things happening up until the 1970s. The official span is 1923 through to 1976, but I was never sure which were when, because it's extremelly non-chronological (which is apparently a known trait of Mo Yan's), and you keep getting confused as to what is what and who is who. This family owned a distilery and made a type of alcohool called "sorghum wine", out of the "sorghum", which is a fodder plant, used to feed any type of livestock that might grow around. Which, also, as you might have noticed from the title of this book, grows red in the Northeast Gaomi Township. Afterwards, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (google it: I found out its span: 1937 to 1945) they were resistance fighters, trying to block the Japs' plans in their area.
The minute you start reading it, you notice the writing. If you're like me, and this isn't your first Mo Yan book, it seems almost weirdly familiar to once again drown in it. It's tense, compact, it's his typical language, even though this is his first ever published novel and the one I read was his last. It's written in first-person, which I most commonly loathe, but once again I'm proven that some
Speaking about "Red Sorghum"..in the first half, it's everywhere. On every page. At every corner. The rural background is made of it. It's the area's God. It almost seems like this book's Universe is formed of only it, and it's present wherever things happen: good things, tragedies, deaths, marriages, history - the sorghum is there to supervise the people. Rarely do you see such a natural element take an important role in the story, but then comes Mo Yan, who makes almost a character out of this fodder plant and gives it the all-knowing, all-seeing, a little menacing role. After a while, you get jaded and cloyed with it, but it nonetheless represents a powerfull image in the book.
About image - the scenery is once again flawless. Black earth, red sorghum, milky water, it all adds up to a story background that sometimes surpasses the story itself and makes it even more rich when it doesn't, as it gives soul to not only the people, but the places it talks about. I kept being mesmerized at how much of Mo Yan's work is based on his observation of the world around him and how detailed the reproduction of that world on paper is. Clearly, one of his best traits as a writer is the ability to ignite in his reader's mind the blazing image of something, of anything - his power to put his own view into his reader's eyes. He was born to be a writer, if only for that.
Once again, his writing is also able to take on a very dark shape and tear the fictional world's seams apart. Twenty-something pages in, you get a scene in which a couple of horses are killed - that's brutal. And then, as a bonus, just a few pages later, you get the skinning of Luohan, at the orderd of the Japanese soldiers. Filled to the tops with this kind of visceral imagery, the book is a roller-coaster, where you never know if you should expect a hanging or a bouquet of flowers. No, seriously.
Because I read it in Romanian, I had to corelate between my version and an English version if I wanted quotes; after about three or four times I did that, I got annoyed by having to read half a page of one of them and half of the other to find out if I was looking at the same thing. My favorite, out of the ones I picked, remains - "Surrounded by progress, I feel a nagging sense of our species regression."
Why it got five stars? First of all, I still like "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out" much more than this one, but they're both spectacular works and they make such a harsh introduction for the reader in the mind of someone who experienced things us whites have probably never gone through. It's bewildering, having to take all of the information in, but if you understand where Mo Yan is getting at, you are in for an awesome thrill. This book is, on a much higher level than almost everything else published between the 80s and now, everything a reader wants: it's a thriller, it's a phylosophical study, it's a romance book, it's enriched with the dance between life and death, between their meanings, it's a history book, a political essay and also a light pat on the shoulder, letting you know just how good you'll never, ever get to be.
I'll now very happily go and continue on with "Big Breasts and Wide Hips", after which I'll probably start "The Garlic Ballads". I have in no way, not even illegally, happened to get my hands on some 6 works of Mo Yan's from the mighty Internet. I can't be blamed for developing an obsession. That's my History teacher's fault.
The movie "Red Sorghum" came out in 1987, the same year as the book, and got a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. I'll watch it, then I'll report back. Over.
October 28, 2018
Bazı yazarlar, ilginç bir şekilde hayatları boyunca neredeyse tek bir şeyi yapmaya çalışıyor. Örneğin Ishiguro, ilk romanından son romanına kadar sürekli yaptığı şeyi daha incelikli, daha derinlikli yapmaya çalışıyor. Alice Munro, Faulkner ve onlarca büyük yazarı bu listeye dahil edebiliriz. Mo Yan de onlardan biri. Benim okuduğum üç romanı ve bir biyografi kitabı farklı yöntemlerle de olsa aynı amaçla yazılmış.
Bu romanda da Mo Yan her zamanki temalarını, Çin'in aşağı yukarı son 100 yıllık serüvenini anlatıyor. Farklı bir tarzla, olayları sıra gözetmeden anlatıyor, ki daha evvel Çin tarihiyle ilgili üç paragraflık bile bir şey okumamışsanız olaylar karmaşık görünüyordur, yazılanlardan onu anlıyorum. Ben daha önce Mo Yan kitaplarını okuduğum için olayları takip etmekte bir sorun yaşamadım. Yaşam ve Ölüm Yorgunu yahut İri Memeler ve Geniş Kalçalar bu kitaptan önce okunabilir, herhangi bir sakıncası olmamakla birlikte bu karmaşayı da ortadan kaldıracaktır.
Yahut basitçe 15-20 dakikalık okumayla Çin'de son 100 yılda ne olmuş kabaca bakılabilir. Zaten bu romanlardan birini okursanız çözersiniz. Kronolojik olarak Hanedan zamanları, Çin-Japon savaşı, komünistlerle Kuomitang (milliyetçiler) arasındaki iç savaş, komünistlerin kazanması, Mao Zedong zamanı ve Çin'de komünizmin çöküp kapitalizmin gelmesi, bu 100 yılın en kaba özetidir.
Kızıl Darı Tarlaları da yukarıda yazdığım kısa özetin daha çok Çin-Japon savaşı ve komünistler-Kuomitang arasındaki savaşlara odaklanıyor. Tabii Mo Yan'in derdi dümdüz tarih anlatmak değil, tarihin içinde oradan oraya savrulan bireyleri ele alıyor. Kronolojik kaygı gütmeden, atlaya atlaya o dünyada yaşayan insanların hikâyelerini masalsı bir dille anlatıyor.
Karakterler yine güçlü karakterler. Ne kadar derinlikli oldukları tartışılır, Yaşam ve Ölüm Yorgunu ve İri Memeler ve Geniş Kalçalar bu yönden Kızıl Darı Tarlaları'ndan daha iyi romanlar diyebiliriz. Ama masalsı atmosferde okuması keyifli ve kolay hikâyelerle savaşın ve yoksulluğum psikolojisini çok iyi anlatıyor Mo Yan, o sebeple anlatılanlar İhsan Oktay Anar'ın kitaplarındaki gibi kartondan adamların kavga etmesinden öte anlamlar taşıyor.
Mo Yan'in en büyük becerisi epik olayları, trajik olayları büyük bir beceriyle anlatabilmesi. Bu anlatımı nasıl betimleyeceğimi bilmiyorum. Sükunetle anlatıyor diyemeyeceğim, bilhassa Amerikan edebiyatında örneğini bolca gördüğümüz umursamaz anlatıcı değil bu, ama aynı zamanda arabesk de değil. Herhalde Mo Yan'in özgünlüğü de burada.
Kızıl Darı Tarlaları Mo Yan'in ilk romanı, ama diğer eserlerinden önemli ölçüde geri kalır yanı yok. Ben yine de diğer ikisinin daha iyi romanlar, daha zor romanlar olduğunu düşünsem de bu roman onlardan kötü diyemem.
Bu romanda da Mo Yan her zamanki temalarını, Çin'in aşağı yukarı son 100 yıllık serüvenini anlatıyor. Farklı bir tarzla, olayları sıra gözetmeden anlatıyor, ki daha evvel Çin tarihiyle ilgili üç paragraflık bile bir şey okumamışsanız olaylar karmaşık görünüyordur, yazılanlardan onu anlıyorum. Ben daha önce Mo Yan kitaplarını okuduğum için olayları takip etmekte bir sorun yaşamadım. Yaşam ve Ölüm Yorgunu yahut İri Memeler ve Geniş Kalçalar bu kitaptan önce okunabilir, herhangi bir sakıncası olmamakla birlikte bu karmaşayı da ortadan kaldıracaktır.
Yahut basitçe 15-20 dakikalık okumayla Çin'de son 100 yılda ne olmuş kabaca bakılabilir. Zaten bu romanlardan birini okursanız çözersiniz. Kronolojik olarak Hanedan zamanları, Çin-Japon savaşı, komünistlerle Kuomitang (milliyetçiler) arasındaki iç savaş, komünistlerin kazanması, Mao Zedong zamanı ve Çin'de komünizmin çöküp kapitalizmin gelmesi, bu 100 yılın en kaba özetidir.
Kızıl Darı Tarlaları da yukarıda yazdığım kısa özetin daha çok Çin-Japon savaşı ve komünistler-Kuomitang arasındaki savaşlara odaklanıyor. Tabii Mo Yan'in derdi dümdüz tarih anlatmak değil, tarihin içinde oradan oraya savrulan bireyleri ele alıyor. Kronolojik kaygı gütmeden, atlaya atlaya o dünyada yaşayan insanların hikâyelerini masalsı bir dille anlatıyor.
Karakterler yine güçlü karakterler. Ne kadar derinlikli oldukları tartışılır, Yaşam ve Ölüm Yorgunu ve İri Memeler ve Geniş Kalçalar bu yönden Kızıl Darı Tarlaları'ndan daha iyi romanlar diyebiliriz. Ama masalsı atmosferde okuması keyifli ve kolay hikâyelerle savaşın ve yoksulluğum psikolojisini çok iyi anlatıyor Mo Yan, o sebeple anlatılanlar İhsan Oktay Anar'ın kitaplarındaki gibi kartondan adamların kavga etmesinden öte anlamlar taşıyor.
Mo Yan'in en büyük becerisi epik olayları, trajik olayları büyük bir beceriyle anlatabilmesi. Bu anlatımı nasıl betimleyeceğimi bilmiyorum. Sükunetle anlatıyor diyemeyeceğim, bilhassa Amerikan edebiyatında örneğini bolca gördüğümüz umursamaz anlatıcı değil bu, ama aynı zamanda arabesk de değil. Herhalde Mo Yan'in özgünlüğü de burada.
Kızıl Darı Tarlaları Mo Yan'in ilk romanı, ama diğer eserlerinden önemli ölçüde geri kalır yanı yok. Ben yine de diğer ikisinin daha iyi romanlar, daha zor romanlar olduğunu düşünsem de bu roman onlardan kötü diyemem.
June 5, 2018
“L’estremo confine del genere umano e della bellezza”
Il sorgo è rosso come il sangue. Il sorgo è la natura che circonda l’uomo e gli offre nutrimento, materiali per la vita quotidiana e inebriante piacere, tramite il vino di sorgo; e il rosso è il colore del sangue, della violenza, della crudeltà, della sofferenza. Di tutto ciò è fatto questo romanzo che narra la storia di una famiglia (gli antenati della voce narrante) soprattutto durante la guerra tra Cina e Giappone.
È un mondo rurale duro e spietato, eppure intriso di un lirismo incredibilmente intenso e potente. Un mondo violento, efferato, ma epico, in cui c’erano ancora grandi eroi. Grandi eroi e grandi bastardi (“ma chi non è un eroe e al contempo un bastardo?”). C’erano le costrizioni dei piedi fasciati e dei matrimoni combinati, ma c’erano anche spiriti liberi, coraggio, amore, sacralità e senso del mistero. Colori e odori intensi.
“A volte penso che ci sia un rapporto tra il decadimento dell'umanità e la prosperità e il benessere in cui viviamo. La prosperità e il benessere sono obiettivi anche necessari che il genere umano persegue nella sua lotta per il progresso, ma generano profonde e temibili contraddizioni. Il genere umano sta infatti distruggendo con le proprie mani alcune delle qualità che possiede.”
La lettura ha comportato per me qualche difficoltà per il modo di raccontare fatto di continui salti temporali (tecnica usata anche ne “La canzoni dell’aglio”, ma qui in modo più estremo). Tuttavia, non ho esitazioni nella valutazione; un romanzo potente, epico, che entra nell’anima.
“Ho vissuto dieci anni lontano dal mio villaggio. Sono tornato contaminato dall’ipocrisia dell’operosa «buona società», e il corpo che emana da ogni poro un lezzo soffocante perché immerso a lungo nelle fetide acque della sporca vita cittadina”...
Il sorgo è rosso come il sangue. Il sorgo è la natura che circonda l’uomo e gli offre nutrimento, materiali per la vita quotidiana e inebriante piacere, tramite il vino di sorgo; e il rosso è il colore del sangue, della violenza, della crudeltà, della sofferenza. Di tutto ciò è fatto questo romanzo che narra la storia di una famiglia (gli antenati della voce narrante) soprattutto durante la guerra tra Cina e Giappone.
È un mondo rurale duro e spietato, eppure intriso di un lirismo incredibilmente intenso e potente. Un mondo violento, efferato, ma epico, in cui c’erano ancora grandi eroi. Grandi eroi e grandi bastardi (“ma chi non è un eroe e al contempo un bastardo?”). C’erano le costrizioni dei piedi fasciati e dei matrimoni combinati, ma c’erano anche spiriti liberi, coraggio, amore, sacralità e senso del mistero. Colori e odori intensi.
“A volte penso che ci sia un rapporto tra il decadimento dell'umanità e la prosperità e il benessere in cui viviamo. La prosperità e il benessere sono obiettivi anche necessari che il genere umano persegue nella sua lotta per il progresso, ma generano profonde e temibili contraddizioni. Il genere umano sta infatti distruggendo con le proprie mani alcune delle qualità che possiede.”
La lettura ha comportato per me qualche difficoltà per il modo di raccontare fatto di continui salti temporali (tecnica usata anche ne “La canzoni dell’aglio”, ma qui in modo più estremo). Tuttavia, non ho esitazioni nella valutazione; un romanzo potente, epico, che entra nell’anima.
“Ho vissuto dieci anni lontano dal mio villaggio. Sono tornato contaminato dall’ipocrisia dell’operosa «buona società», e il corpo che emana da ogni poro un lezzo soffocante perché immerso a lungo nelle fetide acque della sporca vita cittadina”...
October 4, 2020
Mo Yan’dan daha önceden İri Memeler ve Geniş Kalcalar kitabını okumuştum. Orada da yine bir aile kronolojisini bu sefer kültür devrimi eşliğinde veriyordu. Bu sefer dönem değişiyor. 1923 yılından başlayıp üç kuşağa yayınlan kan, aşk, savaş ve şiddetle dolu bir aile seceresi. Benim için okuması oldukça zor bir kitaptı. Sayfalarca süren savaş, kaza, şiddet ölüm ve parçalanmış bedenlerin tasvirleri o kadar detaylı ki insanın ruhunu karartıyor. Hatta artık sonlara doğru yaklaşırken artık yazarın kızıl darı tarlalarındaki tüm vahşeti ve sefaleti anlatmaktan yorulduğu hissine kapılıyor insan. Kesinlikle insanı iyi hissettiren kitaplardan birisi değil. Ancak dili baştan sona çok etkileyici. İnsanların ve çevrenin pitoresk tasvirleri ve şiirsel anlatımı çok güzel. Ancak ben bir süreMo Yan’a mola verme ihtiyacı duyuyorum zira betimlemeleri o kadar güçlü ki, insanı yoruyor. Askerleri parçalayan kılıçların, ölmek üzereyken bağırsaklarını bebek kucaklar gibi tutan adamların ve ceset yiyen köpeklerin zihnimden temizlenmesine ihtiyacım var.
“Tanrım, iffet nedir? Neye doğru yol denir? İyilik nedir? Kötülük nedir? Bana hiç söylemedin, ben hep kendi fikrimce yaşadım, mutluluğa aşığım, gücü severim, güzeli severim, bedenim benim bedenimdir, kendi kararlarımı kendim alırım, günahtan korkmam, cezadan korkmam, senin on sekiz katlı cehenneminden korkmuyorum. Yapmam gerekenlerin hepsini yaptım, halletmem gerekenleri hallettim, hiçbir şeyden korkmuyorum. Ama ölmek istemiyorum, yaşamak istiyorum, bu dünyaya daha fazla bakmak istiyorum, ah, Tanrım...”
May 11, 2022
Sorgo rosso sangue
Mo yan dipinge i paesaggi delle sue storie non solo con colori vividi (Le notti erano di un grigio uva, un vento dorato attraversava il fiume, il cielo blu zaffiro era profondo e sconfinato. Le stelle verdi erano straordinariamente splendenti.") ma con suoni e odori che danno una terza dimensione alle pagine.
La storia della famiglia Shan si fonda sull’adulterio e l’omicidio.
Chi ci racconta questo è la voce di un pronipote che, attraverso una carrellata di acrobatici salti temporali, ricerca le proprie radici.
Tutto comincia con una giovane ragazza, la nonna di chi racconta:
” Quando la nonna compì quindici anni, suo padre decise di darla in sposa a Shan Bianlang, unico figlio di Shan Tingxiu, noto benestante della zona di Gaomi, nel nordest.
La famiglia Shan produceva, usando sorgo a basso prezzo, un ottimo liquore, famoso in tutto il circondario.”
Bellissima e d’animo forte diventa l’amante del Comandante Yu Zhan , un ex vagabondo, assassino e bandito.
Avranno un figlio Douguan (padre di chi racconta) che ha 14 anni affiancherà il padre nei combattimenti contro l’esercito giapponese.
La storia della famiglia Shan è arricchita da una miriade di personaggi che caratterizzano il contesto: banditi, contadini, amanti, monaci...
Come nelle mie precedenti letture di questo autore, noto la presenza di donne indomite come la nonna, Dai Fenglian, e la seconda nonna Lianer.
E’ un mondo contadino dal sapore ancestrale che fonda la propria esistenza su credenze antiche e superstiziose dove la natura sia nella sua forma vegetale sia animale ha un suo ruolo ben preciso.
Tra gli animali ci sono ad esempio i cani che sono sia cibo ma anche guardiani nella loro forma domestica o nemici nella loro forma selvatica.
E poi che l’ambiente come il fiume che in questa storia ha un ruolo quasi attivo.
Il sorgo è, tuttavia, il vero co-protagonista naturale a tutti gli effetti e non solo perché tra le sue spighe si vive e si muore, ma anche per il sorgo è l’elemento che nutre e cura.
Con il sorgo si fa il pane, le focacce, il vino, dei medicamenti, se ne possono ricavare stoppini per accendere un fuoco..
In una Cina è in pieno subbuglio, l’invasione giapponese non fa altro che mettere in rilievo le grandi contraddizioni sociali così la guerra di resistenza è vicina a trasformarsi in guerra civile tra fazioni avverse.
Una storia di amore e odio in uno scenario cruento.
Leggere Mo Yan, per me, diventa un appuntamento con l’agghiacciante sfondo di una Cina così lontana dal mio vivere.
Scene raccapriccianti dove essere umani ed animali subiscono violenze di ogni tipo e spesso gratuite.
Poco invitante, vero?
Eppure questo esordio dello scrittore e premio Nobel cinese, Mo Yan, è considerato il suo capolavoro.
Almeno, stando a ciò che dicono in molti.
Lettura non facile, dunque, per uno sviluppo narrativo, per me, difficile da seguire.
L’efferatezza c’è ma me l’aspettavo.
Insomma, ho preferito altro e non lo consiglierei come prima lettura dell’autore.
"Ogni uomo, a suo modo progredisce e avanza verso un mondo ideale che è definito dal suo sistema di valori."
Mo yan dipinge i paesaggi delle sue storie non solo con colori vividi (Le notti erano di un grigio uva, un vento dorato attraversava il fiume, il cielo blu zaffiro era profondo e sconfinato. Le stelle verdi erano straordinariamente splendenti.") ma con suoni e odori che danno una terza dimensione alle pagine.
La storia della famiglia Shan si fonda sull’adulterio e l’omicidio.
Chi ci racconta questo è la voce di un pronipote che, attraverso una carrellata di acrobatici salti temporali, ricerca le proprie radici.
Tutto comincia con una giovane ragazza, la nonna di chi racconta:
” Quando la nonna compì quindici anni, suo padre decise di darla in sposa a Shan Bianlang, unico figlio di Shan Tingxiu, noto benestante della zona di Gaomi, nel nordest.
La famiglia Shan produceva, usando sorgo a basso prezzo, un ottimo liquore, famoso in tutto il circondario.”
Bellissima e d’animo forte diventa l’amante del Comandante Yu Zhan , un ex vagabondo, assassino e bandito.
Avranno un figlio Douguan (padre di chi racconta) che ha 14 anni affiancherà il padre nei combattimenti contro l’esercito giapponese.
La storia della famiglia Shan è arricchita da una miriade di personaggi che caratterizzano il contesto: banditi, contadini, amanti, monaci...
Come nelle mie precedenti letture di questo autore, noto la presenza di donne indomite come la nonna, Dai Fenglian, e la seconda nonna Lianer.
E’ un mondo contadino dal sapore ancestrale che fonda la propria esistenza su credenze antiche e superstiziose dove la natura sia nella sua forma vegetale sia animale ha un suo ruolo ben preciso.
Tra gli animali ci sono ad esempio i cani che sono sia cibo ma anche guardiani nella loro forma domestica o nemici nella loro forma selvatica.
E poi che l’ambiente come il fiume che in questa storia ha un ruolo quasi attivo.
Il sorgo è, tuttavia, il vero co-protagonista naturale a tutti gli effetti e non solo perché tra le sue spighe si vive e si muore, ma anche per il sorgo è l’elemento che nutre e cura.
Con il sorgo si fa il pane, le focacce, il vino, dei medicamenti, se ne possono ricavare stoppini per accendere un fuoco..
In una Cina è in pieno subbuglio, l’invasione giapponese non fa altro che mettere in rilievo le grandi contraddizioni sociali così la guerra di resistenza è vicina a trasformarsi in guerra civile tra fazioni avverse.
Una storia di amore e odio in uno scenario cruento.
Leggere Mo Yan, per me, diventa un appuntamento con l’agghiacciante sfondo di una Cina così lontana dal mio vivere.
Scene raccapriccianti dove essere umani ed animali subiscono violenze di ogni tipo e spesso gratuite.
Poco invitante, vero?
Eppure questo esordio dello scrittore e premio Nobel cinese, Mo Yan, è considerato il suo capolavoro.
Almeno, stando a ciò che dicono in molti.
Lettura non facile, dunque, per uno sviluppo narrativo, per me, difficile da seguire.
L’efferatezza c’è ma me l’aspettavo.
Insomma, ho preferito altro e non lo consiglierei come prima lettura dell’autore.
"Ogni uomo, a suo modo progredisce e avanza verso un mondo ideale che è definito dal suo sistema di valori."
April 20, 2015
I found Red Sorghum to be a scathing critique of the way the Chinese behaved during the Japanese occupation. It was particularly interesting reading this and contrasting its depiction of the Chinese peasant rebels with Xiao Hong’s in 生死场 (The Field of Life and Death). Xiao Hong shows the peasant rebels as glorious, patriotic fighters. This aspect of their character is not absent from Mo Yan’s depictions, but he also goes further to show that not all of the rebels were acting out of patriotism. Some were acting out of self-interest, using the war and the weapons collected to become mini-war lords and to build their own power base, often by attacking other rebel groups.
There is a magnificent chapter where Douguan and his father are trying to cull a pack of dogs that have turned to eating the corpses of their fellow villagers, too numerous to bury and lying where they were killed. Three dogs, formerly members of Douguan’s household, head the pack. There is a power struggle between them, and one incites another to attack the third. When the fight ends, the instigator turns on the two weakened fighters to finish them off and take control of the pack.
In many ways, this is how the rebel groups behave. Often, they will fight each other instead of fighting the Japanese. In a later section of the novel, Mo Yan describes Douguan’s father, by now the head of a powerful rebel group, holding a grand ceremonial funeral for his mother. The other rebel groups in the area take the opportunity to attack and destroy Douguan’s father’s group, and all sides sustain heavy casualties leaving them ultimately open to Japanese attack. Mo Yan nails down the comparison when he has a small rebel group, struggling to survive in winter, covering themselves in dog pelts to keep warm and as a form of disguise.
The strategy of instigating one enemy to fight one's other enemy would be instantly recognisable to many Chinese. The strategy is part of one of the critical episodes during the chaos of the period of the warring kingdoms, most notably retold by the Chinese classic novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. From Wikipedia:
However, the criticism does not stop there. Mo Yan pointedly remarks that the rebel fighters also ate the dogs they killed and by so doing engage in a kind of proxy cannibalism—the dogs having grown fat on human carrion. The use of cannibalism recalls another classic of Chinese literature, Lu Xun’s short story, “The Diary of a Madman”, where cannibalism is used as a symbol of Chinese society eating its own children and destroying itself. His criticism is not simply then of the rebels as a particular group but also of the rebels' behaviour continuing a self-destructive, recurrent part of China's history, society, and culture.
What I found very intriguing, but have no real answer to, is an incident in the book which takes place during the Cultural Revolution. It appeared to be odds with the rest of the narrative, except in theme. Mo Yan tells the story of a poor man trying to get some food from a party cadre in winter. The cadre is feasting on plenty, while this man, who has suffered his enmity, starves. A servant of the cadre sends him away and he dies of exposure in the snow. Other than a possible connection by theme, there seemed to be no other reason for the story to be in the novel. But, if it is connected by theme, Mo Yan seems to be linking the behaviour of the lower level party cadres (and perhaps by extension the party itself) to the kind of destructive, opportunistic gratification engaged in by the rebels whose selfish acts he describes so well in this novel.
Powerfully told, this novel deserves multiple reads, and I will definitely revisit it in future, hopefully at least once in its original language.
There is a magnificent chapter where Douguan and his father are trying to cull a pack of dogs that have turned to eating the corpses of their fellow villagers, too numerous to bury and lying where they were killed. Three dogs, formerly members of Douguan’s household, head the pack. There is a power struggle between them, and one incites another to attack the third. When the fight ends, the instigator turns on the two weakened fighters to finish them off and take control of the pack.
In many ways, this is how the rebel groups behave. Often, they will fight each other instead of fighting the Japanese. In a later section of the novel, Mo Yan describes Douguan’s father, by now the head of a powerful rebel group, holding a grand ceremonial funeral for his mother. The other rebel groups in the area take the opportunity to attack and destroy Douguan’s father’s group, and all sides sustain heavy casualties leaving them ultimately open to Japanese attack. Mo Yan nails down the comparison when he has a small rebel group, struggling to survive in winter, covering themselves in dog pelts to keep warm and as a form of disguise.
The strategy of instigating one enemy to fight one's other enemy would be instantly recognisable to many Chinese. The strategy is part of one of the critical episodes during the chaos of the period of the warring kingdoms, most notably retold by the Chinese classic novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. From Wikipedia:
Ma Chao suspected that Cao Cao was planning to attack him, so he contacted Han Sui to form an alliance.... Cao Cao later followed Jia Xu's strategy to sow discord between Ma Chao and Han Sui and make them become suspicious of each other. Taking advantage of the hostility between Ma Chao and Han Sui, Cao Cao launched an attack on the northwestern warlords and defeated them.Mo Yan thus imbues his story with the echoes and shadows of Chinese history and myth, slyly underlining the internal chaos as a recurrent theme of Chinese history.
However, the criticism does not stop there. Mo Yan pointedly remarks that the rebel fighters also ate the dogs they killed and by so doing engage in a kind of proxy cannibalism—the dogs having grown fat on human carrion. The use of cannibalism recalls another classic of Chinese literature, Lu Xun’s short story, “The Diary of a Madman”, where cannibalism is used as a symbol of Chinese society eating its own children and destroying itself. His criticism is not simply then of the rebels as a particular group but also of the rebels' behaviour continuing a self-destructive, recurrent part of China's history, society, and culture.
What I found very intriguing, but have no real answer to, is an incident in the book which takes place during the Cultural Revolution. It appeared to be odds with the rest of the narrative, except in theme. Mo Yan tells the story of a poor man trying to get some food from a party cadre in winter. The cadre is feasting on plenty, while this man, who has suffered his enmity, starves. A servant of the cadre sends him away and he dies of exposure in the snow. Other than a possible connection by theme, there seemed to be no other reason for the story to be in the novel. But, if it is connected by theme, Mo Yan seems to be linking the behaviour of the lower level party cadres (and perhaps by extension the party itself) to the kind of destructive, opportunistic gratification engaged in by the rebels whose selfish acts he describes so well in this novel.
Powerfully told, this novel deserves multiple reads, and I will definitely revisit it in future, hopefully at least once in its original language.
May 27, 2019
Part of my Fall 2017 Best Of Chinese Literature project; more here, and a cool list of books here.
Here's the greatest novel ever written about sexy hot grandmas. This lady's - well, it's his mom really. The book is narrated by the grandson, but his dad is the protagonist, so...it's complicated. I read this because it's about "three generations" of Chinese people, so I thought it might give me like a panoramic view of 20th century China, right? But it's really mostly entirely about 1939, the grandparents and their young son. It's pretty focused.
This is red sorghum. Most of the book takes place in and around these fields. You can make booze with it but I can't find any.
In 1939 the Japanese occupied China, did you know that? I forget sometimes, like, for me World War II is mostly about Hitler, but there was all kinds of other stuff going on. So this book, which was written by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan and is very famous in China, takes place in the middle of that occupation as everyone fights everyone. Japanese troops, splintered groups of Chinese soldiers, even bandit gangs, all battle for power in the author's home township of Gaomi, which is here:
The grandfather, Yu Zhan'ao, is the leader of one of those bandit gangs. He's a murderer and a rapist, although the grandmother was super into it so maybe it doesn't count. He's a hero, too. It's complicated. He can shoot seven coins off a table perfectly, like a badass; this is called the "seven-plum-blossom skill," just like in kung fu movies where dudes learn awesome tricks and give them awesome names.
It's all extremely violent, so brace yourself for that. A guy gets skinned alive almost right away. It seemed like it was going on for page after page - I wouldn’t know because I seriously didn't read it, as I get older I'm finding myself unable to handle some of this stuff, I know, it's pathetic. Later on somebody's gonna kill a baby. It's all told in sortof a detached, fableish style - at times I was reminded a little of One Hundred Years Of Solitude You get the idea that maybe the narrator himself can't process the awful pain inflicted on his ancestors - he's talking about his parents, his grandparents, their friends - so he masks it with this light tone.
But it’s gripping, too. Aside from a long, probably metaphorical chapter about fighting a pack of dogs around halfway through, it's riveting. It's easy to follow even though Yan skips around chronologically; you're invested in the characters; it's a terrific book. What was I talking about? Right, dude's mom. He has a sex dream about her, lol. That’s one sexy grandma.
Here's the greatest novel ever written about sexy hot grandmas. This lady's - well, it's his mom really. The book is narrated by the grandson, but his dad is the protagonist, so...it's complicated. I read this because it's about "three generations" of Chinese people, so I thought it might give me like a panoramic view of 20th century China, right? But it's really mostly entirely about 1939, the grandparents and their young son. It's pretty focused.
This is red sorghum. Most of the book takes place in and around these fields. You can make booze with it but I can't find any.
In 1939 the Japanese occupied China, did you know that? I forget sometimes, like, for me World War II is mostly about Hitler, but there was all kinds of other stuff going on. So this book, which was written by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan and is very famous in China, takes place in the middle of that occupation as everyone fights everyone. Japanese troops, splintered groups of Chinese soldiers, even bandit gangs, all battle for power in the author's home township of Gaomi, which is here:
The grandfather, Yu Zhan'ao, is the leader of one of those bandit gangs. He's a murderer and a rapist, although the grandmother was super into it so maybe it doesn't count. He's a hero, too. It's complicated. He can shoot seven coins off a table perfectly, like a badass; this is called the "seven-plum-blossom skill," just like in kung fu movies where dudes learn awesome tricks and give them awesome names.
It's all extremely violent, so brace yourself for that. A guy gets skinned alive almost right away. It seemed like it was going on for page after page - I wouldn’t know because I seriously didn't read it, as I get older I'm finding myself unable to handle some of this stuff, I know, it's pathetic. Later on somebody's gonna kill a baby. It's all told in sortof a detached, fableish style - at times I was reminded a little of One Hundred Years Of Solitude You get the idea that maybe the narrator himself can't process the awful pain inflicted on his ancestors - he's talking about his parents, his grandparents, their friends - so he masks it with this light tone.
But it’s gripping, too. Aside from a long, probably metaphorical chapter about fighting a pack of dogs around halfway through, it's riveting. It's easy to follow even though Yan skips around chronologically; you're invested in the characters; it's a terrific book. What was I talking about? Right, dude's mom. He has a sex dream about her, lol. That’s one sexy grandma.
October 3, 2020
این داستان پر از صحنه‌های خشنه، پر از جنگ و خونریزیه. و توصیفات صحنه‌های وحشتناک. جنایات جنگیِ ژاپنی‌ها در چین و نبردهای دسته‌های مختلف راهزنانِ چینی با خودشون یا با ارتششون و گاهی اتحادشون علیه دشمن مشترک(ژاپن). و در بین تمام این کشمکش‌ها و خونریزی‌ها عشق هم با سختی‌های خودش وجود داره ...
از مهمترین ویژگی‌های سبکی این رمان میشه به پرش‌های زمانی فراوانش اشاره کرد.
از مهمترین ویژگی‌های سبکی این رمان میشه به پرش‌های زمانی فراوانش اشاره کرد.
November 25, 2022
الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء
مو يان
رواية ملحمية للكاتب الصيني الحائز على نوبل للعام 2012. رواية حربية، تاريخية تحمل إليك سمات المجتمع الصيني إبان الغزو الياباني للصين. رواية عنيفة، محكمة وممتعة.
ملامح ثقافية
الآن وهنا، يكمن الجمال الأنثوي في صغر حجم القدمين. الآن وهنا، تؤكل الكلاب وتُعتبر لحومها خير معين على الشفاء من الجروح واستعادة القوة. لا تستغرب أن تنادي الزوجة بعلها بعبارة: أخي الأكبر، أن تُحمل العروس في هودج على أكتاف فتيان يحملونها من قرية إلى أخرى، أن يخشى الناس من الأبرص لدرجة أنهم يدهنون أنفسهم بالنبيذ إذا اضطروا لاستخدام شيء يخصه. من المعتاد أن يُجلد المذنب بالحذاء على مؤخرته بأمر من حاكم المدينة وأن يكون لكل شخص أو مجموعة آلهةً على هيئة شخص أو حيوان. تلك إحدى جماليات هذه الرواية والأدب العالمي عموماً: أن تختبر الحياة في مكان آخر وزمن مغاير.
معارك لا تتوقف
من المعروف أن الصين كانت تعاني من التشرذم أثناء إرهاصات الحرب العالمية الثانية. يحكم الأرض والبشر ثلة من العصابات وأمراء الحروب. يختلط الحابل بالنابل. فرجل العصابات قد يصبح بطلاً قومياً، وقد يصبح القائد الوطني محترفاً للنهب. تحالفات تنشأ وعداوات تتشكل مع كل معركة، ليس بين البشر فقط بل مع الحيوانات كذلك.
دراما تاريخية
تشغل تداعيات الاحتلال الياباني للصين حيزاً كبيراً من الرواية. هناك الكثير من مشاهد القتل والتعذيب. الدم يراق كالماء والتمثيل بالأحياء والأموات يجري على قدم وساق: عنف وعنف مضاد. قصص الشخصيات ممتعة إلى حد ما، الأحداث خيالية ولكنها لا تصل إلى حد الواقعية السحرية كما سمعت من قبل. لا أستطيع القول بأن الشخصيات متميزة إلى حد كبير، فلن أتذكر أغلبها بعد فترة وجيزة.
سرد غير تقليدي، غير مثالي
الراوي هو حفيد وابن للشخصيات الرئيسية. أمر جيد، ولكن لا أعرف ما الداعي لأن تُوكل مهمة الحكي لحفيد ليس له أي دور في الرواية. السرد ليس خطياً إذ تتشعب الأزمنة في الرواية: يموت شخص ثم نسمع حكايات طفولته، نواجه الغزو الياباني ثم لاحقاً نشاهد الحياة قبل مقدمه...إلخ. ثمة فصول أمتعتني بدرجة كبيرة، مثل فصل حرب العصابة ضد الكلاب، وفصل الكمين للإيقاع بكتيبة يابانية على جسر نهر موا شوي. ومن ناحية أخرى هنالك أجزاء مملة مثل الجنازة الكبرى والمعارك في الفصول الأخيرة. وجدت نفسي لا شعورياً أقارن الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء بحرب نهاية العالم ليوسا. هذه الأخيرة أكثر إمتاعاً وتأثيراً بمراحل.
نسخة متعبة
النسخة الورقية العربية ليست مريحة للقارئ. فوزنها ثقيل وهوامش الصفحات كبيرة مما زاد في عدد الصفحات دون داعٍ. الترجمة ممتازة ولكن النص شابته الكثير من الأخطاء الإملائية التي كان بالإمكان تجاوزها بمراجعة بسيطة.
الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء تجربة فريدة، وردة كبيرة حمراء بلون الدم القاني، قُطفت من بستان الأدب الصيني لتصل إلى العالمية.
معلومة لطيفة: مو يان هو اسم أدبي للكاتب، واسمه الحقيقي هو غوان موييه. أما مو يان فتعني: لا تتحدث! يقول الكاتب انه اختار الاسم لأنه في تلك الحقبة لم يكن التحدث في كل شيء أمراً آمناً في الصين.
مو يان
رواية ملحمية للكاتب الصيني الحائز على نوبل للعام 2012. رواية حربية، تاريخية تحمل إليك سمات المجتمع الصيني إبان الغزو الياباني للصين. رواية عنيفة، محكمة وممتعة.
ملامح ثقافية
الآن وهنا، يكمن الجمال الأنثوي في صغر حجم القدمين. الآن وهنا، تؤكل الكلاب وتُعتبر لحومها خير معين على الشفاء من الجروح واستعادة القوة. لا تستغرب أن تنادي الزوجة بعلها بعبارة: أخي الأكبر، أن تُحمل العروس في هودج على أكتاف فتيان يحملونها من قرية إلى أخرى، أن يخشى الناس من الأبرص لدرجة أنهم يدهنون أنفسهم بالنبيذ إذا اضطروا لاستخدام شيء يخصه. من المعتاد أن يُجلد المذنب بالحذاء على مؤخرته بأمر من حاكم المدينة وأن يكون لكل شخص أو مجموعة آلهةً على هيئة شخص أو حيوان. تلك إحدى جماليات هذه الرواية والأدب العالمي عموماً: أن تختبر الحياة في مكان آخر وزمن مغاير.
معارك لا تتوقف
من المعروف أن الصين كانت تعاني من التشرذم أثناء إرهاصات الحرب العالمية الثانية. يحكم الأرض والبشر ثلة من العصابات وأمراء الحروب. يختلط الحابل بالنابل. فرجل العصابات قد يصبح بطلاً قومياً، وقد يصبح القائد الوطني محترفاً للنهب. تحالفات تنشأ وعداوات تتشكل مع كل معركة، ليس بين البشر فقط بل مع الحيوانات كذلك.
دراما تاريخية
تشغل تداعيات الاحتلال الياباني للصين حيزاً كبيراً من الرواية. هناك الكثير من مشاهد القتل والتعذيب. الدم يراق كالماء والتمثيل بالأحياء والأموات يجري على قدم وساق: عنف وعنف مضاد. قصص الشخصيات ممتعة إلى حد ما، الأحداث خيالية ولكنها لا تصل إلى حد الواقعية السحرية كما سمعت من قبل. لا أستطيع القول بأن الشخصيات متميزة إلى حد كبير، فلن أتذكر أغلبها بعد فترة وجيزة.
سرد غير تقليدي، غير مثالي
الراوي هو حفيد وابن للشخصيات الرئيسية. أمر جيد، ولكن لا أعرف ما الداعي لأن تُوكل مهمة الحكي لحفيد ليس له أي دور في الرواية. السرد ليس خطياً إذ تتشعب الأزمنة في الرواية: يموت شخص ثم نسمع حكايات طفولته، نواجه الغزو الياباني ثم لاحقاً نشاهد الحياة قبل مقدمه...إلخ. ثمة فصول أمتعتني بدرجة كبيرة، مثل فصل حرب العصابة ضد الكلاب، وفصل الكمين للإيقاع بكتيبة يابانية على جسر نهر موا شوي. ومن ناحية أخرى هنالك أجزاء مملة مثل الجنازة الكبرى والمعارك في الفصول الأخيرة. وجدت نفسي لا شعورياً أقارن الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء بحرب نهاية العالم ليوسا. هذه الأخيرة أكثر إمتاعاً وتأثيراً بمراحل.
نسخة متعبة
النسخة الورقية العربية ليست مريحة للقارئ. فوزنها ثقيل وهوامش الصفحات كبيرة مما زاد في عدد الصفحات دون داعٍ. الترجمة ممتازة ولكن النص شابته الكثير من الأخطاء الإملائية التي كان بالإمكان تجاوزها بمراجعة بسيطة.
الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء تجربة فريدة، وردة كبيرة حمراء بلون الدم القاني، قُطفت من بستان الأدب الصيني لتصل إلى العالمية.
معلومة لطيفة: مو يان هو اسم أدبي للكاتب، واسمه الحقيقي هو غوان موييه. أما مو يان فتعني: لا تتحدث! يقول الكاتب انه اختار الاسم لأنه في تلك الحقبة لم يكن التحدث في كل شيء أمراً آمناً في الصين.
April 27, 2021
Il sorgo è il vero protagonista di questo stupendo romanzo. Sullo sfondo per tutta la narrazione, accompagna i destini dei cinesi della regione del Gaomi, nella provincia costiera dello Shandong, una delle più vicine al nemico durante la terribile guerra sino-giapponese. Una terra adatta alla coltivazione, una provincia rurale in estrema simbiosi con quel cereale che, quasi personificato, partecipa di tutti gli eventi della vita dei suoi coltivatori, in un ciclo vitale breve rispetto a quello dell’uomo, ma che si protende di chicco in chicco con una continuità infinita. È la terra dello scrittore Mo Yan, premio Nobel nel 2012, che "con il suo realismo allucinatorio forgia racconti popolari, di storia e contemporanei”. E questo è appunto un romanzo storico, ripercorre infatti la devastazione prodotta dall’invasore giapponese negli anni Trenta e Quaranta del secolo scorso, lo sconvolgimento introdotto dall’invasore nelle piccole comunità sparse dell’estremo Oriente, l’arrivo della violenza, della distruzione e della morte. In realtà la narrazione prende l’avvio dai ricordi dell’ultimo discendente di Yu Zhan'ao, affonda dunque le radici in un tessuto pseudo civile fatto di tradizioni millenarie ma anche di soprusi latenti, ancora ben vivi negli anni Venti del XIX secolo. Un mondo atavico, perso nel mondo, alienato e alienante; un mondo già violento e complesso. Un mondo di banditi, come Yu Zhan'ao appunto, il nonno della voce narrante che tenta, anche con il suo racconto, di tornare nel territorio di appartenenza, di cercare quella simbiosi necessaria per poterlo vivere senza essere un coniglio, privo come è, egli, della necessaria forza che la sua permanenza in città ha scalfito, forse per sempre. Anche il sorgo non è più rosso, come lui, è ormai un ibrido: è cambiato e nella sua metamorfosi ha modificato il paesaggio che forse ora è pronto ad accogliere genti diverse. Rimarranno nella storia della famiglia e del Paese le imprese eroiche della popolazione resistente all’invasore, il suo coraggio, il suo sacrificio, così come le singole storie di una famiglia come tante ma che per la caratura dei suoi membri, ha il diritto di entrare nell’epos, nella leggenda quasi, consegnati a noi da un’aura mitica che sa di realismo magico. Un bellissimo romanzo, che annulla il dualismo manicheo con l’uso sapiente della parola e del costrutto narrativo capace di abbracciare un’ampia gamma di emozioni riconducendoli semplicemente ad eros e thanatos.
January 10, 2013
على ضفاف النهر امتدت قرية قو مي وعليه أيضا نمت أغصان الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء وهناك مرت ثلاثة أجيال كانوا أبطالا لهذه الرواية الفذة
الزمان وقت الحرب الصينية واليابانية الممتد من عام 1937 وحتى عام 1945 حين غزت اليابان أراضي الصين وهذه الرواية أُريد بها أن تكون ملحمة بطولية مهداة لكل من أريقت دمائه ودفن تحت تلك الحقول التي إرتوت بالدماء وسكنتها الجثث في مقابر جماعية ..
قسم الكاتب الكتاب لخمسة فصول يكاد كل فصل منها أن يكون رواية مستقلة وإن كانت الشخصيات مرتبطة والأحداث كذلك .. وفي هذا كل البراعة
كما إن السرد كان يأتي ويذهب .. أعني إن الزمن يمضي وإذ بنا نعود للخلف إو نمضي فنجد فلانا شيخا كبيرا .. إن المشاهد كانت أشبه بلوحات تُكمل بعضها البعض لكن سيكون عليك ترتيبها ..
راوي القصة هو الحفيد فجاءت مسميات الشخصيات على شكل أبي وجدي وعمتي وزوجة جدي وابنة جدي إلا أن مركز القصة هو يو الجد قاطع الطريق الذي تحول لمناضل ضد الغزو الياباني من بعد أن كان أجيرا يحمل عروسا لزوجها ليقع في غرامها ويختطفها لتبدأ بعد قصة الحب بين أغصان حقول الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء والكثير من القصص الملونة باللون الأحمر
الكلب الأحمر النبيذ الأحمر لون الدم ولون الحب
البذور التي أنتجت تلك الذرة الرفيعة مثلت الحياة وحين استطالت ونمت شاخت مثلت الموت .. كما كان الأحمر يمثل الحب والزعامة مثل أيضا الدم والخيانة والموت
هذه الرواية العظيمة لم تكن رواية قدم فيها مو يان فقط الصراع الدموي بين اليابان والصين فهي وإن امتلئت بالكثير من المشاهد العنيفة إلا إنها قدمت قصة جميلة للحب والغيرة في أجواء مفعمة بالسحر والأسطورة
لقطات من الفيلم المقتبس عن رواية الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02D6sf...
برع الروائي مون يان في وصف الأمكنة القرية وبيئة مصنع النبيذ ومجتمع الفلاحين والذي دارت فيه الأحداث لا سيما إنه ولد في نفس القرية كما برع في بناء الشخصيات بدءا من شخصية الجدة بتناقضاتها وجنونها وغيرتها الجدة العروس التي تزوجت رجلا أبرصا وخفق قلبها للأجير الذي يحملها لزوجها الجدة الشخصية الساحرة والمهابة والمجنونة بشرب النبيذ الفائقة الجمال ذات القدمين الصغيرتين واللتين تمثلان الأنوثة والإغراء في ثقافة الرجل الصيني
إنتهاءا بشخصية الراوي الحفيد والذي ظهر كالشخص الغامض والذي لم يحصل حتى على اسما .. كما إن مون يان كان فاتنا وهو يروي طقوس الزواج وطقوس الجنازة في المجتمع الصيني وأجده وصل إلى قمة إبداعه حين دخل إلى مجتمع الكلاب بألوانهم الغريبة وتصرفاتهم الحيوانية فهاهو الكلب الصديق الوفي للإنسان يتخلى عن وفائه ويتحول لحيوان بالغ الشراسة الكلاب تحولوا من أصدقاء يعيشون في حظيرة إلى أعداء تنهش الجثث وتقضم فريستها في وقت الحرب ولعل في ذلك إشارة إلى الدول الجارة التي غدرت بهم أو العملاء الذين إنحازوا للمستعمر من أجل حماية مصالحهم ..
كما إن الصيني الذي لا يتورع عن أكل الكلاب فإن الكلاب لا تتورع عن أكله أيضا فيم لو تحينت لهم الفرصة
بالنسبة لترجمة الرواية فإنني يمكنني القول إنها جيدة وجهد مقدر للمترجم مع ذلك أثق إنها لو ترجمت بيد مترجم متمرس في هذا النوع من الأدب لفاقت روعتها كل حد .. أزعجتني الأمثال العربية التي يقحمها المترجم في النص
الرواية لا تصلح لمرهفي الحس
الزمان وقت الحرب الصينية واليابانية الممتد من عام 1937 وحتى عام 1945 حين غزت اليابان أراضي الصين وهذه الرواية أُريد بها أن تكون ملحمة بطولية مهداة لكل من أريقت دمائه ودفن تحت تلك الحقول التي إرتوت بالدماء وسكنتها الجثث في مقابر جماعية ..
قسم الكاتب الكتاب لخمسة فصول يكاد كل فصل منها أن يكون رواية مستقلة وإن كانت الشخصيات مرتبطة والأحداث كذلك .. وفي هذا كل البراعة
كما إن السرد كان يأتي ويذهب .. أعني إن الزمن يمضي وإذ بنا نعود للخلف إو نمضي فنجد فلانا شيخا كبيرا .. إن المشاهد كانت أشبه بلوحات تُكمل بعضها البعض لكن سيكون عليك ترتيبها ..
راوي القصة هو الحفيد فجاءت مسميات الشخصيات على شكل أبي وجدي وعمتي وزوجة جدي وابنة جدي إلا أن مركز القصة هو يو الجد قاطع الطريق الذي تحول لمناضل ضد الغزو الياباني من بعد أن كان أجيرا يحمل عروسا لزوجها ليقع في غرامها ويختطفها لتبدأ بعد قصة الحب بين أغصان حقول الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء والكثير من القصص الملونة باللون الأحمر
الكلب الأحمر النبيذ الأحمر لون الدم ولون الحب
البذور التي أنتجت تلك الذرة الرفيعة مثلت الحياة وحين استطالت ونمت شاخت مثلت الموت .. كما كان الأحمر يمثل الحب والزعامة مثل أيضا الدم والخيانة والموت
هذه الرواية العظيمة لم تكن رواية قدم فيها مو يان فقط الصراع الدموي بين اليابان والصين فهي وإن امتلئت بالكثير من المشاهد العنيفة إلا إنها قدمت قصة جميلة للحب والغيرة في أجواء مفعمة بالسحر والأسطورة
لقطات من الفيلم المقتبس عن رواية الذرة الرفيعة الحمراء
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02D6sf...
برع الروائي مون يان في وصف الأمكنة القرية وبيئة مصنع النبيذ ومجتمع الفلاحين والذي دارت فيه الأحداث لا سيما إنه ولد في نفس القرية كما برع في بناء الشخصيات بدءا من شخصية الجدة بتناقضاتها وجنونها وغيرتها الجدة العروس التي تزوجت رجلا أبرصا وخفق قلبها للأجير الذي يحملها لزوجها الجدة الشخصية الساحرة والمهابة والمجنونة بشرب النبيذ الفائقة الجمال ذات القدمين الصغيرتين واللتين تمثلان الأنوثة والإغراء في ثقافة الرجل الصيني
إنتهاءا بشخصية الراوي الحفيد والذي ظهر كالشخص الغامض والذي لم يحصل حتى على اسما .. كما إن مون يان كان فاتنا وهو يروي طقوس الزواج وطقوس الجنازة في المجتمع الصيني وأجده وصل إلى قمة إبداعه حين دخل إلى مجتمع الكلاب بألوانهم الغريبة وتصرفاتهم الحيوانية فهاهو الكلب الصديق الوفي للإنسان يتخلى عن وفائه ويتحول لحيوان بالغ الشراسة الكلاب تحولوا من أصدقاء يعيشون في حظيرة إلى أعداء تنهش الجثث وتقضم فريستها في وقت الحرب ولعل في ذلك إشارة إلى الدول الجارة التي غدرت بهم أو العملاء الذين إنحازوا للمستعمر من أجل حماية مصالحهم ..
كما إن الصيني الذي لا يتورع عن أكل الكلاب فإن الكلاب لا تتورع عن أكله أيضا فيم لو تحينت لهم الفرصة
بالنسبة لترجمة الرواية فإنني يمكنني القول إنها جيدة وجهد مقدر للمترجم مع ذلك أثق إنها لو ترجمت بيد مترجم متمرس في هذا النوع من الأدب لفاقت روعتها كل حد .. أزعجتني الأمثال العربية التي يقحمها المترجم في النص
الرواية لا تصلح لمرهفي الحس
November 30, 2012
This is a family history, skillfully interlaced with beautiful descriptions of nature set against the horribly disturbing and shockingly realistic background of the atrocities committed by both sides during the war and occupation of China by the Japanese. An astonishing book.
January 25, 2013
I'm aware that I ought to have liked this. Nobel prize winner, world literature, etc. But the more I read it (and I read to the very end, albeit in fits and starts for the last 50 or so pages) the less I appreciated its faux-mythologising stance, its glorification of violence, its utter lack of psychological - I won't say depth, because myth doesn't have depth, it just provides us with a terminology for depth - let's say, credibility. Oh yes, repeating words (sorghum an embarrassingly high number of times, with red and green not far behind) does not make them symbolic; it makes them irritating. To suggest that this has the slightest thing in common with the morally complex work of, say, Kundera, is absurd. I've given it two stars because the translation has a nice clunky 'foreign' feel to it, which isn't a quality I normally appreciate but that,in this case, served as a distraction from the 'rivers' of 'blood' (two other massively over-used nouns)...
And don't get me started on that patronising colonialist term 'world literature'. 'World music' was bad enough...
And don't get me started on that patronising colonialist term 'world literature'. 'World music' was bad enough...
December 9, 2021
این رمان به نظر من بیش از هرچیز شبیه یک نقاشی اکسپرسیونیسم بود؛ سرشار از رنگ‌های تند و جیغ - بویژه قرمز- و تصاویر زمخت و خشن.
راوی به صورت نامنظم به گذشته می‌رود و سرنوشت پدربزرگ، مادربزرگ، پدر و دیگر اعضای خانواده‌شان را در اواسط قرن بیستم روایت میکند و حال و هوای تاریک و سرد حمله‌‌ی ژاپن به چین و همچنین درگیری‌های داخلی خود کشور چین را به تصویر می‌کشد.
با اینکه نویسنده‌ی ذرت سرخ نوبل سال ۲۰۱۲ را از آن خود کرده ولی کتاب برای من گرمایی نداشت که مرا درگیر خود کند.
بخش‌هایی از کتاب:
▪️ ترس همان چیزی است که راه آزادی را سد میکند.
▪️تحقیر لفظی و خشونت فیزیکی ، آن پشیمانی را از قلبش بیرون کرده بود و به جای اینکه خود را سرزنش کند، انگیزه پیدا کرده بود تلافی کند.
▪️فساد از پی رفاه می‌آید.
▪️جامعه‌ی باثبات و آرام تمرین انسانیت است.
▪️بعضی اوقات فکر می‌کنم بین انحطاط انسانیت و افزایش ثروت و رفاه رابطه‌ای وجود دارد.
۱۴۰۰/۹/۱۷
راوی به صورت نامنظم به گذشته می‌رود و سرنوشت پدربزرگ، مادربزرگ، پدر و دیگر اعضای خانواده‌شان را در اواسط قرن بیستم روایت میکند و حال و هوای تاریک و سرد حمله‌‌ی ژاپن به چین و همچنین درگیری‌های داخلی خود کشور چین را به تصویر می‌کشد.
با اینکه نویسنده‌ی ذرت سرخ نوبل سال ۲۰۱۲ را از آن خود کرده ولی کتاب برای من گرمایی نداشت که مرا درگیر خود کند.
بخش‌هایی از کتاب:
▪️ ترس همان چیزی است که راه آزادی را سد میکند.
▪️تحقیر لفظی و خشونت فیزیکی ، آن پشیمانی را از قلبش بیرون کرده بود و به جای اینکه خود را سرزنش کند، انگیزه پیدا کرده بود تلافی کند.
▪️فساد از پی رفاه می‌آید.
▪️جامعه‌ی باثبات و آرام تمرین انسانیت است.
▪️بعضی اوقات فکر می‌کنم بین انحطاط انسانیت و افزایش ثروت و رفاه رابطه‌ای وجود دارد.
۱۴۰۰/۹/۱۷
March 18, 2023
Gerçekten hiç ilerlemiyor çok sıkıcı dil kötü.. Belki ıskalıyorum ama hayatımda ilk defa bir kitabı bitirmeden bırakıyorum; hoşçakal kızıl darı tarlaları....
May 12, 2013
This novel removes any doubt as to whether Mo Yan deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is complex, bawdy, earthy, poetic, wallows in dirt and blood, and soars to magnificent poetic heights. Besides language so rich you can chew on it, and the deeply imagined characters, the greatest appeal of the novel, to me, were the many daring risks the author takes with form and structure.
If you've seen the movie, you've seen only the thin crust of the first two sections of the novel, cut apart and reassembled to tell a chronological story. The novel consists of several intertwining stories of love, resistance, violence and chaos in rural China during the Japanese invasion and occupation, and offers probably the best impression I've read of the near-incomprehensible bedlam caused by competing armies and militias across China during that time.
The narrative leaps all over the place in time, back three years, ahead twenty years, yesterday, tomorrow and today, with storylines and characters overlapping and diverging, sometimes within just a few short pages, without any obvious time markers. Often a storyline circles back, 150 pages later, to where it left off. Yet this comes across as entirely natural, the way an oral storyteller would present it.
Which is how it is told, in seldom-used first person omniscient, in which the narrator--the child and grandchild of the main characters--leaps into the thoughts of each person and even a few dogs.
Other reviewers have complained about how often the words "red sorghum" appear, almost on every page of the book, sometimes 5 or 10 times on a page. Even this I found hauntingly effective, painting an impressionistic view of the landscape. To these characters, the vast flat panorama of fields of head-high grain extending toward every horizon, are all they know, all that sustains them and buffers them from the world. Red sorghum itself is in fact a metaphor for every aspect of their lives.
I'm not a great fan of Mo Yan's later novels employing magical realism, but Red Sorghum is fully rooted in almost painfully descriptive realism. I also don't normally care for the translations of Howard Goldblatt, since his prolific translations of nearly every major contemporary Chinese writer tend to end up with the same narrative tone, regardless of who the author is. But Red Sorghum is one of his earliest translations, and he clearly sweated blood in rendering this great work into mouth-watering English.
For those new to Mo Yan, The Garlic Ballads is probably an easier entry point, since it's shorter and less ambitious, yet beautifully, achingly sad. Red Sorghum throws the reader many challenges, but in the end it is an unforgettable work.
If you've seen the movie, you've seen only the thin crust of the first two sections of the novel, cut apart and reassembled to tell a chronological story. The novel consists of several intertwining stories of love, resistance, violence and chaos in rural China during the Japanese invasion and occupation, and offers probably the best impression I've read of the near-incomprehensible bedlam caused by competing armies and militias across China during that time.
The narrative leaps all over the place in time, back three years, ahead twenty years, yesterday, tomorrow and today, with storylines and characters overlapping and diverging, sometimes within just a few short pages, without any obvious time markers. Often a storyline circles back, 150 pages later, to where it left off. Yet this comes across as entirely natural, the way an oral storyteller would present it.
Which is how it is told, in seldom-used first person omniscient, in which the narrator--the child and grandchild of the main characters--leaps into the thoughts of each person and even a few dogs.
Other reviewers have complained about how often the words "red sorghum" appear, almost on every page of the book, sometimes 5 or 10 times on a page. Even this I found hauntingly effective, painting an impressionistic view of the landscape. To these characters, the vast flat panorama of fields of head-high grain extending toward every horizon, are all they know, all that sustains them and buffers them from the world. Red sorghum itself is in fact a metaphor for every aspect of their lives.
I'm not a great fan of Mo Yan's later novels employing magical realism, but Red Sorghum is fully rooted in almost painfully descriptive realism. I also don't normally care for the translations of Howard Goldblatt, since his prolific translations of nearly every major contemporary Chinese writer tend to end up with the same narrative tone, regardless of who the author is. But Red Sorghum is one of his earliest translations, and he clearly sweated blood in rendering this great work into mouth-watering English.
For those new to Mo Yan, The Garlic Ballads is probably an easier entry point, since it's shorter and less ambitious, yet beautifully, achingly sad. Red Sorghum throws the reader many challenges, but in the end it is an unforgettable work.
February 8, 2017
Ah Mo Yan Ah!..
Bazı kitaplar vardır. Bu ne şimdi? Ne anlatıyor? Nerdeyim ki şimdi dedirten? Kitaba yoğunlaşamazsınız. Büyük olasılık öncesinde çok kuvvetli, yazarın bir eserini okuyup, aynı çoşkuyu bir seferde alacağınızı düşünürsünüz ve yazara aslında en büyük haksızlığı yaparsanız. Benim için de Kızıl Darı Tarlaları, tahlilsiz bir şekilde en başta okunması gerekirken, Yaşam ve Ölüm Yorgunu gibi Mo Yan'un bir başka şaheserinden önce okuyarak, kitabı kafamda bir anda hiçsizleştirme içine soktuğum kitaplardan biri oldu.
Böyle bir yanılgın en büyük nedeni ise, sevgili Mo Yan'ın olayları kronolojik bir yapı içinde okura vermeyip, dağınık dağınık puzzlein bir parçasını koyar gibi, anılar biçiminde verip her şeyi bir anda müthiş zekasıyla birleştirmesinde saklı. (SPOİLER DEĞİL)
Kızıl Darı tarlaları epik ve lirik bir kitap. 1900'larda Çin'in Japonlar tarafında istilasını anlatıyor.Ve neden Mo Yan'a bu kitabına Nobel verildiğini anlamış oluyorsunuz.
Herkese iyi okumalar..
10/10
Bazı kitaplar vardır. Bu ne şimdi? Ne anlatıyor? Nerdeyim ki şimdi dedirten? Kitaba yoğunlaşamazsınız. Büyük olasılık öncesinde çok kuvvetli, yazarın bir eserini okuyup, aynı çoşkuyu bir seferde alacağınızı düşünürsünüz ve yazara aslında en büyük haksızlığı yaparsanız. Benim için de Kızıl Darı Tarlaları, tahlilsiz bir şekilde en başta okunması gerekirken, Yaşam ve Ölüm Yorgunu gibi Mo Yan'un bir başka şaheserinden önce okuyarak, kitabı kafamda bir anda hiçsizleştirme içine soktuğum kitaplardan biri oldu.
Böyle bir yanılgın en büyük nedeni ise, sevgili Mo Yan'ın olayları kronolojik bir yapı içinde okura vermeyip, dağınık dağınık puzzlein bir parçasını koyar gibi, anılar biçiminde verip her şeyi bir anda müthiş zekasıyla birleştirmesinde saklı. (SPOİLER DEĞİL)
Kızıl Darı tarlaları epik ve lirik bir kitap. 1900'larda Çin'in Japonlar tarafında istilasını anlatıyor.Ve neden Mo Yan'a bu kitabına Nobel verildiğini anlamış oluyorsunuz.
Herkese iyi okumalar..
10/10
May 28, 2019
Bir söz var mıdır bilir misiniz?
“Kızın çeyizi annesinin kaderi”
Derler ki kızlar annelerinin kaderi ile yoğrulur.. Oğullar peki? Babalarının kaderleri ile mi sınanırlar?
Babalarının açtığı kuyulara mı düşerler? Kaldırılmış engellerin gölgesinde mi yaşarlar?
.
Dede,baba,torun. Üç kuşak.
Üç kuşak da boğuşuyor darı tarlalarında.
Darı tarlaları ki ucu bucağı kızıla çalıyor.
Darı tarlaları ki ölüler hüzünle gömülürken derinliklerine, yeni doğanların huzurlu beşiği oluyor.
Ter dökülüyor, kan dökülüyor.. Parça parça can koparılıyor bir avuç özgürlük için. Buna değmiyor mu sanıyorsunuz? Yanılıyorsunuz.. Çok daha azı için ne savaşlar çıktı bilmez misiniz?
.
Mo Yan topraktan acı toplayıp; söze döndürüyor onları.
Köyünü anlatıyor. Küçük kahramanlıkları, küçük hayatları, küçük kayıpları.. Hepsi bir araya geldiğinde ‘büyük’ bir şey oluyor.
.
Guan Moye ülkesinde yaşanan onca şeyden sonra diyor ki kendine ‘sakın konuşma!’
Diyor ki kendine ‘Mo Yan!’
Ve konuşmuyor da.
Yazıyor.
Değişim’i,ağız sulandıran saydam turp’u ,en kızılından darı tarlalarını.
.
Mo Yan okumak uzak bir ülkeye gitmeden kokusunu içine çekmeye benziyor. Karakterlerin dilini bilmeden de onlarla tanış olmaya..
“Kızın çeyizi annesinin kaderi”
Derler ki kızlar annelerinin kaderi ile yoğrulur.. Oğullar peki? Babalarının kaderleri ile mi sınanırlar?
Babalarının açtığı kuyulara mı düşerler? Kaldırılmış engellerin gölgesinde mi yaşarlar?
.
Dede,baba,torun. Üç kuşak.
Üç kuşak da boğuşuyor darı tarlalarında.
Darı tarlaları ki ucu bucağı kızıla çalıyor.
Darı tarlaları ki ölüler hüzünle gömülürken derinliklerine, yeni doğanların huzurlu beşiği oluyor.
Ter dökülüyor, kan dökülüyor.. Parça parça can koparılıyor bir avuç özgürlük için. Buna değmiyor mu sanıyorsunuz? Yanılıyorsunuz.. Çok daha azı için ne savaşlar çıktı bilmez misiniz?
.
Mo Yan topraktan acı toplayıp; söze döndürüyor onları.
Köyünü anlatıyor. Küçük kahramanlıkları, küçük hayatları, küçük kayıpları.. Hepsi bir araya geldiğinde ‘büyük’ bir şey oluyor.
.
Guan Moye ülkesinde yaşanan onca şeyden sonra diyor ki kendine ‘sakın konuşma!’
Diyor ki kendine ‘Mo Yan!’
Ve konuşmuyor da.
Yazıyor.
Değişim’i,ağız sulandıran saydam turp’u ,en kızılından darı tarlalarını.
.
Mo Yan okumak uzak bir ülkeye gitmeden kokusunu içine çekmeye benziyor. Karakterlerin dilini bilmeden de onlarla tanış olmaya..
January 25, 2021
so much to say about it... It was one of the best reading in 2014.Mo Yan is very good story teller and the story was very blue. I am also glad that he won the nobel as it is caused his two books translated in Turkish with delay almost 30 years.
March 15, 2015
Per il momento, Mo Yan e io non è che andiamo molto d’accordo. I giapponesi, le imboscate, i massacri, i laghi di sangue, i cadaveri, gli storpi, le nonne superwomen, i dementi, i malati, i muti, i muli, i cani, il fiume, il ponte, il fango, il fetore, un cavolo di nessuno che riesca a dialogare in maniera coerente: tutto questo l’avevo già trovato in Grande seno, fianchi larghi. E ok. Ma dove vuole andare a parare l’autore? Cosa mi sta dicendo? Ancora non l’ho capito, sinceramente. Forse che “si stava meglio quando si stava peggio”? Che quella era l’età dell’oro? E’ per questo che alla fine scrive:
In quel momento una voce desolata giunge dal cuore della terra sconfinata. E’ una voce familiare e al contempo sconosciuta, sembra quella chiara e forte del nonno, quella della nonna, della seconda nonna, e della terza nonna. Gli spettri della mia famiglia mi indicano la strada per uscire da questo labirinto: misero, fragile, sospettoso, ostinato ragazzo dall'animo stregato da vino avvelenato, immergiti nel fiume Moshui per tre giorni e per tre notti - ricorda, non uno di più, non uno di meno -, purifica il tuo corpo e il tuo animo, e potrai tornare nel tuo mondo. A sud del monte Baima, a nord del fiume Moshui cresce ancora un fusto di sorgo rosso puro, devi cercarlo a ogni costo. Tienilo alto quando correrai verso il tuo mondo invaso dai rovi e percorso da tigri e lupi, perché sarà il tuo talismano e anche il totem glorioso del nostro clan, il simbolo della tradizione di Gaomi!?
Ma davvero si può considerare paradisiaca tutta quella bestialità, quella brutalità, quell’aridità dell’animo, quell’incapacità di creare rapporti costruttivi? Non riesco a crederci. Evidentemente, mi sfugge qualcosa, visto che il Nobel per la letteratura gliel’avranno ben assegnato per qualche motivo. O no?
Ad ogni modo, col piffero che questa storia assomiglia a Cent’anni di solitudine. Ma neanche vagamente. Esattamente come il paragone non funzionava affatto neppure con Grande seno, fianchi larghi. Ho come l’impressione che, non sapendo esattamente cosa dire, i critici l’abbiano sparata lì tanto per scrivere qualcosa che invogli la lettura, in entrambi i casi. Che cavolo c’azzecca questo desolante paesaggio cinese con il rigoglio di Macondo? A Macondo le persone si intendono con due parole, qui neppure con un milione. A Macondo tutto è vita, anche i morti. Qui i vivi sono putrefatti prima di morire. E’ davvero asfissiante l’atmosfera che l’autore ci propone in questi due romanzi. Se questo era il suo intento, ci è riuscito benissimo. Ma morire soffocata non è una delle mie principali aspirazioni.
Ho altri due libri di Mo Yan in attesa di lettura. Vedremo come andrà.
PS: Comunque, Grande seno, fianchi larghi è migliore rispetto a questo. Ma il lezzo che costantemente accompagna la narrazione è identico. Non per voler fare la spiritosa a tutti i costi, ma ho davvero provato l’impulso di farmi una bella doccia calda tutte le volte che finivo un capitolo qualsiasi di questi due romanzi. E’ un tantino esagerata (e inquietante) l’inclinazione che ha Mo Yan di indulgere nella descrizione delle “puzze” e dei liquami di varia natura.
In quel momento una voce desolata giunge dal cuore della terra sconfinata. E’ una voce familiare e al contempo sconosciuta, sembra quella chiara e forte del nonno, quella della nonna, della seconda nonna, e della terza nonna. Gli spettri della mia famiglia mi indicano la strada per uscire da questo labirinto: misero, fragile, sospettoso, ostinato ragazzo dall'animo stregato da vino avvelenato, immergiti nel fiume Moshui per tre giorni e per tre notti - ricorda, non uno di più, non uno di meno -, purifica il tuo corpo e il tuo animo, e potrai tornare nel tuo mondo. A sud del monte Baima, a nord del fiume Moshui cresce ancora un fusto di sorgo rosso puro, devi cercarlo a ogni costo. Tienilo alto quando correrai verso il tuo mondo invaso dai rovi e percorso da tigri e lupi, perché sarà il tuo talismano e anche il totem glorioso del nostro clan, il simbolo della tradizione di Gaomi!?
Ma davvero si può considerare paradisiaca tutta quella bestialità, quella brutalità, quell’aridità dell’animo, quell’incapacità di creare rapporti costruttivi? Non riesco a crederci. Evidentemente, mi sfugge qualcosa, visto che il Nobel per la letteratura gliel’avranno ben assegnato per qualche motivo. O no?
Ad ogni modo, col piffero che questa storia assomiglia a Cent’anni di solitudine. Ma neanche vagamente. Esattamente come il paragone non funzionava affatto neppure con Grande seno, fianchi larghi. Ho come l’impressione che, non sapendo esattamente cosa dire, i critici l’abbiano sparata lì tanto per scrivere qualcosa che invogli la lettura, in entrambi i casi. Che cavolo c’azzecca questo desolante paesaggio cinese con il rigoglio di Macondo? A Macondo le persone si intendono con due parole, qui neppure con un milione. A Macondo tutto è vita, anche i morti. Qui i vivi sono putrefatti prima di morire. E’ davvero asfissiante l’atmosfera che l’autore ci propone in questi due romanzi. Se questo era il suo intento, ci è riuscito benissimo. Ma morire soffocata non è una delle mie principali aspirazioni.
Ho altri due libri di Mo Yan in attesa di lettura. Vedremo come andrà.
PS: Comunque, Grande seno, fianchi larghi è migliore rispetto a questo. Ma il lezzo che costantemente accompagna la narrazione è identico. Non per voler fare la spiritosa a tutti i costi, ma ho davvero provato l’impulso di farmi una bella doccia calda tutte le volte che finivo un capitolo qualsiasi di questi due romanzi. E’ un tantino esagerata (e inquietante) l’inclinazione che ha Mo Yan di indulgere nella descrizione delle “puzze” e dei liquami di varia natura.
May 27, 2021
Un romanzo classico in impostazione, familiare, che ripercorre la storia sanguinaria della Cina dell'invasione giapponese dal punto di vista di un piccolo paese. Coprotagonista il sorgo, un cereale coltivato nella regione, che fa da sfondo e segue come piegato dal vento tutte le vicende, sottolineandole, soffrendo con i protagonisti, esaltando ogni emozione.
La scrittura è pulita, curata, e guida come un'onda fra le atrocità inflitte, la crudezza delle descrizioni, l'alternarsi dei piani temporali: il lettore soffre con i protagonisti ma non riesce a staccarsi dalla lettura.
Un romanzo adatto a chi cerca uno squarcio sulla realtà, senza mezzi termini, a chi cerca un romanzo storico solido, coerente, accurato, dal punto di vista della popolazione generale: quando la Storia con la s maiuscola irrompe nelle vicende quotidiane di un mondo fuori dal tempo, atavico, ripetitivo, che viene catapultato fuori dalla routine e si deve confrontare con nuove sfide oltre alle proprie note, date per inevitabili, una violenza che si aggiunge alla violenza, una tradizione che viene incrinata dall'immanenza.
La scrittura è pulita, curata, e guida come un'onda fra le atrocità inflitte, la crudezza delle descrizioni, l'alternarsi dei piani temporali: il lettore soffre con i protagonisti ma non riesce a staccarsi dalla lettura.
Un romanzo adatto a chi cerca uno squarcio sulla realtà, senza mezzi termini, a chi cerca un romanzo storico solido, coerente, accurato, dal punto di vista della popolazione generale: quando la Storia con la s maiuscola irrompe nelle vicende quotidiane di un mondo fuori dal tempo, atavico, ripetitivo, che viene catapultato fuori dalla routine e si deve confrontare con nuove sfide oltre alle proprie note, date per inevitabili, una violenza che si aggiunge alla violenza, una tradizione che viene incrinata dall'immanenza.
January 21, 2020
Campi di sorgo e distese di sangue
Dalla Cina, Premio Nobel 2012.
Potenza narrativa, personaggi indimenticabili, una storia epica familiare di tre generazioni.
“Sorgo rosso” è narrato in terza persona: la voce narrante riferisce la storia d’amore tra suo nonno Yu Zhan’ao, comandante e bandito e sua nonna, la bella Dai Fengliang, uniti contro l’invasione giapponese nel Gaomi (villaggio nella regione dello Shandong). Una famiglia particolare, dai legami alquanto liberi, dove le passioni più ardenti e le gelosie più spietate vivacizzano la vita durante le tregue della guerra Cino-Nipponica. La narrazione parte “dall’ottavo mese lunare” del 1939 e arriva al 1972, fino al comunismo, ma gli eventi non seguono l’ordine cronologico naturale, la storia procede per continui e lunghi flashback con intreccio di più piani narrativi, in cui si inseriscono anche i genitori della “nonna”, Lian’er”la seconda nonna” divenuta amante di Yu Zhan’ao, Zio Liu.
L’azione si svolge in un solo piccolissimo luogo, il Gaomi:
“Un posto che è il più bello e il più orribile del mondo, il più insolito e il più comune, il più puro e il più corrotto, il più eroico e il più vile, il paese dei più grandi bevitori e dei migliori amanti”.
Ora sullo sfondo ora in primo piano, le immense distese di sorgo, delle sfumature calde più disparate a seconda delle stagioni, il fiume Moshui, le sue acque ora limpide ora rosso del sangue degli uomini e degli animali uccisi.
Grazie alla scrittura di Mo Yan, così vivida e così profonda, mi sono immersa nelle passioni che hanno ispirato questa storia magnifica.
Il sorgo è presente quasi in ogni pagina: campi sterminati di sorgo, fusti di sorgo intessuti per ricavarne tappeti e ceste, piante di sorgo pettinate dal vento che hanno una sonorità particolare, il vino di sorgo e le distillerie, il sorgo con le più svariate sfumature di rosso, tra cui spicca il rosso sangue. Non a caso, il rosso sangue.
Bisogna avvisare i lettori che “Sorgo rosso”, così come le altre opere di Mo Yan, non è una rilassante passeggiata nel bosco, ma è un calarsi in situazioni violente e dure, con continuo spargimento di sangue, scene raccapriccianti (come la descrizione dello scuoiamento di zio Liu vivo, scena in cui l’autore ha indugiato particolarmente, rispetto alle altre).
Mo Yan significa “non parlare”, un nome d’arte di per sé provocatorio, in quanto l’autore attraverso la scrittura denuncia tutta la bruttura e la violenza della guerra, quando ci si uccide tra esseri umani e brutalmente anche tra esseri umani ed animali. Un mondo, una realtà, dove il bisogno di mangiare e sentirsi vivi hanno la loro prepotenza sia nella società degli uomini che in quella degli animali più intelligenti. Non solo maiali, capre, galline,si accetta senza troppi scrupoli e cerimonie la carne del cane, di cui si mangia tutto.
Questi “dettagli” inconcepibili per noi occidentali, contemporanei, li ho visti come importanti da segnalare. Se è vero da un lato che, nonostante la violenza e il sangue, il libro di Mo Yan è un capolavoro indimenticabile, che va letto e conosciuto, è anche vero che il lettore va avvisato. Io, ad esempio, mi ero già imbattuta nelle sue tematiche, ma in “Sorgo rosso” le scene sono più crude. Se credete che esista un dovere di conoscenza dei capolavori della letteratura mondiale, “Sorgo rosso” è uno di questi e leggerlo vale la pena di sopportare qualche passaggio che ferisce la nostra sensibilità e ci impressiona profondamente.
“Sorgo rosso” è un capolavoro indimenticabile.
Dalla Cina, Premio Nobel 2012.
Potenza narrativa, personaggi indimenticabili, una storia epica familiare di tre generazioni.
“Sorgo rosso” è narrato in terza persona: la voce narrante riferisce la storia d’amore tra suo nonno Yu Zhan’ao, comandante e bandito e sua nonna, la bella Dai Fengliang, uniti contro l’invasione giapponese nel Gaomi (villaggio nella regione dello Shandong). Una famiglia particolare, dai legami alquanto liberi, dove le passioni più ardenti e le gelosie più spietate vivacizzano la vita durante le tregue della guerra Cino-Nipponica. La narrazione parte “dall’ottavo mese lunare” del 1939 e arriva al 1972, fino al comunismo, ma gli eventi non seguono l’ordine cronologico naturale, la storia procede per continui e lunghi flashback con intreccio di più piani narrativi, in cui si inseriscono anche i genitori della “nonna”, Lian’er”la seconda nonna” divenuta amante di Yu Zhan’ao, Zio Liu.
L’azione si svolge in un solo piccolissimo luogo, il Gaomi:
“Un posto che è il più bello e il più orribile del mondo, il più insolito e il più comune, il più puro e il più corrotto, il più eroico e il più vile, il paese dei più grandi bevitori e dei migliori amanti”.
Ora sullo sfondo ora in primo piano, le immense distese di sorgo, delle sfumature calde più disparate a seconda delle stagioni, il fiume Moshui, le sue acque ora limpide ora rosso del sangue degli uomini e degli animali uccisi.
Grazie alla scrittura di Mo Yan, così vivida e così profonda, mi sono immersa nelle passioni che hanno ispirato questa storia magnifica.
Il sorgo è presente quasi in ogni pagina: campi sterminati di sorgo, fusti di sorgo intessuti per ricavarne tappeti e ceste, piante di sorgo pettinate dal vento che hanno una sonorità particolare, il vino di sorgo e le distillerie, il sorgo con le più svariate sfumature di rosso, tra cui spicca il rosso sangue. Non a caso, il rosso sangue.
Bisogna avvisare i lettori che “Sorgo rosso”, così come le altre opere di Mo Yan, non è una rilassante passeggiata nel bosco, ma è un calarsi in situazioni violente e dure, con continuo spargimento di sangue, scene raccapriccianti (come la descrizione dello scuoiamento di zio Liu vivo, scena in cui l’autore ha indugiato particolarmente, rispetto alle altre).
Mo Yan significa “non parlare”, un nome d’arte di per sé provocatorio, in quanto l’autore attraverso la scrittura denuncia tutta la bruttura e la violenza della guerra, quando ci si uccide tra esseri umani e brutalmente anche tra esseri umani ed animali. Un mondo, una realtà, dove il bisogno di mangiare e sentirsi vivi hanno la loro prepotenza sia nella società degli uomini che in quella degli animali più intelligenti. Non solo maiali, capre, galline,si accetta senza troppi scrupoli e cerimonie la carne del cane, di cui si mangia tutto.
Questi “dettagli” inconcepibili per noi occidentali, contemporanei, li ho visti come importanti da segnalare. Se è vero da un lato che, nonostante la violenza e il sangue, il libro di Mo Yan è un capolavoro indimenticabile, che va letto e conosciuto, è anche vero che il lettore va avvisato. Io, ad esempio, mi ero già imbattuta nelle sue tematiche, ma in “Sorgo rosso” le scene sono più crude. Se credete che esista un dovere di conoscenza dei capolavori della letteratura mondiale, “Sorgo rosso” è uno di questi e leggerlo vale la pena di sopportare qualche passaggio che ferisce la nostra sensibilità e ci impressiona profondamente.
“Sorgo rosso” è un capolavoro indimenticabile.
January 9, 2021
روایت مو یان روایتی است ساده با رایحه و طعم و بوی رئالیسم جادوئی از زندگی روستایی چین.
ماجرا
در کتاب سبعیت و درنده خویی ارتش ژاپن در خلال جنگ جهانی اول در مناطق روستایی چین به نمایش در آمده.
داستان مربوط به چند نسل از یک خانواده است که درگیر جنگ، قتل، راهزنی، شراب، خیانت و قحطی و عشق ... میشوند. بخش عمده‌ای از داستان به مقاومت گروه‌های مردمی چین در مقابل ارتش مدرن و مسلح ژاپن می‌پردازد. راوی ابائی از نشان دادن صحنه‌های خشن و سخت ندارد. صحنه‌ی پوست کندن یک انسان، بر سرنیزه کردن کودک و بیرون ریختن دل و روده گاهی خواننده را مشمئز میکند.
همچنین روایتهایی از رقابت گروه های مقاومت چینی با یکدیگر، راهزنی از مردم و غیره...
در این بین خط روایی عاطفی و احساسی هم وجود دارد. جایی که عشق به همسر، برادر، خواهر یا پدر و مادر هم نقش خودش را بازی میکند.
ذرت سرخ
در ابتدای کتاب روایتی از طبیعت چین را شاهد هستیم که سراسر پوشیده است از مزارع ذرت سرخ، مردم فقیرند اما زندگی را میگذرانند. کم کم پای ژاپنی ها به روستاها و مناطق دور افتاده باز میشود. مردم با وسائل پیش پا افتاده ای با ژاپنی ها به مقابله برمیخیزند. اسلحله ی گرم هم هست اما با کیفیت پایین و به تعداد اندک. اندک تسلیحات قابل اشاره هم بین گروه های متخاصم چینی در رد و بدل است که برخی علیه ژاپنی ها می‌جنگند و برخی له.
آرام آرام خاک روستاها هم به رنگ پرچم چین در می آید، به رنگ ذرت سرخ.
در انتها ذرت سرخ چینی با ذرت اصلاح شده جایگزین شده و دیگر خبری از سرخی نیست. بهایی که برای پیشرفت باید پرداخت.
رسوم
در کتاب با رسوم چینی آشنا میشوید. دو مورد که برای خودم جالب بود:
اول بحث بستن پای دختران که قبلا در موردش خوانده بودم اما باز هم درد آور بود. از مصادیق زیبایی و جذابیت در چین قدیم موضوع کوچک بودن پای دختران بوده است. از خردسالی پای دختران با پارچه هایی بسته میشده تا جلوی رشد پا گرفته شود که با تغییر شکل استخوان و پا همراه بوده. این فرایند به نظر بسیار سخت و رنج آور بوده.
در جای دیگری از کتاب رسمی چینی گنجانده شده که در آن مردم حق ندارند خردسالان زیر 5 سال را پس از مرگ به خاک بسپارند و پیکر بیجان آنها را جایی قرار میدهند تا حیوانات از بدن این خردسالان استفاده کنند.
قحطی بز��گ
جایی از کتاب اشاره شد به "جهش بزرگ به جلو". طرحی که مائو برای تبدیل چین سنتی به چین مدرن اجرا کرد. در طرح قرار بود مدل درآمدی چین از حالت سنتی و مبتنی بر کشاورزی به مدل صنعتی تبدیل شود. هر خانه و خانواده ای را یک کوره ذوب فلز خانگی تبدیل کرده بود به یک کارگاه کوچک صنعتی. کشاورزان مجبور میشوند کار صنعتی کنند. نتیجه آن میشود که طی سه سال مردم با کمبود مواد غذایی روبرو میشوند و قحطی بزرگ چین با 15 تا 45 میلیون تلفات شکل میگیرد. این طرح بعد از 5 سال با شکست روبرو میشود.
راوی داستان تمام این رویدادها را تجربه کرده و در انتها چین را یک موجود خسته و آسیب دیده میبینیم.
خلاص
ماجرا
در کتاب سبعیت و درنده خویی ارتش ژاپن در خلال جنگ جهانی اول در مناطق روستایی چین به نمایش در آمده.
داستان مربوط به چند نسل از یک خانواده است که درگیر جنگ، قتل، راهزنی، شراب، خیانت و قحطی و عشق ... میشوند. بخش عمده‌ای از داستان به مقاومت گروه‌های مردمی چین در مقابل ارتش مدرن و مسلح ژاپن می‌پردازد. راوی ابائی از نشان دادن صحنه‌های خشن و سخت ندارد. صحنه‌ی پوست کندن یک انسان، بر سرنیزه کردن کودک و بیرون ریختن دل و روده گاهی خواننده را مشمئز میکند.
همچنین روایتهایی از رقابت گروه های مقاومت چینی با یکدیگر، راهزنی از مردم و غیره...
در این بین خط روایی عاطفی و احساسی هم وجود دارد. جایی که عشق به همسر، برادر، خواهر یا پدر و مادر هم نقش خودش را بازی میکند.
ذرت سرخ
در ابتدای کتاب روایتی از طبیعت چین را شاهد هستیم که سراسر پوشیده است از مزارع ذرت سرخ، مردم فقیرند اما زندگی را میگذرانند. کم کم پای ژاپنی ها به روستاها و مناطق دور افتاده باز میشود. مردم با وسائل پیش پا افتاده ای با ژاپنی ها به مقابله برمیخیزند. اسلحله ی گرم هم هست اما با کیفیت پایین و به تعداد اندک. اندک تسلیحات قابل اشاره هم بین گروه های متخاصم چینی در رد و بدل است که برخی علیه ژاپنی ها می‌جنگند و برخی له.
آرام آرام خاک روستاها هم به رنگ پرچم چین در می آید، به رنگ ذرت سرخ.
در انتها ذرت سرخ چینی با ذرت اصلاح شده جایگزین شده و دیگر خبری از سرخی نیست. بهایی که برای پیشرفت باید پرداخت.
رسوم
در کتاب با رسوم چینی آشنا میشوید. دو مورد که برای خودم جالب بود:
اول بحث بستن پای دختران که قبلا در موردش خوانده بودم اما باز هم درد آور بود. از مصادیق زیبایی و جذابیت در چین قدیم موضوع کوچک بودن پای دختران بوده است. از خردسالی پای دختران با پارچه هایی بسته میشده تا جلوی رشد پا گرفته شود که با تغییر شکل استخوان و پا همراه بوده. این فرایند به نظر بسیار سخت و رنج آور بوده.
در جای دیگری از کتاب رسمی چینی گنجانده شده که در آن مردم حق ندارند خردسالان زیر 5 سال را پس از مرگ به خاک بسپارند و پیکر بیجان آنها را جایی قرار میدهند تا حیوانات از بدن این خردسالان استفاده کنند.
قحطی بز��گ
جایی از کتاب اشاره شد به "جهش بزرگ به جلو". طرحی که مائو برای تبدیل چین سنتی به چین مدرن اجرا کرد. در طرح قرار بود مدل درآمدی چین از حالت سنتی و مبتنی بر کشاورزی به مدل صنعتی تبدیل شود. هر خانه و خانواده ای را یک کوره ذوب فلز خانگی تبدیل کرده بود به یک کارگاه کوچک صنعتی. کشاورزان مجبور میشوند کار صنعتی کنند. نتیجه آن میشود که طی سه سال مردم با کمبود مواد غذایی روبرو میشوند و قحطی بزرگ چین با 15 تا 45 میلیون تلفات شکل میگیرد. این طرح بعد از 5 سال با شکست روبرو میشود.
راوی داستان تمام این رویدادها را تجربه کرده و در انتها چین را یک موجود خسته و آسیب دیده میبینیم.
خلاص
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