tried not to think of his position, and to find oblivion not only in the poetry of warfare, but also in wine, "
Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murad
Years ago I read Tolstoy's semiautobiographical sitelinkThe Cossacks, It is an excellent account of his time in the Caucasus during the last stages of the Caucasian War, It was a fascinating novel, published in, and considered by Turgenev to be one of his favorite works by Tolstoy, Hadji Murad, conversely, comes later in Tolstoy's life but covers the same period, Hadji Murad was published in, It was one of Tolstoy's last works and the character of Hadji Murad is drawn beautifully, It isn't a complicated novella, It is simple. It is beautiful. Like a flower in the road, Like a song sung alone at night,
Some of what I love about this novel is the contrasts between Madji Murad and his comrades and the Russian military and aristocracy, Tolstoy doesn't mince words. He's too old and too well regarded to care, My recommendation would always be to read both, Read Cossacks first, but follow it up with Hadji Murad,
I've now read all of his novels, And most of his novellas, I've still got to get to sitelinkThe Devil, sitelinkThe Forged Coupon, and sitelinkFamily Happiness and a ton of his short stories, fables, plays, and philosophical works.
Don't take me yet. قيل في مقدمة الكتاب أنه طبع بعد وفاة تولستوي ذلك أنه في الأعوام الثلاثين الأخيرة كان يواجه مشكلات عائلية مع ما يطبع له من أعمال ذلك لعدم حرصه على حقوق الطبع واعتقد أنه قصد بهذا العائد المادي وتصادم ذلك مع رغبة زوجته وحرصها على تلك الحقوق
وبعد أن انتهيت من الرواية وجب أن أتساءل هل كانت المشكلات العائلية قاصرة على حقوق الطبع ألم يتعرض لتضييق على أفكاره أو تهديد له ولأسرته أو تخوين أو ما شابه!!
بما أن هذا هو أول عمل طويل أنهيه لهذا العبقري وبما أنه طبع بعد وفاته فأنا راغبة حقا في الحصول على رد من متخصص بدراسة الشأن الروسي والأدب الروسي في تلك الحقبة عما كان من الممكن أن يحدث لو صدرت وقت حياته هل كان هناك هيئة شئون معنوية للجيش مثلا تعاقبه على ما جنته يداه من وصف للجيش وجنوده أوصافا مخجلة أفصلها لاحقا ألم يكن هناك غيورون على رمز الدولة يرفعون ضده القضايا أم هل كانت حينها تحولت من قيصرية إلى جمهورية هل كانت تطارده تهم العمالة والتخوين والتحريض والوصف بأنه طابور خامس أو من المغيبين!! أم هي أشياء خاصة بعصرنا الذهبي فقط
الحاج مراد رواية عن هؤلاء البشر على حدود الدول الكبيرة المساحة المترامية الأطراف المحاربون الأدرى والأكثر فاعلية وقت الحروب الدولية والمهمشون وأحيانا مخونون ومحاربون في أوقات الهدوء أو الرخاء الحاج مراد الشخصية الحقيقية وقد قابله تولستوي شخصيا ونقل قصته حارب مع من حاربوا البولنديين وحرروا روسيا بدمائهم مسلم وقد تولى حكم منطقة ما بعض الوقت ثم ما أن بدأ القتال مع الروس أنفسهم كبدهم الخسائر وأرهقهم بذكائه وتغلبه على خططهم وللأسف فقد دخل في شقاق كالعادة مع قائد مسلم آخر منهجه الغلظة والدم وفقط ويلجأ هذا القائد شامل لأسر أسرة الحاج مراد لإرغامه على التسليم له فيلجأ الحاج مراد للروس وهنا تكون بداية النهاية
في الرواية وصف لأحوال الجيش بجنوده الصغار الذين يموتون في قتال مع الجبليين أو الأفاريين من قوم الحاج مراد الموالين لشامل وتزور وقائع الوفاة حيث يذكر أنها كانت معركة وقد قتل أيضا فيها من الأعداء الجبليين من قتل ! الضباط الكبار والأمراء ينافقون أحيانا ويقامرون يشربون الخمر يختلسون من أموال الجيش زوجاتهم يغازلن ضباطا صغارا ولا انضباط بينهم وبهم فتور همة واضح للعيان وحاكم البلاد نيقولا رجل جاهل يخطئ في الكتابة والإملاء ويرى أنه أمل روسيا وأوروبا في الاستقرار وعلى العكس فالجبليين والحاج مراد تحديدا يتمتع باستقامة ويقبض على دينه وتعف نفسه مفاتن حياة الروس ويتواضع وهو القائد المحارب المحنك والبارع ويخلب لب النساء الروسيات بأخلاقه وشكله الطفولي الذي لا يخلو من عيوب.
وشامل ليس بنفس الإستقامة ولكن يحمل من العزم الشيء الكثير
بالرواية وصف لأماكن ورسم للشخصيات يجعلك وكأنك تحيا بينهم ووسط هؤلاء الناس
نهاية الحاج مراد كانت مؤلمة بكل المقاييس ولعل ما زاد ألمي أنه كان يسعى مضطرا لنزال ومحاربة من هو في مثل ظروفه
أما الترجمة فكانت صعبة وسخيفة كأن يقول الجوالق وهي جمع شوال !! أين ذهبت أجولة وكذلك قنابر تصحيح قنابل وغيرها من المفردات التي لا أتذكرها قطعا لصعوبتها
وأما تولستوي فقد أسرني للأبد بأسلوبه الأدبي البديع
وأما عن كونها بترشيح صديق وأخ عزيز فأنا ممتنة له كثيرا وأنتظر ترشيحاته بصبر وأقرأ ما يرشحه لي باهتمام بالغ وأشكره من أعماق قلبي "Lembrouse de uma lenda daguestanesa sobre um falcão que foi apanhado, viveu com os homens e depois voltou aos montes, para os seus.
Voltou, mas com peias, e nas peias pendiam guizos, E os falcões não o aceitaram, "Vai disseramlhe para onde te puseram os guizos de prata, Nós não temos guizos, mas também não temos peias, " O falcão não quis abandonar a pátria e ficou, Mas os outros falcões não o quiseram e mataramno às bicadas, "
Passaramse cerca de nove anos desde as primeiras pesquisas ao aperfeiçoamento e finalização deste pequeno livro que só seria publicado, a pedido de Tolstoy, após a sua morte.
A narrativa é excelente e as descrições são como um filme que se vai desenrolando perante os nossos olhos, Leo Tolstoy who many experts consider the second or even the best writer Shakespeare's followers would vehemently not acknowledge in history only produced three novels, with novellas almost as good too.
They are War and Peace, Anna Karenina and Resurrection any serious reader knows their merit, I read and agree without a doubt, are simply superb, how one individual could be the author is hard to believe, fact is stranger than fiction.
Nevertheless, war again strikes Europe one more time and the short novel Hadji Murad becomes relevant not a welcome occurrence, A historical figure not the only one in the narrative Hadji Murad who walked on Earth when the Ottoman Empire began to collapse is a leader in the Caucasus, trying to fight the Russian Empire's expansion into Chechnya sounds familiar as the recent conflict there shows.
Shamil brutal leader of the resistance in the region, the year, his right
hand man Murad a famous, fearless soldier, his exploits have become legendary still a great animosity towards his jealous chief develops, resulting in his surrendering to the hated Russians.
The savage battles continue though between the merciless sides, The enemy doesn't trust this mountain tribesman, a Muslim fighting a vast, powerful Christian nation under Czar Nicholas, The author a veteran in the bloody struggles in the Crimean War as an artillery officer, his experience gives him a unique understanding of combat, Russian literature is not light reading too much darkness and little light shines but like I said before anyone who craves excellence in books needs to give it a try.
. . most will not be disappointed like me, The prisoner Hadji, in reality however well treated he is, sees the bad and good of the invader's civilization, all is revealed, to him even makes Russian friends particularly an officer with a strange name of Butler, in Russia But their customs are so foreign and the living conditions complex, for a man from a small primitive village in the mountains.
By the way Murad feels like a bird in a cage he will fly from confinement, . . his captured family is everything as the warrior discovers and must be rescued from Shamil, This story grabs the people that need not only entertainment but learn about death and life, our journey may not be like a book, still a superb one as this gives a patch into the mystery.
. . The “Tartar” bush consisted of three shoots, One had been broken off, and the remainder of the branch stuck out like a cutoff arm, On each of the other two there was a flower, These flowers had once been red, but now they were black, One stem was broken and half of it hung down, with the dirty flower at the end the other, though all covered with black dirt, still stuck up.
It was clear that the whole bush had been run over by a wheel, and afterwards had straightened up and therefore stood tilted, but stood all the same.
As if a piece of flesh had been ripped away, its guts turned inside out, an arm torn off, an eye blinded, But it still stands and does not surrender to man, who has annihilated all its brothers around it,
“What energy!” I thought, “Man has conquered everything, destroyed millions of plants, but this one still does not surrender, ”
And I remembered an old story from the Caucasus, part of which I saw, part of which I heard from witnesses, and part of which I imagined to myself.
The story, as it shaped itself in my memory and imagination, goes like this,
Hadji Murat is a story I admire, Not only is the novella written with precision, but it displays a restraint one can sense in its immediacy, The tale is tragicTolstoy says this from the beginningbut not once does it relinquish itself to excess or banality,
Harold Bloom has said the following of Hadji Murat:
, . . my personal touchstone for the sublime of prose fiction, to me the best story in the world, or at least the best that I have ever read.
I can think of no higher praise, .