I have readVladimir Arsenyev, Дерсу Узала (1923)
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I have written... nothing ...
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wilderness & ethics
I read a part of Arsenyev trilogy dedicated to Dersu Uzala, a hunter belonging to Nanai/Goldi tribe, later on the hero of a movie by Akira Kurosawa (1975). It could have been a reading of my childhood, but it was not; as a child, I carefully avoided getting involved in Russia, in that discovery of the world far far eastwards that made so many of my compatriots dreamy. They used to put up with the Russian empire to participate in those explorations, in that fascinating world; it was the reason of turning their backs to Europe. Myself, I chose to be European.
Curiously, having turned my back to Russia so thoroughly, I first learned about the existence of the Ussuri River region from a documentary on National Geographic Abu Dhabi, and mused what might be that country - I couldn't find any equivalent of that strange name given in Arabic, Usurilanda... That would be Outer Manchuria, in historical terms, or Primorsky Krai (Maritime Territory), part of the Far East Federal District of Russia.
Nonetheless, I read Dersu Uzala now, from the heights of my proud Europeanness, as I liquidate my Polish-speaking library, anticipating the exclusion of Poland from the European Union and its uncertain Eastern destiny in which I refuse to participate.
Originally, Arsenyev's aim was not to travel with Dersu Uzala nor to write on him; he was an explorer in the service of an empire, cataloguing plants (with their Latin names) and providing a scientific description of minerals, rocks, types of soil. There were also animals and peoples, diverse groups: native tribes, starovercy, the Chinese... Dersu Uzala, his knowledge and competence, his survival skills, his peculiar beliefs and world-view, finally his peculiar goodness, his moral superiority, came to the fore as if by accident; but that sort of knowledge, of insight had never been the target of the expedition, even if they loom large against the background of the journey's events.
It was Kurosawa who made the depth of this story, transforming the Goldi hunter from a picturesque, yet slightly comical figure enlivening the account of Arsenyev's exploration into a wise epitomising the greatness and tragedy and fragility and strength of man in nature. It was that frontier of culture, rather than any frontier of cartography, that interested the Japanese artists at the time. Man on the brink of cultural condition.
Władimir K. Arsenjew, Dersu Uzała, trans. Ewa Skórska, Poznań, Zysk i S-ka, 2010.
Kraków, 21.10.2021.
Curiously, having turned my back to Russia so thoroughly, I first learned about the existence of the Ussuri River region from a documentary on National Geographic Abu Dhabi, and mused what might be that country - I couldn't find any equivalent of that strange name given in Arabic, Usurilanda... That would be Outer Manchuria, in historical terms, or Primorsky Krai (Maritime Territory), part of the Far East Federal District of Russia.
Nonetheless, I read Dersu Uzala now, from the heights of my proud Europeanness, as I liquidate my Polish-speaking library, anticipating the exclusion of Poland from the European Union and its uncertain Eastern destiny in which I refuse to participate.
Originally, Arsenyev's aim was not to travel with Dersu Uzala nor to write on him; he was an explorer in the service of an empire, cataloguing plants (with their Latin names) and providing a scientific description of minerals, rocks, types of soil. There were also animals and peoples, diverse groups: native tribes, starovercy, the Chinese... Dersu Uzala, his knowledge and competence, his survival skills, his peculiar beliefs and world-view, finally his peculiar goodness, his moral superiority, came to the fore as if by accident; but that sort of knowledge, of insight had never been the target of the expedition, even if they loom large against the background of the journey's events.
It was Kurosawa who made the depth of this story, transforming the Goldi hunter from a picturesque, yet slightly comical figure enlivening the account of Arsenyev's exploration into a wise epitomising the greatness and tragedy and fragility and strength of man in nature. It was that frontier of culture, rather than any frontier of cartography, that interested the Japanese artists at the time. Man on the brink of cultural condition.
Władimir K. Arsenjew, Dersu Uzała, trans. Ewa Skórska, Poznań, Zysk i S-ka, 2010.
Kraków, 21.10.2021.
