Travels in Georgia] (20) Now to Georgia - Why I had to go to the Caucasus Mountains to study Tolstoy
After enjoying Vermeer in the Netherlands, I finally boarded a plane from Amsterdam to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The main dish of the trip was about to begin.
Now, I am sure that all of you who have been reading "Impressions of Summer Written in Autumn" up to this point have probably thought this at least once.
Where is Georgia?" And.
Yes, Georgia is not often talked about in Japan.
When I say, "I'm going to Georgia next time," most people ask, "In the U.S.?" I reply, "In the U.S.?
Indeed, it is not surprising that when I think of Georgia, I think of the United States. I would not have known about Georgia if I did not have a Tolstoy connection.
And when I tell them that I am not from the U.S., but from Georgia, many of them understand and say, "Oh, that's where the wine is! Many people understand. In the days of the former Soviet Union, Georgia was called Georgia, not Georgia. Perhaps the image of Georgia from that time still persists today.
Now, as you can see on the map, Georgia is located northeast of Turkey, and Russia to the north.
The country has a long-standing relationship with Russia and was at war with Russia in 2008. Even today, the two armies are engaged in a standoff at the border, and the situation remains tense.
This is a photo looking down on the old city of Tbilisi. It has a unique atmosphere that is different from both Europe and the Islamic world.
The religion in Georgia is Georgia Orthodox. It differs from both Catholicism and Protestantism.
When it comes to Orthodoxy, you may often hear the term Eastern Orthodox Church. This Orthodox Church places great importance on adherence to traditional Christianity. That is why the name "Orthodox" means "correct teaching (orthodoxy).
And like this Georgian Orthodox Church, there are "00 Orthodox Churches" all over the world. For example, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc. The name of the country comes in the "00" part. The "00 Orthodox Church" means "the Orthodox Church in 00. Basically, it means that all Orthodox churches in all countries believe in the same doctrine. Of course, strictly speaking, my definition may be a bit of an oversimplification, but I hope you will forgive me if I give a brief outline of what Georgian Orthodoxy is. For those who would like to know more about Orthodoxy, please refer to Yasuyuki Takahashi, who has been featured on this blog before.Greek Orthodoxy."is recommended as an introductory book.
The Tuminda Sameva Cathedral is the largest church in Tbilisi, but it was built only recently, in 2004.
According to the guide who showed us around Georgia, Georgians are still very religious and pray without fail. Indeed, the guide himself always wore a scarf on his head and prayed when entering a church. And when we entered a church in Georgia, we always met many people praying earnestly.
The interior of the cathedral was still under construction. However, it was not just a large church, but one could definitely feel the atmosphere of prayer. I will introduce various churches in the following articles, but there is no doubt that all churches had a sacred atmosphere. It is rare to find such an atmosphere of prayer. Unfortunately, I could not feel such an atmosphere in Paris, which I visited before coming here. I am sure there are many such churches if you look for them, but the churches I visited were touristy, for better or worse. The contrast between Paris and the churches in Georgia was a big surprise to me.
And there was one more thing that surprised me when I came to Tbilisi.
That was what made Georgia much more Americanized than I had imagined.
Once you leave the old streets of the old town, there is a huge shopping mall in the center of town, and hotels and various services are almost the same as in Europe. In a word, it was extremely comfortable. I was able to enjoy the lifestyle I had grown accustomed to. There were fashionable chain cafes, McDonald's, Kentucky, and other stores that could help us when we were in trouble.
Surprised by a Georgia far more modern than I had imagined, I asked my guide about it.
The guide then responded, "I am not a good person.
Georgia changed in one fell swoop after a change in its political system in 2004. It switched from the old Soviet way of being to a direction that aimed at economic growth. Before that, the roads were terrible and there were hardly any tourists. Even the roads in the center of the city were not well maintained. Even the roads in the center of the city are like that, so the suburbs are even worse. Of course, there were no accommodations or systems in place for tourists to come."
Then I asked further.
I thought it would be hard for me to spend time here if I didn't understand Russian," he said. I thought it would be difficult to spend time here if I didn't understand Russian."
Basically we speak Georgian. And now young Georgians hardly speak Russian. Only older people from the former Soviet Union use Russian. Rather, from the point of view of Georgians today, they want to get as far away from Russia as possible. Second language education is also now to learn English, not Russian. So Russian is rarely used. English is more familiar to our generation."
I see...
Georgia seems to have changed dramatically since 2004. And I was surprised to see that Russian is hardly used anymore. Of course, there are many people who understand Russian, not only the elderly. The 2008 war between Russia and Georgia may have had a big impact. The 2008 war between Russia and Georgia may have had a major impact, and moreover, the recent invasion of Ukraine seems to have strengthened this sentiment considerably.
Now that I have told you a little about Georgia and Tbilisi, how about you?
I am sure that some of you may be thinking this way.
'Then why did you have to come all the way to Georgia? What is the connection between Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, even if it is to study them?"
In fact, I was asked that question many times before my departure. Why Georgia? And I was asked many times before my departure, "Why Georgia?
Yes, this may seem strange. If one is going there to study Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, one would normally go to Russia. I don't see the inevitability of why Georgia.
Of course, I had always wanted to go to Russia for several years. But with the invasion of Ukraine, all that disappeared.
If so, what can I do? It was at such a time that I was reading Tolstoy.
This Tolstoy had an extraordinary connection with the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, now called the Caucasus Mountains. Moreover, it was here that Tolstoy had an experience that could be said to be the starting point for his later career as a great writer.
If so, I would love to see the kafkaes. I thought so.
Now, the story itself.Preface to "Impressions of Summer as Written in AutumnI have already told you about this in
In this issue I would like to talk more about this Tolstoy and Kafkers. Knowing this will make it clearer why I came all the way to Georgia.
Tolstoy visited the Kafkers in 1851, at the age of 23.
The overwhelming nature, the people he met there, and his own experience of fighting for his life have greatly influenced Tolstoy's literature.
From now on, written by Takashi FujinumaTolstoy."I would like to look at Tolstoy's "Kafkaesque Experience" with reference to
This work is also very helpful in looking at Tolstoy's personality and literary characteristics.
Let us first look at the episode of Tolstoy's departure.
Tolstoy left Jasnaya Polyana for Kafkaes on April 29, 1956. He accompanied his older brother Nikolai, who had temporarily returned home from the army in Kafkaes, when he returned to his military duties.
As I wrote on pages 97-98, it was not easy to go to Kafkaes at that time. There must have been a substantial reason for going.
In this case, the first thought is to break away from all ties to the past and escape in order to break out of the current impasse.
Tolstoy attempted several radical "escapes" in his lifetime. This was the case with his act of dropping out of college and returning home in April 1847, and it was also the case with his running away from home that became his death journey in 1910.
One could say that the trip to the Kafkaes was a "night escape" by a young man who was up to his neck in debt, had a failed business venture, and disappeared into a different world. In Tolstoy's case, however, not one of his several "escapes" had only negative elements. Nor are any of the several "escapes" the same, each with different characteristics. We need to look a little more closely at the Kafkaesque trip without dismissing it as an act of "escape," which is common in Tolstoy.
Before going to the Kafkaes, Tolstoy, as mentioned at the end of the previous chapter, had already embarked on the path of literary creation, was belatedly aware of his literary talent, and saw the dawn of a possible career as a writer. Instead of going into his study and sitting at his desk, which he had wiped clean, he took a carriage, a boat, and a horse and rode far away to Kafkers.
When he dropped out of college and returned to his hometown, he did indeed have positive goals, such as "fulfilling the obligations of a landowner" and "forming a strong sense of self. However, these were ideals rather than goals, and they had not yet taken shape.
On the other hand, when he went to Kafkaes, Tolstoy already had in his travel bag the manuscript of "My Childhood" that he planned to publish, in other words, a definite "thing" that he could touch with his hands. If so, why did he have to go all the way to the distant and painful Kafkers?
Tolstoy" by Takashi Fujinuma, p. 138-139, San-san-bunmeisha, Inc.
Tolstoy's trip to the Kafkaes was not a mere escape, but rather some thought or "something that drove" him.
And in fact, he is going to get "that something" here.
The straight line distance from Yarsnaya Polyana to Caucasus is about 2,000 kilometers. Tolstoy left Yarsnaya Polyana for Tula, then via Moscow to Kazan, where he stayed for a week before arriving in Saratov. He probably used a horse-drawn carriage to get here. The railroad between Moscow and Petersburg opened just this year (1851), so there were no trains east of Moscow yet.
From Saratov, we went down the Volga River, not on a large cruise ship, but on a small boat that we had deliberately hired, and arrived at our final port, Astrakhan, on the Caspian Sea coast. After that, it was time for the Kafkaes. The journey to Starogradkovskaya, their destination, took 25 days, or 2500 kilometers, even if the one-week stay in Kazan is deducted from their journey.
It is a long and arduous journey, unbearable for us today, but as I wrote on pages 61-62, this level of travel was not surprising to people of that time. As I wrote on pages 61-62, this level of travel would not have been surprising to anyone at that time. He had some unpleasant experiences along the way, but for the most part, he enjoyed the long trip very much.
While Tolstoy's shoulders were hunched and he was full of energy when he dropped out of university and returned home, this time there was no sign of that kind of fervor, nor was there the appearance of a loser with a tail between his legs. In the photograph taken with his brother Nikolai in Moscow shortly after their departure, the elder brother is hunched over and looks sad, while Tolstoy has a proud look on his face with his chest out.
He stayed in Kazan for a week, but the reason for this unplanned stay was that he fell in love at first sight with Zinaida Morostova, a pleasant young woman he met there by chance. Being the infatuated and conceited Tolstoy that he was, he even thought of confessing his love to her out of the blue, but he was unable to do so.
On May 30, as soon as he arrived in Starogradkovskaya, he sent this playful letter to his friend Ogorin, who was close to the Morostova family (he later married Zinaida's sister).
Mr. Ogorin!
in a big hurry
Let me know in a letter,
About all of you,
Your daughter's
And about Morostova.
please
Lev Tolstoy.And not only did Tolstoy recall Zinaida many times thereafter, he never forgot this faint feeling for the rest of his life.
This is also not the words and actions of someone who is trapped, depressed, and on the verge of evaporating. Did Tolstoy intend to go on a casual trip to the Kafkers and not live and work there for an extended period of time?
Certainly, at the beginning, he had a carefree idea of touring around the Caucasus, but at the time of his departure, he considered the trip to the Caucasus as an important one that might bring changes to his entire life.
Tolstoy" by Takashi Fujinuma, p. 139-141, San-san-bunmeisha, Inc.
*some line breaks.
The itinerary to the Kafkers is also tremendous. As the author states, it is a grueling journey that no modern person could endure. It shows how robust Tolstoy's body was.
And doesn't the episode of Tolstoy's love at first sight already seem to have a Tolstoy-like quality?
On June 30, exactly one month after his arrival in Starogradkovskaya, Tolstoy wrote in his diary. Why have I come here? I don't know. What for? The answer is the same."
It is impossible to think of these as the words of a casual traveler. They can only be taken as the words of someone who has done one thing and then suddenly came to his senses. Only in critical situations do people act on instinct rather than analysis or judgment. However, when we calm down and ask ourselves again, we may not even understand the meaning of our actions. Tolstoy's trip to the Kafkaes was a case in point.
In November, a little more than six months after his arrival in Kafkaes, Tolstoy wrote in a letter in French to his Aunt Tatjana that this act was a "coup tie tête" (a quick thought). Tolstoy's memory is half-fanciful and unreliable, but this is consistent with his words immediately after his arrival, "Why have I come here? I don't know." This must be telling the truth, because it is consistent with the words "I don't know.
Moreover, while Tolstoy recognized his actions as intuitive and impulsive, he also intuited that they were not wrong. In any case, I will never regret my decision to come to Kafkás-it is a coup de tête, but it is for my own good."
In fact, the "escape" from Kazan to his hometown, which he had thought over, based on reason and philosophy, and even prepared a manifesto for, was quickly foiled. Tolstoy's "escape" from his hometown to the Kafkaes was a "spur of the moment" moment that led to fundamental changes in himself and his life, and became an important part of the shaping of his later life.
After arriving in the Kafkaes, Tolstoy continued to make a routine for the next day and then fail to carry it out, to run up debts from gambling losses, and to associate with disreputable women. However, there was a clear difference in Tolstoy's life before and after his trip to the Kafkaes.
Tolstoy" by Takashi Fujinuma, p. 142-143, San-san-bunmeisha, Inc.
*some line breaks.
Tolstoy will have many experiences in the land of the Kafkaes.
And those experiences are his masterpiece.Cossacks."The result is a series of short stories and novels.
Most of Tolstoy's early works are closely connected to his actual experiences.
The first thing Tolstoy did after arriving in Starogradkovskaya on May 30 was to write. As a postscript to a short story or essay entitled "Yesterday," which he had written before his departure, he began to write about his boat trip from Saratov to Astrakhan under the title "One More Day. This piece of writing ended up as a fragment of less than one page, but its content shows that Tolstoy had already begun to form the consciousness and habits of a writer in his mind.
The next thing Tolstoy did was to gamble, which he loved to do even though he was a bad gambler. On June 13, he lost 850 rubles, a sum equivalent to more than 10 million yen in Japan today.
But shortly thereafter, Tolstoy experienced something he had never done before, and something that could only be done in the Caucasus. It was war against the Chechen minority of the Caucasus.
Although many biographers have written that Tolstoy went to the Kafkaes to join the army, he did not join the army until late in 1951, and as of June he was not yet a soldier and had not decided to join the army.
At first he was not a regular soldier, but a volunteer in combat. From then until he left Kafkaes for another war (from the Danube to the Crimean Peninsula) two years and seven and a half months later, Tolstoy was in combat several times and experienced many things, including the risk of death.
Daisan Bunmeisha, Tolstoy, by Takashi Fujinuma, p.144-145
*some line breaks.
It is surprising that Tolstoy had lost about 10 million yen through gambling, although it is written in a simple manner. Tolstoy was indeed a great gambler. He lost on a different scale. (This amount may be normal by the standards of Russian aristocrats of the time...)
And Tolstoy wrote this after his experiences in the area.Assault."It's a short story called.
This work may not be as famous as his later masterpieces, but in my opinion it occupies a very important place for a sense of Tolstoy's origins.
Let's take a look at this work.
Tolstoy sent this work to the magazine "Gendaijin" immediately after it was drafted at Kafkaes in December 1852. It is Tolstoy's third novel, after his first novel "Childhood" and "The Morning of the Landlord".
He had followed his brother to Stalui Yurt when he had just arrived in Kafkas, and had participated in the invasion as a volunteer soldier.
Although it cannot be said to occupy a major position among the many works of the great writer in terms of quantity or quality, it is of considerable interest in that it is one of the representative works of his Kafkaesque period, and in that it is a small but unsparing embodiment, both artistically and ideologically, of the conditions that later became the firm characteristics of this man. It is also a work of considerable interest in that it is a small but unabashed embodiment, both artistically and ideologically, of the conditions that became the defining characteristics of the man's later years.
The content of the book is a description of the events of these two days, in which a unit of the Kafkars' garrison army dared to invade enemy territory and plunder it, which is almost an annual event, and on their way back, they fought a retreat against the enemy's pursuit, a characteristic of the Kafkars' war, before returning home to sing a song of triumph. The pens that depict it are also extremely vivid, and the stage is filled with the beauty of the scenery, such as sunrises and sunsets in the mountains, floating mists in the mountains and valleys, mysterious night scenes with shadows and sounds, and so on. The way in which Tolstoy reproduces on paper the beauty of the landscape, both pictorially and musically, is not only a perfect model of the war depicted in "War and Peace," but also gives the reader an unforgettable experience, as each character is vividly depicted with Tolstoy's distinctive eye. The book gives the reader a lasting sense of wonder.
Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Nakamura Shiraha's translation of "The Complete Works of Tolstoy 3: Early Works (Part 2)", 1980, 3rd printing edition, p. 433-434.
As noted in the commentary to this piece, the Russian army in which Tolstoy served raided the village of Kafkers.
The main plot of the novel is about that attack and the counterattack from the enemy, but from the beginning of the novel I was surprised. The first sentence of the book reads as follows.
War has always interested me. But it was not in the sense of a great war against a great general - my imagination refuses to trace such an enormous action - in fact, I do not know such things, so what interested me was the fact of war itself - the act of killing. I don't know what it was, so what interested me was the fact of the war itself - the act of killing. I was far more interested in knowing how, and under what emotional influences, one soldier killed another, than in how the troops were deployed in the Austerlitz or Borodino wars.
Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Nakamura Shiraha translation, "Tolstoy Complete Works 2: Early Works (I)", 1982, 4th printing edition, p. 264.
This is that great work that would be written more than a decade after thisWar and Peace."This is a concept that is directly related to the
Not long after his debut as a writer, Tolstoy already had these ideas and spent his days in Kafkaes. Isn't this remarkable?
Another word that connects to Tolstoy's view of war in his later years is also mentioned in this work. This is also interesting and I would like to introduce it to you.
War? What a puzzling phenomenon! Reason turns to itself - is it right, is it necessary? Whenever I ask this question, the voice in my heart always answers: no. But the persistence of this unnatural phenomenon is one of self-preservation. Only the persistence of this unnatural phenomenon makes it natural, and the feeling of self-preservation makes it legitimate.
Who would doubt that in the war between the Russians and the mountain people, justice, flowing from the emotion of self-preservation, is on our side?
If not for this battle, what would guarantee the adjacent, wealthy, open territories of Russia from being plundered, murdered, and raided by a barbaric, belligerent people?
But first, let us take an example of two individuals. Which one has the feeling of self-preservation, or justice?
And when he heard of the approach of Jamie the Rothschild in his rags, he took his revolver from the wall with a curse, and with three or four bullets which he could not easily dislodge, he rushed toward the heretics, and seeing the Rothschilds still advancing, and stepping into the field which they had sown, and destroying it, and burning his hut, and advancing toward the valley where his mother, his wife, and his children were hiding in fear, he thought that he might as well be happy. And when he saw the Russians still advancing, raiding the fields they had sown, burning his hut, and advancing toward the valley where his mother, wife, and children were hiding in fear, he thought that everything that would make him happy would be taken away from him - and he cried out in despair in powerless indignation, and put on his Is it in the man who, throwing aside his tattered cloak, slams his gun to the ground, pulls his hat down to his eyes, sings a death knell, and, dagger in hand, darts madly to his death into the bayonets of the Russian soldiers?
Or is it that officer, one of the general's staff, who sings French songs so well as he passes by us? He is a man who has family in Russia, relatives, friends, peasants, and various obligations in relation to them, but who came to the Kafkas without any reason or hope to fight the mountain people. ...... Just rambling, just wanting to show his courage.
Or is it my acquaintance's second-in-command who, wanting nothing more than to be promoted to captain and to sit in a good position as soon as possible, has just happened to become an enemy of the mountaineers?
Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Nakamura Shiraha translation, "Tolstoy Complete Works 2: Early Works (I)", 1982, 4th printing edition, p. 279
*some line breaks.
The Russian army attacks and conquers the villages of the people living in the Caucasus. They say they are doing this to defeat the "mountain people" who are attacking the Russian lands. In other words, they say, "We are the righteous ones," and invade the villages.
But what would the people living in the Kafkaes think of the Russians who suddenly invaded, burned down their villages, killed many people, and plundered as they pleased?
If they do not resist, they will be killed. The people of the Kafkaes, placed in such a situation, resist desperately.
In contrast, what reason did the Russian officers have for coming to fight?
That is what Tolstoy poignantly asks in the above passage.
Tolstoy was greatly influenced by his Kafkaesque experience at this time. In his later years, he was particularly strong in his opposition to war and non-violence. In other words, that famousIvan the Fool.andResurrectionand even religious papers'The kingdom of God is within you.'It is connected to the
This assertion by Tolstoy may be due to the lingering doubts about war that he felt at this time.
I feel that this work may have significant implications for the meaning of Kafkaes in Tolstoy.
And there is one more short story that I would like to introduce. It is.Deforestation.This is a work of art.
This "Deforestation" was also written about Tolstoy's Kafkaesque retinue.
In fact, the curious title "Deforestation" comes from a Russian military operation. So what exactly was this operation, by Takashi Fujinuma?Tolstoy."The following is the explanation in the following section.
In the early 19th century, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Russia decided to launch a full-scale attack against Chechnya and Dagestan, and appointed Alexei Ermolov commander of the Independent Corps of the Caucasus in 1816.
The Kafkaesque wars have continued for several centuries, but the period from 1817 to 1994 was one of the climaxes of the centuries-long conflict, and the "Kafkaesque Wars" in the narrow sense of the term refers to this period.
It was during this period that stronghold fortresses were built with such unsettling names as Gloznaya (of threat), Vnesapnaya (of raid), and Bournaya (of storm), and the current capital of Chechnya, Glozny, is a remnant of the Gloznaya fortress. It would be rare in the world for a city to have such an explicit name as "Threat City."
It was also during this period that Tolstoy's "Deforestation," which gave its title to his work, began his campaign of deforestation. The purpose of the campaign was to clear away the trees in the forests to improve visibility, prevent surprise attacks by the enemy, and facilitate the passage of troops, but it destroyed the living environment and drove the residents into the mountains. It reminds one of Operation Defoliation during the Vietnam War.
Tolstoy" by Takashi Fujinuma, p. 147-148, San-san-bunmeisha, Inc.
*some line breaks.
The deforestation campaign that gave Tolstoy's work "Deforestation" its title also began during this period. The purpose was to clear away the trees in the forests to improve visibility, prevent surprise attacks by the enemy, and facilitate the passage of troops, but it also destroyed the living environment and drove the residents into the mountains. It reminds me of Operation Defoliation during the Vietnam War."
An operation reminiscent of Operation Defoliation in the Vietnam War...
From the point of view of the local population, the worst possible operation was taking place in Kafkers.
And Tolstoy participated in this operation as well.
In this "Deforestation," Tolstoy, who served in that campaign, explores the question, "What is the Russian people?" through the soldiers.
In Tolstoy's Kafkaesque experience, the "rediscovery of the Russian people" was no less important than the denial of war. In Russia, Tolstoy tried to establish good human relations by making direct contact with the people, and failed miserably. Not only did the social structure prevent him from doing so, but the peasants were not open to it.
Tolstoy might have agreed if it were only that the peasants were distrustful and rebellious against the landowners as a result of centuries of servitude. In Tolstoy's eyes, however, the peasants appeared to be mean, lying, lazy, and morally corrupt.
However, the Russian soldiers he saw on the battlefield were indeed very handsome. In his short story "Deforestation," based on the Kafkaesque War, Tolstoy observed the Russian soldiers in detail and categorized and described them as follows.
'The most obedient. a Obedient and sober. b Obedient and attentive. c Obedient and attentive to the needs of others. d Obedient and attentive to the needs of others.
(ii) He who gives instructions. a. He is instructive and strict. b. He is instructive and good in conduct. c. He who gives instructions. d. He who gives instructions. e. He who gives instructions. f. He who gives instructions. g. He who gives instructions.
Three daredevils. a. A daredevil and cheerful. b. A daredevil and ill-behaved.Looking at this classification, the only one that is not good is the "three b's," and what's more, Tolstoy himself annotated that it was "one that, I must say to the honor of the Russian army, you see only very rarely.
In Russia at that time, almost all of the soldiers were "peasants who had changed their peasant field clothes into military uniforms," while the soldiers were as different from the peasants in the Russian villages. Which in the world is the real person? Human nature is more likely to emerge in extreme conditions of life, with death in the foreground, than in the inertia of everyday life. If this is the case, then the resolute soldier, rather than the servile serf, is the true image of the Russian people.
Tolstoy was astonished by this "rediscovery of the people. The peasants are not only equal to us aristocrats, they are even better than we are. And are we not responsible for distorting this wonderful nature?
Thus, Tolstoy had several valuable experiences in Kafkaes.
Daisan Bunmeisha, Tolstoy, by Takashi Fujinuma, p.153-154
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Tolstoy was astonished by this "rediscovery of the people. The peasants are not only equal to us aristocrats, they are even better than we are. And are we not responsible for distorting this wonderful nature?
These words would later lead to Tolstoy's life-long beliefs.
Although "Deforestation" is a compact work of only 30 pages, it is undoubtedly a gem that is filled with Tolstoy's "wonder of scene description and deep human insight.
Incidentally, the exchange between Tolstoy and the peasants in his own territory mentioned at the beginning of the above commentary isThe Morning of the LandlordThis is nakedly described in a work called
A failure so complete that it can be described as miserable. The young Tolstoy's frustration can be seen in this work.
Now, I would like to conclude this article by saying a few words about the Kafkaes that Tolstoy saw.
Tolstoy...Cossacks."He describes the beauty of the Kafkaes in a piece called
One can only tip one's hat to Tolstoy for expressing the beauty of the Kafkaes so well.
Well, it's about to start! Olenin thought to himself, and waited impatiently for the snow-capped mountains he had heard so much about to appear.
Once, before dusk, a Nogayan whipped him to show him the mountains peeking out from behind a cloud. Orenin began to look around hungrily, but unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and the clouds had partially obscured the mountains. He could only see grayish, whitish, undulating things, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not find any of the beauty of the mountains he had read and heard so much about.
Then he thought that since mountains and clouds have exactly the same appearance, the special beauty of snowy mountains that he had often heard about must be a fiction, just like Bach's music or love for a woman, which he did not believe in - and so he gave up his expectations for the mountains. He had given up all hope of seeing the mountain.
Early the next morning, however, he awoke to a chill in the carriage and casually looked to his right. It was a clear morning. Suddenly, he saw, just 20 paces away from him (or so it seemed to him at the first moment), a huge, clean, white, slenderly contoured accumulation, its top and a clear, dreamy, airy line created by the distant sky.
And when he fully realized the distance between himself and the mountains and the sky, and the immensity of the mountains, and the limitlessness of their beauty, he was so surprised and suspicious that it was not an illusion or a dream. He shook himself to wake up clearly. But the mountain was still the same.
What is that? What the hell is that? He asked the governor.
In the mountains," the Nogaians replied cryptically.
I've been looking at it for a long time," Wanusha said. I've been seeing it for a long time," said Wanecha! Even if I went home and told everyone about it, no one would believe it.
As the three-horse team made rapid progress along the flat road, the mountains seemed to run along the horizon, their rose-colored peaks shining in the rising morning sun.
At first, the mountains only startled Orenin, but later they pleased him. But after a while, as he looked at the snow-capped peaks that rose up from the open fields and ran in the distance, rather than from the shadows of the other black mountains, he gradually became more and more devoted to the spirit of beauty, and finally began to feel the mountains.
From this moment on, everything he saw, thought, and felt took on the nature of a new, majestically great mountain for him.
All memories of Moscow, all shame, regrets, and worldly fantasies about the Kafkas were gone, never to return. It was now or never," some solemn voice seemed to say to him.
Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Nakamura Shiraha's translation of "The Complete Works of Tolstoy 2: Early Works (1)", 1982, 4th printing.P16-17
*some line breaks.
What do you think? If someone writes a sentence like this, we have no choice but to bow down. It is extraordinary. Tolstoy...
How could he express such a beautiful world? The enormity of Tolstoy's mastery of language was such that I was overwhelmed.
And after reading this passage I really wanted to visit Kafkaes.
I would like to see the view that Tolstoy was so moved by. What did Tolstoy see and feel there? I want to see for myself! That's what I thought.
This is the reason I came all the way to Georgia. And as I mentioned before, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are opposites. In other words, if you know one side, you will naturally see the other side.
I thought that learning about Tolstoy's origins here would surely reveal something about Dostoevsky as well. In fact, I gained a great deal from this trip.
That will become clear in future articles, but first, let me not rush ahead and tell you about my visit to Georgia one by one.
be unbroken
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