het landschap en Geo
Milev and the landscape
De eerste potloodschetsen first draught (of the principals for the composition
of the pages in pencil) for the lino-cuts.voor
de compositie van Linosneden.
Obviously chapter I has a functional-predominantly
rural setting. A revolution that we, the readers, would be going
to believe in comes from all and every corner, and from the very
depth of the country side.
Milev draws further than that where he uses all aspects of the
landscape of this specific country. A country of which he depicts
a wide variety of details specific for a diversety of ecological
circumstances tipical for a myriad of different individuals and
social groups living there. All is indeed as pretty as 'our country'
would be, but nothing is adorned.
From some longer tours when visiting Bulgaria, and crossing it
in various directions I clearly recognize this country in the
text, this vast plain between the grand but incredibly diverse
mountains.
Milev needs us to see that it is not just one group, 'the agriculturalists'
(at the time not all 'the farmers' but a political movement)
that is in this revolution. He stresses that 'all the country'
is in distress and moving towards the inevitable. |
Voor dit deel geldt de Engelse tekst
als de hoofdtekst.
Het ligt in dit gedicht welhaast voor de hand dat het moet
beginnen in het diepst van het platteland; de geloofwaardigheid
dat deze revolutie door alle lagen gesteund wordt is er door
gedragen; maar Milev gaat veel dieper op het landschap en alle
aspecten daarvan in.
Niet alleen tonen zo de details een schrijver die het land kent
en ervan houdt, maar ze geven ons ook kennis van een land om
van te houden, om vervolgens de besmeurde, maar schuldloze zijde
te willen steunen.
Tijdens enkele langere reizen door Bulgarije, waarbij ik op verschillende
manieren door het land trok, zag ik de in de tekst beschreven
landschappen en herkende ze vrijwel direct.
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The grand total of typified natural surroundings (mentioning
even the most characteristic circumstances the land and its inhabitants
endure - heat and frostbite) summons up to one grand movement
under one grand sky, bringing forth the concluding words: "THE
PEOPLE"; which is more than just those that are living there
Through chapter II, where Milev takes the theatrical setting,
as much as the natural circumstance of 'the country as a plain
held between the mountains' as an almost inevitable part of doom
in the first and lost attempt into an all too simple solution,
his argument involves the extra aspect of traditional believe
in to the motivations in chapter III, where the landscape of
'blossoming Canaan' were, with or without succes, to be the ultimate
aim.
At the end of chapter III sentences
41 - 44: With this 'Canaan' there, Geo Milev puts us right into
his central argument on 'Fatherland'.
If anything has ever been arguable than it is the rightuousness
of the one people to murder the other people in order to put
things biblically/historically (or indeed for any other ill-advised
reason) right.
The country 'Canaan' as such is known since the bronze age, and
mentioned for the first time by the 2nd millenium B.C. Egyptians.
It continues to be mentioned between them and the Hittites as
the piece of land (not all to neatly bordered) they fight about.
Where the King James Bible gives (Gen. 28:1): "And Isaac
called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto
him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.",
we could see the oncoming 'pogrom' of chapter IV sentece 4, where
we are to know Sodom and Gomorrah to be Canaanite cities.
With the literairy trick of the 'blossoming' of this bloodstained
country, it has somehow gained a positive ring to people's minds.
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Het geheel van getypeerde leefomgevingen,
met zelfs de ermee verbonden hitte en kou, maakt éne grote
in beweging gekomen massa onder een onverbrekelijk grootse hemel;
leidend tot de woorden: "HET VOLK"
In hoofdstuk 2 schildert Milev zowel de theatrale setting, als
het geheel van natuurlijke omstandigheden van de grote laagvlakte
als geklemt tussen hooggebergten; het gegeven van de onontkoombare
greep, waarin alles dat naar eenvoudige oplossingen streeft gehouden
wordt. Zijn argumenten worden met verwijzing naar het klassieke
geloof kracht bijgezet door het landschap van het 'Bloeiend Canaän'
als ultiem doel te zien; met of zonder succes, en erger nog:
met of zonder menselijke waarden en slechts gedekt door vertaalde
delen van mondeling overgeleverde en geïnterpreteerde meer
of minder door God ingegeven teksten, te bereiken. |
| Chapter VI, 'The
Country'; after the towns and absolutely all and
every body and soul has been drawn in, as to play
a part, within the magnificent picture of the entire 'Balkan
cradle', gives the overview of it all right, on to the most minute
detail as one enormous body in which any aspect of 'the big'
is in any aspect of 'the small' thus making 'the Whole'. |
Hoofdstuk 5 toont, nadat de steden en echt
iedereen met hart en ziel meegesleurd is, het magnifieke beeld
van de 'Wieg van de Balkan' als ware het een totaal-over- (of
zelfs in-)zicht; inzoemend op ieder minutieus detail om zo de
gedachte te onderteunen (die in deze omgeving zijn oorsprong
vond) dat 'alles in het kleine terug te vinden is in het grote'. |
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The landscape and the aspects of the landscape are not just
there for a mere theatrical background or for metaphorical use
- it shows and calls for sincere love for that special country
where these special things are, with or without us, and that
we all know as 'for all to love, though free', because it is
an entity bigger than to have for personal gain.
For the translator working in English,
there is a gift in chapter X, line 9: the actual bird spieces
mentioned is 'raven' all raven, rooks, and jays are in
the crow family; Latin name: Corvidae; the raven is rather a
solitary bird, or lives in very small groups. It is only when
a flock of birds in this family is indeed referred to as 'crows'
that we use the word 'murder' for a flock. Another aspect of
the Corvidae is that these are to be seen as most intelligent
having indeed a 'neostriatum' with the relative size of chimps
and humans. Many functions of the dorsal-, and ventralstriatum
make out the centre of what is pretty much 'where intelligence
is to be measured'; or for that matter: decision making, and
aspects of motivational and learning processes.
All right, I see that Milev only just might have needed the 'picture'
of a minor flock of raven, but how appropriate all these extra's.
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Het landschap in al zijn precieze kleine
hoekjes, tussen de bosjes en de in de bergspelonken, beschreven
is net ten tonele gevoerd als achtergrond of metafoor - het roept
op tot een liefde met mededogen voor dat wat van ons allen zou
kunnen zijn om te genieten terwijl het van zichzelf blijft, omdat
het een eigen entiteit is groter is dan te kunne bezitten en
voor eigen gewin |
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A personal experience, making Milev's choices even clearer
to me when he is picturing the scenes with which he tells the
story - going above 'my personal landscape' has been when
I stayed on the borders of the Maritsa, for the inevitable making
of coffee, and indeed saw the so much more 'heavy' water this
great river seems to have comparing to other rivers. The heat
of the afternoon was even stronger seeing the shepherd standing
and dozing, tucked away the herd spreading under the smaller
coppices , under the bridge.
The scene in chapter XI does not just tell the story perfectly,
it also shows Milev to be someone able to see as a painter or
a camera-man, as well as reading the devastating powers these
waters so often have, coming from the wild Rila mountains, and
going between the Balkans' and the Rhodopes' mountains, being
more Bulgarian than any of the other rivers thus being
the perfect metaphore, and indeed at the same time the love-spot
of everyone ever to have been there. This is a river to bear
every aspect of love and tragedy.
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Een aantal beelden die Milev gebruikt zijn
me vooral duidelijk door mijn eigen ervaringen in het betreffende
landschap. De oevers van de Maritsa ken ik en het water van die
rivier is onmiskenbaar 'zwaarder' dan van andere; ook de grote
akkers, en zeker die van na de oogst in September geven de beelden
van hoofdstuk 11. Daarenboven is deze rivier, die als geen andere
wordt geboren in het Rila gebergte en loopt tussen de Rhodopen
en de Balkanrug, de bloedsomloop van Bulgarije - om tevens van
welhaast uitgedroogd beekje tot allesverwoestende stroom te worden,
die dan toch weer de vruchtbare grond brengt, waar op en uit
het leven komt in beelden die een ieder kent van 'lievelingsplekken';
een herder was zo vriendelijk om onder een brug in de droogliggende
kleigrond rond de rivier een dutje te doen toen ik er in zinderende
hitte even koffie maakte. |
| Superbly over that are the chapter XI lines 59
- 65 showing the stretch of countryside surrounding some
of the Maritsa in that 1923 September-time or indeed any other
September when the picture is without the blemishes of that year
but with the fruits of those grounds the ripe pumpkins,
and the stubbles after the corn has been harvested, all there
to remind us for ever of how sad it is to desecrate such country
as opposed to the beautiful picture one should cherish since
that proverbial 'May', that were to be had, come into being. |
Werkelijk indrukwekkend met betrekking
daartoe zijn de zinnen 59 - 65 in hoofdstuk 11, waarin de stoppelvelden
van langs de Maritsa als na de verschrikkelijke oogst van die
september in 1923 hun treurige verschrikkingen laten zien in
de natuurlijke beelden van ieder jaar waarin ze schuldloos de
schoonheid tonen van de nazomer met de vruchten van de spreekwoordelijke
mei die eraan vooraf heeft moeten gaan. |
It seems to me that one could take out the 'troubled' sentences
from Milev's 'Septemvri', and be left with a perfect and flawless
poem describing the Bulgarian country-side, a pretty one for
that.
From my (J.J. Visser) travel diary (night train from Burgas to
Sofia):
With the size of The Netherlands the Balkan Plain kept between
the wild rugged mountains lies dark and deeply hidden in a moon-
and starless night. A dimming lightbulb here and there betrays
the suggestion of a calm and empty, entirely rural vast where
at day time shepherds gently walk from sheep-shade to a next
wind-covering dry river-bedding with a few cows, sometimes goats,
more often a dozen or so sheep (I overheard Frisian local farmers
talk of 'the need for some 70 sheep to provide one with a modest
income'), a rare donkey and indeed a seldom horse (mare and foal);
with indeed their one sticked sheet, or cow-hide for tent/raincoat
- plus cell phone. When nearer to Sofia at the crack of dawn
the first light is indeed scattered on the harsh, now yellowish/redish,
stoney tops - a laced border over a grey and still to be revealed
'all' with no particular promise - massive mountains riggs with
snowy tops. There under a vast and endless plain lies still in
total darkness - sheltered, kept prisoner between the riggs -
Eons in the geological sense have washed the debris that resulted
from the hars climate's working the stone, that magnificent,
and ever so needed, bloody harsh sun beeing one of the elements
in that climate that is known by all inhabitants to keep them
in a sometimes tyring, never to escape, grip: and, oh dear -
how lovely can it be to the roses! From the golden tiara's of
the ancient warrior- and godly kings to the dust that mankind
is made of (or is it the other way round) Europe's culture, mankind's
dignity began here, where the Celts met the Thracians. Bulgaria's
kings come from the Thracian clay, they are the produce of a
succesful race of farmers / a humbled (climate is not exactly
their doing if at all to be altered) field of sunflowers that
somewhat sullenly follow the sun, hardly ever feeling the need,
or find the courage, to look it in the face. Life is too much
a burden to be so frivolous, and as such bears the fertility
of a for ever and again procuring and toiling Adam and Eve toiling.
After the private view at Sacho's, and ,God has her soul, Julia's
house together with the delightful Dimitar Tsanev family, the
day-bus from Sofia to Burgas showed us all the different occupations
and places where even today (too many of us seem to think that
'the past' is something unreal) most workmen's tools are primitive
and far away from computered sophistication. (the train left
only after a good old hammer-cheque - the small sledge hammer
that so easily transform into a deadly weapon - unthinkable in
my Talis-ridden country where workplaces, gardens and poorer
housing had to go for 'the future', something I do not oppose
to as a principal as for instance that housing that is built
to rehouse those coming from the demolished ones certainly ar
better.
I'm left with pondering about the question: do we actually know
sunflowers from before Van Gogh, when in his struggle for the
grand in God's minor creatures?
This 'May' might have Milev's 'May'
of 1921  Het zou Milev's
'Mei' van 1921 kunnen zijn.
The
Milev Project in progress / Het Milev Project krijgt vorm
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Here are few of the first sentences from:
We used to know springtime, and summer, and all such seasons
We used to know May
We used to know the first warm breathes of the seaside air
as a canopy above us
(a verry free translation of some first lines to have an impression)
Willingly Milev plays within the tradition of the 'new year wishes'
as we know them to have come down from midæval times: the
'Ecco Maggio dei bel Fiore' tradition in Italy.
Here, as in all his work, he takes us by the hand on this journey
through literature, his little comments changing our 'saver'
views.
1921 gives little room for such 'sure matters' that could live
'simple and unprotected'. But there surely is this fight to regain
some of it, most wanted of course the humanistic values, as they
have come to us by the words of the first of the humanists:
Angelo Poliziano
BEN VENGA MAGGIO
Ben venga maggio
e il gonfalon selvaggio!
Ben venga primavera! Che l'uomo si innamori
e voi donzelle a schiera
con li vostri amatori! Che di rose e fiori
vi fate belle in maggio.
Ben venga maggio
E il gonfalon selvaggio
Venite alla frescura
delli verdi arbuscelli!
Ogni bella è sicura
Fra tanti damigelli;
che le fiere e gli uccelli
ardono d'amore in maggio
Ben venga maggio
E il gonfalon selvaggio
Chi è giovane e bella
Deh non sie punto acerba
Che non si rinnovella
L'età come fa l'erba:
nessuna stia suberba
all'amadore il maggio
Ben venga maggio
E il gonfalon selvaggio...
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enkele beginzinnen uit:
Een kleine expressionistische kalender van 1921 - deeltje
vijf: Mei
Weet je nog, lente, en zomer, en al die seizoenen
Weet je nog, mei
Weet je nog die eerste ademtocht komend uit zee, als een deken
over ons allen.
(een wel erg vrije, schetsmatige vertaling voor een eerste
indruk)
Uiteraard speelde Milev heel bewust binnen de traditie van de
'nieuwjaarsgedichten' zoals we die internationaal kennen van
middeleeuwen en rederijkers en hier met name met de 'Ecco Maggio
dei bel Fiore' traditie van mei-liederen in Italië.
In 1921 is het waarlijk onmogelijk nog 'vrije zekerheden' en
'onbeschermde hoop' te hebben op een 'nieuw begin' maar het recht
erop wordt gepoogd te heroveren; vergelijk het, nadrukkelijk
- en als zodanig eerste - humanistische, gedicht van Angelo Poliziano:
BEN VENGA MAGGIO
Ben venga maggio
e il gonfalon selvaggio!
Ben venga primavera! Che l'uomo si innamori
e voi donzelle a schiera
con li vostri amatori! Che di rose e fiori
vi fate belle in maggio.
Ben venga maggio
E il gonfalon selvaggio
Venite alla frescura
delli verdi arbuscelli!
Ogni bella è sicura
Fra tanti damigelli;
che le fiere e gli uccelli
ardono d'amore in maggio
Ben venga maggio
E il gonfalon selvaggio
Chi è giovane e bella
Deh non sie punto acerba
Che non si rinnovella
L'età come fa l'erba:
nessuna stia suberba
all'amadore il maggio
Ben venga maggio
E il gonfalon selvaggio...
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Conclusion:
It is my personal believe that Geo Milev, so deeply aware of
the need for a next step after the Humanism of the Renaisance,
and at the same time a traditionalist by heart caring for
the good history had brought mankind wanted to build steadily
on the work done by the many European artists and philosophers.
Milev did not want to be a revolutionairy in the footsteps of
the Enlightenment, certainly he did not see 'disruption for the
greater good' fit. He knew the deeply bourgeois `French Revolution
to show the 'greater good' to be a dangerous evil, and as such
thouroughly opposing the general believe that 'human history
is a record of general progress'. 'Tabula rasa' was not one of
Milev's ideas, as goes for 'reason', skepticism, and materialism
as such. He is all about 'awareness of one's relative position',
and 'being answerable' in it.
In Geo Milev I recognize, with all possible mistakes, one of
the real great modern European artists to shape our thinking
April 2011, Joseph J. Visser
Teksten en beeldmateriaal onder beschermd copyright van Joseph
J. Visser
texts and pictures under protected copyright of Joseph J.
Visser
Thomas Siemon, publisher: printing & typography; final
decisions.
Joseph J. Visser, publisher & initiator of this project:
translations (Bulgarian into English & Dutch), lino cuts,
& advices on colour and binding.
Monika Götze, translator of literature Dutch - German: translation
(into German), & critical ear.
Het project is, met enige
trots, en zoals het dit project betaamde, geheel zonder subsidies
tot stand gekomen.
INDEX
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