- افضل الروايات، بالنسبة لي، تلك التي تذكرني بروايات قريبة الى قلبي او عقلي، فكيف اذا كانت البداية قد وضعتني في جو "اسم الوردة"، والتفاصيل ذكرتني بـ "اله المتاهة"، والديالكتيك اعادني الى "المعلم ومرغريتا"، وتعدد السبل احالني الى ابن طفيل ورائعته "حي بن يقظان"!هذا العبق اللذيذ مع السرد البسيط والإستطرادات الفلسفية المبنية على ثنائيات عديدة (سأفصلها لاحقاً) جعل من هذه الرواية احدى الكلاسيكيات الرائعة التي ستبقى في ذاكرتي لوقت طويل جداً!

- تبدأ القصة مع وصول غولدموند الى الدير حيث نرسيس، نرسيس فرّيسي (يمتلك الفراسة) فيسبر اعماق غولدموند وينصحه بإيجاد مسلكه فلا هو راهب وليس بإستطاعته ان يكون مفكراً، يغادر غولدموند وتبدأ مغامراته التي لا تنتهي، ينغمس بمتع الحياة ويتخلل مساره الكثير من الحب والجنس والتشرد والسير والموت والفن والنحت والرسم كما يتخلله استنتاجات من كل تجربة حياتية مرّ بها واستخلاص نتائج وتفسيرات... يلتقي الصديقان بعد سنوات فينقذه نرسيس من الموت ويعود به الى الدير حيث يعصر غولدموند خلاص تجربته في بعض المنحوتات ويستقر اخيراً مطمئناً على فراش الموت تاركاً نرسيس ليبدأ رحلته الخاصة من دون اي تفاصيل من الكاتب.

- القصة بظاهرها قصة صديقان تجمعهما المحبة ورغم ان القسم الأكبر كان عن غولدموند الا ان نرسيس كان حاضراً بين سطور الرواية بمجملها. هذان الصديقان متناقضان احدهما يمثّل العقل (نرسيس) او الفكر والجانب الأبوي والآخر (غولدموند) يمثّل العاطفة والجانب الأمومي (او الانثوي)، نرسيس يمثّل المجردات الباردة وغولدموند يمثّل المحسوسات الدافئة، نرسيس يمثّل الفكرة وغولدموند يمثّل الصورة!

- القصة بباطنها تحمل العديد من التفسيرات والطبقات، خصوصاً مع الفلسفة الدائرية التي اعتمدها "هيسه" مع غولدموند حيث بدأ من الدير ولفّ الأرجاء وعاد الى نقطة الإنطلاق بإرتكازه على محور "الأم" والعاطفة. كما ان الإعتماد على الديالكتيك والثنائيات وفلسفات نيتشة من جهة وتصوف إيكهارت من جهة ثانية قد اغنى الرواية واعطى لها ابعاداً جديدة وتمخّض عنها اسئلة كثيرة.

- نرسيس قد يمثّل الفكر المجرّد لكنه بذات الوقت قد يمثّل التديّن السلبي حيث لا تجارب حياتية بل انعزال وابتعاد وانعتاق، على النقيض لغولدموند الذي قد يمثّل الطريق الى التديّن الإيجابي او "الشك في اتجاه اليقين" حيث خاض غمار كل التجارب الممكنة من اجل الحصول على الخلاص! لكن بذات الوقت فإن نرسيس يمثّل الفكر المتنور الصافي الذي يترك الناس تعبر عن ذاتها بدون فرض واكراه وتخويف وابتزاز ( ص330"لا تحاول ان تقلد الزهاد والمتفقهين، بل كن ذاتك، واعمل على تحقيق ذاتك") كما انه لا يتصرّف كمن يمتلك الحقيقة المطلقة بل ان تواضعه يسمح له بقول الآتي (ص344:"كم من دروب تؤدي بنا الى المعرفة، وان الدراسة ليست الدرب الوحيد المؤدي اليها. ولعلها ليست ألأفضل في ذلك")

- اما على الصعيد الشخصي فقد رأيت نرسيس وغولدموند يشكلان جزئين لإنسان واحد، العقل والعاطفة، وهذان الجزءان لا يتوقفان عن العبث داخل كل انسان فأما ان يجذبه نرسيس اليه واما ان يسحبه غولدموند بإتجاهه، لكن هذه العملية ليست بعملية ارتقاء او انحدار بل مسلكين اثنين يؤديان الى النتيجة عينها، المعرفة والخلاص. ولا شكّ بأننا نحتاج لقليل من نرسيس وقليل من غوادموند في هذه الرحلة القصيرة على الأرض.

- ختاما، هل كان غولدموند هو هيرمان هيسة الذي ترك الدير في صباه؟! ام كان نرسيس بما يمتلكه هيسة من نرجسية ام انهما اقنومان لهيسة واحد!؟

- الترجمة كانت جيدة جداً، لدي تعليق بسيط على استعمال كلمة "الحب" فقد اتت بمعنى: المحبة، والعشق، والشهوة، والوله وكان من الأفضل استعمال المفردات المتاحة (والكثيرة) للغة العربية الا اذا كان هيسة قد عبّر بمفردة واحدة (الحب) عن كل هذه الأحاسيس!

Perhaps this book is interesting as an example of the dichotomization of body/mind, angel/whore, ascete/wayfarer. Put the dicktalk aside (which is no small task here) and you still have an enormous vine from which to swing back and forth from pole to pole. At best woman is subject here, at worst she so thoroughly blends into the background she's invisible. More than bleak considering this is a meditation on the roles of the artist and thinker (and never the twain shall meet mind you) in a modern world. While i suppose Hesse was trying to justify the new free-thinking, free-loving, long hair wearing male artist of the twentieth century, he really does less to exhort new modes of being and more towards the reinforcement of woman-loathing Cartesian dualism. She is both giver and taker away and yet completely and utterly powerless as an entity free of him, the center; she has no option but to be both the beginning and end of him. No no no. Nope.

El autor de este libro, Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), no sólo fue un gran novelista, también desarrolló las facetas de poeta, escritor y pintor; además fue ganador del Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1946. Escritor muy admirado al que tenía yo olvidado pero con esta lectura me he reencontrado con él en una cima más alta.

Su estilo se caracteriza por una profunda introspección espiritual y artística y en esta ocasión nos presenta el antagonismo entre la vida espiritual y contemplativa contra la vida sensual y activa. Narciso y Goldmundo representan y desarrollan estos dos mundos del ser humano, dos filosofías de vida: la serena existencia contra las emociones de una vida azarosa; la búsqueda de la paz y la armonía contra la satisfacción de los sentidos; la ciencia contra el arte.

Narciso es un ser anclado en una espiritualidad que le da una vida con una sólida estructura; Goldmundo es un ser que ama la libertad y el mundo material, el mundo de los sentidos pero que también sufre una asombrosa transformación artística.

Tiene un encanto especial la forma en que Hermann Hesse nos describe la transformación que sufre Goldmundo cuando contempla una bella imagen de un maestro llamado Nicolao y a partir de ese momento se ve arrobado por el arte y es entonces cuando su vida se enriquece. Una vida que ahora ha pasado por una revelación y a partir de entonces siempre mora en su alma una imagen u otra que quiere plasmar y darle vida para que subsista a través de los años.

Goldmundo en su subconciente siempre conserva la figura de su madre la cual desarrolla de manera integral a través de "la vida, la carnalidad, el amor, el miedo, el hambre, el instinto y la muerte..." También evoca a su madre pero como un ir de nuevo hacia ella a través de la muerte, reintegrándolo, de esta manera, al no ser y a la inocencia después de haber malgastado, según él, su vida.
La visión de Narciso es totalmente diferente ya que él ve en Goldmundo una fuente de riqueza vital que ha ampliado su vida y ha impedido que ésta se marchite en el convento. A pesar de esa vida descarriada y sensual de Goldmundo, Narciso ve en él un corazón de artista lleno de luz y de gracia divina.
Por su parte Goldmundo siempre ha admirado la riqueza intelectual y la capacidad de Narciso para traspasar el alma humana, así como la erudición que posee.

No quiero dejar de mencionar, a propósito de las facetas artísticas de este fabuloso autor del siglo XX, su contribución al testamento musical de otro gran artista, pero éste de la música clásica: Richard Strauss (1864-1949) quien tomó algunos textos de Hermann Hesse para componer sus “Cuatro Últimas Canciones” (“Vier Letze Lieder”). Estas canciones que datan de 1948, versan sobre el ocaso de la vida, la cercanía de la muerte y lo inevitable del destino.

Lo único que podría criticar de este libro es la edición un tanto descuidada; así mismo y a pesar de los esfuerzos de traducción de Luis Tobío, ésta presenta algunos detalles que hacen un tanto difícil su lectura en algunos pasajes.

"نارتسیس و گلدموند" پیچیده و در عین حال ساده بود. از دیِر آرام ماریابرون آغاز شد و به سرعت به درختان و جنگل و کوه و دشت‌ها، آب رودخانه‌ها و آرامش دهکده‌ها رسید. از کنار قلعه‌ی شهسواری گذشت و به شهر اسقف و استاد خبره‌ی مجسمه‌سازی رسید. لیزه و لیدیا و یولی و ربکا و لنه و آگنس و لیسبت همه در جهان سپری شدند و طاعون داس مرگ را به رقص واداشت. دِیر و صومعه و کلیسا در نظم ناقوس‌ها باقی ماندند و دنیا از حرکت نایستاد. به راستی، ارزش زندگی در چیست و چه چیزی پس از مرگ در انتظار ما نشسته است؟ در چشمان خدا، زندگی‌های ما در این پایین چگونه هستند؟

به او می‌گفت: "نارتسیس، تو نمی‌ترسی؟ غصه به سراغت نیامده؟ خبردار نشده‌ای؟ آری عزیزم‌. دنیا همه مرگ است. همه مرگ! مرگ بر سر هر پرچین در کمین است. پشت هر درخت در انتظار است و شما بیهوده رنج می‌برید و دیوار برپا می‌کنید و خوابگاه و نمازخانه و کلیسا می‌سازید. مرگ از روزن مترصد است و می‌خندد. هر یک از شما را به درستی می‌شناسد. در دل شب ندایش را نمی‌شنوید که پشت پنجره‌تان می‌خندد و نامتان را می‌خواند؟ حالا دعاتان را بخوانید و در نمازخانه‌هاتان شمع برافروزید و صبح و شام نماز بگزارید و در داروخانه گیاه و در کتابخانه کتاب گرد آورید. دوست عزیز، آیا هنوز روزه می‌داری؟ و خواب بر خود حرام می‌کنی؟ و شب تا صبح بیدار می‌مانی؟ خاطر آسوده دار یار قدیمی، ملک الموت بهنگام یاریت خواهد کرد و از همه چیز محرومت خواهد ساخت. حتی استخوان برایت نخواهد گذاشت. راه برو عزیز دلم. شتاب کن که بزم مرگ در انتظار است. تندتر برو و استخوان‌هایت را پیوسته نیک در پیوند دار. می‌خواهند از هم بپاشند، آن‌ها نزد ما ماندنی نیستند. آه استخوان‌های مسکین ما، حلق و معده‌ی بی‌پناه ما، اندکی مغز و جمجمه‌ی بینوای ما همه از ما گریزانند، همه می‌خواهند تباه شوند. لاشخورها، این سیاه لبادگان مردارخوار بر شاخ‌های عریان درخت در انتظار نشسته‌اند."

You, the lucky one with golden dust in your hair who have not read this piece of idleness yet, rejoice! I dedicate this review to you, in memoriam of weeks of reading I have thrown to the monkeys to chew on. Let me explain straight off that I was going to give this two stars because there were a few good scenes or paragraphs here or there. BUT they ultimately were not that good so the final rating stands.
Firstly, the name is wrong. It also misleads a small reader-Eve. "Adventures of Goldmouth" would be more correct. Why? Because the other guy exists more in the background as a kind of an idea rather than this being a story of two guys and their stories.
What is it about? Shortly, Goldmouth starts out at a monastery and quickly becomes a wanderer. He walks about aimlessly and lusts after women. He has a lot of sex which is explained in as minimal a detail I have ever read in my entire life. So don't get your hopes up that you'll get to read something arousing!
Here is something I thought of in the beginning. In the beginning Goldmouth is at the monastery where Narcissus already resides and they become friends: If I keep reading (it was already boring in the beginning hence the "if") I hope I see them prancing on a meadow feeding each other grapes, although I have a feeling I'm gonna be reading one of those love stories where the other cries after the other and they'll never have each other.
Well, I was right about the never having each other part but boy, was I wrong about the gayness! I wish there had been gayness.
Anythingness!
At the beginning I thought I was reading futile chatter of two lovers but in actuality I was reading a very mundane babble of two friends which makes me yawn even wider as I type this.
So he goes off on his travels with his little head guiding him. It's so naive, I kept rolling my eyes so much I thought they would roll out of their sockets and on to the pages. Well, at least then the book would have some action! I think the book was meant for a much younger audience because there was nothing new in there for me, I've read seen heard it all before. Heck, I've done most of the stuff myself!
When he is present at a child birth I saw the first glimpse of something meaningful happening within the story development but also in the protagonist: a growth. That's when the story and his view of life got darker. Reality, as one would call it, kicked in the door and marched around like it owned the place and I'm glad. I love reality invading fiction and in this story it's the only thing that saved it.
There is one underlying theme under all the not-action, and that's mothers. I think Goldmouth is in a way searching for his mother and thus ends up in bed with a lot of women, as one does when searching for a mother...no, wait...But I think a lot of what he does in his life is ultimately because he lacked strong guidance in his early years. Add here some freudian banter.
Then there is actually a sentence about how he felt that lust was the only thing that could bring him warmth in his life. That's when I almost stopped reading.
Seriously, stating the obvious much?!
This is when the only interesting part of the book took place, in order to not give anything away, I'm just going to say that it took only a few pages and was over in a heart beat. After that all the blah blah about his feelings and ideas continued and I started to pull out my hair.
Quickly after came the second interesting part of the book which relates to actual historical events very strongly. This part was longer than the one before and had a profound impact on the protagonist altering his views on life slightly. This part was written in such a way I got interested to know what would become of our lost wanderer.
After this part my frustration with the protagonist and the story-telling became unbearable. I have written down: The naive, self-centered brat who can't use his brain that much to even imagine that some things happen despite of him.
That pretty much sums it up and after this point I just read to get it over with.
This book was a battle. More with myself as a reader, though, than the book itself. It really does raise the question: Why do I read this crap?

? Tip van een "belezen' vriend

Fără mamă nu se poate iubi. Fără mamă nu se poate muri.

Shamefully, I only started reading this because I had a competition that took it as a subject. I was told I had to read this in order to compete. It was already on my reading list, I already loved Hesse, so I knew I was in for a treat.

Surprise surprise, the competition had no connection to the book whatsoever. The text in there was by Miller and in no way related to this.

Nonetheless, let's get back to the review.

It's one of my favorite books of 2013. About that - I will post a list of them and some details on my blog, which you can acces here. http://www.cocainepages.wordpress.com .

For the book, now.

Beautiful. Flawless writing, perfect character building, analytical to the bone, honest to human emotions, chilling in its truth.. just perfect. One of those works you don't take for granted because you know for sure they meant work and dedication and were written in virtue of experience and for only one purpose: unveiling the true nature of things.

I don't even want to get into details because I fear I'll spoil the experience for anyone who's interested out there. Hesse delivers, as he usually does, a piece that is full of force and thought. His writing is at times impossible to follow and at times easily understood. One of the few writers that I know to use this technique, he combines the "stream of counciousness" technique with rapid firing of dialogues or vivid descriptions. Written in the third person and still very personal, it leaves this feeling of permanent presence in his character's minds and it's stunning how at times he seems to see so well into the human mind and descipher mysteries that others were afraid to.

Capable of both fluid and hard writing, Hesse gives off the feeling of fullness. His books are complete. That is a wonderful ability for a writer.

Take this book in, please, if you read it. Don't rush through the pages. Understand it and let it understand you. This deserves a round of applause and be sure to give it that at the end.

Whew! What can I say of this book that may convey all that is there?!

If you want to dissect it from an analytical point of view, let's say that it was heavily influenced by Nietzsche's theory of the Apollonian versus Dionysian spirit as well as by Jung's archetypal structure (anima/animus, etc..).
The pure essence of this duality is almost tangible in this novel to the extreme and it is an intense and very exhausting reading experience.
Life and death, science and art, mind and heart, soul and body and their division, yet unity is represented so forcefully in this novel that it absorbed me completely.

I was disappointed by this book. I expected a thoughtful meditation on the appetites of a young man; instead, this is a travel story with a lot of sex. Nothing about either title character is explained in the literary sense: each of them just is, and events fit their personalities. Thus, Goldmund wanders around and gets laid a lot. This got old fast, and if it wasn't for the section that deals with the Black Death, I might have given up on the book.

I should have read this when I was younger - say, 18. Then I might have appreciated the idea of a young man sowing his wild oats across all of medieval Germany. There are a few interesting ideas here, and some well-written moments, but across over 300 pages, they feel far apart and bogged down by a thin premise.

O poveste emoţionantă despre prietenie, despre căutarea vocaţiei şi desluşirea sensului vieţii prin înţelegerea armoniei contrastelor.
Cu un limbaj de o delicateţe şi de o graţie desăvârşite, romanul devine fermecător încă de la primele pagini şi te vrăjeşte până la sfârşit prin naturaleţea şi cursivitatea lingvistică.
Spirit ludic şi rebel, tânărul novice Gură-de-Aur părăseşte mănăstirea în care a fost adus de tatăl sau, după ce tânărul sau mentor, prieten şi dascăl Narcis îi relevă, cu multă delicateţe, faptul că este lipsit de vocaţie monahală.
Lăsându-se condus de chemarea sângelui său vulcanic de ţigan, Gură-de-Aur întreprinde un lung pelerinaj iniţiatic, în care va cunoaşte lumea cu toate contrastele sale: dragostea, adulterul, desfrâul şi remuşcarea, trădarea, deznădejdea, crima, pierzania şi moartea.
În vreme ce se afla într-un sat sărac, asistă la naşterea pruncului unei ţărănci și, cu această ocazie, descoperă un detaliu care avea să îi schimbe complet viaţa: grimasele de pe chipul acelei femei, desfigurat de durerile facerii, sunt absolut identice cu grimasele de pe chipul femeii atinse de voluptatea orgasmică. Mai târziu, într-o biserică, descoperă pe chipul unei sculpturi înfăţişând pe Maica Domnului atât durerea Maicii sfâşiate de pierderea Fiului, cât şi extazul priciniut de implicarea în împlinirea Scripturilor.
În acest fel, Gură-de-Aur ajunge să devină conştient de propria-i vocaţie, cea mistic-artistică, și înțelege că, în esenţă, durerea şi voluptatea, plăcerea şi moartea sunt totuna iar sensul vieţii poate fi cuprins doar prin armonizarea contrastelor: a materiei cu spiritul, a femininului cu masculinul, a luminii cu întunericul, a binelui cu răul, a morţii cu viața. Profund schimbat, îşi regăseşte vechiul prieten şi revine la mănăstirea pe care o parasise cu ani în urmă.
Vorbele sunt puține și sărace pentru a spune tot ce trebuie spus despre această carte, pe care nu ai cum sa o povestești, așa cum nu poți povesti muzica. De aceea vă îndemn cu drag să vă bucurați și voi de ea, încheind cu frumoasele cuvinte ale lui Oscar Wilde, care o cuprind cu mult mai bine decât aș reuși eu vreodată:
"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

What an ironical prig this Narcissus guy is!

Narcissus and Goldmund, as I look back on it now in my old age - far from my youthful love for it - is one of Hesse’s near-misses. Close, but no cigar, as they used to say at the Fair. This novel could have been perfect.

But no - it misses the boat. At least to someone like me who’s a tiny bit older and wiser...

Why?

To find that out, let’s go back to the medieval era, in which this book is set...

There once was an ‘almost-Narcissus’ back then. His name was Desiderius Erasmus.

A Catholic and Monkish gentleman (and a scholar) of the world, he acted as a facilitator for the catholicism of Catholicism, and as a friend of Church nobility and peacemaker. He purportedly was a friend of poor ordinary souls. It’s true, I think, that he envied their spontaneous ease!

He wanted, you see, to silence his own bête noire: Martin Luther, an almost-Goldmund.

You see, Luther was an semi-innocent, like Goldmund - who was impulsive and passionate, like his real-life archetype. And both Luther and his fictional doppelgänger Goldmund were deeply conflicted. And Luther, like Goldmund, was ready to suffer eternal torment, if needs be, for following his own star. Erasmus? Never!

And spontaneous! And Erasmus was not.

For if in conflicted souls spontaneity is dammed up in the heart the result is spiritual entropy!

There, though, the near-similarity ends... and while Goldmund‘s outlet was art, Luther’s was the defence of simple faith and warm married love.

If Erasmus more nearly approximates to the coolly rational but envious Narcissus...

Hesse is ALSO a Narcissus, like Erasmus.

A wannabe free spirit!

A sophisticated pan-European man of the world, he resented and perhaps envied passionate, mystical artists - like Rainer Maria Rilke - and his own creation, Goldmund.

These are men who live by the free spiritual self-replenishment of pure inspiration!

Rilke, like Luther and Goldmund, could do no wrong in the eyes of his admirers. He could also do as he liked. And did it, though, always within the bounds of decency. Like the other two, he was also conflicted:

As we see in his great, final Duino Elegies.

And that masterpiece shows, like Luther and Goldmund before him, he could be mystical in a way few other men were.

Few men, and that includes Hesse.

Hesse was partly a lie to the world, for he, like so many, was so precisely and tormentedly that to himself.

He wasn’t an ingenuous, mystical guy like Rilke. A guy who saw ultimate, peaceful death in the sex act. Death - the end and beginning - of life!

And perhaps Hesse's outré habits, like those of his protagonist in Demian, bound his soul to self-contradiction. And the complications of a Narcissus or Erasmus.

But a he was a true barometer of his times.

And that is the reason this near-masterpiece is close, but no cigar... he TRIES too hard for perfection.

Perfection wasn’t to Rilke like an endless Glass Bead Game - but, rather, like being out on the open water of imagination and feeling the Pneuma of Inspiration catch your sails.

It must, you see, come from the heart - but it can’t, with Hesse.

Perhaps Hesse’s Heart was just too constricted and dark a place.

Because it was formed of his endless anxieties and boredom, which NEVER gave him Answers of the Spirit but only Excuses for possible Escape - and further intellectual exploration.

Like Erasmus - while Luther’s Faith was a constant Breeze from a sincere Heart. How frustrating!

And the heart has its reasons, of which the brain knows nothing!

That, at least, is one old guy’s two cents worth.

Even though, as a kid, I LOVED it, lulled by its twin themes of rebellion and creativity.

But I hadn’t then seen the Source of those two Inspiring emotions...

In the very Life Force that moves the Universe -

But I do now.
***
NOW, watch the Trailer for the German fillm... Narcissus and Goldmund!
https://youtu.be/xnHrfYp6HCI