Kōbō Abe - Image from Vice.com

This is a kafkaesque story of an entomologist who travels to a remote village in search of a new species of beetle. It is he and not the bug who is captured. The village is beset by relentless sand. Their homes have already been buried so deep that it takes full time effort by residents to remove incoming sand from the holes in which their houses are now nearly buried to keep from being destroyed. Jumpei is placed in the home of a widow to help her. The story tells of his imprisonment and his attempts to escape. There is much detail here about sand, but the true intent here is an examination of life. What is existence? What is the true role of man? Do we control our fate? If so, how much? A bond grows between the man and woman, and becomes sexual. Finally, he is faced with a choice, when freedom is offered, to stay or go. There is one scene that is quite chilling, in which taunting village elders at the top of his hole tease him that they will set him free if he will only have sex with the woman in their view. God playing with his human toys? I appreciated the intellectual drive of the novel, but I never felt much of a visceral tie to the characters. The absurdity of the story prevented that for me.


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The Woman in the Dunes is a bleak novel about the human plight and the monotony of existence.

The Woman in the Dunes is also about sand.

Suna No Onna = Sand Woman = The Woman in the Dunes, Kōbō Abe

The Woman in the Dunes is a novel by the Japanese writer Kōbō Abe, published in 1962. It won the 1962 Yomiuri Prize for literature, and an English translation and a film adaptation appeared in 1964.

In 1955, Jumpei Niki, a school teacher from Tokyo, visits a fishing village to collect insects. After missing the last bus, he is led, by the villagers, in an act of apparent hospitality, to a house in the dunes that can be reached only by rope ladder.

The next morning the ladder is gone and he finds he is expected to keep the house clear of sand with the woman living there, with whom he is also to produce children.

He eventually gives up trying to escape when he comes to realize returning to his old life would give him no more liberty. After seven years, he is proclaimed officially dead.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پانزدهم ماه اکتبر سال 2005میلادی

عنوان: زن در ریگ روان؛ کوبو آبه؛ مترجم: مهدی غبرائی؛ تهران، نیلوفر، 1383، در 236ص؛ شابک 9789644482229؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ژاپن - سده 20م

این رمان کافکایی، تجربیات کابوس مانند یک آموزگار، و حشره‌ شناس، به نام: «نیکی جامپی» را روایت می‌کند؛ که توسط گروهی از افرادی که پایین یک تپه شنی بزرگ زندگی می‌کنند، به اسارت گرفته میشود؛ «کوبو آبه» با انتشار همین رمان، و فیلمی که با اقتباس از آن، ساخته شد، به شهرت جهانی دست یافتند

در داستان «زن در ریگ روان» یک مرد حشره شناس، به دنبال ثبت نام خود، در دانشنامه‌ ی حشرات است، او در پی سوسکی منحصر به فرد است، اما از آنچه سرنوشت پیش پای او قرار می‌دهد، آگاهی ندارد؛ داستان از زبان دانای کل روایت می‌شود، و در هر فصل، زمان داستان، و رویدادهای آن دگرگون میشوند، اما این پرش‌های زمانی، خوانشگر را سردرگم نمی‌کند؛ آنچه که در این کتاب آشکار است، استفاده هنرمندانه «کوبو آبه» از نمادها است؛ در کتاب «زن در ریگ روان» می‌توان رد پایی از «افسانه سیزیف» را نیز دید، که به تلاش‌های بی‌فرجام انسان در زندگی اشاره می‌کند؛

نقل نمونه متن: (سر به زیر راه افتاد، و خط هلالی تلماسه ها را، که چون قلعه ای بر فراز دِه، خیمه زده و در برش گرفته بود؛ دنبال کرد؛ به چشم انداز دور تقریبا هیچ توجهی نداشت؛ حشره شناس باید ششدانگ حواسش را، متوجه دو سه متری دور و برش کند؛ و یکی از قواعد اساسی آن است، که نباید به آفتاب پشت کند؛ اگر پشتش به خورشید باشد؛ سایه اش حشرات را میرماند؛ در نتیجه پیشانی و دماغ گردآورنده حشرات، هميشه آفتاب سوخته است

با گامهای یکنواخت، آهسته پیش میرفت؛ هر قدمی که برمیداشت، شن روی کفشهایش میپاشید؛ جز علفهای هرز، با ریشه سطحی، که انگار یکروزه و با هر نمی، سر برمیآوردند؛ هیچ موجود زنده ای، پیدا نبود؛ گاهی تک و توک، «مگسی لاکی» که بوی عرق آدمیزاد، جذبش کرده بود؛ دورو برش پر میزد؛ با اینحال؛ دقیقا در چنان محیطی، انتظار داشت چیزی پیدا کند؛ بخصوص اینکه، سوسکها گروه زی نیستند، و میگویند: که در برخی موارد نادر، یک سوسک منطقه ‌ای به وسعت حدود دو کیلومترمربع را، قلمرو خود قرار می‌دهد؛ مرد همچنان صبورانه پیش می‌رفت؛ ناگهان سر راه ایستاد؛ کنار ریشه ‌های دسته ‌ای علف، چیزی جنبیده بود؛ یک عنکبوت بود؛ عنکبوت‌ها به دردش نمی‌خوردند؛ نشست که سیگاری دود کند؛ باد بی‌امان از جانب دریا می‌وزید؛ آن پایین موج‌های پرتلاطم، سر بر شنزار می‌کوفتند؛ آنجا که تلماسه‌ ها، رو به غرب، سر فرود می‌آوردند؛ تپه ی کوچکی، که خرسنگی برهنه، بر فراز آن بود، به سوی دریا پیش رفته بود؛ نیزه‌ های نور خورشید، روی این خرسنگ پاشیده بود؛ روشن کردن کبریت، مکافاتی داشت؛ از ده تا کبریت، یکی هم روشن نشد؛ موج شن، کنار کبریتهایی که به زمین می‌انداخت، با سرعت عقربه ی دقیقه ‌شمار ساعت مچی‌ اش، حرکت می‌کرد؛ به یکی از این موجک‌ها توجه کرد، و وقتی به نوک پاشنه ‌اش رسید؛ بلند شد؛ شن، از چین و شکن‌های شلوارش، پایین ریخت؛ تف کرد، و در دهانش، زبری دانه‌ های شن را احساس کرد.)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 19/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 18/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

"It was like trying to build a house in the sea by brushing the water aside".

Why are sand and time so often associated? Is it their naturally agglutinative particularity? Is it the pervasive image of the hourglass or its instrumental functionality?

"SAND: an aggregate of rock fragments. Sometimes including loadstone, tinstone, and more rarely gold dust. Diameter: 2 to 1/16 mm.

"A very clear definition indeed. In short, then, sand came from fragmented rock and was an intermediate between clay and pebbles. But simply calling it an intermediate substance did not provide a really satisfactory explanation. Why was it that isolated deserts and sandy terrain came into existence through the sifting out of only the sand from soil in which clay, sand, and stones were thoroughly mixed together? If a true intermediate substance were involved, the erosive action of the wind and water would necessarily produce any number of intermingling intermediate forms in the range between rock and clay. However, there are in fact only three forms that can be clearly distinguished from one another: stones, sand, and clay. Furthermore, sand is sand wherever it is; strangely enough, there is almost no difference in the size of the grains whether they come from the Gobi Desert or from the beach at Enoshima. The size of the grains shows very little variation and follows a Gaussian distribution curve with a true mean of 1/8 mm." (13)

Kobo Abe's novel reads like realistic fiction but takes the form of a parable. A Tokyo school teacher goes on a vacation/insect gathering expedition (in Nabokovian rapture). Some derogatory, psychoanalytic comments are made where the tendency to collect insects is likened to a juvenile Oedipal coping. Though the comments bristle, they are equally apropos of nothing and vanish into the air. Without warning the teacher wanders into a fishing village with strange properties. The teacher is questioned, and when he provides enough anecdotal evidence of not being an "inspector" he's "allowed to stay" with a local village woman.

In the house of this woman, sand is pervasive. It constantly invades.

What are these sands? They are equally the destructive, irresistible force of time accumulation and that which supports life, functioning as an enormous suction pump filtering out fresh, sweet water. The man and the woman must continually shovel sand out of the house in order that it may be habitable.

"Sand not only flows, but this very flow is the sand."

Who is the woman in the dunes? Is she another iteration of the Cumaean Sibyl?

Who is the man? His name, Niki Jumpei, tells us nothing. Is he Sisyphus? What is his crime?

Does it matter? Are we not all shoveling sand each day, in bigger or smaller holes? What daily life maintenance is not for the purpose of keeping the order that life requires as against the encroaching chaos of shifting nature?

There is some plot here, but I won't ruin it. The disorientation while you read is half the fun.

A word of warning: Though I view the work in its entirety, to some degree, as buddhist/existentialist, there is little compassion and the sexual politics are problematic (though certainly not celebrated). If you decide to read this, do as little pre-read research on it as possible. Then look up "burakumin".

Recommended for people who like feeling weird and thinking a lot.

3.75/5 stars

Kōbō Abe's The Woman in the Dunes is not only his most famous novel, but a classic of post-war Japanese literature and existential literature in general. Reviewers compared Abe to Sartre and Camus; it's been years since I've read both, so I'll do my best to judge the book on its own merit.

On surface, The Woman in the Dunes is a deceptively simple story. The main character, Niki Jumpei, is an amateur entomologist who travels to a remote area of Japan in search for rare insects. Jumpei desires to find one from a new species, to which he would give his name as its discoverer. his search leads him through towns and villages towards the coast, where he ultimately ends up in a village among the dunes, a hamlet so small and remote that it was largely forgotten by the outside world. Realizing that he has missed the last bus home, Jumpei realizes that he has to spend the night in the village; there are no hotels, and the only home with an empty bed is a small hut at the bottom of a pit, inhabited by a lone woman who has to constantly shovel sand away to avoid being buried alive. Having no other options, Jumpei descends a rope ladder and sleeps; when he wakes up, he notices that the ladder is gone. His attempts at climbing out of the pit are futile, and the woman tells him that no one has successfully escaped from the pit; Jumpei realizes with horror that he's been trapped by the villagers to be her helper, and that they don't intend to let him out.

In Abe's novel, sand is everywhere - it constantly drips down on everything, and is a constant threat to the safety of the entire settlement. Yet when it's shoveled away it's never removed, and only more of it falls right back down. Sand never sleeps and never rests, covering the narrator and the woman every time they rest, getting under their skin. The theme of erosion is prominent - physical erosion of sand dunes by and the threat it poses to the village, but also metaphorical erosion: sand has covered the woman for so long that it has apparently eroded her whole identity, as she doesn't seem to know another life or even be able to imagine one. She seems to be perfectly content shoveling away the sand, and does not find the prospect of life outside her pit desirable: even though her work is hard it is fairly rewarded, as the villagers provide her with food and water. She is neither happy, nor unhappy - unlike Jumpei this is the only life that she knows, and she has simply accepted it. Kōbō Abe has been a member of the Japanese Communist Party, but became disillusioned after visiting eastern Europe and attempted to quit after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. His request was refused, and he was ultimately expelled from the party in 1962 - the year when The Woman in the Dunes was published - and It's not difficult to see Abe's novel as a potential analogy for the communist regimes that he has seen firsthand. In the novel the woman's personal hopes, plans and dreams are completely disregarded by the villagers, who pay no attention to her personality at all and only value her contribution to the village. Sand is like an oppressive regime - surrounding the woman completely from all sides, taking away all of her hopes and desires that she might once have had.

Niki Jumpei is also an interesting character, and elements of his personality make him not entirely sympathetic: he can be complained to the mythical Sisyphus, condemned to forever repeat the same, unending task. But I'd argue that there is more to his character: essentially, Jumpei begins his journey to find a unique insect not entirely motivated by pure scientific curiosity: he wants the insect to be named after himself, suggesting not only pursuit of self-worth but also signs of vanity. Although he rebels against his imprisonment at first, he eventually finds himself at peace in his new surrounding - he is given a chance to leave but doesn't take it. He has found a new water source, and chooses to focus on it instead - staying in the pit, where he can claim credit for it and receive appropriate acclaim from his audience, the woman..

Although we can see the ending coming from far away, the book is certainly worth reading - if only for Abe's claustrophobic atmosphere and his rather tense description of the man's attempt at escape. Much better than Murakami, and mercifully much shorter! It has also been made into a classic Japanese film, which I'd now like to see.

کتاب رو خیلی خیلی دوست داشتم، اگه کتاب افسانه سیزیف رو از کامو خونده باشید و اون رو دوست داشته بودید عاشق این کتاب میشید.
کتاب روایتی از زندگی عادت گونه انسان هاست.
شن در این داستان پر رنگ ترین نقش رو داره ، نقش جبر زندگی که ازش گریزی نیست.
قهرمان داستان ما همیشه در حال مبارزه با شن هست اما هیچ وقت موفق نمیشه اون رو شکست بده و در آخر سعی میکنه بهش عادت کنه ، میل زندگی اما هیچ وقت از درونش از بین نمیره.
داستان :

حشره شناسی تازه کار به امید شناسایی گونه ای از سوسک شنی، به منطقه ای دوردست از ریگ های روان می رود. هوا تاریک می شود و روستاییان به او پیشنهاد می کنند شب را در اقامتگاهی نه چندان دلنشین، انتهای یک گودال قیفی شکل شنی بگذراند.

رفتن به آن جا تنها از طریق یک طناب ممکن است. ساکن این اقامتگاه، زنی جوان است که بیشتر وقت خود را صرف ریختن شن در سطل هایی می کند که بعداً توسط روستاییان بالا کشیده می شود. خانه ی او به منزله ی دیواره ای است که نمی گذارد روستا توسط ریگ روان بلعیده شود. وقتی مرد بیدار می شود، در می یابد که طناب بالا کشیده شده است. تلاش های او برای خروج از گودال مرتباً به شکست می انجامد و او ابتدا با تردید، سپس با خشم و بعد از آن با ترس متوجه می شود که حالا به کارگری در این کار بی پایان تبدیل شده است. او اولین غریبه ای نیست که مجبور به ایستادگی در برابر ریگ روان شده است؛ ولی روستاییان ترجیح می دهند کارگران نامناسبشان بمیرند تا این که توسط مقامات دوردست شناسایی شوند.

کتاب خوبی بود، از خیلی جهات شبیه سیزیف کامو بود، خیلی از توصیف ها و تصویر سازی های متن رو نمی تونستم بفهمم و البته خیلی از جاها هم به ضرورت تجمه سانسور شده بود به نظرم
در نتیجه میریم که آماده بشیم برای دیدن فیلمش

درباره یک معلم حشره شناس
که مردم دهی او را به اسارت میگیرند
داستان جذاب و پرکشش و روایتی متفاوت
از ادبیات ژاپن
لذت بردم از خوانش این کتاب

فضاسازی کتاب عالی بود. حس حضور شن در لحظه لحظه داستان لمس می شد...به گمانم کوبو آبه از دغدغه های انسانی نوشت از میل به جاودانگی که بزرگترین آرزوی آدمی است. از رنج دایم بشر... که در ثانیه ثانیه زندگی با آن مواجه می شود، از جبر و اختیار...که با آن ها گلاویز می گردد و سرانجام تلاش برای رسیدن به آزادی... ولو اینکه این آزادی ختم به نیستی گردد.تفکرات اگزیستانسیالیستی در سراسر رمان به چشم می خورد:"...در نهایت خود شخص است که تصمیم می گیرد چگونه زندگی کند."زندگی توام با اضطراب.
تاثیر پذیری نویسنده از"مسخ کافکا" نیز کاملا مشهود است. اما آنچه که ذهن را قلقلک می دهد تلاش بی وقفه انسان از یک جهت و حضور انسان هایی بی تحرک و راضی به وضع موجود از سمت دیگر باعث می شود که خواننده دچار جدال با خود گردد که شاید آن هایی که با وضعیت موجود کنار آمده اند راه درست تری را انتخاب کرده اند. به راستی چه کسانی راه درست تری انتخاب کرده اند؟!

اولين بار بود كه يه كتاب برام جذاب بود ولى ترجمش اينقدر اذيت ميكرد!!

ترجمه باعث نشد كه بگم داستانش بكر و جذاب نبوده!!

خيلى ناراحت كننده بود ولى حقيقت داره !! به نظرم همه ى ما گرفتار یک همچین ریگ زارهایی تو زندگیمون هستیم.....

Monokl Yayınları'ndan çıkan her kitaba özel bir anlam vermemden kaynaklanıyor olabilir ama ben yazarın bütün iyi yönlerine rağmen "Kumların Kadını" bahsettiği çukur kadar derinlik bulamadım. Evet çok güzel bir hayal gücü, güzel tasvirler, o delikte kapana sıkışmışlık hissi ama ya sonrası, ya alt metin, yolculuk ve hedef? 173 sayfalık kitapta hayata dair kaç şey vardı ya da oranın ne olduğu, amacı neydi, söylenenler yaşananlar, iyi çözümlenmemiş psikolojik durumlar beni kaybetti. Cinsellik bile amaçsızdı. Kumun tüm ihtişamına rağmen akıldan zor oluşturulan bazı fiziksel tasvirler insanı yoruyor. Kobo Abe'yi çok merak ediyordum ama sanırım kendisine uzun bir süre dönüş yapmayacağım. Ayrıca öykülendirme, kurgunun kör düğümleri, dil olarak bana Murakami'yi hatırlattığını da söylemeliyim. Bu arada Monokl Yayınları'nın hakkını teslim etmek lazım; olağanüstü bir kapak ve baskı. Her zaman ki gibi özenli.

κλειστοφοβικό, δύσκολο, αρκούντως καφκικό.
Το διαβαζα με σφιγμένα τα σαγόνια και σμιγμένα φρύδια.

Πάντα θα θαυμάζω στη λογοτεχνία των Ιδεογραμμάτων αυτή την ονειροπόλα ιδιότητα της γραφής. Σαν να βρίσκεσαι μεσα σ΄ενα Ονειρο - εδω, ειδικοτερα μεσα σ΄εναν ιδιότυπο εφιάλτη.

"Έχοντας συνέχεια στη φαντασία του την εικόνα της άμμου που ρέει, που και που καταλαμβανόταν απο την ψευδαίσθηση οτι ακόμη κι ο ιδιος είχε αρχίσει να ρέει."