مگس‌ها

by Mariano Azuela, وازریک درساهاکیان (Translator)

پایتخت در خطر سقوط است و نیروهای وی‌یا و ساپاتا شهر را ترک می‌کنند و مردم وفادار به انقلاب نیز در پی آنان جلای وطن می‌کنند. سیاستمداران، کارمندان، ژنرال‌ها و افسران «ارتش سابق فدرال»، دکترها، معلم‌ها، زنان راحت طلب تهی‌مغز، زنان بدکاره، و خلاصه همه کسانی که کوته نظرانه به وی‌یا دل بسته بودند، نومیدانه می‌کوشند بگریزند تا به‌دست سربازان سرخپوست قبیلهٔ «یاکی» کشته نشوند. این فراریان هراسان در یک واگن بهداری گرد می‌آیند و در سراسر شبی هولناک، حدس‌های دیوانه‌وار خود را بلغور می‌کنند.

ماریانو آسوئلا را «رمان‌نویس انقلاب» نامیده‌اند. او نخستین رمان‌نویس انقلاب مکزیک است و دیگر نویسندگان متعهد مکزیک تحت تأثیر او بوده‌اند. مگس‌ها از نخستین و مهم‌ترین رمان‌های آسوئلاست که در دورهٔ دیکتاتوری پورفیریو دیاس نوشته است.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

152 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1957

About the author

Mariano Azuela González was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He wrote novels, works for theatre and literary criticism.

Reviews

[John Dishwasher John Dishwasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrator of The Flies hovers around a group of characters as they muddle through a chaotic day of the Mexican Revolution. Combatants themselves are scarcely treated and always in conflict with these main characters the narrator observes. Azuela seems to be showing us ‘the flies’ that swirl around any event, however grave or sacred -- and his tone is decidedly snide. These are the privileged and entitled. We witness their detached armchair strategizing about the revolution, their irrelevant infatuations, their cynical opportunism, and their insistence on having a new pair of shoes. They include even an army general who cares more about the fashion of his sycophants than the jeopardy of his soldiers. It’s clear from Azuela’s portrayal of these folks that he really hates their guts. No matter the situation, it appears, these flies are always going to be circling and spoiling the truth of things.

Azuela is one of the preeminent chroniclers of the Mexican Revolution in fiction. I found this novella more accessible than the other things I’ve read by him; mostly because usually he treats men in the ranks through a dialogue-heavy prose that documents their uncultivated Spanish. Strangely, I feel more sympathy with those ‘underdogs’ of his other books even though I cannot fully understand them. These elites, who I detest just as much as he does, I understand just fine. An unsettling irony for me.

[Moshtagh hosein · Rating 3 out of 5]

دکتر آزوئلا شاید به خوبی هموطن خودش فوئنتس غول ادبی نسل بوم نباشه لیکن شیوه ساده نوشتارش از انقلاب و جنگ ها و سرخوردگی های مردم مکزیک در خلال جنگ های داخلی بسیار جالب توجه هست و اینکه این دومین کتابی هست که از ایشون می‌خوانم،شیوه نویسندگی و معرفی کاراکتر ها در ابتدای دو کتابی که ترجمه شده(ارباب ها و مگس ها)خلاقانه هست و این که دکتر تنها روایتگر یک داستان ساده نیست بقولی میشه گفت یک جامعه کوچک یا خانواده در داستان های آزوئلا نماد کل مکزیک میشه و خب این هم جالب توجه هست.

[Zachary Granat · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are reading this review, written in English, you have likely not read Mariano Azuela, an author almost unknown outside of Spanish-language literature. Save for one of his novels, The Underdogs, his works have rarely reached English audiences, and I was lucky to discover this collection at a used book sale. In fact, the brevity of these texts and the multiplicity of characters within them reminded me of the two Spanish picaresque novels I picked up at the same sale, Lazarillo de Tormes and The Swindler . Indeed, Azuela has the social consciousness of the former and the adroit penmanship of the latter. However, as the “writer of the Mexican Revolution,” his plots spring from his politics instead of his imagination, so that they lose their appeal after the point has been established.

The Flies is the story of a motley crew of refugees escaping the fall of Mexico City to revolutionary forces. If the title represents anything about the narrative, then it is the frantic swarms of human life that pack the streets and train cars from beginning to end. Azuela’s imagery is vivid and his characterizations are memorable (because disparaging), but he allows a tangent involving the least sympathetic characters to steal the show from the charmingly dysfunctional family at its center.

While The Flies often reads like a stage play due to its preponderance of dialogue, The Bosses reads like, well, a proper novel, albeit a short one. This time, Azuela gives adequate attention to all three directions of his plot—the naive grocer Don Juan, the muckraking reporter Rodriguez, and the corrupt Del Llano business clan. However, these arcs do not terminate in unison, so the story limps to rather than lands at the finish line.

Azuela’s obscurity may be explained by his association with a specific historical event. Like all period writers, if you are not interested in the period, then you won’t be interested in the writer. But I am interested in Azuela and would appreciate the chance to read more of him.

[Abdollah Nazari · Rating 1 out of 5]

یک به درد نخور. ÷ر از اسم های بهم ریخته در وضعیت بهم ریخته ی مکزیک. شخصیت های بی شخصیت. ضدانقلابی و بی آرمان بودن نویسنده ای که حرفی هم برای گفتن ندارد. داستانی که اصلا داستان نیست. نه شروع می شود و نه پایان می پذیرد. فقط تمام میشود. بی که ذره ای حتی در لفظ لذتبخش باشد.

[Ramin]

این کتاب دارای منطقی گزنده است : انقلاب پس از پیروزی در اولین قدم فرزندان حقیقی خود را می بلعد وآنچه به جای می ماند، مگسهای پستی هستند که به گرد شیرینی در صدر امور مملکتی قرار می گیرند
داستان در مناظره ای از به جای ماندگان یک انقلاب در یک فصای سادیست گونه داخل یک واگن پرسر و صدا و در طول یک شب هولناک می گذرد و هر کدام به عنوان قشری از انقلاب دید خود را از آینده می گویند.
منبع : iketab

[Kookie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both of these short novels are a bit too far removed from the time they were written to be fully understood. You'd have to know quite a bit about the politics surrounding the Mexican Revolution to get the full impact of either of the stories. Unfortunately, my knowledge in that arena is very lacking.

[Aryan.Sh7 · Rating 3 out of 5]

((افکار و عقاید و همه چیزشان شکمشان است. به همین دلیل است که نباید ملامتشان کرد اما قسمت دردناک و اسف انگیز قضیه این است آن همه خون ریختیم تا آخرش به چنگ چنین کثافتی بیفتیم!))

((متفکران انقلاب را تدارک می‌بینند، و راهزنان عملی اش می‌کنند در حال حاضر هیچ کس نمی‌تواند با یقین کامل بگوید که فلان کس انقلابی است و بهمان کس راهزن))

[Fatme_miim · Rating 4 out of 5]

کلا من از ادبیات انقلابی خوشم میاد و این کتاب این مدلی بود که حال و هوای روسیه تو قرن نوزده رو به یادم میاره...
کتابی بود که از خوندنش لذت بردم ولی انتخاب من برای دوباره خواندن نیست

[Mobina Esfandiari · Rating 3 out of 5]

۲۹ مهر یک هزار و چهارصد و یک خورشیدی.
-آدم فکر می‌کند که دارد کسی را از قعر منجلاب بیرون می‌کشد، حال آنکه در اصل خودش دارد تا حد او نزول می‌کند.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

These two short novels both take place during the Mexican Revolution. The genuinely excellent "The Flies" is something of a social satire, following a group of supporters of the now deposed regime as they escape the capital on a train and look at options for their next move. "The Bosses", not quite as good as the first, follows the fortunes of businessmen in a small city as the rise of one family brings about the fall of another.