Piramida

by Ismail Kadare

The time is 2600 B.C. The pharaoh Cheops hesitates to order the construction of a pyramid in his honor. But his court sages tell him that such a monument is essential--the pillar that holds power in place. Ismail Kadare's novel of ancient Egypt is a work that is at once historical fiction and a timeless exploration of the horror of untrammeled state power.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Albanian Literature, Historical, Novels, Literature, Classics

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ismail Kadare (also spelled Kadaré) was an Albanian novelist and poet. He has been a leading literary figure in Albania since the 1960s. He focused on short stories until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army. In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of France. In 1992, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca; in 2005, he won the inaugural Man Booker International Prize, in 2009 the Prince of Asturias Award of Arts, and in 2015 the Jerusalem Prize. He has divided his time between Albania and France since 1990. Kadare has been mentioned as a possible recipient for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. His works have been published in about 30 languages.

Ismail Kadare was born in 1936 in Gjirokastër, in the south of Albania. His education included studies at the University of Tirana and then the Gorky Institute for World Literature in Moscow, a training school for writers and critics.

In 1960 Kadare returned to Albania after the country broke ties with the Soviet Union, and he became a journalist and published his first poems.

His first novel, The General of the Dead Army, sprang from a short story, and its success established his name in Albania and enabled Kadare to become a full-time writer.

Kadare's novels draw on Balkan history and legends. They are obliquely ironic as a result of trying to withstand political scrutiny. Among his best known books are Chronicle in Stone (1977), Broken April (1978), and The Concert (1988), considered the best novel of the year 1991 by the French literary magazine Lire.

In 1990, Kadare claimed political asylum in France, issuing statements in favour of democratisation. During the ordeal, he stated that "dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible. The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship."

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underground Exposé on Top of a Pyramid

If you had lived in Albania between 1944 and 1985, you would have lived under one of the worst totalitarian regimes in the world. In such a small country, there was an extensive gulag with thousands of prisoners, many of whom died, and at least 6,000 executions. Over 59,000 people were in “internal exile”. When I visited the country in 1996, I met a woman who showed me her Albanian-English dictionary and told me that during Hoxha’s rule, she would have had to have government permission to own it, or else it was a 10 year prison sentence. Spies galore, kids encouraged to report parents, friends on friends, draconian punishments for a simple joke—life must have been a nightmare. Albania was closed, like North Korea today. So it’s no wonder that Kadare has written several allegorical books on the Kafkaesque situation in his unlucky country. To write directly was a ticket to jail or worse. So, he located his stories in the (already-defunct) Ottoman Empire or, in this case, in ancient Egypt. Even so, I think several of his books of totalitarian allegories were delayed in publication. At the end, but perhaps added later, he likened the building of the pyramid to the nearly 700,000 concrete bunkers that speckled the whole country because of El Supremo's paranoia.

This book is a painful read. Kadare tries his best to reach that almost-untouchable core of explaining what is so awful about such governments. In this case, “building Communism” is changed into a “pyramid”, but the disregard for human life, the lack of justice, the arbitrariness at the top, the dire punishments, the death of truth and any facts, and the spies, constant revelation of new “plots and conspiracies” reflect Albanian reality in his day, the history of the USSR, and let’s see….may force us to think of modern times in what other country?....hmm. Perhaps “The Autumn of the Patriarch” by Garcia Marquez is a more vivid, compelling indictment of totalitarian rule, and even Kadare’s own “The Palace of Dreams” is more powerful, but this one still hits home. I felt uncomfortable the whole way through, as I did with Kafka’s “The Castle”. It’s not a book to make you smile or feel good and it’s definitely not Kadare’s best novel. It’s more an underground exposé of some of the worst human nature has to offer. And it should make you glad that we dodged a bullet here in the USA. So far.

[L.S. Popovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pyramid Dreams.

Kadare takes some liberties with history, of course, often speculating wildly for dramatic and symbolic effect, but there is enough verisimilitude here to cast the pall of history over the pages. It has a very similar aura to the writings of Kafka, borrowing much of the atmosphere of oppression and psychological tension. Then you have the whorl-pools of Borges, the puzzles of the literary mathematician, well-realized. Similar also is the lack of character development, how Kadare's characters embody concepts rather than make choices according to their or the author's will.

Cheops, the pharaoh, attains immortality vicariously through his pyramid, and the pyramid attains life vicariously via its creators. This is the ingenious interplay of the novel. The pyramid takes on increasing weight as the story progresses, metaphorically and literally. Everyone universally endows it with sentience, and many believe it conspires to consume them, haunts them in dreams, not least Cheops himself.

In the absence for most of the book of traditional characterization, the pyramid becomes the central figure, the changeable chimera, baffling and exotic, embodying its peoples' fears, ambitions, myths, and frustrations. Cheops, gullible and vain, is but a puppet for an endless legion of ministers and politicians, magicians, et. al. The pyramid grows and inspires silence and fear, and spreads it like a disease. Its stones bring death from foreign lands in many forms, it swallows people like chum. It is variously and beautifully personified and the bureaucracy surrounding its erection is portrayed as a machine which accomplishes great feats of industry only to wreak havoc in the lives of the humans who are its moving cogs.

Wicked advisors to the throne are plentiful. The first part of this book oozes with shades of Shakespeare, while the second half focuses on the manifestations of phenomena, both real and imagined, surrounding the emergence of the great pyramid.

The luscious historical details are infused with apocryphal history, and serve to explicate and allegorize the evolution of myth and other archetypical human constructs. The mysteries of inborn human superstition, the ambitious capacity they have to design monuments to symbolize their own reaching after heaven. The construction of symbols is an important ritual of ascribing meaning within our lives, but this book illustrates how symbols can take over the mind like a virus. While Kadare insinuates the importance of geometric elegance, his structure does not partake of harsh strictures of form. You can view his approach as a narrowing of themes and action, toward a pinnacle perhaps, but by constraining his subject and given the short duration of the book, I would not consider his form of paramount importance. The elegance of mathematics is nowhere more evident than in the pyramids. Its inner mystery, the decoys, the hidden passages, all mirror the convolutions within our minds, the inner labyrinths, and the mental torture of construing human civilization is fraught with the traps we set through symbology and our own weaknesses.

Aside from the horological complications of The Pyramid, the jigsaw pieces of historical details, and the effective atmosphere, I was struck by the mummification of thought, the cyphers, glyphs, and the embalming of ideas, which Kadare utilizes through the power of his fiction to crystallize experience and impression. The unconfrontable void of death looms over the whole. I loved the eminence of the pyramidion. The positioning of the sarcophagi, the grave-robber foiling devices, the hermetic chambers, and the immense scope of its construction were all worth reading about. The conspiratorial dimension of the pyramid, the menace of its secrets, and the all-too-human aspects of its history, were fairly obvious results of such an unequalled undertaking. The pyramid of Cheops rested on the shoulders of Egyptian society from the moment of its conception - still does - it was a responsibility the whole empire would bear with great strain. Stone by stone, death by death, the physical presence of evil, as a force and an entity, drawing many parallels to the Tower of Babel, would result in one more proliferation of human omen-worship. Above all, this is a profound and charming study of pointed concepts, applicable to any society partaking of human vices.

[Jose Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es simple: toda la novela de La pirámide es una metáfora.

Es complejo: ¿cuál o cuáles son los objetos que refleja la imagen metafórica?

La pirámide es un ejemplo del Estado totalitario, de las dictaduras, de los elementos represivos del poder, de las ideologías ultras, pero también es una recreación del culto a la personalidad, de los líderes políticos mesiánicos al estilo de Stalin, de la evolución del comunismo en el siglo XX, en la misma Albania.

Egipto, el faraón Keops y la construcción, se pueden trasvasar sin dudarlo a la situación de la Albania desde donde se ubica Ismaíl Kadaré. Y sin embargo, en La pirámide, Kadaré no escribe una sola frase, ni una sola palabra hace referencia, ni menciona nada expresamente, sobre el estalinismo ni sobre la Albania de Hoxha y, sin embargo, toda la novela, al completo, trata sobre ellos.

Estamos ante una novela de varias capas, de distintos niveles de profundidad, se puede leer e interpretar hasta las honduras que se desee. Un análisis profundo de esta novela piramidal podría arrancar de la premisa de que el faraón Keops es Stalin, Egipto una suerte de URSS y la pirámide el sistema comunista. Desde esa lectura, puedo analizar diferentes sucesos de la narración que, así, cobran sentido. El primero, es la necesidad por parte del Estado de abotargar a la población consumiendo sus fuerzas, evitando que piensen en ellos mismos y que tomen conciencia de lo que les ocurre. De esa manera, el Estado se evita problemas, mantiene a la gente aterrorizada y distraída de sus propias realidades, prestando atención a un suceso de impacto mayor en sus vidas como será la construcción de la pirámide, cristalizando esta artimaña en el asunto sobre el que Kadaré teoriza en buena parte de su obra y al que califica como “la gran estratagema”.

A esta “gran maniobra” del Estado con el objeto de que los súbditos no sean conscientes de su propia realidad y no puedan así rebelarse en su contra -o que gracias a la estratagema vivan permanente bajo los hierros del pavor, en un régimen de terror- pertenece, además de la pirámide, el Caballo de Troya, así como otras numerosas artimañas que el autor desgrana en sus obras, todas ellas maniobras de distracción infames que se van sumando al repertorio de “grandes estratagemas” políticas, mentiras manifiestas con poder represor: purgas, conspiraciones, intentos de golpes de estado, traiciones, tribunales, causas escandalosas y casos nefandos, falsos héroes, desastres magnificados, situaciones de alarma o alerta forzadas, fiestas nacionales, celebraciones…

Así que la pirámide, y todo lo que la rodea, consume el poder del pueblo, sus fuerzas, no sólo físicas, sino también mentales. Y con ella, vienen de la mano los grandes procesos por conjuras inventadas, acusando a la gente por tratar de atentar contra la construcción que, no en vano, significa el poder completo del Estado, lo que vendría a ser un ataque contra el Estado mismo. La pirámide, todo el poder que la rodea, se defiende montando un proceso, y luego otro, en paralelismo a los grandes procesos y purgas estalinistas llevadas a cabo en Moscú, señalando masivamente a enemigos del Estado y a conjurados.

En la novela, el faraón Keops construye su pirámide a sangre y fuego, tal y como Stalin modeló el país a su imagen e intentó identificar el Partido con su propia persona. Es en este sentido, en donde pirámide y faraón se confunden, donde poder y Estado se mezclan con su dirigente, otra similitud con el estalinismo. Toda la política de Stalin fue un intento de servir a su persona, de engrandecerla, elevarla hasta lo más alto, como se erige la pirámide del relato, y no sólo personalmente, sino intentando construir edificios en Moscú que rivalizaran con los rascacielos de Nueva York, por ejemplo, por lo que este Keops arquitectónico tiene muchas similitudes con Stalin.

Aparte del evidente paralelismo comentado, la novela se puede leer en otra dirección: el avatar personal del albanés durante el comunismo, o la forma de subsistencia individual del ciudadano durante la vida cotidiana del régimen. Progresivamente, y bajo el aplastamiento del sistema, la animación en las calles decae, los bares cierran, las plazas se vacían, incluso los hombres experimentan una alteración en el lenguaje: las palabras van desapareciendo, variando sus significados, quedando vacías, carentes ya de contenido. Los sueños son pesadillas, el descanso se torna imposible, y la gente se mueve, avanza como sumida en un duermevela alucinado y automatizado: el régimen, el Estado se ha salido con la suya, ha convertido a los súbditos en inofensivos y aterrados autómatas, incapaces, así, de revolverse contra Él.

Y por encima de todo, presente desde todos los puntos de vista y paisajes posibles, la pirámide, que proyecta su sombra infecciosa sobre todo tipo de vida. Al estilo de la omnipresencia del Palac Kultury de Varsovia, que no he podido apartar de la cabeza durante la lectura. El monolito en forma de rascacielos, que Stalin legó a los polacos tras la reconstrucción de la ciudad después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, es una masa de cemento que se arroja sobre la ciudad, con su presencia demoledora en cada vez que alguien levanta la vista al cielo. De igual manera, siempre permanente en la vida de los egipcios, está la pirámide en la novela, metáfora de otro elemento característico del sistema comunista y de los regímenes totalitarios: los expedientes.

Me he llegado a preguntar si esta pirámide no es, también, o no tiene algo, aunque sea un poco, del terror que inoculan los expedientes policiales y secretos de organismos como la Sigurimi albanesa, la Securitate rumana, la Stasi alemana o la propia KGB... Si no será la historia de la erección de la pirámide la historia, tantas veces repetida en la Albania de Hoxha, de la puesta en pie de un expediente, con todos y cada uno de sus aterradores pasos, incluso con su sangriento desenlace para con el inocente o inocentes expedientados.

La pirámide, junto con El palacio de los Sueños y El firmán de la ceguera, tal vez sea el libro de Kadaré que aborde de una manera más directa el asunto del poder aplastante y totalitario, así como su tesis de “la gran estratagema”. Los Estados totalitarios, pero no nos engañemos, todos los estados en general, necesitan mantener distraídos a sus súbditos. Si el Estado es dictatorial y genocida, represivo y criminal, no tendrá reparos en que sus “estratagemas” sean de terror y que sus gentes desvíen la mirada atendiendo a tareas absorbentes como la edificación de la pirámide o el cumplimiento del plan quinquenal, o fijando la atención en una macro conjura con un juicio monumental y un carrusel de delaciones y delatores.

Si el Estado es de pleno derecho, entonces quizás deberemos acordarnos del director norteamericano Michael Moore, que en su película documental Fahrenheit 9/11 sostiene la teoría de que al Gobierno le conviene mantener al ciudadano sumido en una situación de perenne terror, asediándolo con breaking news en los canales de noticias y con permanentes llamadas a la prudencia y al miedo ante cualquier situación que, bien pronto, se convertirán alienantes emergencias de primer grado. Que la población agote las reservas de los supermercados ante una inminente situación de crisis a causa del miedo infundido por el sistema es infinitamente mejor a que, esa misma masa, enardecida y consciente de su propia desesperación, genere disturbios y manifestaciones violentas o que, al final, termine por asaltar la sede del Gobierno y fusile al Conducator de turno.

Así las cosas, y vistas las alertas desesperadas y alarmistas ante las más que naturales oleadas de frío en invierno y de calor en verano, las plagas de mosquitos o las sequías masivas, las campañas paternalistas que advierten de posibles desastres, o las noticias apocalípticas de epidemias o gripes que de repente son referente mundial porque así lo han decidido los lobbys de los gobiernos internacionales, me hacen concluir que en el Estado llamado “de derecho” también rige la norma de “la gran estratagema” y, por supuesto, no son más que otro tipo de burdas pirámides aquellas que las gentes se afanan por elevar, pirámides que se están construyendo todos los días, hasta rascar el cielo.

Se trata de mirar hacia otro lado, como sea. Eso es lo que más desean los Estados, que el hombre de a pie desvíe la mirada. En su novela El gran invierno, por ejemplo, en el instante mismo de la ruptura política de Albania con la URSS, una ruptura terrible y traumática para todo el país, una quiebra de significados mayúsculos, a la par que ocurre ese asunto político de importancia capital, se produce el reventón del dique de una presa, una inundación que requiere la ayuda de todo el país en tareas de supervivencia. La atención se ha desviado, así. En El concierto, la ruptura política con China sigue los mismos derroteros: lejos de la política y de la situación delicada, la atención la centrarán los trabajos de emergencia en unos grandes hornos del Estado, que terminaran en una tragedia distractora.

Sea como sea, incluso en Troya, donde el caballo de madera es una estrategia para desviar la atención de los tejemanejes políticos entre griegos y troyanos, Kadaré abunda en este asunto: el ciudadano debe desviar su atención de la realidad, suplantado el terrible día a día por el sucedáneo que le sirve el Estado, bien sea envuelto en el terror y la inseguridad, en la opresión y el dolor, en el castigo y las mentiras, atenazados por el sistema represor, o bien sea alejados de la miserable actualidad por sucesos distantes sobre los que se pueda concentrar toda la atención para, así, poder seguir, día tras día, con la pesada digestión de la vida cotidiana en los comunismos.

La vida cotidiana al pie del calaveral.

[Tamara Agha-Jaffar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The counselors and High Priest gasped. The Pharaoh Cheop’s had just announced his intention to deviate from tradition by refusing to have a pyramid erected in his honor. His announcement sent his counselors in a panicked frenzy to research the issue. They finally found their answer. The pyramid, they told Cheops, serves multiple purposes. It is not just the future burial site of the Pharaoh. It also serves to keep the multitudes under control through oppression and forced labor. Give them busy work, they argued. The higher the pyramid, the more arduous the task of building it, the less time the rabble will have to make trouble. It would be an obsession for decades, keeping the masses distracted from their other concerns. Once completed, it would stand as a symbol of the Pharaoh’s power and majesty, dwarfing everything and everyone in its surroundings.

Cheops was convinced.

So begins Ismail Kadare’s The Pyramid, a tour de force depicting the brutal tactics a totalitarian regime will employ to sustain its powers. The pyramid snuffs out people by the hundreds. Kadare chronicles in elaborate detail the hauling of thousands upon thousands of giant stones from far away quarries, their positioning in the pyramid, and the numbers of people who lost their limbs or were crushed to death in the process.

The construction of the pyramid precipitates periodic purges in which people are disfigured, tortured, and executed. It chronicles theories of internal and external conspiracies; the ubiquitous spread of superstition, rumors, and lies; the tedium and mind-numbing boredom of the work; the silencing of speech; paranoia; the fear and trembling with which the Pharaoh’s closest advisors approach him; and the rush to fulfill the Pharaoh’s every whim even at the cost of the maiming and killing of innocents.

The pyramid comes to represent different things to different people throughout the decades of its construction, its completion, and beyond. It symbolizes a tool of oppression wielded by authoritarian governments whose goal is to magnify the power of the regime and diminish all else in their wake. At the end of the novel, Kadare explicitly draws a parallel between the construction of the pyramid and modern tools of oppression:

Pyramidal phenomena occurred in cycles, without it ever being possible to determine precisely the timing of their appearance; for no one has ever been able to establish with certainty whether what happens is the future, or just the past moving backward, like a crab. People ended up accepting that maybe neither the past nor the future were what they were thought to be, since both could reverse their direction of travel, like trams at a terminus.

The Pyramid is an allegory of life under any authoritarian regime at any time and in any place. The atmosphere is haunting, eerie, and terrifying. This may not be a novel for everyone, but it is a remarkable achievement, prescient and relevant to our time.

Highly recommended.

[Paul A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no doubt that Kadare deserves to be a perennial nominee for the Nobel Prize for literature. The Pyramid is ostensibly about Young Pharaoh Cheops and his decree to build the greatest pyramid in the world (which is known to us as the The Great Pyramid of Giza), but it’s really about brutal regime of Enver Hoxha in Albania. The novel is really a parable about totalitarianism, an allegory of tyranny.

The construction of Cheops’ pyramid terrorizes Egypt. As the novel’s dust jacket says, the pyramid “is a useless and infinite project intended to waste the country’s wealth and keep security and prosperity, ever the fonts of sedition, constantly at bay. … A secret police is formed; the most drastic purges are carried out in the interest of the Pharaoh’s great obsession.” Like Cheops, Hoxha had his own pyramid, co-designed by Hoxha's daughter Panvera, said to be the most expensive individual structure ever constructed in Albania up until then. Hoxha’s pyramid, which opened in 1988 — the same year Kadare began writing his novel — “celebrates” a regime that “which included the establishment and use of forced labor camps, wrongful incarcerations, extrajudicial killings and executions that targeted and eliminated anti-communists and other dissidents, and evictions of families from their homes to remote villages strictly controlled by his secret police, the Sigurimi, which, like Nicolae Ceaușescu's Securitate, was strongly oppressive and ubiquitous,” according to Wikipedia. The parallels are obvious.

However, it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a haunting, hypnotic book. I read this book with a sense that it was good for me. (But so is medicine.) I have to confess that it was tough going at times. It’s a solid novella, but the amount of detail about pyramid-building, for instance, is a tad intimidating. The chapter called “Daily Chronicle,” goes for nine pages without paragraph breaks.

I read this book with a sense of wonder. Only a writer of the caliber of Kadare could write this mille-feuille of a book that horrifies at the same time grips you despite the fact that the novel lacks a conventional plot or conflict. Kadare is a master of the psychology of oppression and the despotic mind. Think Kafka or Orwell. It’s surprisingly relevant to our times.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

When an author, living in a repressive totalitarian country, writes a novel about the building of Cheops's pyramid in 26th Century B.C. Egypt, we can safely predict that he is not writing about the building of a pyramid in 26th Century B.C. Egypt. No, there's something Kafka going on. So perhaps those are Albanian skulls in the skullstacks. In a thought-provoking (and mood-provoking, too) Epilogue, we are led to believe that the allegory may be more universal than even that.

Couldn't we cheat the pyramid and put in a different mummy? asks the Pharaoh. I don't know, and the Sphinx ain't talking.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like The Palace of Dreams, the only other Ismail Kadare novel that I've yet read, 'The Pyramid' is an acerbic allegory for 20th century communist totalitarianism. It follows the inception, construction, and subsequent history of Giza's largest pyramid. The deadpan tone and dissection of oppression reminded me of Russian novelist Andrei Platonov, particularly The Foundation Pit. Although Kadare is more literal while Platonov is more surreal, both novels centre on a grand and pointless project that absorbs vast energy and resources in order to perpetuate an authoritarian system. I imagine they were also written under similar Soviet conditions. Kadare's writing style is mordantly insightful:

The hour for the start of the building work proper was fast approaching. The dust and the heat, instead of wearying people, now seemed to stimulate them. As long as the anxiety is cleared up, they said amongst themselves, all the rest is bearable! And whilst their hearts flowed over with gratitude for their saviour, the Pharaoh, they dashed about frantically, causing more confusion and raising more sand than was necessary, in the belief that by drowning themselves in hullabaloo and dirt, they would also confound evil and divert it from its path.

Their hopes were short-lived. The day before the first stone was due to be laid, a new plot was uncovered, even more dangerous than the first.

'The Pyramid' is a short and very sharp novel, powerful but not pleasant to read. I would have liked an afterword giving some details of when and how exactly Kadare came to write it; perhaps another edition includes something of the kind.

[Javier Gil Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ismaíl Kadaré construye un sueño magnífico en torno a la Pirámide de Keops.

Un relato excepcional, con un lenguaje sofisticado y elevado, que nos transporta a las antiguas tierras del Imperio Egipcio en una fábula que pretende ilustrar los peligros de los regímenes totalitarios, el uso del poder sobre las masas y el descontento popular (y la precariedad) como un sutil sofisma de dominación por parte de las élites.

Hay un eco kafkiano que impregna todo el relato, como si Kadaré se hubiera dejado transportar por la esencia del escritor checo para narrar la epopeya de la construcción del archiconocido monumento. Porque la novela no tiene un tono histórico, sino que bascula hacia lo fantástico, lo que otros podrían calificar de fantasmagórico, entre el sueño y la niebla.

Kadaré me parece un escritor magistral, de pedigrí, al que tengo ganas de descubrir. La pirámide es la primera novela que leo de él. Mantiene el pulso con el lector en todo momento y juega con la enumeración, con la catalogación de cada piedra, con la relación de las víctimas, de los muertos que cada piedra ha dejado por el camino. Describe el peso de cada maldita piedra, pero no es un peso físico, sino metafísico, aunque una metafísica muy vinculada a una ética: la ética del poder. Kadaré nos habla en todo momento del pulso que el poder mantiene con las masas, de la manipulación de los sueños de las naciones para controlar a sus pueblos, de la construcción de una inmensa tumba funeraria para un faraón sin apenas personalidad, sin carisma, sin ideas. Obsesionado con su pirámide.

Una pirámide —recordemos que une el cielo con la tierra— que está presente en la geografía de Egipto, pero también en su imaginario y en el corazón de todos aquellos que la contemplan. Un monumento que se impone sobre sí mismo y que totaliza la realidad. La dignifica, pero también la manipula.

La historia de la Gran Pirámide de Guiza como nunca se la contaron y un aviso de la gestación del totalitarismo y del fascismo que anidan en nuestra sociedad.

[htanzil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piramid adalah sebuah konstruksi bangunan tertua dalam sejarah umat manusia yang sudah digunakan sejak berabad-abad lampau oleh bangsa Mesir dan Maya kuno. Piramid biasanya digunakan sebagai makam raja-raja atau tempat pemujaan. Salah satu piramid yang paling terkenal dan masuk dalam daftar 7 keajaiban dunia adalah kompleks Piramida Giza yang terletak di dekat kota Kairo (Mesir).

Piramid Giza hingga kini adalah piramida terbesar dibandingkan dengan piramida-piramida lain yang ada di muka bumi. Luas area kompleks Piramid Giza yang terdiri dari 3 piramid besar dan sebuah patung Spinx bisa disamakan antara jarak dari St Peter (Roma), sampai ke St. Paul (London).

Ketiga piramid itu adalah piramid Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Rakhaef/Chephren) dan Menkaure (Mycerinus) dan yang paling besar adalah Piramid Cheops setinggi 145 meter yang dibangun 4000 thn yg lampau (2550 SM), karena faktor alam tinggi piramid Cheops kini telah menurun sekitar 9 meter. Para arkeolog memperkirakan piramid Cheops yang dibangun selama 20 tahun ini mempekerjakan 10 rb orang.

Selama ini mungkin kita hanya mengetahui kalau Piramid adalah sebuah monumen kuburan raja atau tempat pemujaan, ternyata tidak, ada maksud tertentu dibalik pembuatan piramid yang erat kaitannya dengan kelanggengan kekuasaan raja-raja Mesir. Hal itulah yang coba diungkapkan oleh Ismail Kadare, sastrawan Albania, peraih Man Booker Prize 2005 di salah satu novelnya yang berjudul Piramid

Di lembar-lembar pertama novel ini Kadare langsung memikat pembacanya dengan celetukan Firaun baru Cheops (2589-2566 SM) pada para pejabat istana bahwa ia tak ingin ada Piramid didirikan untuknya. Celotehan ini tentu saja membuat semua yang mendengarnya terkaget-kaget bagaikan mendengar sebuah ‘berita malapetaka’. Hal ini juga membuat para pendeta istana buru-buru menyelisik lembar-lembar papyrus tua untuk meresponi keinginan Firaun muda yang nyeleneh ini.

Berdasarkan penelisikan para pendeta istana, akhirnya Pendeta Tingga Hemiunu memberanikan diri menghadap Firaun Cheops dan mencoba meyakinkan Firaun untuk membatalkan niatnya itu. Di bagian ini, Kadere menarasikan argumen Hemiunu pada Firaun dengan gamblang sehingga terungkaplah tujuan utama dari dibangunnya sebuah Piramid. Setelah mendengar penjelasan dari Heminiu akhirnya Cheops membatalkan niatnya dan memerintahkan rakyat Mesir untuk membuat piramid untuk dirinya seperti yang telah dilakukan oleh para pendahulunya.

Menurut Heminiu gagasan membangun Piramid lahir dari pada suatu masa krisis dimana kekuasaan Firaun melemah. Namun krisis ini tidak dipicu oleh kemiskinan, luapan sungai Nil, atau penyakit sampar seperti yang umumnya terjadi di Mesir, melainkan karena keberlimpahan. Kemakmuran ini tentunya membuat masyarakat lebih mandiri dan bebas dalam berpikir sehingga membuat rakyat lebih kritis bahkan membangkang terhadap kekuasaan Firaun.

Untuk mengatasinya Firaun mengutus dukun-peramal Sobekhotep ke gurun Sahara untuk merenungkan persoalan ini dalam kesunyian total. 40 hari kemudian Sobekhotep mendapat wangsit dan menyampaikannya pada Firaun bahwa yang harus dilakukan adalah meniadakan kemakmuran!

Wangsit yang diterima dukun peramal ini lalu diterjemahkan dengan menyelenggarakan kerja raksaksa yang melampaui imajinasi, yang akan memperlemah rakyat Mesir, menghisap energi rakyat yang menghancurkan jiwa raga. Sebuah proyek yang pada dasarnya bisa diselesaikan namun takkan pernah terselesaikan, proyek yang memperbaharui dirinya sendiri terus menerus, tak bermanfaat bagi rakyat namun berguna bagi negara. Tujuannya adalah membuat rakyat Mesir terus menerus sibuk siang-malam sehingga mereka menjadi linglung dan tidak memilik semangat untuk melawan kekuasaan Firaun

Membangun Piramid adalah jawabannya! Sebuah makam yang diperuntukkan untuk peristirahat abadi sang Firaun yang kelak akan menjadi identitas Mesir hingga kini. Setiap Firaun nantinya akan memiliki piramidnya sendiri, sehingga meski sebuah generasi belum lagi pulih dari letih akibat pembangunan, seorang Firaun baru kembali akan menundukkan rakyatnya melalui pembangunan piramid untuknya

Demikianlah Ismail Kadare menuturkan maksud dan tujuan didirikannya Piramid dalam novelnya ini. Di novelnya ini kita akan disadarkan bagaimana pada akhirnya Piramid memiskinkan kehidupan rakyat Mesir. Novel yang minim dialog ini mengupas secara apik bagaimana sebuah Piramid dibangun mulai dari masa persiapan pembangunan yang dimulai dari pelipatganaan produksi cambuk, penambangan batu-batu besar untuk piramid hingga ketika piramidion (batu puncak piramid) dipasang lengkap dengan isu2 persekongkolan dibalik pembuatan piramid, kutukan, hingga tekanan yang dihadapi oleh para pembuat Piramid mulai dari pekerja, mandor hingga Firaun sendiri.

Tekanan akibat pembangunan Piramid ternyata tak hanya mempengaruhi rakyat Mesir, bahkan Firaun sendiri mengalaminya terlebih saat Piramid selesai dikerjakan. Setelah Piramid berdiri dengan kokohnya Firaun Cheops merasa ada sebuah kekuatan yang ingin menyeret dirinya untuk masuk ke dalam Piramidnya. Jiwanya terganggu karena seolah Piramid itu terus memanggil-manggil dirinya untuk menjemput kematiannya sehingga muncul ide darinya untuk membunuh seseorang dan meletakkan muminya untuk disemayamkan dalam Piramid untuk menggantikan dirinya. Pada akhirnya mental Firaun semakin memburuk hingga akhirnya ia meninggal tiga tahun setelah kerja Piramid usai.

Novel ini tak berhenti sampai ketika Piramid rampung dan mumi Firaun Cheops akhirnya disemayamkan di dalamnya. Kadare melanjutkan ketika di suatu masa para penjarah mulai berani memasuki piramid. Mereka ternyata tak hanya menemukan harta karun yang dibawa mati sang Firaun, ketika para penjarah mencongkel sakrofagus (peti mati) Firaun dan kerabatnya, melalui mumi yang dilihatnya mereka menemukan fakta-fakta baru tentang isu-isu pribadi sang firaun dan keluarganya, intrik politik, persekongkolan, dan dendam di masa lalu yang selama ini ikut terkubur rapat setelah kematian Firaun.

Hal inilah yang nantinya akan mendorong para sejarahwan muda untuk mempertanyakan dan meninjau kembali konsepsi mereka mengenai sejarah resmi kerajaan. Dari bukti-bukti yang ditemukan oleh para penjarah kubur inilah sejarah kerajaan Mesir memungkinkan untuk ditulis ulang sebagai sesuatu yang sama sekali berbeda dengan sejarah resmi yang selama ini ditulis dan diingat rakyat Mesir.

Di akhir novel Kadare juga membawa pembacanya pada Piramid di pedalaman Asia, di padang rumput luas Ishafan, dimana seorang raja bernama Timurlenk mendirikan sebuah piramid yang serupa dengan yang dibangun Firaun Cheops. Namun yang membedakannya, piramid itu bukan dibuat dari batu melainkan dari tengkorak kepala-kepala musuh kerajaan yang mereka penggal. Hal ini membuat Raja Timurlenk terus melakukan pembantaian demi pembantaian untuk memenuhi ambisinya membuat sebuah piramid tengkorak!

Pada akhirnya membaca novel karya sastrawan Albania yang diterjemahkan dengan apik ini akan menyadarkan kita bahwa Piramid bukanlah sekedar monumen budaya adiluhung bangsa Mesir. Piramid adalah lambang kekuasaan, ia adalah penindasan, kekuatan, penakluk pemberontakan, penyempit pikiran, pelemah kehendak, kebosanan, dan kesia-siaan. Piramid adalah pilar penyangga kekuasaan. Jika ia terguncang, segalanya rubuh berantakan.

Melalui novel ini kita juga dapat merenungkan betapa dahsyatnya sebuah usaha untuk melanggengkan kekuasaan hingga ia bisa menentukan arah dan nasib manusia di dalamnya. Walau tak berwujud segitiga tinggi yang merobek langit, setiap negara memiliki piramidnya sendiri, jika di epilog novelnya ini Kadare juga menemukan ‘Piramid’ dalam bentuk bunker bawah tanah di tanah kelahirannya, Albania, lalu bagaimana dengan kita? Setelah kita membaca novel ini mampukah kita menemukan ‘piramid’ yang saat ini sedang dibangun oleh penguasa negeri kita sebagai pilar penyangga kekuasaannya?

Tentang Penulis

Ismail Kadare ( 76 thn) adalah sastrawan asal Albania, di negaranya ia dianggap pembaharu sastra Albania karena menulis murni dalam bahasa Albania tanpa dibumbui bahasa asing.

Penindasan rezim totaliter Enver Hoxha memaksanya untuk menyelundupkan naskah-naskah novelnya keluar negeri. Pada tahun 1990 Kadare akhirnya melarikan diri ke Perancis dan disanalah ia merampungkan naskah La pyramide. Selanjutnya karya-karya Kadere menjadi inspirasi penumbangan rezim totaliter Albania.

Dengan puluhan karya-karyanya yang mendapat respon positif dari kalangan kritikus sastra Kadare beberapa kali dicalonkan sebagai penerima Nobel Sastra dan beberapa kali mendapat anugerah sastra internasional salah satunya adalah Man Booker International Prize (2005). Kadere juga dianggap sebagai filsuf di Perancis, pada tahun 1996 ia diangkat sebagai anggota kehormatan Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques mengantikan kedudukan filsuf Karl Poper.


Karya-karya Kadare telah diterjemahkan kedalam 30 bahasa dunia, termasuk Indonesia. Novel Piramid adalah karya kedua Kadare yang diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia setelah pada tahun 2003 yang lalu salah satu karyanya Elegi Kosovo diterjemahkan oleh Penerbit Jalasutra

@htanzil

[Sohan · Rating 3 out of 5]

এক সকালে ফারাও রাজা চিওপ'স তার সভাসদের সামনে বলে বসলেন, তিনি নিজের জন্য পিরামিড টিরামিড বানাবেন না। তার এই বক্তব্য শুনে প্রথমে সভাসদরা ভাবল, মহারাজ বুঝি ইয়ার্কি মারছেন। কিন্তু মহারাজের চেহারা দেখে কিন্তু তা বোঝার উপায় ছিল না। অভিজাত-পুরোহিত সকলে তো বেশ চিন্তায় পরে গেলেন। সত্যিই যদি মহারাজ এই সিদ্ধান্তে অটল থাকেন তাহলে তো এই দেশ আর রক্ষা পাবে না। অশুভ ছায়ায় দেশ আচ্ছন্ন হয়ে যাবে। যদি জাতিকে দাসত্বের মধ্যে আটকে নাই রাখা হয় তাহলে তো দেশে বিশৃঙ্খলা তৈরি হবে। অবশেষে, সভাসদের গুরুত্বপূর্ণ কয়েকজন ব্যাক্তি মহারাজকে বিভিন্ন যুক্তি দিয়ে এক বিশাল আকৃতির সমাধি তৈরি করতে নির্দেশ দিলেন। শুরু হলো পিরামিড নির্মাণ।
পিরামিড তৈরি করতে গিয়ে প্রচুর প্রাণহানি ঘটতে লাগল। বিশাল আকৃতির সব পাথরের নিচে চাপা পরতে লাগল অনেক মজুর।
এভাবে অনেক মানুষের আত্মবলীর শেষে দীর্ঘদিন পর তৈরি হলো মহারাজের সমাধিক্ষেত্র।

পিরামিড নির্মাণ নিয়ে বেশ তর্ক বিতর্কের জন্ম হয়েছে আধুনিক সময়ে এসে। এটা আদৌ মনুষ্য নির্মিত কি না এই নিয়ে অনেকেই প্রশ্ন উত্থাপন করেছেন।
অবশ্য পিরামিড কারা নির্মাণ করেছে, কিভাবে নির্মিত, ঠিক এরকম ঐতিহাসিক প্রশ্ন মাথায় রেখে বইটি পড়া হয়নি। পড়েছি একটি পলিটিকাল অ্যালেগরি হিসেবে। তারও বিশেষ কিছু কারন আছে। সে কথাটাই সংক্ষেপে লিখি না হয়।

১৯৬১ সনে যখন আলবেনিয়া অন্যান্য সমাজতান্ত্রিক রাষ্ট্রের সাথে ব্রেক আপ করে একটা Stalinist State গড়ছে, সে সময় থেকেই আলবেনিয়ায় একটা নতুন প্রজন্মের সাহিত্য আর সংস্কৃতিও গড়ে উঠছে। ভিন্ন দৃষ্টিভঙ্গি সম্পন্ন কিছু লেখকের আবির্ভাব ঘটে সে সময়। তাঁদের মধ্যে ইসমাইল কাদারে একজন।
অনেক ঐতিহাসিক ঘটনার সাক্ষী ছিলেন তিনি, দেখেছেন দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধের ভয়াবহতা, ইতালির ফ্যাসিস্ট শাসন, জার্মানির নাজি বিপর্যয়, সোভিয়তের স্বৈরশাসন আর নিজের দেশে হোক্সা স্বৈরশাসন। এনভের হোক্সা ছিলেন একজন কমিউনিস্ট শাসক যিনি আলবেনিয়ায় চল্লিশ বছর শাসন করেছিলেন।
দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধের পর এনভের হোক্সা আলবেনিয়াকে পুরোদস্তুর স্তালিনপন্থী রাষ্ট্রে পরিণত করেছিলেন। স্তালিনের প্রতি তার ছিল যৎপরোনাস্তি উষ্ণতা। ১৯৯০ পরবর্তী আলবেনিয়া গণতন্ত্রে উত্তরণের আগ পর্যন্তও ছিল কট্টর বিচ্ছিন্নতাবাদী।
ইসমাইল কাদারে তার সমস্ত লেখনিতে হোক্সা শাসনের এবং সব ধরনের স্বৈরশাসনের বিরুদ্ধে লিখেছেন। ১৯৮৫ সালে হোক্সা মারা গেলে কয়েক বছরের মধ্যে কমিউনিস্ট শাসনেরও পতন ঘটে। ১৯৯১ সালে কাদারে সপরবারে প্যারিসে চলে যান। সেখানেই পরের বছর প্রকাশ করেন তাঁর বই ‘দ্য পিরামিড’
এই উপন্যাসটি মিশরের কায়রোতে প্রথম মঞ্চস্থ হয়। দ্য পিরামিড উপন্যাসে লেখক তাঁর সময়ের হোক্সা শাসনামলের স্বৈরশাসনের বিষয়টি প্রতীকী অর্থে ধরে এর প্লট নির্ধারণ করেছিলেন। ফারাও রাজা খুফু (কিংবা চিওপস) যেমন সাধারণ মানুষের সুখ দুঃখকে পাত্তা না দিয়ে তার নিজের বংশগত ঐতিহ্য রক্ষায় আর নিজের শাসন ব্যাবস্থাকে সুসংহত রাখতে জনগনের পিঠে পাথর চাপিয়ে দিয়েছিলেন ঠিক একই ভাবে স্বৈরশাসক হোক্সা নিজের ক্ষমতাকে কুক্ষিগত করার চেষ্টা চালিয়েছে সারাজীবন।
এই বিষয়গুলোই প্রতীকী অর্থে উঠে এসেছে দ্য পিরামিড উপন্যাসে।

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

“A Pirâmide” de Ismaïl Kadaré relata as circunstâncias e motivações que impulsionaram a construção da maior e mais antiga das três pirâmides de Gizé, a Pirâmide de Quéops.

Bem sei que o intuito do autor não era propriamente explorar a questão histórica (que para mim teria sido tão mais interessante…), mas sim revelar a construção da pirâmide como o fruto de um regime totalitário que dominava em absoluto as vidas dos egípcios, condenando-os a uma inescapável forma de escravidão (gerações atrás de gerações atrás de gerações…).

O período de 20 anos que demorou a edificação da Pirâmide de Quéops representou um espaço de tempo avassalado por um histerismo colectivo sem precedentes com constantes denúncias sobre hipotéticas conjuras contra o Faraó e consequentes punições caraterizadas por uma crueldade sem limites…

Apesar do potencial inerente à ideia base, o autor não consegue harmonizar o texto de forma a tocar o leitor. A narrativa é estanque, muitas vezes desinteressante (o que para mim é inédito no que toca a um tema que me é caro…) e Kadaré parece escrever para si próprio. Não há uma verdadeira partilha com o leitor ou pelo menos eu não a senti.

[Minhajur Rahman Jihad · Rating 4 out of 5]

▪️পিরামিড! এই শব্দটা শুনতেই চোখে ভেসে উঠে ত্রিভুজাকার এক স্থাপনা যাকে নিয়ে প্রচলিত আছে বহু জল্পনা কল্পনা। রহস্যের চাদরে ঢাকা, বিস্ময়কর পিরামিড কৌতুহলী মানুষকে আকর্ষণ করে চলেছে যুগে যুগে।মিশরের গিজার মালভূমিতে প্রায় সাড়ে চার হাজার বছর আগে তৈরি হওয়া ফারাও খুফুর পিরামিড হচ্ছে সবচেয়ে বড় পিরামিড যা এখনো ঠায় দাঁড়িয়ে আছে।এর এক একটি পাথরের গড় ওজন আড়াই টন।প্রায় ২০ বছর ধরে আনুমানিক এক লাখ শ্রমিকের পরিশ্রমের ফলে তৈরি করা হয় ফারাও খুফু বা চিওপসের পিরামিড।
ফারাও চিওপসের পিরামিড তৈরির ঘটনাকে মেটাফোর হিসেবে ধরে ইতিহাসের সংমিশ্রণে কী চমৎকার এক প্লট সৃষ্টি করেছেন ইসমাঈল কাদরী।

ফারাও চিওপস তার বংশগত ঐতিহ্য রক্ষা এবং তার শাসনকে আরো সুসংসহত করতে মানুষের দুঃখ কষ্টকে পাত্তা না দিয়ে পিরামিড তৈরি করিয়েছিলেন।এই পিরামিড তৈরিতে প্রাণ ঝরেছে বহু মানুষের।পিরামিডের এক একটা পাথর কেঁড়ে নিয়েছে হাজার হাজার প্রাণ।যারা পিরামিড তৈরির কাজে যেতে চাইলো না তাদের নির্বাসনে পাঠিয়ে দেওয়া হলো ভয়ংকর মরুভূমিতে। যেখানে তাদের উপর নেমে এসেছিলো অবর্ণনীয় অত্যাচার।বাতাসে তাদের আর্তনাদ মিলিয়ে গিয়েছিল। এই সব মানুষের প্রাণের বিনিময়ে তৈরি হয়ে ছিলো এক স্বৈরশাসকের সমাধি।

▪️ইসমাঈল কাদরী তার নিজ দেশ আলবেনিয়ার স্বৈরশাসক হোক্সার শাসনামলকে প্রতীকি অর্থে তুলে ধরেছেন দ্য পিরামিডে।বইটা আকারে ছোট হওয়ায় এক বসাই পড়ে ফেলা যায়।পিরামিডকে ঘিরে ঘোষণা, তৈরি,ষড়যন্ত্র নানান বিষয়ের মারপ্যাচে বইটা বেশ রোমাঞ্চকর অনুভূতির সৃষ্টি করে।যার ফলে পাঠকের কাছে এটা উপভোগ্য হয়ে উঠে।তবে হ্যা! বইয়ে পিরামিডের রহস্যময়তা নিয়ে বর্ণনা আরো সাবলীল হলে দারুণ! হতো। রাফিক হারিরির অনুবাদ চলনসই ভালো।কিছু জায়গায় আরো একটু ভালো করা যেতো বলে মনে হলো।
একটা বড় প্রশ্ন হলো, পিরামিড তৈরির মূল উদ্দেশ্য কী শুধুই ফারাওদের স্বর্গে যাওয়ার মাধ্যম? না! পিরামিড তৈরির পিছনে রয়েছে আরো বড় আরো কালো একটি সত্য। যার ফলে বিশাল এই কর্মযজ্ঞ ফারাওদের দিয়েছিলো নিরাপত্তা এবং দান করেছিলো প্রভূত ক্ষমতা।পিরামিডের জনক ইমহোটেপের পিরামিড নিয়ে উক্তিটা মনে পড়ছে, পিরামিড হলো এক ও একক।

বইটার আখ্যান পাঠকের কাছে ধরা দিবে স্বৈরশাসকদের কর্তৃক নির্যাতিত মানুষদের প্রতীকধর্মীতা হিসেবে।

[Neal Adolph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that sounds so much more interesting than it becomes.

Despite moments of brilliance, nothing in this novel quite takes flight. The ideas in it have the potential to be disturbing, but the reader never finds themselves caring for what is happening in the author's world. Certainly there are some really impressive observations about government and terror here - and it is interesting to read a dystopian novel set in Egypt - but all of his observations and ideas come off as more important that how he hopes to communicate them. Structurally, there aren't any characters that matter. The ending is bizarre, and threadbare - as though something far grander was hoped for, but in the interests of concision there was no means of taking it to the degree that was necessary...

Ultimately, this is a novel with some great ideas and poor execution. Perhaps it was an experiment for the author - I'm not sure. But I'm also not sure if I will be picking up any of his other novels. He is clearly quite an intelligent man, but this book was far too disappointing. If I do try again, it will be as a result of all of the praise the man continues to receive for his other work (it should be noted that The Pyramid is never named as one of his best works).

[MD Mostafijur Rahaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

অনুবাদ একদম ভালো হয়নি।

[Özlem Güzelharcan · Rating 4 out of 5]

İnsanoğlu zamandan korkar, zamansa piramitlerden.

2008 kışında Kahire'ye giderken zinhimde bu cümleler yankılanıyordu. Çocukluk hayallerimden biri olan Mısır Piramitleri'ni görecek ve tarihte binlerce yıl öncesine gidebilecek olmanın heyecanı ile yanıp tutuşuyordum. Nitekim gezimin sonunda Kahire ve Gize tüm beklentilerimi karşılamıştı. Kendimi Keops piramidi içinde İngiliz turistlerde birlikte lahitin yanında yere oturup meditasyon yaparken bulmuş, gecesi piramitlere yansıtılan ışık gösterisini keyifle izlemiş, Nil nehri üzerinde teknede yemek yerken beni dünyanın her yerinde takip eden şarkı Besame Mucho'yu Arapça dinlemiştim. Neyse, konumuz bu değil. Nostalji batağına saplanan tipik bir #yengeçburcukadını olmayacağım burada, hayır. -söz veremiyor!-

O zaman Kadare'den haberim yoktu. Olsaydı, yanıma bu kitabı da alır, orada okuma keyfine erişirdim. Ismail Kadare ile tanışmam Kahire seyahatimden 17 yıl sonra oldu. Keops'un kendi mezarını inşasının anlatıldığı bu güzel tarihi kurguyu kendi memleketimde, iş yerimde, evimde, aklımda 17 yıl öncesinin şahane anıları eşliğinde okudum.

Kadare, Arnavut bir yazar ve bu benim Arnavutluk'tan okuduğum ilk kitap. Gerçekten ilk okuduğum Arnavut edebiyatı eserinde Piramitlerden ziyade Arnavut mafyası, uyuşturucu kaçakçılığı, silah, insan ticareti ve organ kaçakçılığı gibi şeyler okumayı beklerdim. Ben de şaşkınım. Ama bu güzel bir şaşkınlık. Kadare sadece piramitlerin yapımını anlatmıyor, gizemli, ürkütücü bir masal da sunuyor bize. Masalda güç, entrika, komplo, yönetim sanatı, toplum mühendisliği, büyücülük var. Güçten zehirlenenler var. Firavunu için devasa anıt mezarı inşa ederken ölenler ama ölürken bile yaşasın firavunum! ve/ya oğlumu piramide seve seve kurban ettim! diyenler, yaşamasın, gebersin diyenlerin de türlü türlü cezalara çarptırılması, öldürülmesi var. Şimdi nasıl bir takım İstanbul semtleri soğuksa, o zaman da Giza bazen soğurmuş demek ki.

Kitabın en sevdiğim bölümü İnşaat Günlüğü isimli VII. bölüm oldu diyebilirim. Orada piramit taşlarının isimleri, nasıl taşındığı, numaralandırması, uğruna ölen insanların isimleri, minik hikayeleri var. Yüz doksan birinci taş blok. Teb taş ocağından. Bir yüzü kara lekeli. Özel buyrukla geri gönderildi. Çıkarıldığı yere geri gönderilmesi sırasında pisti yarım gün kilitledi ama kimsenin ölümüne yol açmadı.

Okurken kitabıma not aldım, acaba sen hangi bloklara dokundun, kimlerin kaderine ortak oldun dedim kendi kendime. Keops uğruna ya RAb dedim, ne ocaklar sönmüş!

Mısır'da bir müddet sonra zaman sözcüğü yerine kaygı kelimesi kullanılmaya başlanmasını öneriyor kitapta bir karakter. Bir yılda dört mevsim vardır: İlkbahar, yaz, sonbahar, kaygı.

Ben Mısır'dayken kaygıyı hiç deneyimlemedim dersem yalan olur, deneyimledim, pek çok farklı alanda ve şekilde ve fakat piramitlerin önünde sonsuz bir mutluluk içindeydim. Keops'u yiyip bitiren, gittikçe içini kemiren, hayattayken dahi kendisine çağıran ve sonunda onu delirten mezarı, o devasa güzellik beni büyülemişti. Yeniden gidebilmeyi ve o zamanda yolculuk havasını soluyabilmeyi çok isterim. Çünkü zamandan korkmuyorum.

In the meantime, Kadare'nin diğer kitaplarını da bir araştırayım.

[Lazaros Karavasilis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το τελευταίο καιρό αποφάσισα να επισκεφτώ (λογοτεχνικά) την Αλβανία, μια χώρα που παραδόξως ξέρουμε πολύ λιγότερο απ'όσο θα έπρεπε. Πράγματι, πόσα γνωρίζουμε για την πριν το 1990 κατάσταση πέρα από τον Χότζα και τα πολυβολεία του; Κάπως έτσι ξεκίνησε η αναζήτηση μου για συγγραφείς που εξερευνούν την κομμουνιστική κληρονομιά και τι απέμεινε από αυτήν ως συλλογική βιωματική εμπειρία.

Η αρχή έγινε με την εισαγωγή στον Ισμαήλ Κανταρέ και την Πυραμίδα του. Ο Κανταρέ χρησιμοποίησε την αρχαία Αίγυπτο και την κατασκευή της πυραμίδας του Χέοπα αλληγορικά. Στόχος, η καταγγελία ολόκληρου του καθεστώτος χωρίς αυτή να κατονομάζεται. Η πυραμίδα του Χέοπα αποκτά σχεδόν Βαβελικες διαστάσεις στο έργο του Κανταρέ μόνο που υπάρχει μια γλώσσα και που την υπηρετούν όλοι οι Αιγύπτιοι πολίτες: αυτή του Χέοπα. Η πέτρα που φτιάχνει την πυραμίδα αποκτά έναν ιδιαίτερο συμβολισμό. Είναι αμετακίνητη, αρχέγονη έως και παλαιολιθική σε μια εποχή που είναι θεωρητικά αρκετά μακριά από την εποχή του λίθου. Ναι, ίσως ο Κανταρέ να μην ήταν τόσο προσεκτικός στο να κρύψει τις προθέσεις του για τους παραλληλισμούς, αλλά ίσως και να μην ήθελε ποτέ να ειναι. Δεν φοβάται δε να γίνει φιλοσοφικός και να θέσει ερωτήματα κυριολεκτικά ζωής και θανάτου, ειδικά όταν το τελευταίο είναι ο ίδιος τελικός σταθμός για όλους, Χεοπες και μη.

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially, I was super excited to read The Pyramid, however, once I got to page 8 or so, I lost interest.
The writing style of The Pyramid was unbelievably dull. Trying to read this book was like trying to take care of my grandmother, eventually I just end up falling asleep.
The starting ideas of The Pyramid were good and well, but honestly, ok, we get it, social control is bad, could you have made this book a little more intriguing?
How did this book win a prize? That's what I want to know...
To say this book was lame, or boring, or dull is an understatement. It makes me want to gouge my eyes out to be perfectly honest.
I don't care about the Pharaoh, the Priests or any of the terrible characters, none of them are good people. I'm so done with this book..

[Joni Baboci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gjeniu i Kadarese rishfaqet perseri tek romani "Piramida". Dy histori te treguara paralelisht implementohen tek ky roman. Kadareja me gjuhen e tij te paster shqipe, ku nuk gjen as edhe nje huazim arrin perseri te ilustroje historine e komunizmit tek Piramida. Historia perqendrohet ne ngritjen e nje Piramide (ate me te madhen, te Keopsit). Kadareja perqendrohet fare pak tek Egjipti, historia apo dicka tjeter qe nuk ka lidhje me piramiden. E gjithe historia ka per baze ngritjen e struktures madheshtore. Ngritja e Piramides ne kete rast simbolizon ne menyre te perkryer ngritjen e sistemit komunist ne Shqiperi. Hierarkia e piramides (Guri i Majes dhe Gurat e Bazes) mundohet te maskohet plotesisht nga ideja se cdo gur perberes i saj eshte i njejte. Pra edhe pse cdo gur simbolizon nje individ, eshte teresisht e qarte qe edhe pse individi perbehet nga i njejti mish e shpirt, pozicioni qe ai ze ne piramiden komuniste ndryshon nga nje baze e thjeshte proletare e deri ne majen komanduese. Ne nje pjese te romanit (kapitulli "Perbetimi"), autori permend dy "kryengritje" te ndihmesve me te medhenj te ndertimit te piramides. Autori gjithashtu tregon se si keto "tradhetare" ne piramiden komuniste zbulohen dhe eliminohen nga kryetari - Keopsi. Ne te njejtin kapitull Kadareja permend viktimat apo fatkeqesite qe sjell cdo gur i piramides. Per cdo gur ka nje numer normal te vdekurish (Pra cdo tulle e sistemit shton viktimat). Ama edhe keto gure nuk jane te njejte ne fatkeqesine qe sjellin.

[Elif Çevik · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Güç, entrika, komplo, yönetim sanatı, toplum mühendisliği ve terde, kanda, gözyaşında ve üst üste konan devasa taşlarda vücut bulan hayat ve ölüm..."

Arka kapakta yazan bu ifadeler İsmail Kadare'nin bu kitabı yazmaktaki muradını açıklıyor diye düşünüyorum. Kitabı nasıl yazdığı ise yine arka kapakta The Los Angeles Times'ın yorumunda kendini açık ediyor: "Kadare'nin nesrinde Gabriel Garcia Marquez'in büyülü gerçekçiliği ışıldıyor."

Kitap en başta kendine piramit yaptırmak istemeyen bir Firavun ile hikayeye başlıyor. Ancak Firavun da olsanız toplumun bir düzeni var öyle kafanıza göre onu istiyorum bunu istemiyorum diyemiyorsunuz. Dolayısıyla Firavun hemen ikna edilip piramitin inşaası başlıyor. Kitap bu inşaat süreci boyunca iktidarın gücünü nasıl elde edip koruduğunu, halkı hangi taktiklerle yönettiğini ve halkın da hangi pratiklerle iktidara karşı pozisyonlar ürettiğini anlatıyor.

Açıkçası bu kadar elverişli bir konu Marquez'in elinden çıkmış olsaydı tadından yenmezdi gibi geliyor. Kadare'nin kaleminin o büyülü gerçekçi dünyayı inşa etmede biraz zayıf kaldığını düşünüyorum. Ancak yine de kitabı okurken zihniniz bugünün piramit inşaatlarını düşünüyor ve bir piramit inşaa etmenin sadece bir piramit inşaa etmek olmadığını anlıyorsunuz.

Sadece bir roman okumak niyetiyle kitabı okumak isterseniz dediğim gibi edebi zevki çok yüksek değil. Ancak sosyolojik bir okuma yapmak üzere kitaba eğilirseniz altını çizeceğiniz birçok pasaj bulabileceğinize eminim. Tıpkı bu paragraf gibi:

"Piramit, her şeyden önce güçtür majesteleri. Baskıdır, hapistir, paradır, beyinlerin büzüşmesidir, gönlün ezilmesi, kayıp ve hüzündür. O sizin en büyük korunağınızdır firavunum! Gizli polistir! Ordudur, donanmadır ve güzel kokan haremdir! Ne kadar yüksek olursa halk onun gölgesinde o kadar az görünür! Ve halk ne kadar küçükse siz o kadar yüce olursunuz hükümdarım!"

[Igor Neox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Showing a way to keep the people under control, in this case with the decade-long building of the pyramid, thus confirming the pharaoh’s political power, the author enables us to apply the same scenario and compare it with any totalitarian society throughout history ✨

[Ömer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abartı, düzensiz, mantık hataları.

[Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty disturbing. This one upset me.

[Bbrown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kadare's novella The Pyramid rehashes the subject of life under an inscrutable bureaucracy that was also the focus of Kadare's The Palace of Dreams, though this is a darker take on the topic. Kadare paints a portrait of the state as existing solely to oppress the populace, whether that be through busywork on an unimaginable scale or directly through killing and torture. The titular pyramid here seems to represent all the actions taken by a tyrannical and authoritarian state- it is justified to the populace through lies, masking the true purpose of working the people so hard that they will not have the strength to rebel. The pyramid might represent other things to other people, as the construction is met with optimism by the population when first announced, but these more positive perspectives of what a pyramid may represent are not dwelled on in this work. The book emphasizes most strongly that such works are tools of oppression and deception more so than they are a symbol with any positive connotations, and the final pages make explicit that Kadare is drawing the same connections between the actions of more recent oppressive governments and the cruelty of old. Every stone that is used to build the pyramid is a gravestone, and the blood spilled in such endeavors will never be erased no matter how many years have passed. Kadare clearly means to suggest that modern authoritarian governments will likewise never have their past sins erased- they are fundamentally tainted.

This was a solid novella, but it was weaker than the similar Kadare book The Palace of Dreams. That work focused on an individual and his family and their experiences within an inscrutable totalitarian state, and was also a longer work, giving you more time to walk in the main character's shoes and come to sympathize with the precarious and absurd position he had to occupy under the bureaucracy. Here, by comparison, the story felt impersonal, as the story shifted focus and provided no anchor point for the plot. Such a difficulty was magnified by the fact that Kadare had obviously done research into the construction of the pyramids but chose to set the story in an ahistorical version of Egypt, so the setting always felt a bit wobbly. The Palace of Dreams is well worth your time, but I'd only recommend The Pyramid if you've run through a significant portion of Kadare's work and are looking for similar subject matter.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Da igual la época o el momento, La Pirámide es una obra maestra metáfora del totalitarismo proyectada a través de la historia, ficcionalizada en la construcción de la pirámide de Keops y proyectada hasta nuestros días.

Su construcción, que poco tiene que ver con la sepultura, representa el carácter represivo para consumir el exceso de energía de la población y mantenerla aplastada y subyugada bajo el peso de sus rocas. La pirámide es Keops. Transmitir culto al líder, someter, sostenerse en el poder, tiranizar y fomentar la tiranía en los corazones del pueblo, alienarlo, despojarlo de toda libertad y adaptarlo a lo políticamente correcto.

Una crónica que recorre todo lo que la dictadura comunista configura en su modelo estratégico de control, incluso su lenguaje. El Partido es el Estado. Kadaré incluso literaturiza magistralmente los apartados más burocráticos de un sistema que busca solamente reprimir, conjurar, purgar en forma de caza de brujas... Siempre bajo el peso de la aterradora, indestructible, ensangrentada y simbólica pirámide.

El Estado comunista, las dictaduras de los países satélite de la URS y su brutalidad, el contexto de la Albania de Hoxha en el que fue censurada. Los peligros de la política, los cambios generacionales, los estados de locura en la gente adorando a sus locos soberanos...

Y la prosa de Kadaré, un tesoro.

[SH'DYNASTY · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my least favourite Kadare novel in the group of five or six that I have read. As the others are mostly simply amazing, that doesn't make this book a bad read at all. The language in it is beautiful, but I could have done without some of the more vulgar parts of it, as they were not pertinent to the story but just mentioned from time to time. Doesn't seem very Kadaresque to me. But I suppose it's a matter of taste. Also a matter of taste would be where it takes place, in Ancient Egypt, which is not all that interesting to me, but definitely read-able because of his style of story-telling. My favourite part of the book besides its message is how Kadare takes that message and updates it for us, reminding us that history repeats itself and modern states are just as capable of applying terror to their populations as those that first used the method.

[Mira · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a fan of Ancient Egyptian stories - but this was a drudge. Sample text goes like "..stone number ten thousand and twenty six arrived from the quarry and was placed, stone number ten thousand and twenty seven arrived but was cursed and forty slaves died, stone number ten thousand and twenty eight had a crack in it..". No joke.

It put me in mind of this comedy sketch. It's only 2'29 mins long, but infinitely more entertaining than this book. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1rYl...

Having said that - if anyone knows of any great fantasy or detective novels set in Ancient Egypt please recommend in the comments.

[Jazmin Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books you HAVE TO read to better understand the dangers our societies face today, especially with the rise of populism and extremism throughout the world.
Kadare goes back to the Pharaohs' era to describe a society lead to focus on a pointless task and useless activities, to make people more malleable and prone to tolerating the harshest rule.
Of course the analogy with the author's motherland, Albania after World War 2, is obvious. But the lessons learned through this book are quite universal, from Europe to the US...

[Sorin Hadârcă · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Kadare is a great master of describing the totalitarianism, although I detected some sort of fascination with the matter in a way one can be fascinated by the might of the enemy. But isn’t knowledge of its qualities the road to freedom?

[Berit Massman · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fitting to read at the present. I knew it was coming but the conclusion really “hit”.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with many of Kadare's novels, The Pyramid uses the form of a historical novel to present a "parable" (as one of the blurbs on the back calls it) about modern "totalitarian" regimes. Ostensibly, this is a novel about the building of the Great Pyramid of Cheops (the classical name for Khufu), but the political and social assumptions are completely present-day; for example, there are foreign diplomats (from Sumer, from the "land of Canaan", and even from "Greece", which was certainly not known to the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom) who send regular reports analyzing the situation in Egypt in modern-day terms. "Cheops", like "Mao" in The Concert, is deliberately trying to impoverish the country because prosperity, according to his advisors, leads to questioning of authority. Not only is this anachronistic with regard to ancient Egypt, but more importantly it is simply wrong as an explanation of the modern regimes he is trying to criticize -- Kadare considers the economic disasters which were a frequent consequence of the Stalinist bureaucracies as their intended goal, which gives them far more credit for intelligence than they deserve. Apart from that, however, the descriptions of the climate of suspicion and the frequent purges do apply to the Stalinist regimes -- and to right-wing dictatorships as well. Perhaps the best passage in the novel is when the legacy of Cheops is reassessed, "Men who had yelled for all their worth 'We are innocent, we have always been loyal to the Pharaoh' before being sentenced to a stretch in the quarries, now shouted from the rooftops 'We were guilty, we wanted to undermine the pyramid, but they didn't let us!'" In short, this is a good humorous parody of bureaucratic regimes, and worth reading, provided you don't expect any real history, and take Kadare's theorizing with a grain of salt.