Vol de nit

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

   Ainsi les trois avions postaux de la Patagonie, du Chili et du Paraguay revenaient du sud, de l'ouest et du nord vers Buenos Aires. On y attendait leur chargement pour donner le départ, vers minuit, à l'avion d'Europe.
   Trois pilotes, chacun à l'arrière d'un capot lourd comme un chaland, perdus dans la nuit, méditaient leur vol, et, vers la ville immense, descendraient lentement de leur ciel d'orage ou de pais, comme d'étranges paysans descendent de leurs montagnes.
   Rivière, responsable du réseau entier, se promenait de long en large sur le terrain d'atterrissage de Buenos Aires. Il demeurait silencieux car, jusqu'à l'arrivée des trois avions, cette journée, pour lui, restait redoutable...

Genres: Fiction, Classics, France, Aviation, French Literature, Adventure, Literature

Unknown Binding

First published December 1, 1931

About the author

People best know French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for his fairy tale The Little Prince (1943).

He flew for the first time at the age of 12 years in 1912 at the Ambérieu airfield and then determined to a pilot. Even after moving to a school in Switzerland and spending summer vacations at the château of the family at Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens in east, he kept that ambition. He repeatedly uses the house at Saint-Maurice.

Later, in Paris, he failed the entrance exams for the naval academy and instead enrolled at the prestigious l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1921, Saint-Exupéry, stationed in Strasbourg, began serving in the military. He learned and forever settled his career path as a pilot. After leaving the service in 1923, Saint-Exupéry worked in several professions but in 1926 went back and signed as a pilot for Aéropostale, a private airline that from Toulouse flew mail to Dakar, Senegal. In 1927, Saint-Exupéry accepted the position of airfield chief for Cape Juby in southern Morocco and began his first book, a memoir, called Southern Mail and published in 1929.

He then moved briefly to Buenos Aires to oversee the establishment of an Argentinean mail service, returned to Paris in 1931, and then published Night Flight , which won instant success and the prestigious Prix Femina. Always daring Saint-Exupéry tried from Paris in 1935 to break the speed record for flying to Saigon. Unfortunately, his plane crashed in the Libyan Desert, and he and his copilot trudged through the sand for three days to find help. In 1938, a second plane crash at that time, as he tried to fly between city of New York and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, seriously injured him. The crash resulted in a long convalescence in New York.

He published Wind, Sand and Stars , next novel, in 1939. This great success won the grand prize for novel of the academy and the national book award in the United States. Saint-Exupéry flew reconnaissance missions at the beginning of the Second World War but went to New York to ask the United States for help when the Germans occupied his country. He drew on his wartime experiences to publish Flight to Arras and Letter to a Hostage in 1942.

Later in 1943, Saint-Exupéry rejoined his air squadron in northern Africa. From earlier plane crashes, Saint-Exupéry still suffered physically, and people forbade him to fly, but he insisted on a mission. From Borgo, Corsica, on 31 July 1944, he set to overfly occupied region. He never returned.

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night Flight is a novel by the famous Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He realizes in this novel an authentic tribute to the pilots of Aéropostale. I had a hard time getting started; it took me a long time to re-enter history and understand all the subtleties. The pilots demonstrated considerable courage and motivation during the night postal period in the 1930s. The author does not merely recount the lives of drivers in their cockpits. It focuses on the lives of the "close" drivers to show us, for example, the despair of a woman who no longer sees his husband. I found this tribute highly remarkable and fair. The writing is poetic and haunting. Rivière is a man who seems sturdy, but he has a sensitive heart and cares about his employees. Some descriptions were too detailed, but the story remained engaging. The aviation adventure is magical, marvelous, and utterly unforgettable.

[Carolyn Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!
Until now, I had only read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved story The Little Prince (one of my top three favorite books of all time)! I’ve been wanting to read his other writing for years, and I’m extremely glad I finally have.
This story follows the courageous pilots who fly night mail from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay to Argentina in the early days of commercial aviation. As Saint-Exupéry was a pilot himself, I had a feeling this story would be a very honest and thoughtful read, and it was! Knowing that the flights written in this novella were inspired by his own experiences flying made the story have such resonance. The way he described viewing the earth from a plane, how the stars watch over the pilots, how the moon brings comfort and safety, took my breath away.
His writing is succinct yet perfectly poetic. Although this story is quite different from The Little Prince, I immediately recognized his literary presence and narrative voice. It felt like I was meeting an old friend in a place I’d never been to before. It was a joyous reunion!
The ending left me quietly heartbroken, but I (of course) won’t say why. I just hope, wherever Antoine is now, the moon and stars are shining for him.
✨
"Too beautiful," he thought. Amid the far-flung treasure of the stars he roved, in a world where no life was, no faintest breath of life, save his and his companion's. Like plunderers of fabled cities they seemed, immured in treasure vaults whence there is no escape. Amongst these frozen jewels they were wandering, rich beyond all dreams, but doomed.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Night Flight

[Kiran Dellimore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Night Flight (Vol de Nuit) is an intensely passionate, yet tragic tale about the glamour as well as danger of being an aviator, flying in South America (Argentina specifically) during the 1920's. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who is arguably best known for his children's book, Le Petit Prince, exhibits his literary finesse in this story with his mellifluous prose. I most enjoyed his enthralling insight into the psychology of the airmail pilots and their demanding task master, the indomitable station chief, Riviere. The courage and tenacity of the aviators under such challenges as bad weather, failing equipment on board the aircraft and the relentless pressure to deliver the airmail on time is impressive. It is clear from the narrative that de Saint-Exupéry himself was an avid pilot, who deeply understood the art of flying. Overall, Night Flight is a fairly short, easy read, despite the fact that the story is tragic in the end. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially if you are fan of Le Petit Prince, and interested in exploring more of Saint-Exupéry's work.

[Heba · Rating 5 out of 5]

بلغة شاعرية عذبة مرهفة ، يأتيك سرد ممتع ناعم لقصة طيران ليلي بقلم صاحب "الأمير الصغير" انطوان إكزوبيري..
يصور لنا مغامرة مأساوية لاحدي قائدي الطيران الليلي التجاري بمطلع القرن العشرين ، حيث المغامرة محفوفة بمخاطر هائلة...
لم يكن يحلق في فضاء شاسع فارغ...أبداً ، بل هو في كل لحظة يجتاز حاجزاً لامرئياً في ظلمة الليل ، بعدما يودع الأرض التي تحتضن بيوتها وسهولها ووديانها وجبالها ، وقد بات كل شيء متناهي الصغر ..يرقات مضيئة شبحية متناثرة ...ها هو يصارع وحيداً في معركة يجهل فيها ماهية عدوه الحقيقية...في لحظة خاطفة ينطمس صفاء الليلة لتنطلق صرخة موحشة يدوي أصداؤها في الفضاء لتبتلع ذاك السكون المسالم في هوة معتمة...
ماذا يا ترى تخبيء الأقدار ؟...عاصفة ثلجية...رعدية...
إعصار هائج ..ضباب غائم كثيف....
يقبض بكلتا يديه على مقبض عصا القيادة ..هل يستدير راجعاً ؟...
ها هو يسقط في غياهب الظلمة ..تتعلق الأنفاس ..وتندس الكلمات ما بين ثنايا روح تتوق للنجاة...
هناك في مركز المراقبة ...قائد مسؤول عنيد..صارم ..حاسم في قراراته ، الهزائم توقظ شيء ما بداخله يتعذر التعرف عليه غير أن شعلة الحماسة المتقدة بداخله تأبى أن تذوي ...
إنه يصنع رجالاً يناضلون في أعماق الليل لا يتبعون سوى غريزة الرغبة في تحقيق الانتصار وحدها....
في اللحظة التي يترقب فيها قائد الطائرة مرفأ آمن ...بزوغ الفجر وإن بات بعيداً ، تومض نجمة خاطفة يتبعها ليغرق فى عالم حليبي مجهول..لا يسعك وأنت بمركز المراقبة سوى الانتظار...انتظار اشارة من نجمة تغني ...علامة النجاة....
أخيراً ترى ما الذي يدفع المرء ليتجاوز ذاته ليقبض على المعنى خارج نطاقها ؟؟...
أن يخاطر بحياته من أجل مهمة تكفل بتنفيذها....؟؟
انتظر ..لا تبحث عن إجابة..فالاجابة شقاء السؤال...
أجل تحرمنا من الانفتاح على إمكانية الاحتمالات وثرائها...لذا دع السؤال معلقاً لا تبحث عن إجابة.....
إذا كانت حياة الانسان لا تُقدر بثمن ، فإننا نتصرف دوماً كما لو أن ثمة شيئاً ما يتجاوز في قيمته الحياة الإنسانية ، ولكن ما هو هذا الشيء؟....

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

St Exupéry's short but intense tribute to the pilots of Aéropostale is poetic, moving and suspenseful. I re-read many sentences and paragraphs, struck by their emotional impact and beautiful imagery. This is a novel that I'm particularly glad to have read in French rather than in translation.

If you've ever wanted to know what flying a 1920s plane in a storm in South America was like, then this is the book to read. Based on St-Exupéry's own experiences, the fact that he disappeared while flying a reconnaissance mission for the Free French Air Force in 1944 makes the reading experience particularly poignant.

[Ms. Smartarse · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cargo plane pilot is struggling to fly through a cyclone from Patagonia to Buenos Aires. Meanwhile his boss back at the base is more concerned with delays in trans-Atlantic deliveries, which in turn may interfere with his plans of revolutionising long-distance air mail.



I'd like to think that as I go through more diverse reading materials, my pet peeves start to become less set in stone. Don't get me wrong, I still dislike poetry, or rather anything with even a whiff of lyrical sentiment... but at least I can now go over them with minimal grumbling. To be fair, some descriptions occasionally brought beautiful Ghibli-style images to my mind's eye.

Sometimes, after a hundred miles of steppes as desolate as the sea, he encountered a lonely farmhouse that seemed to be sailing backwards from him in a great prairie sea with its freight of human lives.

What I wasn't on board with however, was the whole overworking for the sake of progress subplot. I've personally gone through some really dismal bouts of burn out, which has me jump to extreme reactions toward anyone promoting overwork. Now, logically I understand that some people may honestly be so fulfilled by their job that dedicating 16 hours to it on a daily basis feels like an accomplishment. My sanity though, is instantly triggered whenever I hear people talk about glorifying sacrificing health for the job.

Reading Riviere's point-of-view sections made me relive a whole host of negative emotions, that I'd normally experience over months spent in a toxic work environment. There was righteous anger, the disbelief over his view of men as "mere lumps of wax", only to settle on helpless rage.



Someone or something had to pay for it all... but how do you even begin to make amends for a human life?

Score: 3.3/5 stars

This story managed to enrage me more than a dismal day at work... which should make me rate it higher. But if I did, I'd feel like I was (at least partially) condoning this senseless rat race.

[Helga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Life is so full of contradictions; a man muddles through it as best he can. But to endure, to create, to barter this vile body....

The story is set in Argentina, in the early days of commercial aviation and is about brave airmail pilots delivering mail across South America during night.

Was it the convoluted translation, was it me and my currently muddled brain, was it because I was expecting something as excellent as The Little Prince or was it all the indigestible introspection, contemplation and ramblings? Whatever the reason, I didn’t like the book.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had previously read Saint-Exupéry’s book Flight to Arras, and really enjoyed it. Like that book, this short novel is derived from his own experiences, but from about a decade earlier, 1929-30, when he worked for Aeroposta Argentina. Most of the characters in the novel have French-sounding names, leading me to suspect the company was a subsidiary of a French one.

There are a number of characters, and it is one of those novels where the perspective shifts from one to another. However the two most important are Fabien, a pilot, and Rivière, who is the senior manager/director of the company. Rivière is a hard-headed character, ruthless with employees who fail to meet his exacting standards. He has created a company culture of “the mail must get through.”

Much of the text is taken up with “thought monologues” from the various characters.

Rivière is in Buenos Aires, waiting on the arrival of 3 overnight flights bringing mail. One is arriving from Santiago in Chile, another from Ascunción in Paraguay, and the third, piloted by Fabien, from southern Patagonia. Another aircraft waits at Buenos Aires, ready to take mail onto Europe.

At this time in history, flying long distances at night was exceedingly dangerous. Rivière insists on it for a variety of reasons. In purely business terms, airmail was a new concept and ships and trains could travel by night, so aircraft needed to do so to compete. He also thinks life is about challenge, and it is through challenge that the world moves on. He comments that sooner or later it will be routine for commercial aircraft to fly at night, and by forcing the issue, he brings that day closer. The book discusses the question of individual rights as opposed to the interests of society.

In the novel, these abstract philosophical questions become manifest for Fabien, who runs into a major storm during his flight from Patagonia. The description of his journey is absolutely gripping, and the second half of the novel becomes a “couldn’t put it down” page-turner.

A superb novel.

Also, I loved the cover for the edition I read!

[Berengaria · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars
*this review is a postcard from Outlier Island.* 🌴📨

short review for busy readers: A 1932 short novel that really should have been a short story, as it dawdles in description/emotion, is often vague or hard to follow and overly introspective. Interesting theme of the organisation and dangers of early air mail, but doesn't make the most of it. Simple plot. Semi-quick read. Beautiful cover. Nothing like The Little Prince.

in detail:
People often have vastly varying ideas about what "good writing" is.

For some novels, you can read "clunky, amateurish prose" in one review, and in the next, "beautifully flowing prose". There are many reasons for this, I'm sure, not the least of which are our own speech patterns, the standards of where we grew up and our ideas/biases about how fiction should sound.

"Night Flight" is just such a case. Many reviewers have remarked on the breathtakingly beautiful prose, while I read horribly overwritten, bad high school poetry.

A snippet:
"He passed his fingers along a steel rib and felt the stream of life that flowed in it; the metal did not vibrate, yet it was alive. The engine's five-hundred horse-power bred in its texture a very gentle current, fraying its ice-cold rind into a velvety bloom. Once again the pilot in full flight experienced neither giddiness nor any thrill; only the mystery of metal turned to living flesh."

Excuse me, but 🤮.

That was hard enough to stomach, but on top of it, the plot is relayed in that French lit sort of fuzzy-vague where you aren't ever really sure exactly what's going on, until you're handed a scene that suddenly is completely clear... before it all fades back into vagueness again, just to show you the author could be clear if they wanted to, but they don't want to.

The theme and point of the novel -- what is good leadership? -- is a perfect fit for the setting of early air mail that had to compete with road and rail. They had to be faster and cheaper, which meant they had to be strict in their treatment of the workers. You worked to deadline, come hell or high water. Fog stopped you from starting on time? No bonus. Not your fault? Not relevant.

That was excellently shown and I felt instantly drawn to Riviere, the night manager, and his style/way of running things. I didn't feel he was stubborn or intransigent, as the blurb says. He's duty bound, almost militaristically so, and a sweet, you-poor-dears approach to anything but hard fact just isn't on when you're duty-bound.

This is at odds with the adventurous drive of the pilots. It's not a routine job for them, it's what gets their masculine blood coursing. Speed, danger, freedom, heroism. That's what they do the job for, efficiency or time tables means little to them. They want to experience the wildness, the romanticism, of flight.

These two viewpoints are an excellent set up for conflict, but the author chose a far too diffused, repetitious, introspective, romantic, philosophising and wandering style to develop most the potential that's there.

Shame, I'd really have liked a much clearer, more plot-focused, expressive story than this -- esp with such an attractive vintage cover!!

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Night Flight is exactly that and a little more. It’s a short novel written in the pioneering days of air mail delivery. The story all takes place in one night and it’s a tense one. Split between the pilot’s story and the office story (air mail company in Buenos Aires) it’s a night of increasing tension as the pilot flies his route from Patagonia towards home. Saint-Exupery himself was one of these air mail pilots and was able to describe the flying in a dramatic and beautiful way. You see the nonchalance of the pilots covering their tensions and recognize the glamour that readers of the Art Deco era no doubt felt was the story of early aviation. They were the astronauts of their day.

Flying by night is shown to be a gorgeous and scary experience with primitive planes and no fancy electronics to tell you to PULL UP, PULL UP! There is joy, beauty and thrill in the book. Fantastic prose and solitary reflection.

[Mmars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on translation by Stuart Gilbert.

Looking for a particular translation of the Little Prince, I found myself in the library "Stacks" section of old, rarely checked out books. There, two other books by Saint-Exupery (do surnames like that still exist?) attracted me through their first lines. I was entranced. What exquisite writing! And like the index of poetry, each chapter of Night Flight is headed on a lead-in page by its first line. The book begins, with Fabian, the pilot silently observing, "Already, beneath him through the golden evening, the shadowed hills had dug their furrows and the plains grew luminous with long-enduring light. " The mood is set. Day is ending and night will soon settle in. The calm before the storm. Within two pages, the story is shadowed with foreboding through thought, description and word choice.

Why use dreadnought in a metaphor? (I had to look it up and it's quite likely the only word in the English language that refers to both a battleship and a large bodied acoustic guitar.) But then the word dread is used two or three more times in the book. Like reading poetry the text is clearly littered with words associated with literal darkness and the metaphorical dark areas of the human soul. Each character is a solitary, soldiering through the night, set upon a mission to get the mail through. The year is 1930, the planes are primitive, the communication is the wireless telegram.

The heroes are the pilots, at the mercy of both nature and the heirachy of the mail service - namely the inspector and the commanding chief. These two men are afflicted and absorbed by their professions, in a sense blinded to the lives of the pilots. This all sets up for a very melancholy, yet beautifully written, read. A fantastic storm blankets the inner continent and Fabian, in flight from Patagonia to Buenes Aires, becomes lost.

Saint-Exupery writes from experience, and it shows. He miraculousloy survived several crashes, but flying was his love, and he never returned from his last flight. A rather creepy thing to know as you read this book. It's almost as if he wrote it from the dead.

[Golshad · Rating 5 out of 5]

من عاشق خلبان های اگزوپری توی کتاباش هستم فوق العاده توصیفشون میکنه چه از وضع روانی و جسمانی و چه از افکار متفاوتی که دارن و معنویتی که در آسمان بدست میاد

مقدمه ی آندره ژید برای کتاب هم زبر دستانه نوشته شده بود

هر کتاب اگزوپری یک پله از پلکانی برای کمال هست و این کتاب یکی از آنها.

ماجرای خلبان  همسرش و ریوی یر جالبه به چالش میکشه و در عین حال حالتی شاعرانه داره

توصیف حالت های کاراکتر ها فوق‌العاده استادانه بود کمتر نویسنده ای مثل اگزوپری از عهدش برمیاد


و بعد نامه ای به یک گروگان یک اثر فوق العاده دیگه که شرح حال امروز جهان ماست. جهانی که باری دیگر بر روی تیغه تغییر قرار داره و نه می تواند گامی به عقب بردارد و جایگاه قدم به جلویش را کشف کرده.

[Foz ☀️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

"الإنسان غني ببؤسه كما هو غني بسعادته" صاحب رواية الأمير الصغير هو نفسه صاحب هذه الرواية، القصة هي اسم الرواية "طيران في الليل" أو "طيران ليلي" وهذا الطيران ليس لنقل الركاب بل لأغراض تجارية في أمريكا الجنوبية، توقعت الكثير لكن لم أجد في سطورها إلى ما ينبغي وجوده، توقعت يتكلم عن هذه الرحلات، أو الطيار، أو طاقم الطائرة، أو المطارات، أو المقصورة، أو حتى على الجانب النفسي الذي يخلفه "التحليق في الليل" لكن لم يُذكر إلاّ ماهو سطحي وأقل من سطحي حتى، على قصرها إلى إني أكتفي بالنجمتين، وحدة للمُترجم والأخرى لعالم الطيران الذي لم أراه في هذه الرواية.
من الرواية" سوف تستنتج القوانين من التجارب، فمعرفة القوانين لا تسبق التجربة أبداً."
"إن المصلحة العامة مكونة من المصالح الخاصة، ولكنها لا تبرر أكثر من ذلك."

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, a watchman from the heart of night, he learnt how night betrays man's presence, his voices, lights, and his unrest. That star down there in the shadows, alone; a lonely house. Yonder a fading star; that house is closing in upon its love. . . . Or on its lassitude. A house that has ceased to flash its signal to the world. Gathered round their lamp-lit table, those peasants do not know the measure of their hopes; they do not guess that their desire carries so far, out into the vastness of the night that hems them in. But Fabien has met it on his path, when, coming from a thousand miles away, he feels the heavy ground-swell raise his panting plane and let it sink, when he has crossed a dozen storms like lands at war, between them neutral tracts of moonlight, to reach at last those lights, one following the other — and knows himself a conqueror. They think, these peasants, that their lamp shines only for that little table; but, from fifty miles away, some one has felt the summons of their light, as though it were a desperate signal from some lonely island, flashed by shipwrecked men toward the sea.
*
He might keep up the struggle, chance his luck; no destiny attacks us from outside. But, within him, man bears his fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable; and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him.
And, at this very moment, there gleamed above his head, across a storm-rift, like a fatal lure within a deep abyss, a star or two.
Only too well he knew them for a trap. A man sees a few stars at the issue of a pit and climbs toward them, and then—never can he get down again but stays up there eternally, chewing the stars. . . .
But such was his lust for light that he began to climb.

[Mangrii · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro nos narra la historia de una empresa de correos aérea, donde 3 pilotos vuelan desde tres partes diferentes de Sudamérica (Santiago de Chile, La Patagonia y Uruguay) con destino a Buenos aires, para que este correo salga rumbo a Europa. Durante la historia, iremos conociendo al piloto Fabien que está en pleno recorrido y sufre ciertos problemas con un mal temporal que se aproxima. Por otra parte iremos conociendo a Riviére, el director de la red de correos y como tiene que ir tomando decisiones y se plantea si su gestión es correcta.
Me ha parecido un relato muy profundo y elaborado, donde se muestran muchos aspectos de la sociedad y dilemas que muchos nos planteamos a veces, como si estamos haciendo lo correcto o justo. Además esta fantásticamente relatado, notándose la calidad literaria del autor de El Principito y que además tiene experiencias propias como piloto; ya que los momentos de peligro se nota que son plenamente vivos.
Una buena lectura ligera y de gran calidad literaria en apenas 140 hojas, que además tienen una letra bastante grande, pero que no os dejara indiferentes aunque el tema de los aviones no vaya mucho con vosotros.

[Strega Di Gatti · Rating 5 out of 5]

The mail SHOULD NOT BE THIS SERIOUS. My god, these pilots were brave. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote from experience, so I have full faith in his terrifying technical depiction of flying in total darkness, with limited instruments, through storms, without working radio and electric shocks ... !!! All so South America can get mail to France in under a week.

Night Flight follows the desperate overnight attempt of a 1930s pilot and radio operator to get their mail delivery plane from Patagonia to Buenos Aires on a small amount of fuel after losing their navigational bearings.

On the ground at HQ we also follow a hardass postal commandant, a regular Mussolini of the Mail, whose philosophical approach to leadership is summed up as "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" ... only imagine that said in French instead of Vulcan. He is pioneering the concept of flying cargo overnight instead of during "safe" daytime hours. We are witness to a series of maudlin scenes where marriages, children, and general compassion to others, is weighed against fast delivery of the mail and tossed aside. Who has time for human feeling when we're on a schedule!?

If this seems overly zealous to you as an audience member, you're not alone. The 1933 Clark Gable movie adaptation added some extra motivation to the overnight flight: Sick kids in need of a medicine delivery. Necessary to help audiences not Obsessed with the Functioning of The Mail understand why heroic sacrifices are made to keep correspondences going 24/7.

Saint-Exupéry's language is quasi-impenetrable. I don't believe this is a function of a weak translation. It feels like a gentleman's love of flowery phrasing. Sentences start out normally and then fold words backwards into each other. This is what's known as "style", so we're giving it a pass!

The man gets his point across. I was surprised how moved I was by this book. Even more so when I googled what the hell these planes looked like in 1931. Why are humans like this? Why must we strive for greatness despite freakish risks and likely disasters? I can't even leave the house while the dishwasher is running (something could flood).

Saint-Exupéry disappeared in 1944 when the plane he was piloting on a reconnaissance mission over Corsica was lost. Can't imagine what he thought, but hopefully he was above the clouds and had his "too beautiful" revelation, "amid the far-flung treasures of the stars he roved".

[P.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mail Must Go Through

'He would have accepted this tiny village: having made a choice, one is content with the chance of one's existence and can love it. It limits you like love. Fabien would have wished to live here for a long time, to take his share of eternity here, for the small towns, where he lived for an hour, and the gardens enclosed by old walls that he passed through, seemed to him eternal in their existence apart from him.'

'Ce village minuscule, il l'eût accepté : après avoir choisi on se contente du hasard de son existence et on peut l'aimer. Il vous borne comme l'amour. Fabien eût désiré vivre ici longtemps, prendre sa part ici d'éternité, car les petites villes, où ils vivait une heure, et les jardins clos de vieux murs qu'il traversait, lui semblaient éternels de durer en dehors de lui.'

This novel - the third fictional work written by its author - deals with the Argentinian branch of the French airmail service, especially with the night shifts implemented by headstrong director Rivière, against public opinion for the most part. During one of these shifts, 2 airplanes on 3 return from their flight, as the one piloted by Fabien is caught and destroyed in a raging storm.

Throughout the narrative, the air mail service is compared to some rite ("mystery", "meditation", "hope" and the spirit of sacrifice - are unmistakable in the descriptions related to the night shifts) or some chivalric mission, in stark contrast with the carefree life of the ground crew and other civilians at large. Rivière, wilfully rigorous and unyielding, embodies the strength of the will, the spirit of duty and sacrifice, what he calls experience and action, standing against the spirit of individual happiness, as he calls it, represented by the young widow Simone Fabien, or the pathetic inspector Robineau.

“Am I just or unjust? I don’t know. If I strike, the breakdowns decrease. The culprit isn’t man, it’s like some obscure power that you can never touch unless you touch everyone. If I were perfectly just, every night flight would be a chance of death.”

« Suis-je juste ou injuste ? Je l'ignore. Si je frappe, les pannes diminuent. Le responsable, ce n'est pas l'homme, c'est comme une puissance obscure que l'on ne touche jamais, si l'on ne touche pas tout le monde. Si j'étais très juste, un vol de nuit serait chaque fois une chance de mort. »

Director Rivière intends to develop the night shift to ensure air mail can compete with ground mail, but this is only part of his objective, as the phrase "le culte du courrier" ("the cult of the mail") even appears once, as he strives for a certain ideal surpassing love and death, even comparing at some point the precolombian ruins left as a token of the grandeur of past civilisations with the immaterial monument he is building with the air mail.

An engineer once said to Rivière, as he bent over an injured man near a bridge under construction: "Is this bridge worth the price of a crushed face?" Not one of the peasants, for whom this road was open, would have agreed, to avoid a detour via the next bridge, to mutilate that horrific face. And yet, bridges are built. The engineer added: "The general interest is formed from individual interests: it justifies nothing more."
"And yet," Rivière later replied, "if human life is priceless, we always act as if something surpasses human life in value... But what?"

'Un ingénieur avait dit un jour à Rivière, comme il se penchait sur un blessé, auprès d'un pont en construction : « ce pont vaut-il le prix d'un visage écrasé ? ». Pas un des paysans, à qui cette route était ouverte, n'eût accepté, pour s'épargner un détour par le pont suivant, de mutiler ce visage effroyable. Et pourtant, l'on bâtit des ponts. L'ingénieur avait ajouté : « L'intérêt général est formé des intérêts particuliers : il ne justifie rien de plus. »
— « Et, pourtant, lui avait répondu plus tard Rivière, si la vie humaine n'a pas de prix, nous agissons toujours comme si quelque chose dépassait, en valeur, la vie humaine... Mais quoi ? »'

------------------

"We do not ask to be eternal, but to not see actions and things suddenly lose their meaning. The void that surrounds us then reveals itself..."

"'Nous ne demandons pas à être éternels, mais à ne pas voir les actes et les choses tout à coup perdre leur sens. Le vide qui nous entoure se montre alors...'"

------------------

"He thought of the small towns of old that heard of the 'Islands' and built themselves a ship. To load it with their hope. So that men could see their hope unfurl its sails on the sea. All grown, all drawn out by the same, all delivered by a ship. 'The goal may not justify anything. But action delivers from death. These men endured because of their ship.'"

"'Il pensa aux petites villes d'autrefois qui entendaient parler des « Îles » et se construisaient un navire. Pour le charger de leur espérance. Pour que les hommes pussent voir leur espérance ouvrir ses voiles sur la mer. Tous grandis, tous tiraient hors de même, tous délivrés par un navire. « Le but peut être ne justifie rien. Mais l'action délivre de la mort. Ces hommes duraient par leur navire. »'

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Director Rivière was inspired by real-life Didier Daurat.
Not my favourite novel by Saint-Exupéry, by a long shot. Back to the public bookcase it goes.

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“‘What is alive overturns everything in order to live and creates, in order to live, its own laws. It is irresistible. [...] It is experience that will reveal the laws,’ he [=Rivière, the director of the Aéropostale] replied, ‘knowledge of the laws never precedes experience.’”

"'« Ce qui est vivant bouscule tout pour vivre et crée, pour vivre, ses propres lois. C'est irrésistible. [...] C'est l'expérience qui dégagera les lois, répondait-il [=le directeur de l'aéropostale Rivière], la connaissance des lois ne précède jamais l'expérience. »'"

--------------------


See also:
L’Équipage
South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917
Planètes : Intégrale
La fin de l'histoire et le dernier homme

Terre des hommes


Soundtrack:
Sad Night At the Airfield – Yes
https://youtu.be/ZCe8zyR1B8U?is=gbryr...

[Peiman · Rating 3 out of 5]

پرواز شبانه احتمالاً برای کسایی که عاشق پروازند هیجان‌انگیز و برای کسایی که از پرواز می‌ترسند دلهره‌آور و برای همه غم انگیزه. داستان به حوالی سال ۱۹۳۰ برمیگرده و پست هوایی با رئیسی که همه چیز رو در نظم میبینه. و پرواز‌های شبانه که با وجود خطرات باید ادامه داشته باشه...ه

[Sergio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro emozionante e commovente ambientato nei cieli e negli aeroporti dell'America del Sud nei primi decenni del volo e racconta l'avventura drammatica di un aereo postale che dalla Patagonia vola verso Buenos Aires in una notte difficile perché un uragano sta per investire la regione.

Protagonista del romanzo l'aviatore Fabièn che lotta impavido contro le condizioni atmosferiche sempre più avverse spinto dal senso del dovere e dalla speranza di riabbracciare presto la giovane moglie; coprotagonista l'ispettore Reviére, il responsabile a terra di questo azzardo dei voli notturni per aprire nuove strade e nuove certezze alla "giovane" attività aereonautica, uomo apparentemente tutto d'un pezzo, integerrimo e impersonale, ma che nelle ore drammatiche di quel volo in ritardo, esprimerà, suo malgrado, l'umanità della sua anima.

Un volo solitario nella notte che sembra non terminare mai, un racconto ricco di suspense in cui stati d'animo, sentimenti personali, debolezze umane, vengono a galla rimanendo sospese senza risposta.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully penned short novel, an elegy as eulogy - as if de Saint-Exupéry was writing the book that would foreshadow his own mortal struggle with metal, wind and altitude. The enemy isn't the Luftwaffe, it's nature's sinister insouciance - far more frightening than another mortal intent on one's personal destruction.

We do not pray for immortality, but only to see our acts and all things stripped suddenly of all their meaning; for then it is the utter emptiness of everything reveals itself.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

đọc đc tầm 3 chục trang và mặt đơ như axit tác dụng với bazơ.

cuốn này mình nghĩ nó phải đc đọc 1 cách nghiền ngẫm, từ từ, bình tĩnh, nhấm nháp, thật chậm, thật chậm, thật chậm... chắc ko thể phù hợp trong khoảng thời gian này.

thế nên hẹn gặp lại em vào lần sau (theo 1 cách tùy hứng, chứ ko cần phải tạo ra 1 cái cớ để có thể đc gặp lại)


--------------------------------------------------------------
ừ thì đôi khi cũng có những cái đẹp quá tới nghẹn hết cả chữ cả lời :~|

[Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for the original French edition, a scant three stars for the 1931 English translation by Stuart Gilbert.

It is 1930. South America. As a golden day turns into night, three planes are bound for an air field in Buenos Aires carrying mail from Chile, Paraguay and Patagonia. At the airfield office, the manager and ground crew wait. Across the continent, a vast cyclonic storm system is building.

The story of this night flight is told from several points of view: the pilot bound north from Patagonia on the longest and most hazardous route and the onboard radio operator who is filled with foreboding; on the ground in Buenos Aires, a timorous bureaucratic functionary and another pilot waiting to carry the mail on to Europe. Every hour counts, each one widening the company’s slender time advantage over rail and sea.

At the heart of the story and in the eye of the storm stands Rivière, the manager of this continent-wide venture and the main character. Rivière is a hard man, even a brutal one, who can goad a pilot into facing his fears or whip a ground crew to super-human efforts, all to keep the planes and pilots safely aloft for another few hours.

But tonight Rivière is bedeviled with doubts, feeling his age, second guessing his decisions. Rivière is not a likable character but he is at times admirable and as a study in a kind of leadership that is sometimes needed but has fallen out of favor, he is superb.

I read this novella in the original French, simultaneously with a 1932 English translation by Stuart Gilbert that I used as a sort of oil can and spare tire every time my rusty, rickety French ground to a halt. I am so glad that I persevered with the original.

The rhythm of the language is extraordinary. There are densely poetic passages that take us sweeping across the vast, empty steppes where only a few lights twinkle in the night, or that fly us into the towering cloud walls of a terrible storm. Then, abruptly, the poetry is pushed aside, elbowed out of the way by sharp, spare prose as impatient men force their way through the night, doing impossible jobs with too little gasoline, too little information, too little time...too little time! The dialog is even harsher: raw staccato sentences that rip across the page.

It’s potent, heart-pounding stuff, but alas only in the original.

Let me give you a taste of why I rate this book five stars in French, but only three stars in the Stuart Gilbert translation.

In a flashback, Rivière is firing an old mechanic, a veteran who is guilty of a single error and must be made ‘an example’. The man pleads desperately for the job that is his life, the core of his identity. Rivière's response is curt, implacable:

- Je vous ai dit: je vous offre une place de manoeuvre.
- Ma dignité, Monsieur, ma dignité! Voyons, Monsieur, vingt ans d'aviation ...
- De manoeuvre.
- Je refuse, Monsieur, je refuse!

And here is how the same passage is rendered in English:

“I told you you could have a job as a fitter.”
“But there’s my good name, sir, my name…after twenty years’ experience…”
“As fitter.”
“No, sir, I can’t see my way to that. I somehow can’t, sir!”

An Englishman might have said that last line, but never this proud, anguished French-Argentine mechanic.

I suspect most of the negative reviews are from readers who only read the Gilbert translation and they are not wrong, but if you can read the original even as haltingly as I did you’ll find it terrific. Content rating: Perfectly clean language in both English and French, no sex, no physical violence.

A first fly-over for the South American leg of my Around-the World challenge.

[Raha · Rating 3 out of 5]

فکر کنم اشکال از ترجمه بود،اصلا نتونستم با کتاب ارتباط برقرار کنم.جمله ها انقدر طولانی می شدن و کش می اومدن که وقتی به اخرش می رسیدم ،کلا" یااادم رفته بود که اولش چطوری شروع شده !!! دیگه خودتون عمق فاجعه رو درک کنید

[Farzaneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

پرواز شبانه داستانی است درباره نخستین دوره های ارسال پست های هوایی در طول شب؛ و سختی ها، خطرات و لذت های کار با قلمی گیرا و جذاب، از یک سو از زبان یک رئیس سخت کوش، و از سوی دیگر از دید خلبانانی هم شجاع و هم با ترس ها و آرزوهایی مثل دیگران، به تصویر کشیده شده است. و با توجه به اینکه خود نویسنده هم خلبان بوده فوق العاده در خلق فضاها موفق عمل کرده

پرواز شبانه از آن دست داستان هایی است که یا اصلا برایت جالب نیست یا حسابی با آن همراه می شوی و از خواندنش لذت میبری؛ برای من جذاب و پر کشش بود و حتی گاه حال و هوای خواندن یک شعر را داشت، شعری تلخ که همزمان لبخند هم بر لبت می آورد.

[A. Raca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐

"Büyük çarpışmalar çok az iz bırakır."

[Chim Cụt · Rating 4 out of 5]

MỘC MẠC VÀ CHÂN THÀNH

Có những cuốn sách đẹp mất hồn đến nỗi mình luôn mất hồn khi viết về nó.

Mình thích Lời hứa lúc mình minh của Romain Gary lắm lắm nên đã vận dụng hết nội ngoại lực để viết về những nhịp tim rung động nhất còn đập dai dẳng sau khi gấp cuốn sách. Nhìn chung mình tạm hài lòng nhưng phải thừa nhận bài viết chưa chạm tới một cái gì đó - chẳng biết là gì nữa - mà mình vốn mong muốn.

Mình mê mỹ nữ hạt buồn Biển của John Banville tưởng đến muốn xóa bỏ lỗi morat mà cho 5*. Trở ngại khi viết về Biển chính là những yêu cầu rập khuôn và cứng nhắc của một cuộc thi. Bài viết cũng không thoát lên được những cảm xúc buồn thương lắng dịu nơi con tim mình. Nó thiếu hẳn một cái gì đó - chẳng biết là gì nữa - mà mình đã nhìn ra nhưng bạn chưa thấy được (qua bài viết).

Mình bắt đầu sợ, sợ diễn đạt không chạm tới một cái gì đó - chẳng biết là gì nữa - thì ngàn chữ của mình sẽ mang hơi hướm của lừa dối.

Bay đêm cũng làm mình sợ run như thế bởi thứ văn chương đẹp lơ lửng khó nắm bắt tựa bầu trời đêm.

Đâu riêng gì mình, dịch giả Châu Diên còn không xác định được: Saint-Ex trước hết là nhà văn hay người lái máy bay? Một nhà thơ hay một nhà đạo đức học? Một người mơ mộng hay một người hành động? Một nghệ sĩ hay một nhà phát minh? Hay là một anh hùng trong chiến trận?

Bất kể là ai, Saint-Ex đã thành công thổi vào nhiệm vụ đưa thư tiên phong trong ngành hàng không - cái nghề khốn khổ đến chuyện yêu đương chẳng có bao nhiêu - một tâm hồn đầy nên thơ luôn nhìn thấy cái đẹp đâu đó giữa những cấu tạo máy bay (động cơ năm trăm sức ngựa, bảng phân phối điện, máy đo hồi chuyển, máy đo độ cao...) và những kỷ luật khắt khe (đúng giờ ngay cả khi sương mù, dù làm hỏng máy bay trên rừng cũng mất tiền thưởng, dù đã làm việc hai mươi năm nhưng vẫn bị giáng chức xuống lao công vì làm hỏng những mối nối mạng điện dẫn đến hỏng ánh sáng, không được quá thân tình giữa chỉ huy và phi công...).

Không chỉ John Banville cùng Biển mà giờ Saint-Ex cùng Bay đêm cũng thể hiện sức trữ tình khỏe trong từng câu văn. Bay đêm không đẹp bởi lụa ngôn từ. Bay đêm đẹp mộc mạc và chân thành từ trong bầu trời đêm là đường đi lát đầy sao, từ trên buồng chỉ huy là ánh trăng dát vàng, từ dưới đôi cánh của năm tấn kim loại là những cánh đồng nội rạng rỡ ánh sáng, từ những khu dân cư bình dị dịu ngọt chỉ sống qua một giờ...

Fabien, Pellerin... - những con người cao đẹp trong Bay đêm phải chiến đấu với dông bão, với núi rừng, với đêm tối mù lòa vì cơn đói ánh sáng. Bầu trời đêm trong cơn dông tối mịt kia dễ dàng cướp đi sinh mệnh của những phi công, những người điện báo mặc cho sự vẫy vùng bất lực của đồng nghiệp trên bờ: Gọi điện hỏi thời tiết của hơn ba mươi tỉnh lỵ trên hai nghìn ki-lô-mét. Dẫu để lại người vợ mới cưới được sáu tuần, dẫu không thể nào anh còn đang bay được vì đã đến giới hạn cuối cùng của xăng, Fabien cũng đã có một cú vượt ngục dông bão đen kịt quá ngoạn mục để vươn tới ba ngôi sao sáng.

- Anh đẹp lắm.

Nàng thấy anh chải tóc cẩn thận.

- Để cho các vì sao ngắm à?

- Để không có cảm giác mình già.

- Em ghen đấy...

Fabien ra đi đẹp đến thế trong bầu trời đêm.

Nếu những hạt Biển buồn rời rạc được cứu rỗi bởi những lời văn đẹp đẽ thì những chuyến Bay đêm buồn dịu ngọt được phủ đầy ánh sáng lấp lánh. Cuốn sách mỏng của Saint-Ex truyền tải cái đẹp quá lớn lao đến nỗi một độc giả run rẩy trước mọi mỹ nhân, mỹ đức, mỹ quan... như mình không thể một lần nữa khoác thêm màn đêm đẹp nào bên ngoài.

Cái đẹp của Bay đêm đã bù đắp những hụt hẫng của mình trong chuyến bay đêm đầu tiên đợt Tết vừa rồi.

Thì ra bay đêm không phải làm ngắm đèn hiệu trong khoang hành khách. Thì ra bay đêm không phải chỉ ngồi sau đai an toàn chưa đầy nửa tiếng đồng hồ. Thì ra bay đêm không phải tai ù ù cạc cạc. Thì ra bay đêm không phải là một nách hai bạn nhỏ tuổi.

Thì ra bay đêm là phải như Bay đêm.

[Haiiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Năm mười bảy tuổi, lần đầu tiên tôi đọc bản dịch Hoàng tử bé của dịch giả Vĩnh Lạc bằng niềm say mê khôn tả của một cô bé hầu như chưa nghĩ suy sâu xa gì về cuộc đời. Suối ngôn từ của Saint-Exupéry khi đó giống như một thế giới lấp lánh kì ảo bên ngoài, còn cô bé tôi chẳng khác nào nàng tiên cá vừa ngây thơ hiếu kỳ vừa khấp khởi mong chờ được khám phá.
Sáu năm sau, với cùng năng lực điều khiển những con chữ đó, Saint-Exupéry mang đến cho tôi cả bầu trời trong Bay đêm.
Bản dịch của dịch giả Châu Diên từ năm 1986 vẫn được Nhã Nam giữ lại cho lần in mới này. Trong đó, ông đưa ra những thắc mắc có lẽ cũng là thắc mắc chung của nhiều người đọc: "Saint-Ex trước hết là nhà văn hay người lái máy bay? Một nhà thơ hay một nhà đạo đức học? Một người mơ mộng hay một người hành động? Một nghệ sĩ hay một nhà phát minh? Hay là một anh hùng trong chiến trận?" Tôi e rằng người ta không thể trả lời cho sắc gọn chùm câu hỏi đó khi đọc cuốn sách này.
Máy bay quả là một phát kiến vĩ đại và thần kì của nhân loại, minh chứng cho sức sáng tạo vô biên của con người. Tôi vẫn nhớ niềm phấn khích hơi trẻ con của mình khi lần đầu tiên được ngồi trên nó băng qua những tầng mây, thấy thế giới quen thuộc bên dưới càng lúc càng nhỏ lại đến khó tin, và nhận ra bầu trời bỗng chốc tím biếc thay vì màu xanh pastel mát mắt quen thuộc. Giống như mình được trực tiếp quan sát một thế giới khác vậy.
Nhưng với Bay đêm, Saint-Exupéry còn làm nhiều hơn thế với những con chữ của mình. Ông khiến người đọc như được sống trong thế giới đó: lơ lửng giữa dải ngân hà, tắm mình trong đám bụi khí, "răng cắn ngập vào các vì sao"... Cơn bão dù dữ dằn cũng không thiếu đi sự mềm mại. Và làng mạc sóng nước với bao cảnh tượng thiên nhiên hùng vĩ cũng bay bổng vô cùng.
Rất khó để miêu tả hết được sức hiệu triệu tâm hồn tiềm ẩn trong trang sách của Saint-Exupéry, thay vào đó có lẽ tôi chỉ có thể kí họa được phần nào bằng những ví dụ thật đơn giản tầm thường: Khi càng trưởng thành và ngày càng trải qua nhiều hơn những khoảnh khắc đơn độc, ta càng có xu hướng lẩn tránh chúng. Thế rồi đọc Saint-Exupéry, ta nhận ra rằng ngay cả nỗi cô đơn cũng có thể trở nên thật đẹp; một tiểu tinh cầu bàng bạc trong vũ trụ bao la thật lí tưởng để ta âm thầm chiếm làm của riêng chôn giấu những khóc cười sâu trong tâm khảm; và bầu trời đêm mỹ lệ thì thật đáng để ta thưởng thức mình ta, dù cho chuyến bay đêm ấy có thể ẩn chứa vô vàn phong ba bão táp. Thế đó, ta sẽ đắm chìm cùng dòng chảy suy tư của Saint-Exupéry như thế đó!
Tôi chẳng chút nghi ngờ, Bay đêm là một đỉnh cao của việc truyền tải những tự sự chất chứa bằng lối viết quá đỗi nên thơ. Dù rất ít cao trào, nó vẫn cuốn tôi vào cũng giống như cái cách Hemingway cùng Hội hè miên man từng làm, cách thức vẫn vậy mà chẳng hề cảm thấy khó chịu hay chán ngán.
Rốt cuộc thì ta vẫn đành nghiêng mình mủi lòng trước cái đẹp phải không?
Và rốt cuộc thì ta vẫn chẳng thể tìm ra câu trả lời nào hợp lí cho những câu hỏi ban đầu kia, hơn là thừa nhận rằng mọi mệnh đề về Saint-Exupéry ta vừa đặt ra đều ��úng. Phải không?

[Huyen Pham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuốn này làm mình nhớ đến Lặng lẽ Sa Pa trong sách văn hồi lớp 9. Ở Rivière, Fabien, ở những người phi công với bàn tay 'nắm chặt gánh nặng quý giá của những kiếp người' và ở anh thanh niên rồi ông già (trồng bắp cải?) đều mang một tinh thần giống nhau. Đó là dựng xây. Là tiên phong. Và cái gì đấy hơi kiểu liều mạng.

Không chỉ con người mà cảnh vật trong đây cũng làm mình nhớ đến câu chuyện kia. Hồi học phân tích khi nói về cảnh sắc Sa Pa cô giáo cứ nhắc đi nhắc lại cái từ 'bàng bạc' làm mình chỉ cần nghe thấy từ đó là lại tự động liên tưởng đến câu chuyện. Còn với Bay đêm, chắc là từ 'lấp lánh'. Những người lái con tàu thư đi khắp châu Âu chỉ bám víu duy nhất vào ánh đèn hắt ra từ những ngôi nhà nhỏ bé phía dưới, và Fabien xuất hiện trong những cảnh cuối cùng cũng là ở tư thế tiến vào biển sao mênh mông sáng lòa.

[LaCitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi è piaciuto tantissimo. Intenso, poetico, con delle descrizioni dell'uragano, della notte, delle montagne innevate spazzate dai venti vividissime. Se da una parte c'è una natura selvaggia e inclemente per quanto bellissima, dall'altra ci sono gli uomini e le donne che la vivono e la subiscono, condannati a soccombere o a sopravviverle, tutti soli, presi nei propri piccoli e grandi drammi. E nonostante tutto, la vita va avanti, implacabile. 5*

[Anh · Rating 4 out of 5]

một cuốn sách cần đọc chậm thật chậm, chậm để thấy được cái lộng lẫy, mà phàm cái gì càng lộng lẫy, càng mang nhiều khắc khoải...