mundane little fragments of Xinjiang, 3.5 stars for the stories per se, 0.5 added for her vivid use of language, 1 added for the appeal to my own homesickness.
O I miss the heat and the dryness in the air when summer comes. ಥ_ಥ
Best book in Chinese read in 2017. Simple, beautiful, straightforward description of writer's life in Altay with her mom, sister, grandma. I loved the wonderful writing a lot, goldfish in contrast with coarse reality, every new place they moved to, the wild nature, etc.
Not many Han Chinese live among the nomadic Kazakh communities in the Altay prefecture in northern Xinjiang, and certainly less have written about what it’s like to live there. This book is a hidden gem!
On one hand, there are beautiful mountain ranges topped with snow, herds of sheep, tents that come and go migrating with the herds, kids who ride horses freely on the green grassland near rivers. That image, which I’ve seen bits of when I visited Altay’s touristy areas many years ago, is so so beautiful that you just wish you’re one of them. What a beautiful, freeing, and minimalistic life! On the other hand, there’re the brutally cold winters, dangerously dry and sandy deserts, and lack of progress and education. The nomadic people in Altay live a lifestyle that to many of us seems isolating and lonely, but they’re so happy. They have so little but are always content. That’s fascinating to me.
Li Juan is not a Kazakh, so she’s telling stories from an outsider’s angle. You can tell she had lots of love for Altay and lots of respect and affection for the people who lived in it. The writing is clean and stories are warm and nostalgic. Perfect for bedtime! Reading a few chapters before sleep was so smoothing…
Slowly, words flow across the pages, recording the seemingly mundane life in Altay, (northern) Xinjiang, China as if in a casual diary. Yet, not a single character in the book is ordinary. The author perceives the grandeur and vastness of life more swiftly and keenly than we do, extolling the eternal changes and constants of all things. Just as within the might and fervour of nature, the harsh climate and heavy living conditions filter out the soft, leaving only the resilient. As the author Li Juan writes, “不知是什么样的畏惧和约束牵扯着某种奇妙的平衡。在这里,人不是主宰,只是其中很小的一部分。” - "I do not know what kind of fear and restraint pulls at a marvellous balance. Here, humans are not the masters, but just a small part of it."
还没有读过用哈萨克语写作的文学作品,但能确定的是《阿勒泰的角落》对孤独描摹特别棒的原因部分在翻译的失语。李娟为哈萨克族牧民和村民的生活元素找寻到精确的汉语对译,“那个嘛,就是这样的嘛”,李娟用破碎构筑完整,断断续续的转述里李娟把喀甫娜的快乐想办法阐述了出来。 但是这本书迷人的不只是李娟搭建的跨文化桥梁,而是共通性,是人类共同经历千万次的绮丽与孤独,是我们望着天空、不可名状的瞬间惊恐,是我们对宏大的敬畏,对不可知的无可奈何,与不可变的混沌共处。这是什么,不知道啊。像是Delphine de Vigan在Livres et Vous的访谈里提到的:"A un moment donné, on se dit: à quoi bon? Et un des élans, un des ressorts principaux pour moi, c’est cette volonté de nommer les choses, de les éclairer, de m’en approcher, de les élucider, de trouver le mot juste." 文字世界的吉光片羽,照亮我们共同的严冬酷暑,这是李娟、刘亮程与许多优秀作家的天赋与努力的馈赠。
1,5/5 J'aurai aimé vous dire que ma probable dernière lecture de 2021 restera inoubliable mais... non. Il y a de très jolis passages, poétiques et contemplatifs, des tranches de vie aussi belles que pures mais le récit est trop morcelé à mon goût et ne va pas suffisamment en profondeur pour émouvoir.