Supremas visiones de Oriente, hasta 1921

by Pierre Loti, Vicente Díez de Tejada (Translator)

«…Desde que me veo sentado entre los ingenuos soñadores, ante un cafetín humilde que mira al mar, siento poco a poco descender sobre mí la inefable paz de las tardes de Asia. Y no son solamente mis ojos los que gozan y descansan, no; el reposo es sobre todo para mi alma oriental, desterrada casi siempre, que aquí vuelve a encontrarse en su patria». Pierre Loti, con su arte descriptivo y evocador, nos restituye el ambiente, los parajes y la humanidad cautivadores de un Estambul y una Turquía anteriores a su modernización.

Este es el último libro de Pierre Loti aparecido en vida del autor, en 1921, e incluye páginas de su Diario íntimo y artículos de prensa que se añaden al manuscrito del libro, iniciado en 1913 y abandonado en 1914 a causa de la guerra europea. Las «supremas visiones» a las que alude el título son las que proporcionaron al autor sus dos últimas estancias en Constantinopla, respectivamente de diez semanas en otoño de 1910 y de cinco semanas en 1913. En estas ocasiones, Loti no viaja a Turquía para descubrir cosas nuevas, sino tan sólo para «volver a ver» aquello que ha descubierto y amado en sus viajes anteriores. Significativamente, Loti deplora el paso del tiempo, la degradación de las viejas piedras y las viejas costumbres; en suma, la modernización de una ciudad y un país cuyo estado anterior nos describe magistralmente, con aquella implicación personal y aquella nostalgia del pasado tan típicas del autor. La segunda parte del libro es una muestra de la profunda estima y del compromiso personal que Loti sentía por Turquía, que toman aquí una dimensión claramente política. Consiste en una serie de artículos de prensa en defensa de Turquía y de un reportaje de corresponsal de guerra, además de unas páginas dedicadas a la mezquita de Selim. Estamos, pues, ante una obra de la madurez de Loti, representativa de los temas y obsesiones que centraron su tarea de escritor y descriptiva de una ciudad —Estambul— y un país —Turquía— que tuvieron una gran importancia en la vida y la obra de este célebre escritor y viajero.

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Louis Marie-Julien Viaud was a writer, who used the pseudonym Pierre Loti.

Viaud was born in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France, to an old Protestant family. His education began in Rochefort, but at the age of seventeen, being destined for the navy, he entered the naval school in Brest and studied on Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906. In January 1910 he went on the reserve list.

His pseudonym has been said to be due to his extreme shyness and reserve in early life, which made his comrades call him after "le Loti", an Indian flower which loves to blush unseen. Other explanations have been put forth by scholars. It is also said that he got the name in Tahiti where he got a sun burn and was called Roti (because he was all red like a local flower), he couldn't pronounce the r well so he stuck with Loti. He was in the habit of claiming that he never read books (when he was received at the Académie française, he said, "Loti ne sait pas lire" ("Loti doesn't know how to read"), but testimony from friends and acquaintances proves otherwise, as does his library, much of which is preserved in his house in Rochefort. In 1876 fellow naval officers persuaded him to turn into a novel passages in his diary dealing with some curious experiences at Istanbul. The result was Aziyadé, a novel which, like so many of Loti's, is part romance, part autobiography, like the work of his admirer, Marcel Proust, after him. (There is a popular cafe in current-day Istanbul dedicated to the time Loti spent in Turkey.) He proceeded to the South Seas as part of his naval training, and several years after leaving Tahiti published the Polynesian idyll originally named Rarahu (1880), which was reprinted as Le Mariage de Loti, the first book to introduce him to the wider public. This was followed by Le Roman d'un spahi (1881), a record of the melancholy adventures of a soldier in Senegambia.

Loti on the day of his reception at the Académie française on 7 April, 1892. In 1882, Loti issued a collection of four shorter pieces, three stories and a travel piece, under the general title of Fleurs d'ennui (Flowers of Boredom).

In 1883 he entered the wider public spotlight. First, he publish the critically acclaimed Mon frere Yves (My Brother Yves), a novel describing the life of a French naval officer (Pierre Loti), and a Breton sailor (Yves Kermadec), described by Edmund Gosse as "one of his most characteristic productions".[1] Second, while taking part as a naval officer in the undeclared hostilities that preceded the outbreak of the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885), Loti wrote an article in the newspaper Le Figaro about atrocities that occurred during the French bombardment of the Thuan An forts that guarded the approaches to Hue (August 1883), and was threatened with suspension from the service, thus gaining wider public notoriety.

In 1886 he published a novel of life among the Breton fisherfolk, called Pêcheur d'Islande (Iceland Fisherman), which Edmund Gosse characterized as "the most popular and finest of all his writings."[1] It shows Loti adapting some of the Impressionist techniques of contemporary painters, especially Monet, to prose, and is a classic of French literature. In 1887 he brought out a volume "of extraordinary merit, which has not received the attention it deserves",[1] Propos d'exil, a series of short studies of exotic places, in his characteristic semi-autobiographic style. The novel of Japanese manners, Madame Chrysanthème— a precursor to Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon and a work that is a combination of narrative and travelog— was published the same year.

During 1890 he published Au Maroc, the record of a journey to Fez in company with a French embassy, and Le Roman d'un enfant (The Story of a Child), a somewhat fictionalized recollection of Loti's childhood that would greatly influence Marcel Proust. A collection

Reviews

[Alphan Lodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pierre Loti ya da asıl adıyla Julien Viaud 14 Ocak 1850 Fransa doğumlu. Türk topraklarına ilk gelişi, 1870 yılında deniz subayı olarak İzmir limanına olmuştur. Sonra farklı farklı dönemlerde kısa, uzun aralıklarla İstanbul’da bulundu. Türklerle kurduğu derin gönül bağı pek çok eserine esin kaynağı olmuştur. Balkan savaşlarından sonra ateşli yazıları ile Türk topraklarına göz koyan Avrupa ülkelerini eleştirmiş, Anadolu direnişine siyasi destek vermiş ve bu çabaları İstiklal Savaşı boyunca devam etmiştir. Loti, Haziran 1923 yılında Cumhuriyetin ilanını göremeden ölür. “Doğu Düşleri Sona Ererken” Loti’nin 1910 ve 1913 yıllarında yaptığı iki ayrı İstanbul seyahatinde kaleme aldığı günlüklerden derlenmiş. Loti, 100 yıl öncesinin İstanbul’unu mükemmel bir gözlem yeteneği ile aktarırken eskiyi anıp hayıflanıyor. Galata, Boğaz hattı, Beykoz, Suriçi, Ramazan ayına ilişkin detaylar, Sema töreni anlatımları bu kadim şehrin Cumhuriyet öncesi son yıllarına ışık tutuyor. Okuyucuyu da kendisi ile beraber eski İstanbul mahallelerinde gezintiye çıkarıyor. Okurken merak ettim; İstanbul’un şimdiki halini görse neler yazardı ? Yazmaya değer bir şey bulabilir miydi acaba ?

[Manal Mamdouh Youssef · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'auteur est fasciné par l'esprit oriental de la Turquie : l'architecture, les paysages, le mode de vie (surtout les vêtements et le narguilé, ou la chicha), mais son regard reste superficiel par rapport à l'histoire. Par exemple, il adopte la tendance déformante historique concernant Abdülhamid II.