Podróże z Herodotem

by Ryszard Kapuściński

When recent college graduate Ryszard Kapuscinski told his Polish editor that he'd like to work abroad, he had his eyes set on nothing more ambitious than a Prague sabbatical. Instead, his boss dispatched him to India. Thus began the eventful career of a foreign correspondent who was frequently mentioned as a favorite to win the Nobel Prize. Kapuscinski died before he could receive that accolade, but he did gift us with numerous incomparable books, including The Emperor, Imperium, and Shah of Shahs. This book serves as a gentle reprise of his first encounters with the non-Western world. Accompanying him on his travels is a volume of Herodotus, perhaps the first wise commentator on the globalism that still rocks our world.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Polish Literature, Journalism, Africa

210 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2004

About the author

Ryszard Kapuściński debuted as a poet in Dziś i jutro at the age of 17 and has been a journalist, writer, and publicist. In 1964 he was appointed to the Polish Press Agency and began traveling around the developing world and reporting on wars, coups and revolutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe; he lived through twenty-seven revolutions and coups, was jailed forty times, and survived four death sentences. During some of this time he also worked for the Polish Secret Service, although little is known of his role.

See also Ryszard Kapuściński Prize

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

(The review in the Economist which recommended this book to me is here, and their obituary of Kapuściński is also available, here.)

I’ve recently been categorizing my reading material into “fast” and “slow”, but after reading Kapuściński’s Travels with Herodotus I think I need to rethink the “slow” category.

Fast books are those that pull you along without any effort — page-turners. Slow books are those that take more time. When I glance at the stack of books waiting their turn on my bedside table, sometimes that seems to be a bad thing but it really isn’t. I like it when a book forces me to pause, stare into the middle distance, and ponder. If I’m reading fiction, that’s one of the ways I define the difference between “literature” and just-plain-fiction. (Although not a completely reliable one: good science fiction probably makes me ponder at least as often, and good fantasy sometimes, too.)

But Travels with Herodotus revealed a problem with this. Its slowness is hidden. It would be fairly easy to read this book as one might read an article in some airline’s in-flight magazine. On the face of it, this is a memoir of a famous reporter who witnessed some very dramatic events in what we often think of as “troubled” areas of the world. His previous books have taken us behind the scenes of the kind of big “news” events we might see in the evening news, and he is justly famous for showing the human side of those events.

Of course, there is the curious inclusion of Herodotus, but it would be easy to see this just as a gimmick, an unusual device. He tells us that Herodotus was the first witness to globalization. And that he was not really what we consider a historian today, but more of a chronicler, or even a reporter. So perhaps a clever but ultimately superficial connection?

But Kapuściński is writing a book that also works at a deeper level. He doesn’t require the reader to read at that level, though, and it is conceivable that he isn’t even aware of it. However, he coyly makes the point on page 219:

... one must read Herodotus’s book — and every great book — repeatedly; with each reading it will reveal another layer, previously overlooked themes, images, and meanings. For within every great book there are several others.

Kapuściński undoubtedly suspected this would be his last book, and it seems likely he wanted this to be a “great” book (literally his magnum opus). In this context, Herodotus has a further role to play: to show how little has changed for the individual when great events crash in like a breaking wave — or seep in like a rising flood.

When looking for the subtext here, one can never be certain it is there at all. It isn’t as though there’s a great white whale that is symbolic of something. When Kapuściński is telling us a story about Herodotus, sometimes if you pause and consider what Kapuściński was living through at the time, parallels creep in. Or the link might be to the place, not the time.

Just one example: near the end of the book Kapuściński is in Algiers discussing the clash between east and west, between Islam and Christianity, between the tolerant Islam of the merchants and traders and the xenophobic faith of the shepherds and nomads of the desert. Then in the next chapter, on page 232, he tells us he is now in the Eastern Mediterranean and conveys Herodotus’s record of the despair of a warrior, about to die in a superfluous battle between east and west, and knowing how useless his death will be: There’s no more terrible pain a man can endure than to see clearly and be able to do nothing. As I’m reading this, the region is yet again in the headlines, with blood being shed in the chronic conflict. [Sadly, reviewing this a decade later, it is tragic that those headlines appear to be perennial.] Perhaps it is just a coincidence that this anecdote is told while the author is in this area, but I’m fairly sure the author deserves a lot more credit than that.

But there isn’t always a connection — sometimes the bigger picture is the point. Herodotus was exploring a world that no one had yet documented. And Kapuściński’s first explorations are equally naive — his first visits to India and China have an almost Kafka-esque surrealness in his lack of any knowledge of his surroundings.


What Travels with Herodotus reminded me of, oddly, was Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. Both books can be read at a superficial level, as mere stories of what happened as recorded on the page. But to a modern reader, these books read in this way will be slow, dull things. Pedestrian, quotidian, and disappointing.

Which gets back to the distinction among slow books. Some are slow but still do the work for you, still draw you back into a plot that is inexorably moving forward. War and Peace, for example, or Jude the Obscure.

But Kapuściński’s memoir, like Proust’s, isn’t so yielding of its secrets. There are two old men here, neither of which was interested in the ephemeral, and whose stories told in conjunction have a depth, like layers of shellac, that goes beyond the shiny surface of the written text. You’ll have to decide on your own when to pause and reflect, when to recall what you know of history, of geography, of the cultures that might illuminate or be illuminated by the story. If you simply turn the page without asking, you’ll only get the passive story.

This is not a book for the impatient reader.
­

[William2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part exegesis of The Histories and part memoir of the author's own experiences as he traveled to the places Herodotus visited and wrote about. Kapuściński always carried a copy of Herodotus with him and it's interesting to get his views of Egypt or Lybia or Persia or Scythia more than 2,400 years after those of the 'Father of history.'

[Quân Khuê · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chỉ có đọc lại mới đáng kể - một nhà nào đó đã nói về việc đọc sách, chính xác lại là "đọc lại sách", như thế.

Một nhà nào đó khác đã nói, nếu một cuốn sách không xứng đáng để đọc lại, thì mắc mới gì phải cầm nó lên và đọc lần đầu tiên.

Tôi, một mặt "quán triệt" những lời thông thái trên; mặt khác do tính ham của lạ nên hay đọc tứ tung, tuy vậy hằng năm đều dành thời gian để đọc lại một số cuốn mà tôi thấy đáng để đọc lại. Hiện, tôi đang đọc lại cuốn Du hành cùng Herodotus của nhà báo Ba Lan Ryszard Kapuściński, qua bản dịch từ tiếng Ba Lan của Nguyễn Thái Linh.

Hồi đọc lần đầu năm 2009, tôi có nói đâu đó rằng nếu bạn chỉ đọc một cuốn du ký duy nhất thì nên đọc cuốn này. Giờ đọc lại, tôi thấy gọi cuốn này là du ký e có phần lầm lạc. Tôi không có vấn đề với thể loại du ký, nhưng có vẻ những cuốn xuất sắc nhất trong thể loại này đều đứng trên, vượt ra ngoài thể loại. Ngoài ra, du ký nhất là ở Việt Nam gần đây hầu như ai cũng viết được. Đi một tí, ngó nghiêng một tí, wiki một tí, thêm vài chuyện nhăng nhít ngồ ngộ, là lạ thế đã thành sách du ký rồi. Vì vậy, tôi không muốn gọi Du hành cùng Herodotus là du ký nữa.

Vậy nên gọi nó là gì? Tôi thấy nó là một bài review sách khổng lồ, chứa đựng một khối tò mò khổng lồ. Vâng, đúng là trong cuốn sách này, RK sẽ dẫn ta đến Ấn Độ, Trung Hoa, Ai Cập, Congo và rất nhiều địa danh khác .v.v.. Nhưng phần quan trọng nhất của cuốn sách là những trang review cuốn Sử ký của Herodotus, giúp ta gián tiếp đọc cuốn sách ắt là kỳ thú này.

Cách làm của RK là nhẩn nha lật một trang Sử ký, chép lại cho chúng ta vài đoạn, và rồi đặt ra vô số câu hỏi, hệt như một cậu bé có óc tò mò vô hạn. Chẳng hạn như, RK thuật lại chuyện Herodotus kể về người Babylon chống lại người Ba Tư, để làm việc đó, người Babylon đồng ý với nhau là bóp ngạt các thành viên nữ trong gia đình, trừ mẹ và một người mà họ phải chọn, để tiết kiệm thực phẩm trong công cuộc chống người Ba Tư. Họ bàn bạc với nhau như thế nào? có ai bất đồng không? có ai phát điên không? làm thế nào họ chọn bóp ngạt vợ hay con gái, bà hay em gái? rồi họ xử lý xác như thế nào, những vài chục ngàn xác người cùng một lúc? bóp ngạt xong rồi, họ cảm thấy như thế nào? RK sẽ đặt ra những câu hỏi như thế, xuyên suốt cuốn sách. Du hành cùng Herodotus do đó là tập hợp của cả hàng trăm câu hỏi, những câu hỏi nối tiếp nhau không có câu trả lời?

Tôi nhặt được rất nhiều thứ trong lần đọc lại này. Có quá nhiều thứ hay ho, quá nhiều thứ gợi suy nghĩ. Tôi thậm chí nghĩ nếu các tổng thống Mỹ đã đọc cuốn này thì họ sẽ không làm tan hoang Iraq hay Syrie, bởi giá trị của một nhà độc tài mà cuốn sách có nhắc tới, trong khi trích dẫn Herodotus.

Sách in năm 2009, không biết ngoài tiệm có còn không. Nếu ai chưa có nên tìm mà đọc; nếu có mà chưa đọc thì đọc đi, không phải hối tiếc đâu.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

You do not have to read Herodotus before this book. I repeat: you do not have to read Herodotus before this book. But as Kapuscinski isn't that well known outside his native country, and few Anglophones feel they ought to read this, not one of his most famous works, such advice may be of more use to those with Polish heritage. But if I'd known it, I wouldn't have put off reading Tales from Herodotus for so many years. Previously, it was hypothetically scheduled for after I finished Herodotus, who was overlooked student reading - I only got through a couple of chapters of the de Sélincourt translation at uni, though Classicist friends thought him great fun.

This book is an episodic memoir of Kapuscinski's stints as a foreign correspondent for Polish news during the Cold War years - more serious than the flippant travelogue format than today almost defines the genre in English, thanks to the likes of Bill Bryson and Michael Palin, and more generous and outwardly reflective than Paul Theroux (in my limited reading of him). Kapuscinski's accounts of being in another country, from China to the Congo, are interwoven with his notes on reading the cherished volume of Herodotus he carried with him, and extensive quotes from the old Greek.

Fans of Le Carré and similar Cold War stories may be interested in the reporter's interactions with local politics.

There are observations from periods of various countries' history most Anglophones rarely hear about; and there are longer-lasting trends. Both Kapuscinski, travelling during the reign of Haile Selassie (ended 1974) and Herman Pontzer in Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism (2021) - a book I finished just before this one - mention that "no problem" is the favourite English phrase of locals they worked with in East Africa.

But for me there were two themes which stood out throughout the book.

I have never seen a more vivid evocation of that old term "the second world", the lost, unmentioned one between the first and third worlds, which, until some point in the 90s or 00s, denoted the Soviet and then the former-Soviet bloc. (It also unwittingly parallels how the relative poverty of some European countries has become almost invisible in global political discourse now much of the world is online, as there is not the gulf that exists between the richest and poorest countries in the world.) In India and other countries with very visible poverty, Kapuscinski feels an affinity with impoverished locals and servants, because of his wartime experiences of being starving and barefoot (so a genuine lived similar experience, not merely empathy through imagination) and via his Communist sense of international solidarity. But these same locals see a white man in a suit (albeit an old, basic, utilitarian suit, we understand from the author elsewhere). These former-colonial citizens, their memories of European imperialists still fresh, treat him like a British sahib, and so Kapuscinski, initially awkward and bewildered, benefits from that privilege now known as whiteness.

I was struck most of all by certain questions he dared ask about Herodotus' stories, especially about the brutality. How did they go about it, killing so many people in a particular cruel, drawn-out manner? How did someone survive a hideous ordeal and go on to achieve what they did? Vividly imagining this sort of thing - if you're someone like me prone to feeling somatic echoes of what they hear & read about - provoking this level of empathic pain and wincing and and cortisol spiking (or whatever the feeling actually is) is what the traditional historian's detachment saves us from thinking about, when we read brief mentions of executions and torture day in day out. That detachment was still in vogue when I was a student, ... nearly a quarter of a century ago, now, gosh, but these days there are studies on pain, torture and all the rest of it. I, for one, still need and support that sort of detachment in reading, writing and studying history; if you don't have it, it can exclude quite a lot of readers and scholars with the horror. (Or are coping styles changing over time? Perhaps Horrible Histories has desensitised most younger people.) But I greatly admire Kapuscinski for having lived through what he did and *also* having the emotional openness *and* resilience to dwell on such ideas. A rare combination indeed, especially for someone of the WWII generation.

Herodotus is quoted frequently and at length, so you never have to wonder what passage Kapuscinski is referring to. There is so much quoting of Herodotus, I wouldn't be surprised if it added up to a Penguin Little Black Classic's worth. The book could even be an idiosyncratic alternative to Herodotus: A Very Short Introduction - though in all seriousness, that would be better commented on by someone who's read all three books. But I do feel like I've had one, and (if for some reason you wanted such a thing, would recommend it as a way of reading Herodotus lite, or acclimatising for the full volume.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1955 Ryszard Kapuściński (1932 – 2007) was working as a foreign correspondent for a paper in Warsaw. Telling his boss that he wished to be given a reporting assignment abroad, she acceded, sending him to India. As a farewell gift, she gave him The Histories by Herodotus.

The book became the reporter’s constant companion, not only to India, but also to Moscow, China and on subsequent travels to Africa. Kapuściński became Poland’s sole correspondent in Africa. He saw Herodotus’ book as a guide to how reporting is best done. He reported from the Congo when it got independence from Belgium, from Algiers during the 1965 coupe de état, from Senegal, Tanzania and other places. He views all that he sees and experiences through the perspective and knowledge he draws from Herodotus’ opus.

Herodotus (ca 485 – 420 BCE), was a Greek born in Halicarnassus, which is today Bodrum, Turkey. He is spoken of as the “Father of History”. He was the first to see the value of recording past events. He understood the value of preserving them for future generations. He travelled, talked to a wide range of people and recorded what they said. He listened and he observed and he wrote. He is famed for having objectively recounted the origins and details of the Greco-Persian Wars, 499 – 479 BCE. This and more is presented in his famed opus, The Histories. It is more correct to refer to these “histories” as “inquiries”, this being a better translation of the original Greek.

In Travels with Herodotus, Kapuściński’s book, the author relates Herodotus’ stories. He quotes from them. He explains what he has learned from them. He expresses his opinions of them. He reflects on how these teachings can be utilized in his own reporting.

I particularly like Kapuściński‘s ability to convey the culture shock experienced when an individual moves from one society and way of life to another. He adeptly puts readers in another person’s place. He enables us to observe the world from different perspectives. Culture shock was what the author felt on his first mission, when he stepped beyond the Iron Curtain, leaving behind the repressive atmosphere and fear prevalent in Communist Poland. In the mid-fifties, Stalin had recently died. Kapuściński was not merely a journalist and an author, he is viewed as a poet. He was a candidate in 2006 for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

There are aspects of Kapuściński ‘s book which give me trouble. The names of places and people, many of which are Greek or Persian, were hard for me to keep track of and remember. This is more difficult if one listens rather than reads. Lengthy portions detailing the Greco-Persian Wars were a challenge. On the flip side, tackling a subject of which one is unfamiliar, is always difficult. Despite this difficulty, I learned a lot.

It may not be difficult to remember that Asia Minor is approximately Turkey, that Persia is approximately Iran and that the ruins of the city of Babylon are located in present-day Iraq, but such information should more often have been included in the text. And tell me—do you know where the Phoenicians, the Ionians, the Scythians lived? Again, such information is all too often lacking.

A reportage focused on battles is not my preferred cup of tea. Herodotus’ recounting is different. Rather than strategical military maneuvering, warring opponents often used trickery and subterfuge. The conflicts are in this way put on a personal, human level. Greed, jealousy, passion, rage and revenge are often the instigators, the causes of the conflicts that arise. These are emotions we all understand and are easy to relate to. One feels empathy. One instinctively reacts with horror at the indifference displayed toward mass killings and the mutilation of bodies. Hit in the gut, you are slow to forget the events spoken of.

The connection between the events Kapuściński reports upon, and Herodotus’ stories is often weak. The places, the events and the reasons underlying the conflicts are different. Drawing a connection between the two is stretching it! The switch between the events of antiquity and those of the 20th century does not flow smoothly. Yet if we look at the flip side, the conclusions that both he and Herodotus draw are similar.... and I think correct.

Statements made by human beings are always subjective. There exists no one correct version of what has happened, and so a multitude of views should and must always be recorded. Why? For future generations. Only through the voices expressed by many can we come close to the truth. Furthermore, it is in learning about the world around us that we learn about ourselves.

Nicolas Coster narrates the audiobook. When the topic changes there should be a pause. All too often there isn’t. He dramatizes. He attempts to create suspense and tension by reading faster and faster. It is in the written text the suspense must lie. At times it is difficult to identify the lines quoted from The Histories. I was able to hear the words clearly so am willing to give the narration two stars, but no more than that. Did I like the narration? No, so I cannot give it three stars! As always, I rate the written text of the book separately from the audio performance. The audio version should have provided PDF files with maps.

********************
*The Histories by Herodotus TBR
*Herodotus: The Father of History TBR
*The Life of Greece by Will Durant 5 stars
*Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński 3 stars
*The Story of Mankind (1921), by Hendrik Willem Van Loon (Illustrated): World History 3 stars
*24 Hours in Ancient Athens: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There by Philip Matyszak 3 stars

[Alireza · Rating 2 out of 5]

فکر نکنم با کاپوشینسکی خصومت شخصی داشته باشم ولی نمیدونم چرا کتاب‌هاش برای من اینطوری میشه!
کاپوشینسکی قلم بسیار قوی داره و خیلی خوب روایت میکنه ولی همونجوری که در کتاب شاهنشاه نوشته بودم، بیشتر دوست داره جذاب روایت کنه تا جایی که خیلی وقتا حقایق و وقایع تاریخی در اولویت دوم قرار میگیرند. بعد از اینکه از علاقه وافرش با هرودوت باخبر شدم، تازه متوجه شدم که این اخلاق از کجا نشات میگیره. کاپوشینسکی هم مثل هرودوت از تاریخ میگه، از وقایع میگه، ولی بر اساس شنیده‌هاش از مردم عادی این روایت‌ها رو نقل میکنه، براش هم اهمیتی نداره چقدر واقعیه یا بخواد اعتبارسنجی کنه، وقتی یه اتفاقی جذابه، دیگه مهم نیست چقدر واقعیه و چقدر شاخدار!
دو سه بخش اول کتاب خیلی عالی شروع میشه و در مورد اولین سفرهای خودش میگه، ترس‌هاش، زبان بلد نبودن، فرهنگ هندی و چینی که باهاش روبه‌رو شده و اینا من رو خیلی امیدوار کرد ولی شروع میکنه به نقل از کتاب تواریخ هرودوت و بخش‌های زیادی رو سعی میکنه به زندگی حالش ربط بده که به نظر من اصلا خوب در نیومده. دایم تکرار مکررات که هرودوت کی بوده و چی بوده و کلی سوال بی‌جواب که هی نویسنده توی متن میاره. کتاب از یه جاهایی میشه فقط تعریف از هرودوت و ذکر داستان‌های اون که خب اگر کسی علاقه‌مند باشه میره همون کتاب هرودوت رو میخونه.
در کل دوست داشتم با توجه به عنوان کتاب، نویسنده به جاهایی که هرودوت سفر کرده بره و یه جورایی گذشته و آینده رو با هم ترکیب کنه و یه کار جذاب دربیاره ولی بیشتر یه عرض ارادت و تشکری بود از جناب هرودوت که یه جورایی معلم آقای کاپوشینسکی بوده.

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stumbled across this one at my favorite online used bookseller a couple of months ago. The idea of a young man in Poland of the 1950's becoming a foreign correspondent appealed to me: what would he think about everything he saw? From such a sheltered society to the wide world, imagine that. And then to have the responsibility of making sense of whatever activities he witnessed, sending reports back to Poland so other people could have a glimpse of life beyond the border. What an exciting and yet intimidating idea!

We meet our author while he is at university in 1951. After graduation he became what you might call a cub reporter at a newspaper. One day when his editor asked him about his plans for the future he spoke first about little work projects, then happened to say that someday he hoped to go abroad. And a year later she sent him to India, with a bon voyage present of a copy of The Histories of Herodotus.

This began his relationship with the ancient Greek, and throughout this book we learn how this seemingly simple gift influenced his life, helped to shape this man who became a world citizen. It was fascinating, and made me eager not only to read Herodotus myself, but also more of RK's work. And forget about the budget, I have already placed my order! lol

Of many wonderful passages to quote, my favorite is this one. I think Ryszard recognized a soul brother, because he came across in this book the very way he described Herodotus.

"The man who ceases to be astonished is hollow, possessed of an extinguished heart. If he believes that everything has already happened, that he has seen it all, then something most precious has died within him ~~ the delight in life. Herodotus is the antithesis of this spirit. A vivacious, fascinated, unflagging nomad, full of plans, ideas, theories."

[Jacob Sebæk · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there is an afterlife resort for journalists/historians, I´m sure Kapuściński and Herodotus are sitting there sipping cold drinks now.

Probably they are discussing how the world changed over the past 2500 years, Herodotus envious of all the accumulated knowledge Kapuściński can present to him and a tiny bit flattered that his book made such a lasting impression on Kapuściński.

It was one of the books I read sloooowly, did not want it to end, did not want to say goodbye to one of the great journalists of this century.

Like Herodotus Kapuściński preferred to report what he had seen and heard himself, taking in as many sources as possibly to safeguard the validity of the news he reported.

A trip down memory lane in a long life of journalism and always in the mental company of Herodotus.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Description: From the master of literary reportage whose acclaimed books include Shah of Shahs, The Emperor, and The Shadow of the Sun, an intimate account of his first youthful forays beyond the Iron Curtain.

Just out of university in 1955, Kapuscinski told his editor that he’d like to go abroad. Dreaming no farther than Czechoslovakia, the young reporter found himself sent to India. Wide-eyed and captivated, he would discover in those days his life’s work—to understand and describe the world in its remotest reaches, in all its multiplicity. From the rituals of sunrise at Persepolis to the incongruity of Louis Armstrong performing before a stone-faced crowd in Khartoum, Kapuscinski gives us the non-Western world as he first saw it, through still-virginal Western eyes.

The companion on his travels: a volume of Herodotus, a gift from his first boss. Whether in China, Poland, Iran, or the Congo, it was the “father of history”—and, as Kapuscinski would realize, of globalism—who helped the young correspondent to make sense of events, to find the story where it did not obviously exist. It is this great forerunner’s spirit—both supremely worldly and innately Occidental—that would continue to whet Kapuscinski’s ravenous appetite for discovering the broader world and that has made him our own indispensable companion on any leg of that perpetual journey.

Opening: Before Herodotus sets out on his travels, ascending rocky paths, sailing a ship over the seas, riding on horseback through the wilds of Asia; before he happens upon the mistrustful Scythians, discovers the wonders of Babylon, and plumbs the mysteries of the Nile; before he experiences a hundred different places and sees a thousand inconceivable things, he will appear for a moment in a lecture on ancient Greece, which Professor Bieźuńska-Malowist delivers twice weekly to the first-year students in Warsaw University’s department of history.

The best part of this book is where us readers get a glimpse at the times when Kapuściński is setting out on his fledgling career

Herodotus’s opus appeared in the bookstores in 1955. Two years had passed since Stalin’s death. The atmosphere became more relaxed, people breathed more freely. Ilya Ehrenburg’s novel 'The Thaw' had just appeared, its title lending itself to the new epoch just beginning. Literature seemed to be everything then. People looked to it for the strength to live, for guidance, for revelation.

I overheard a conversation in the adjoining room and recognized Mario’s voice. I would find out later that it was a discussion about how to dress me, seeing as how I had arrived sporting fashions à la Warsaw Pact 1956. I had a suit of Cheviot wool in sharp, gray-blue stripes—a double-breasted jacket with protruding, angular shoulders and overly long, wide trousers with large cuffs. I had a pale-yellow nylon shirt with a green plaid tie. Finally, the shoes—massive loafers with thick, stiff soles.

Here he is, in his yellow shirt!

First stop Delhi, where Kapuściński starts to learn English via a secondhand Hemmingway picked up in a bazaar, then a trip to Benares to catch the sunrise from the steps.



At Sealdah train station, Culcutta, Kapuściński encounters poverty and distress that beggars belief:

They were refugees from a civil war, which ended but a few years earlier, between Hindus and Muslims, a war which saw the birth of independent India and Pakistan and which resulted in hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dead and many millions of refugees.

At this point I mentally digess into the thought that it is everyone's duty on this speck of dust in the universe, to help other star children in every which way one can and leave the law to deal roundly with any criminals.

Hyderabad

It is blatantly clear to this reader now, and to K back then, that he was out of his depth when it came to informative, objective reporting at this early stage:

Later I traveled to Madras and Bangalore, to Bombay and Chandigarh. In time I grew convinced of the depressing hopelessness of what I had undertaken, of the impossibility of knowing and understanding the country in which I found myself. India was so immense. How can one describe something that is—and so it seemed to me—without boundaries or end?

India was my first encounter with otherness, the discovery of a new world. It was at the same time a great lesson in humility. Yes, the world teaches humility. I returned from this journey embarrassed by my own ignorance, at how ill read I was. I realized then what now seems obvious: a culture would not reveal its mysteries to me at a mere wave of my hand; one has to prepare oneself thoroughly and at length for such an encounter.

So K comes home and bones up on English language, Herodotus, and all things culturally Indian, whereupon he is promptly sent to China! The result is the same, he is so overwhelmed at the vastness of the subject. How I would love to go back to that young man as he wrings his hands at his desk back in Poland, and whisper in his ear that not one ounce of travelling and research was wasted, for in a few years all you will draw upon this broadening of the mind to become one of the world's best known travel journalists.

And so our intrepid green-stick flies to Africa: Cairo, Khartoum, smokes a little ganga for the first time, goes to a Satchmo concert, then into the Congo, all the while reading Herodotus, which I now have a burning urge to revisit.

5* The Shadow of the Sun
3* Travels with Herodotus
4* Imperium

[Uroš Đurković · Rating 5 out of 5]

„ (...) ako bi svetom vladao razum, da li bi uopšte postojala istorija?” (80)

Od svega onoga što je Rišard Kapušćinski bio, a bio je mnogo toga, u sećanje mi se urezala jedna dikensovska slika – Kapušćinski, kao devetogodišnjak, prodaje sapunčiće na železničkoj stanici, jer njegova porodica nije imala dovoljno para da mu kupi cipele. I ko bi rekao da će taj dečarac postati ne samo svetski putnik, nego i jedan od najznačajnijih pisaca reportaža i putopisa u istoriji književnosti.

Za Kapušćinskog putovanje je ono što daje sadržaj životu, a odustajanje od puta svodi postojanje na ljušturu. Međutim, putovanje nije isto što i kretanje, već predstavlja proživljeni splet iskustava u prostoru i vremenu, koji može da se ostvari na različite načine, a jedan od najpodsticajnijih je čitanje. Pišući o Herodotovoj „Istoriji” često uzbudljivije nego o događajima iz savremenosti, Kapušćinski je ostvario sjajan ukrštaj. Putujući Indijom, Kinom, Iranom, Egiptom i još mnogim afričkim zemljama, stalno se vraćajući „ocu istorije” kao saputniku/sapatniku, obrazuje posebnu književnu kartografiju*, gde je naročito dragocen odnos između opšteg i individualnog, kao i tema pograničja. Kada vam, nakon godina putovanja, zemaljski šar stane u džep, dođete do spoznaje o temeljnoj protivrečnosti sveta koja u sebi nosi i neku lepotu – sve je, istovremeno i granica i stalnost – ne stalnost u privremenosti ili privremenost u stalnosti, već uporedno postojanje krajnosti.

Takođe, sjajnom je ironijom Kapušćinski pokazao kako je utemeljenje istorije kao nauke neraskidivo sa fikcijom. I iako se o tzv. odnosu fikcije i fakcije mnogo piše, a još više govori, uvek iznova se javlja nešto na šta nije odgovoreno – kako zbog toga što odgovora ne može biti, tako i zbog toga što su nam ponavljanja suđena. Pozicija Kapušćinskog, doduše, nije preterano originalna, ali kako da se svaki književni sladokusac ne obraduje kako, uz sjajno odabrane Herodotove odlomke, opisuje Termopile filmski dinamično, ili, još bolje, niz izmišljotina o naravima i običajima nehelenskog življa pre nove ere – od neobičnosti u svakodnevnom međuljudskom saobraćaju (poput različitih polnih bestidnosti) sve do višestruko uveličanog telesnog sakaćenja. Koren svake priče o nacionalnom ponosu (kao i, istina, koren maltene svega ostalog što danas znamo i što nam je važno) potiče od antičke Grčke. A ako je iko bio medijski magnat, odnosno, višemilenijumski upravnik našeg pamćenja – to je Herodot. I hteli mi to ili ne, sa njim putujemo.

Naravno, da se ne učini nekome da su ovo samo nekakve meditacije nad antičkom mišlju upakovane u autobiografsko-putopisnu formu, treba istaći i da je horizont savremenosti koji opisuje Kapušćinski izvanredno živ. I sjajan je autorov dar da izdvoji pravu, svima dostupnu i efektnu sliku – kad čitate, na primer, o Indiji, vi zaista bivate tamo, u svem bogatstvu, prljavštini i nepreglednosti, i onda vam bude jasno zašto se to iskustvo naziva „velikom lekcijom poniznosti” (43). I nikad nisam bio u Kabulu, a po svemu sudeći i neću biti, ali tačno znam kako je izgledalo ljubičasto nebo i potpuna tišina iznad tog grada, kao što i osećam, na primer, razliku između živosti Šangaja i obavezujućeg duha Pekinga.

Fino piše Kapušćinski, informativno, krajnje pristupačno i dobro vođeno. I tamo gde je, na primer, Zebald sav svilen, sliven, fluidan, igriv i pesnički raspršen, Kapušćinski je dosledno samouvereno, stameno, publicistički, ali ne i bez elegancije, jasan. I bez obzira na to što kod njega nema originalnih misli, ima važnih i velikih ideja i još važnijih tema, što je dušu dalo, na primer, za školsku lektiru. Putovanje poziva na putovanje, a avantura je najbolji pogon za saznanje.

se prevoda tiče, čini se da je većinom sasvim solidan (ako neko zna svoj posao – zna Biserka Rajčić), međutim, sasvim je moguće da je lektor na više mesta bio uspavan.

*„Svaki čovek ima određenu mapu na osnovu koje prepoznaje i interpretira stvari i koju, svesno ili nesvesno, širi preko svake stvarnosti na koju naiđe. Te druge stvarnosti često ne odgovaraju kodu naše mape i tu stvarnost i njene elemente možemo pogrešno dešifrovati i interpretirati.” (117)

[Huy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Những năm 20 tuổi thì Ryszard Kapuscinski cùng với “Du Hành cùng Herodotus” và “Gỗ Mun” là tác giả đã mang lại nhiều cảm hứng cho tôi nhất, không phải cảm hứng về việc lên đường hay xê dịch mà là cảm hứng về một đôi mắt luôn nhiệt tình nhìn ngắm mọi thứ xung quanh, về đôi chân không mỏi mệt khám phá thế giới, về đôi tai luôn hào hứng lắng nghe tất cả và về trái tim luôn say đắm yêu thương con người. Đọc lại “Du Hành cùng Herodotus” vào những năm 30 như gặp lại một người bạn cũ mà đã lâu không gặp, người bạn mà lần này gặp lại dường như ta lại khám phá thêm nhiều điều về người đó, và một lần nữa được người bạn đó đưa đi nhìn ngắm thế giới theo cái cách luôn tôn trọng mọi thứ, trân quý những điều nhỏ nhặt lẫn lớn lao và khiến ta tin rằng thế giới bất an ngoài kia vẫn đầy rẫy những điều thú vị để ta khám phá.

[Χαρά Ζ. · Rating 4 out of 5]

_Travels with Herodotus_

What an amazing journey that was <3. I enjoyed this, i loved this and i hoped it would never end. I wanted more of it.
This book was really interesting. Its structure was beautiful following two stories. One was Herodotus' trek to the lenghts of that era's world and the actual author's journey as a reporter and a war correspondent in this era's world.
Some parts of the book are autobiographical. And so, so vivid. He only gives us small glimpses of the places he visited but he does it in such an expressive way. He was in India at first. I felt, i smelled, i could see India in front of me. I travelled with him. Then he was sent to China. The same feeling, that i was there with him, strolling on the Great Wall.
What i really liked about it is that he is not trying to analyze Herodotus. It's more of a process of externalization of his inner thoughts and feelings about him. Seeking answers about him as a person, as a human being.
And at some points he is presenting to us parts of the Greek Historian's work. When he does that his narrative is flat, like it should be. His main goal is to give us Herodotus and his stories and the author is just there in the corner, possessing elegance and discreteness. He is there just to pass the stories to us. He is not the protagonist, the protagonist is Herodotus.
He knows when to give us much and he knows when to give us less. He is letting the substance of the story to be the story itself and not him or his writing style. He knows when to give us something of his. He is granting us with exactly what we need, when we need it. He has the capacity to move from present to past and vice versa without affecting the flow of his narrative.
I mean, i travelled from the battles of the Persian Empire to the coup in Algeria.
That was just amazing and awesome and i highly recommend :D. I will defintely read more of Mr. Kapuściński in the future for sure :D

[Zahra Saedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کتاب جزو کتاب‌هایی بود که خواندنش خیلی زمان برد اما نه به این دلیل که بد بود و دوستش نداشتم، به این دلیل که بسیار دوستش داشتم، مدام به عقب برمی‌گشتم و بازخوانی می‌کردم.
نویسنده‌ی کتاب ریشارت کاپوشچینسکی‌ در ایران شناخته شده است به‌خصوص به واسطه‌ی سفری که زمان انقلاب به ایران داشته است که اتفاقا در این کتاب هم به این سفر اشاره می‌کند. این کتاب با آشنایی‌اش با تاریخ هرودوت و به دست آوردن نسخه‌ای از کتاب شروع می‌شود و با سفرهای کاپوشچینسکی که تاریخ هرودوت هم همراهش بوده ادامه پیدا می‌کند. از آنجا که ایران در گذشته یکی از ابرقدرت‌های جهان بوده بخش بزرگی از کتاب هرودوت به ایرانیان اختصاص دارد و در این کتاب هم به جنگ‌های ایران و یونان و کوروش و داریوش و خشایارشا بسیار اشاره می‌شود. نحوه‌ی روایت کاپوشچینسکی فوق‌العاده است و با پرهیز از زیاده‌گویی، جزئیاتی را توصیف می‌کند که خود را در سفر کنارش می‌یابی.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erodoto e Kapuscinski: due anime gemelle, accomunati dalla passione per il loro lavoro, il reportage. Divisi da duemilacinquecento anni, uniti dal desiderio di “varcare la frontiera”; il primo viaggiò per tutto il mondo allora conosciuto e scrisse la storia indagando, ascoltando opinioni e raccogliendo le verità che gli uomini che incontrava gli raccontavano, e che egli rappresentava nei suoi scritti ricoprendole del manto del “verosimile”; il secondo un uomo moderno, giornalista, che ha girato il mondo per raccontare i fatti, indagare e riportare i risultati delle sue osservazioni.
In comune hanno avuto la curiosità e la sete di conoscenza, che sono il motore della vita.
“Chi perde la capacità di stupirsi è un uomo interiormente morto”.

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Ryszard Kapuściński's last book, written shortly before he died in 2007.

It is a work of retrospect - he isn't writing about recent events, or his recent thoughts, but writes about his own past and ties it to a book which inspired him - The Histories, by Herodotus.
It is a book written from a position of knowledge, often about the times where he was far from knowledgeable - a young Polish journalist, sent from the recently opened East to India - a place he had no former knowledge of, and similarly to China - where he was no longer welcome due to a political change which occurred the day he arrived - although the Chinese left him to work this out.

He was given a copy of Herodotus' newly translated (into Polish) book as a gift on the eve of his first departure from Poland, and it was a travelling partner for him over the years, and as well as analysis of the book, and drawing inspiration for his reportage, he feels an affinity with the author.

The writing is a combination of his experiences (albeit a short version of most) in India, China and Africa, amongst other places, and his retelling, or examination of The Histories, where he draws comparison and takes lessons from the writing of Herodotus.

As other reviews point out the writing is, at times, a little self indulgent, but some of the anecdotes are wonderfully written, and some of the points are poignant enough to overcome this.
I have only read one excerpt book of Kapuściński's before - The Cobra's Heart - and enjoyed that a lot (5 stars). I will be keeping an eye out for more of his work.
For this book - 4 Stars for me.

[Tanabrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A metà tra biografia, analisi di un testo e digressione storica, in questo libro 'Richard" racconta come sia iniziata la sua carriera di reporter, dal desiderio di andare oltre il confine polacco alle prime, quasi disastrose esperienze (l'India senza sapere niente né di India né d'inglese, e la Cina col mezzo incidente diplomatico-culturale dovuto al cambio di paradigma del governo e alla situazione del suo giornale), alle sue successive esperienze africane.

Il tutto sempre a compagnato dalla sua (ormai logora, immagino) copia delle Storie di Erodoto, un libro ricevuto in dono all'alba del suo primo viaggio e che gli ha fatto compagnia per lungo tempo.

Vediamo quindi l'evoluzione della sua carriera di reporter, gli sconvolgimenti sociopolitici cui assiste, i paralleli che fa con i racconti di Erodoto.
E soprattutto il parallelo tra lui, reporter del ventesimo secolo, e questo prototipo di giornalista vissuto quasi tremila anni prima, che a piedi ha percorso chissà quanto spazio per trovare fonti, interrogare chi sapesse qualcosa, cercare di capire cosa fosse vero e cosa mito.

Mi ha messo voglia di leggermi le Storie, e mi ha un po' intristito che adesso situazioni avventurose come quelle delle sue prime trasferte asiatiche o africane difficilmente si possono riproporre così complicate, con le moderne tecnologie a supporto della professione.

[Emanuela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non avrei avuto il coraggio di affrontare "Le Storie" di Erodoto anche se ne sono sempre stata incuriosita. La mediazione che ne fa Kapuscinski merita perché l'autore le inframmezza alle proprie esperienze di reporter che desidera con tutte le proprie forze varcare i confini e vedere cosa c'è oltre la propria nazione, la Polonia.

Così le guerre persiane raccontate dal greco si alternano ai primi viaggi del polacco in India, Cina, Africa nella seconda metà del secolo scorso caratterizzata, come nell'antichità, dalla contrapposizione tra Oriente ed Occidente.

Le conclusioni vedono l'analisi e l'esaltazione della personalità del viaggiatore antico, Erodoto, che vuole scoprire e capire altri popoli e costumi con l'umiltà di chi racconta la Storia pur sapendo che non corrisponde a fatti realmente accaduti, ma passata da voce in voce, da mito a mito ed egli è solo colui che mette nero su bianco per non permettere che la memoria si estingua.

Kapuscinski accetta e condivide questa visione riconoscendo in Erodoto la modernità di visione della Storia che non parla del "passato" terminato, ma è una successione continua di attimi di presente che si ripropongono come suoi figli.

[Yann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ryszard Kapuściński est un journaliste polonais qui a roulé sa bosse à travers le vaste terrain d'affrontement et de rivalité pour la guerre froide qu'à offert le tiers-monde décolonisé. Dans ce livre, il entremêle des allusions à ses différents voyages avec une présentation de l’œuvre d'Hérodote: l'Enquête, Historie en grec. Je suis un admirateur de l’œuvre d'Hérodote, car elle a été pour moi la clef par laquelle j'ai découvert l'antiquité, l'hellénisme et les belles lettres. Mais si je partage avec l'auteur une même admiration pour cet ouvrage, le sien me laisse bien plus circonspect et dubitatif.

La partie relative à Hérodote est, au mieux, une paraphrase des passages les plus connus et les plus célèbres. Mais les réflexions que cela inspire à Kapuściński sont pour la plupart oiseuses, naïves et parfaitement dispensables: elles n'apportent pour ainsi dire rien. Même reproche à faire aux récits que l'auteur fait de ses propres voyages: tout reste collé à l'anecdotique et au banal. Ici il se fait détrousser par un voleur en Égypte, là il fume un joint avec un Soudanais, puis un Congolais lui demande des cigarettes. Surtout, il ne comprends jamais rien à ce qu'il lui arrive, ne parle pas la langue des autochtones, plaque une compréhension étique des affaires du monde à ce qu'il voit. On s'ennuie ferme, on s'agace. On passe du coq à l'âne d'un tableau à l'autre, avec la désagréable impression que notre journaliste n'a rien vu ni rien compris d'important, et n'a donc rien à nous dire de particulier sinon qu'Hérodote est passionnant, et que le monde est vaste, ce que l'on savait déjà.

[Mr B · Rating 4 out of 5]

2 hành trình song song, 1 của nhà báo trẻ Ryszard, 1 của tay "phượt" - phóng viên - người ghi chép - đầu tiên của thế giới Herodotus.

2 hành trình gắn bó mật thiết với nhau, và quả là Ryszard đã thật sự thay đổi quan niệm của người đọc về tác phẩm phi hư cấu là như thế nào.

Cuốn sách này có quá nhiều trích đoạn hay, và những trích đoạn ấy được "trích đoạn" lại bởi một nhà báo với đôi mắt đủ sáng suốt, mộng mơ và từng trải. Có thể gói gọn ở trong một câu thế này về hành trình của con người:

"Những con thuyền từ đâu mà đến?". Và hãy giữ trí tò mò của một đứa trẻ, bởi chỉ có đứa trẻ mới đặt ra những câu hỏi "cực kỳ quan trọng". Một hành trình tuyệt diệu. Một Herodotus vĩ đại không chỉ của riêng Ryszard, mà giờ còn là của tôi nữa.

[Kobe Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know its called Travels with Herodotus but there was too much Herodotus

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes here on Goodreads I'll read a review that combines an actual review of the book and a personal narrative (where the reviewer might tell you a story of how they came upon the book, or some experience they had a while ago that has parallels to the book they are reviewing). The strategy has its advantages, and it usually at least makes for an entertaining read.

Reading Travels with Herodotus was like reading such a book review about The Histories by Herodotus. But much longer.

Ryszard Kapuscinski alternates between telling his story as an upstart young journalist and re-telling stories from The Histories. Sometimes he even dedicates entire chapters to summarizing wars and other happenings, often directly quoting Herodotus himself for pages on end. Because I have not read Herodotus, I found these chapters interesting. But if I had read him, these chapters would have little meaning. Why not just read the original? I did feel a little guilty when reading this, as if I were reading the cliff notes version of this classic text.

The parts about his own experiences were also a little disappointing in that they often didn't add up to much. They were entertaining, but didn't seem that significant. I understand that he is trying to show us what he learned about journalism through Herodotus, but most of these lessons are so basic and simple (check your sources, try to go behind the story, remain objective, etc.) that it is anti-climactic. Also, he often makes the same points over and over again.

Even worse, I think a lot of what he praises in Herodotus might just be what he wants to see in Herodotus. It's pretty hard to get a clear picture of how someone reported on events thousands of years ago, so I don't blame him for using his imagination in this respect. However, I don't always buy it.

For instance, he spends many chapters talking about how Herodotus would check his sources, or he would explore the questions himself through travel, or that he wouldn't always believe what his sources said. This is based solely on the fact that Herodotus used phrases such as "This is what I heard…" and "[nobody] I have spoken to claimed to have a definite answer…" and "there is no reliable information to be had about it" (p. 104) etc.

But after stressing this point many times, Kapuscinski goes on to talk about a village that according to Herodotus resorted to strangling almost all their own women in order to win a strategic war. Kapuscinski questions this sentence for two or three pages, asking questions like 'this must've been a huge massacre, where did they store the bodies? what did the women think when they found out the men decided to do this? was there a rebellion? were there men who didn't want to carry out with the plan?' (not verbatim, I couldn't find the exact quote). But then he says that all Herodotus recorded was "And then the women were strangled" or something short like that. All those details fall to the side. Why didn't Herodotus tell us more? Why weren't these questions asked in the original Histories? What does it say about Herodotus that he just skipped over these points? Kapuscinski remains silent on this point.

Another example:

"[Herodotus] calculates that this army--infantry, cavalry, and naval crews--numbered some five million men. He exaggerates, of course." (p. 198)

So here we have Herodotus obviously exaggerating, and Kapuscinski is just mentioning it offhand instead of saying "OK let's re-examine what I said earlier about Herodotus's flawless methods of journalism". No, he just mentions it as if it's totally OK, a minor quibble. Of course, I don't blame Herodotus: he was one of our first recorders of history, so kudos to him for at least trying. But I found it kind of disingenuous for Kapuscinski to hold Hero(dotus) up as this gold standard, and then ignore everything that doesn't fit into his theory.

Overall, this book was an entertaining and easy read, and it exposed me to Herodotus whom I've never read before, so that's definitely a plus. Even taking into account the book's many flaws, it's still generally well written, and I'm willing to venture out and read another one of his books.

[Martina Mazzocchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Un viaggio non inizia nel momento in cui partiamo, nè finisce nel momento in cui raggiungiamo la meta. In realtà comincia molto prima e non finisce mai, dato che il nastro dei ricordi continua a scorrerci dentro anche dopo che ci siamo fermati"

Ryszard Kapuscinski racconta la sua vita da report partendo dagli inizi come praticante in una redazione polacca. Questo percorso lavorativo è il viaggio che lo avvicinerà a molte realtà in giro per il mondo, sempre in compagnia di un libro: Le Storie di Erodoto. E così inizia il parallelismo tra la storia antica dell'autore greco e la storia contemporanea vissuta dal giovane reporter polacco.

Kapuscinski legge Erodoto, ne analizza l'opera, si interroga sui motivi che lo spinsero a viaggiare e a documentare. Trae ispirazione dal suo stile, dal suo modo di vedere la vita; inevitabilmente si confronta con lui, trova conforto in lui.
Alla base di tutto c'è un bisogno: il bisogno di viaggiare, di essere testimoni di fatti e di eventi, di luoghi e di popoli lontani per poi lasciarne traccia alla memoria.

È l'eterna lotta dell'uomo contro il tempo, contro la labilità del ricordo, contro la sua tendenza a svanire.

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Curiosity about humanity permeates this book, an interweaving of memoir, readings and reflection. Listening, recording, acute observation, inquiring, wanting to understand what was happening in the present and the past drove both Herodotus and Kapuściński, 2500 years apart.

Ryszard Kapuściński’s career as a Polish reporter posted in foreign countries began in India, followed by China then Africa. India was his first encounter with otherness, the experience of a different world. It was then he realized that cultures don’t easily reveal their mysteries; ‘one has to prepare oneself thoroughly and at length for such encounters’.

A colleague gave him Herodotus to take with him on his first journey, the beginning of a life-long companionship.

In India, Kapuściński was ‘cast into deep water …didn’t want to drown… realized that only language could save him and started to think about how Herodotus, wandering the world, had dealt with foreign languages’. In Herodotus’ world Greek was widely spoken. Now, it was English and Kapuściński set out to learn it, using Hemingway, an 1816 guide to Hindu manners and customs, street signs, anything to develop the language. He realized that he was only seeing and remembering things for which he knew the names, and that ‘the more words I knew, the richer, the fuller, and more variegated would be the world that opened before me and which I could capture’.

He recounts his difficulties as a young man raised in ‘the spirit of brotherhood and individual equality’, appalled by servitude of any sort, coming to grips with India, where emaciated men waited to carry him in rickshaws and where sewing on a shirt button would be to deprive someone of a job.

After a brief return to Poland, his next assignment was to China, where the brief period of openness between the ‘Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom’ campaign and The Great Leap Forward froze over very rapidly and his activities were tightly circumscribed. China’s walls led him to reflect:
A wall protects against outsiders and helps control those inside. It is ‘simultaneously a shield and a trap, a veil and a cage’. Its worst aspect ‘is to turn so many people into its defenders and produce a mental attitude that sees a wall running through everything, imagines the world as being divided into an evil and inferior part, on the outside, and a good and superior part, on the inside. A keeper of the wall need not be in close proximity to it; he can be far away and it is enough that he carry within himself its image and pledge allegiance to the logical principles that the wall dictates….With each passing day I thought of the Great Wall more and more as the Great Metaphor ’ (p59-61).

Daunted by the mighty Asian civilisations he knew he could barely begin to understand, Africa began to draw his attention. Africa was ‘more fragmentary, differentiated, miniaturized by its multiplicity, and thus more graspable, approachable’. In Africa, he begins to realise the importance of developing an understanding of what underlies catastrophe and destruction, not just to report the moments of explosion. He began to reach out and talk to people, to observe, to read – to use the Herodotus model, traveling and experiencing what he could.

Kapuściński connects his readings of Herodotus to his own career – how did Herodotus conduct his enquiries? What sources did he use? How would he have traveled, who would he have talked to, where did he tell his stories –who was the audience? He sees Herodotus as the first to realise the world’s ‘essential multiplicity’, which came as a gradual learning process for Kapuściński.

Herodotus is a story teller who knows the rules of the market place, includes a bit of spice. He is endlessly curious, like Kapuściński himself. Why are things different from place to place? Where do beliefs (eg in gods) come from?

Herodotus had a mighty purpose: ‘to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks…in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks.’(p74). Why is the world split between East and West? Why do the two worlds fight each other unto the death?

The first crime is the abduction of a woman. Revenge abductions, raids, murders, theft and war. Cycles of crime and punishment, injustice and revenge follow each other, and humiliated people will subsist on dreams of revenge. ‘As it is in relations between individuals, so it is between nations. Whoever starts a war, and therefore, in Herodotus’ opinion, commits a crime, will be revenged upon and punished, be it immediately or after the passage of time. This relation, this inexorable pairing, is the very essence of fate, the meaning of irreversible destiny’ in this ancient world.

Extracts from Herodotus appear throughout the book. Kapuściński both retells his narrative of the Greco-Persian wars and interrogates it. For instance, he asks, how could the Babylonian men decide to strangle all women except one in their households to conserve supplies during a siege? Which men decided? Who did the killing? Did the men kill the women in their own families? Their daughters? The women would have known what was to happen. The children? And after Babylon’s eventual fall, Darius orders that 50,000 women from nearby peoples be gathered into the city to rebuild the population. All related without remark by Herodotus, but Kapuściński is, and we are, appalled.

Kapuściński regards them both as reporters who depend on encounters with other people: ‘reportage is perhaps the form of writing most reliant on the collective’ (p177). In Herodotus’ time there was no other form of communication but direct personal contact, a culture of oral transmission, relying heavily on memory. He knows memory is fragile, unreliable but collects, is open about uncertainties, tells a good story even when he knows it’s fantasy, for instance ‘about the Neurians’ ability to turn themselves into wolves: Personally I do not believe this, but they make the claim despite its implausibility, and even swear that they are telling the truth.’

Inquiring into the present and the past relating what sources tell you even if you doubt what they say, recognizing diverse viewpoints, seeking the truth in so far as it can be known, these are connections that Kapuściński regards as the greatest legacy of Herodotus values and sought in his own work.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μετά από πολύ καιρό διαβάζω non-fiction βιβλίο και η αλήθεια είναι ότι δεν ξέρω γιατί δεν έχω διαβάσει περισσότερα τέτοια βιβλία. Θέλω να πω, κυκλοφορούν πολλά ενδιαφέροντα εκεί έξω, από βιογραφίες και ιστορικά μέχρι ταξιδιωτικά και δημοσιογραφικά ρεπορτάζ. Όμως αποφάσισα ν'αρχίσω να διαβάζω περισσότερα, γι'αυτό και έπιασα το βιβλίο του Καπισίνσκι.

Αυτός ο Πολωνός συγγραφέας ήταν από τους μαιτρ του ρεπορτάζ και στο βιβλίο αυτό ανακαλεί κάποια πολιτικά και ιστορικά γεγονότα στην Αφρική και την Ασία, όντας στα πρώτα χρόνια στον τομέα του ρεπορτάζ και φυσικά αυτόπτης μάρτυρας, μιας και ταξίδεψε σε διάφορες περιοχές και χώρες των δυο αυτών ηπείρων. Συντροφιά στα ταξίδια του υπήρξε το βιβλίο "Ιστορίες" του μεγάλου Έλληνα ιστορικού, Ηροδότου.

Εμείς οι αναγνώστες διαβάζουμε τόσο κομμάτια από το σημαντικό έργο του Ηροδότου (κυρίως αυτά που έχουν να κάνουν με τους Ελληνοπερσικούς πολέμους), έτσι όπως τα διαβάζει και τα κατανοεί ο Καπισίνκσι, όσο και περιγραφές από τα μέρη που επισκέφτηκε ο Πολωνός συγγραφέας και δημοσιογράφος κατά την δεκαετία του '50 και του '60. Μέσω αυτών που διάβασε στο βιβλίο του Ηροδότου όσο και μέσω των περιγραφών των ανθρώπων, των τοπίων και των ιστορικών γεγονότων που ήρθε σε επαφή ο Καπισίνσκι, βγαίνουν στην επιφάνεια διάφοροι προβληματισμοί για τον κόσμο γύρω μας.

Απόλαυσα σε μεγάλο βαθμό τα κομμάτια που αφορούσαν τις αφηγήσεις του Ηροδότου (έτσι φρέσκαρα κάπως αυτά που υποτίθεται ότι μάθαμε στο σχολείο και μπήκα στην διαδικασία να ψάξω περισσότερα για τα ιστορικά αυτά γεγονότα), όπως επίσης και τις περιγραφές από τις εμπειρίες του Καπισίνσκι που αποκόμισε από τα ταξίδια που έκανε. Όμως θα ήθελα να υπήρχαν περισσότερες τέτοιες περιγραφές, ίσως και περισσότερα κοινωνικοπολιτικά σχόλια γι'αυτά που είδε. Δεν έχω παράπονο όμως, διάβασα ένα πραγματικά πολύ καλό και ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο, εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένο και ευκολοδιάβαστο, που με δυσκολία το άφηνα από τα χέρια μου.

Τώρα θέλω να βρω και να διαβάσω και άλλα βιβλία του συγγραφέα, ειδικά το "Έβενος: Το χρώμα της Αφρικής", που είναι και το πιο γνωστό του, αλλά και το "Ο πόλεμος του ποδοσφαίρου". Είναι και τα δυο εξαντλημένα, οπότε θέλουν γερό ψάξιμο.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, the last book by its author, is one of a kind. It is merely by chance that, earlier this month, I re-read Herodotus's Histories, so it is so fresh in my mind that I recognized most of the quotes from the 5th century B.C. Greek historian instantly.

But what if I had not read Herodotus recently? Then this would be a rather boring work, an extended commentary on someone with whom I was not familiar.

Kapuscinski and Herodotus shared many traits in common. Both had traveled the world (as they knew it) from one end to the other. Just by chance, before the Polish journalist left on his first foreign journey -- to India -- a colleague had handed him a copy of the Histories to take with him as reading material. (That unnamed editor was unknowingly his great benefactor.)

Over the decades of his long career and across many thousands of miles, the book became Kapuscinski's vade mecum. He referred to it constantly and constantly saw parallels between the Persians and Greeks and all the other peoples involved with them during the upheavals of that time, with the post-colonial turmoils in Africa and Asia of our own time.

In the end, reading Herodotus helped Kapuscinski become one of the great travel writers and foreign correspondents of the twentieth century. Toward the end, he concludes:

There is no way around this divergence of purpose and means [i.e., between the objective and subjective viewpoints]. We can try to minimize or mitigate it, but we will never approach the objective ideal. The subjective factor, its deforming presence, will remain impossible to strain out. Herodotus expresses an awareness of this predicament, constantly qualifying what he reports: "as they tell me," "as they maintain," "they present this in various ways," etc. In fact, though, however evolved our methods, we are never in the presence of unmediated history, but of history recounted, presented, history as it appeared to someone, as he or she believes it to have been. This has been the nature of the enterprise always, and the folly may be to believe one can resist it.

This fact is perhaps Herodotus's greatest discovery.

Earlier, he says:

The first to realize the world's essential multiplicity was Herodotus. "We are not alone," he tells Greeks in his opus, and to prove this he undertakes his journeys to the ends of the earth. "We have neighbors, they in turn have their neighbors, and all together we populate a single planet."

As one who envies Kapuscinski for his many great books about his travels, and as one who has read Herodotus twice (for apparently good reason, and now I know why), I can see that I could form a similar attachment to the Greek historian.

The first time I read Herodotus, I was a Freshman in Ned Nabors's class on Greek Literature in Translation at Dartmouth College. I was in my teens then and dreamed of a life of travel. I have traveled to many places, but something in me keeps saying, "Not enough!" I think, next time, I will take Herodotus with me.

[Andrea Iginio Cirillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un giovane reporter con il chiodo fisso di "varcare la frontiera" in lungo e in largo l'orbe terracqueo portandosi dietro un libro regalatogli all'alba del suo primo viaggio: Le Storie di Erodoto. Ed è nel segno del primo giornalista itinerante della storia che si svolgono le sue peregrinazioni. Kapuscinski lo consulta compulsivamente, si pone domande sui metodi che il suo predecessore ha usato per raccogliere tante informazioni provenienti da Paesi lontani (Sciti, Massageti, Etiopi), ma s'interroga anche sull'Erodoto uomo: che aspetto aveva? E quale carattere? Come viaggiava? Come soppesava le varie dicerie che gli arrivavano all'orecchio?
Parallelamente si dipana, però, anche la storia del Kapuscinski uomo e giornalista nella spiritualissima India, coi roghi dei cadaveri sul Gange; nella Cina di Mao che ha eretto muraglie fisiche e psicologiche; nell'Africa araba e nera. Il tutto condito da una sincera e infantile curiosità nei confronti dell'Altro, indispensabile per comprendere se stessi e la propria identità. L'autore si sofferma, infatti, sulla storia di singoli uomini (Creso, Aristodemo, un rajah, un giornalista cinese e così via), i quali non sono altro che parte di quel mosaico ch'è la storia di un popolo. Oltre a "varcare la frontiera" spaziale, dunque, Kapuscinski varca anche quella temporale, per immergersi in un mondo antico e diverso, ma anche per rifugiarsi nel mito quando la realtà diventa un fardello troppo pesante da portare. Per questo all'interno dell'opera si rimarca spesso il concetto di "memoria", che rimanda al concetto di historia magistra vitae, applicato attraverso paralleli tra conflitti passati e presenti e le loro motivazioni intrinseche che, in fin dei conti, non cambiano mai. Come Erodoto, anche il nostro autore si abbandona a descrizioni di luoghi e città, come Teheran e Persepoli all'alba (che meraviglia!), Kabul al crepuscolo, una Algeri carica d'irrealtà à la Camus. Il tutto viene compiuto con uno stile fresco, agile, da resoconto giornalistico, che si bilancia perfettamente con i passi e le riflessioni che riguardano Erodoto. Due reporter, uniti da un fil rouge nello spazio e nel tempo, da un apolide cosmopolitismo (["I mondi sono molti, le altre culture sono specchi che riflettono la nostra, permettendoci di capire meglio noi stessi..."]); la Storia come indagine, ricerca.

Un libro, insomma, da leggere e rileggere fino a consumare le pagine, che a ogni rilettura avrà qualcosa di nuovo da dire, sempre con un'incredibile empatia che Kapuscinski riesce a creare per connaturata filantropia, per la sua fiducia nell'Uomo e nell'Altro nonostante tutto il male che affligge da secoli - antico come il mondo, imperituro - la Storia Universale.

[James Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy of the book--Vintage International--labels Travels with Herodotus as memoir/history, and it is, but it touched me more as a simple meditation on Herodotus and his The Histories. Kapuscinski is a Polish journalist and traveler who writes here about his 1st trips outside Poland in the mid-20th century. He was given a copy of Herodotus as a companion on his 1st assignment abroad. It touched him deeply, as his own book touched me.

Kapuscincki uses The Histories as a way to gauge his own sense of wonder as he travels, as his own sense of being an other in strange societies. He tries to see his own reactions to strangeness in light of the way he thinks Herodotus reacted. In seeing himself intently observing the places to which he travels--India, China, Iran, much of Africa--he uses Herodotus as a guide in how to see and understand, even though Herodotus traveled and wrote without maps and without a large collection of written resources. Kapuscinski constantly reminds us how deep in history Herodotus lived and chronicled his travels--he writes that the Persian armies described in The Histories existed 24 centuries before Napoleon, that the Middle East written about was one a thousand years before the arrival of Islam--yet still finds ways to see their experiences as similar.

One of the elements he learned from The Histories was contrast. The ancient world in which Herodotus traveled could easily be seen as divided into east-west, Asia-Europe, Persia-Greece. Kapuscinski observes contrasts of his own. Besides his own obvious east-west, that of the Cold War, he compares the open character of India's population with the closed nature of the Chinese. In Algeria he sees 2 Islams, those of river and desert, or the new vs the traditional. The book itself is halved between Kapuscinski's travels and Herodotus's.

The final chapter is thoughts on history, which he sees, like Herodotus, as created by people through the continuous flow of their everday lives. And the history created today is mirrored by the history Herodotus found because human nature is a constant. This chapter on the meaning and uses of history is terrific.

Thanks to my Goodreads friend Lyn Elliott whose review of Travels with Herodotus was the inspiration for my coming to the book. Kapuscinski writes late in his book that Herodotus was a discovery for him but that he came to think of him as his Herodotus. Similarly, I now know I have Kapuscinski and that this is only my 1st of his books.

[Siti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A leggere questa insolita biografia ci si ritrova in duplice compagnia. Se l’intento iniziale è quello di approcciare la figura del noto reporter , in parte perché orfani del grande Terzani, poche pagine, ma già il titolo è premonitore, saranno sufficienti per farci capire che avremo un altro compagno di viaggio: Erodoto. Lo potremmo definire l’alter ego del polacco, un vademecum , un prontuario, un pozzo di aneddoti, spesso inverosimili, dal quale attingere per comprendere i luoghi nei quali Kapuściński si trova a lavorare, ma soprattutto un manuale di metodo. La difficoltà maggiore di un giornalista infatti è quella di capire la differenza che passa tra lui e gli altri, sempre, ma in particolar modo quando l’evento storico, magari sensazionalistico ( un attentato, fuoco, fiamme, morti) desta l’attenzione di un mondo globale avvolto in una cappa di presunta conoscenza mentre è tristemente ingabbiato nei suoi solidi e ottusi schemi culturali. Quelli che non permettono la reale comprensione di culture differenti, quelli che rischiano di decodificarle secondo un’ottica rovesciata rendendole altro da sé. In questo scritto Kapuściński ripercorre dunque la sua vita da giornalista, un ramingo al pari degli aedi, teso più ad ascoltare che a riferire, un uomo che partendo dagli esordi timidi, impacciati e coatti delle tenebre del comunismo polacco giunge fino alla libertà generata dal movimento e dalla sete di conoscere e di comprendere. Un viaggio tra passato remoto e passato prossimo teso alla comprensione del presente. Consigliato a chi ha letto Erodoto e a chi non l’ho mai letto, a chi conosce Kapuściński e a chi invece vorrebbe conoscerlo.

[Andrew]

God, what a charming writer. As I find when I read Sebald, I find that Kapuscinski has a great many of the exact same thoughts that I've written about, but phrases them with an infinitely greater degree of eloquence. Throughout, Kapuscinski alternates between past and present, ratcheting across countries and continents.

I'm only calling it travel writing by process of elimination. Kapuscinski is traveling, and that is the sole common thread. History, art, Cold War tensions, language, and literary criticism all enter into Kapuscinski's formula. There's honestly something here for everyone, and this is one of the best things I've read in months.

[Carmen EB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un lujo siempre leer a Kapuscinski. En este caso, un arte como descubres en paralelo el mundo greco-persa junto con Asía y el Africa post-colonial.
Un viaje espectacular por el tiempo y el espacio