Дерсу Узала

Prin taigaua Extremului Orient #2

by Vladimir K. Arsenyev

Роман, впервые опубликованный в 1923 году. Рассказывает об опыте путешествия на Дальний Восток русского географа-исследователя В. К. Арсеньева и его проводника – таежного охотника Дерсу Узала. Дважды экранизирован.

Genres: Nonfiction, Russia, Adventure, Travel, History, Biography, Nature

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Vladimir Klavdiyevich Arsenyev (Russian: Влади́мир Кла́вдиевич Арсе́ньев) (10 September 1872 – 4 September 1930) was a Russian explorer of the Far East who recounted his travels in a series of books - "По Уссурийскому Краю" ("Along the Ussury land") (1921) and "Дерсу Узала" ("Dersu Uzala") (1923) - telling of his military journeys to the Ussuri basin with Dersu Uzala, a native hunter, from 1902 to 1907. He was the first to describe numerous species of Siberian flora and lifestyle of native ethnic people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir...

Reviews

[Algernon (Darth Anyan) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get out your man card and start punching:


- go on an expedition to the wildest Siberian forest: Check!
- go hunting for black bear by yourself: Check!
- come face to face with a Siberian tiger without your rifle at hand: Check!
- survive in the middle of a forest fire: Check!
- survive a flash flood after torrential rains: Check!
- survive a three day winter blizzard up in the Sikhote-Alin mountains: Check!
- eat boiled leather from the expedition harnesses: Check!
- get pestered by clouds of murderous gnats: Check!
- start a bromance with your native guide: Check and double Check!!!
- get a town named after you, complete with statue commemorating your exploits: Check!

Vladimir Arsenyev was a military officer, an explorer of the Far East, a scientist, a traveler, and a writer who organized several prospecting expeditions in the Ussurian taiga between 1902 and 1907. This book is based on the journals of these expeditions and is dedicated to the Nannai / Goldi hunter who acted as guide for Arsenyev's surveying crew.

(he looks a bit like Putin, doesn't he?)

There are three main attractions in the story for me:

1 - the descriptions of the pristine forests of Far East Asia, with their incredible wealth of plant and animal life, the rugged mountains, the marshes, the rivers full of salmon, the beaches inhabited only by seals and sea lions, the majestic tigers waiting to pounce almost on a daily basis. The few humans encountered on the trip are the original tribesmen (Udehei, Nanai, etc), the first Russian settlers brought there by the Great Transsiberian Railway, some Chinese and Korean trappers. Arsenyev style is mostly dry, a detached recounting of facts, but he is effective because this lends the authenticity of the eyewitness to the text. His emotions will become more transparent towards the end, as his friendship with Dersu gains steam.

2 - the constant danger of the journey, the fortitude and the dogged endurance of the team confronting a merciless environment with rudimentary equipment. As I already mentioned: floods, forest fires, blizzards, attacks by wild animals and / or insects, starvation or hypotermia are contant companions on the route. Arsenyev and his team are on their own and many times their survival is due only to the skills of one man: Dersu Uzala. Which brings me to


3 - the real star of the novel, Dersu Uzala, a simple man with basic needs and ancient wisdom inherited from his native ancestors. Old, small of stature and poorly dressed, he is more at home in the wilderness that any of his Russian employers. He is an exceptional marksman with a rifle but his real talent is to read the language of trees and the tracks of the animals, the patterns of the clouds and the winds. He is a survivor who chuckles at Arsenyev when he fails to spot a broken branch on the trail:

"Hm! Like a baby. See nothing, savvy nothing. Live in town. Want to eat - go buy. Live alone in mountains - soon die."

and at another time, when a Kazak wanted to shoot at a seal for fun:

"Don't shoot", he said quietly. "Cannot take it with us. It's bad to shoot for nothing."

He will save the officer's life at least twice: once when caught in the open by a forest fire and a second time at a dangerous crossing of a flooded river on an improvised raft. Arsenyev will come not only to respect him and to depend on his expertise, but to form a strong friendship with the diminutive guide, offering him the shelter of his home in Khabarovsk when the guide's eyesight begins to falter.


For me, the most important aspect of Dersu personality is his animist spirituality - his belief that every living thing has a soul and is talking gently to him, his view that nature is a garden to be nurtured or at least respected, and not an adversary to be conquered. He reminds me of Winnetou and Uncas Leatherstocking, with the important difference that Dersu is not an imaginary character. Here's the relevant quote, as narrated by Arsenyev:

During our meal I threw a bit of meat into the fire. Dersu pulled it out hastily and flung it to the ground.
"Why burn meat?" he asked me with displeasure. "Tomorrow we go, and latter other people will come here. They can eat it."
"What people?" I ask in bewilderment.
"You don't know?" he asked in surprise. "Racoon, badger or crow; if the crow does not, the mouse will; if the mouse does not, the ant will. There are all kinds of people in the taiga."

If you don't believe my praises for this story, consider the fact that it was picked for screen translation by none other than Akira Kurosawa , his first non-Japanese-language film and his first and only 70mm film, shot mostly outdoors. Consider also that the movie won an Oscar for the best foreign language film. I have waited to read the book before renting the movie, but I plan to remedy this and get it into my player soon. I would recommend a second movie for readers who liked the book, dealing also with the dangers of prospecting into the immense taiga wilderness : Letter Never Sent / Neotpravlennoye pismo [1960]

[edit for spelling]

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 4 out of 5]

ولادیمیر آرسنیف، نویسنده، جغرافیدان و ماجراجوی روسی بوده که با سفرهای اکتشافی‌ به مناطق دورافتاده‌ی سیبری ، کوه سیخوته آلین و خاباروفسک، طبیعت دست نخورده و بکر و وحشی شرق روسیه را کشف کرد و تجربیات خود را با استادی در آثارش به تصویر کشید . آرسنیف یکی از اولین کسانی بود که به اهمیت حفاظت از طبیعت پی برد و در آثار خود هم به این موضوع پرداخته .
درسو اوزالا نوشته‌ آرسنیف داستان دوستی عمیق بین یک افسر روسی ( خود نویسنده ) و یک شکارچی بومی به نام درسو اوزالا است . داستان در اوایل قرن بیستم در مناطق دورافتاده‌ی سیبری رخ می‌دهد. آرسنیف ، مامور می‌شود تا منطقه‌ای ناشناخته را نقشه برداری کند. در این سفر سخت و طولانی، درسو اوزالا، شکارچی باتجربه و آشنا به طبیعت، به عنوان راهنما و همراه او می‌شود.
در طول سفر، آرسنیف به تدریج به دانش و مهارت‌های درسو اوزالا در زندگی در طبیعت و ارتباط با آن پی برده و از او یاد می گیرد که چگونه در جنگل زنده بماند، با حیوانات ارتباط برقرار کند و از همه مهمتر به طبیعت احترام بگذارد. این دوستی عمیق و احترام متقابل، در دل طبیعت بکر سیبری، شکوفا می‌شود.
آرسنیف با زبانی ساده و شیوا، زیبایی‌ها و سختی‌های طبیعت بکر سیبری را به تصویر کشیده ، او هم حجم انبوه ، زیبایی های طبیعت سیبری ، حیوانات وحشی و زیبایی های آنان ، رودخانه ها ، ماهی ها را بیان کرده و البته در هر گام ، سختی های باور نکردنی مانند برف و بوران همیشگی ، جدال با خرس و ببر سیبری ، سیل و باران ، گذر از رودخانه های وحشی و مزاحمت پشه ها و دیگر حشرات جنگل را هم شرح داده . درسو برای بیشتر این مخاطرات تدبیری داشته اما گاهی هیچ کاری از دست او هم ساخته نبوده .
آرسنیف با زبانی ساده و گیرا، طیف وسیعی از زیبایی‌ها و دشواری‌های طبیعت بکر سیبری را به تصویر کشیده. او نه تنها به حجم انبوه جنگل‌ها و رودخانه‌های خروشان پرداخته، بلکه به جزئیات ظریف‌تر مانند گونه‌های متنوع جانوری، از ماهی‌های رودخانه‌ای گرفته تا حیوانات وحشی همچون خرس و ببر سیبری، نیز توجه کرده است. اما طبیعت سیبری تنها به زیبایی‌هایش محدود نمی‌شود. آرسنیف سختی‌ها و چالش‌های زندگی در این محیط سخت را نیز بیان کرده . برف و بوران‌های شدید، سیلاب‌های ناگهانی، نبرد با حیوانات وحشی و آزار حشرات موذی، تنها بخشی از موانعی هستند که شخصیت‌های داستان با آن‌ها روبرو می‌شوند. درسو اوزالا، با دانش عمیق خود از طبیعت، اغلب راه حل‌هایی هوشمندانه برای غلبه بر این مشکلات پیدا می‌کند؛ اما گاهی اوقات، طبیعت قدرتی بی‌رحم دارد که حتی از دست یک راهنمای باتجربه نیز خارج است.
نوشته‌های ولادیمیر آرسنیف را می‌توان از نخستین نمونه‌های مردم‌نگاری جامع در خصوص اقوام بومی سیبری دانست. اگرچه تمرکز اصلی درسو اوزالا بر روی دوستی میان آرسنیف و درسو اوزالا است، اما نویسنده در خلال روایت این داستان، به شکل فرعی به آداب، رسوم و سبک زندگی اقوام بومی سیبری نیز پرداخته.
آرسنیف هیچ ابایی از شرح ترس خود و همراهان از خطرات و چالش ها در در دل جنگل انبوه در سیبری ندارد ، او ترس های خود را با صداقت و شجاعت بیان می کند . همزمان او فردی بسیار شجاع ، جسور و ماجراجو است . او آنقدر به دل رودخانه های سرد و وحشی می زند که سرانجام تعداد آن ها را فراموش می کند . هر گام و هر قدم او چالشی سخت است و خطر مرگ برای او به همراه دارد اما او با اراده‌ای پولادین به مسیر خود تا پایان ادامه می‌دهد .
مسیر سفررا باید نمادی از تغییر و تحول شخصیت‌ها دانست. آرسنیف در طول سفر، از یک افسر جوان و کم ‌تجربه به یک طبیعت‌شناس و انسان آگاه با دیدی بسیار متفاوت تبدیل می‌شود. گویی این تحول، نه تنها در دانش و دیدگاه او نسبت به طبیعت و انسان، بلکه در ارزش‌ها و اولویت‌های زندگی‌اش نیز نمود پیدا کرده.

کتاب آرسنیف مسیر داستان مشخصی ندارد و هدف و پایان کتاب تقریبا مشخص است .بیشتر حجم کتاب یا توصیفات خیره کننده طبیعت و یا گفت و گوهای آرسنیف با درسو اوزالا را شامل شده . با این وجود ، نویسنده با استادی و مهارت ، داستان سفر خود را تا انتها جذاب و گیرا روایت کرده . این گونه آرسنیف خواننده را با خود همراه کرده و به او امکان داده تا دنیای بکر سیبری را کشف کند .

[L.G. Cullens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dersu the Trapper

I learned of this book in reading "The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival" by John Vaillant, and decided to look into it. "Dersu the Trapper" by V. K. Arseniev is a 1923 memoir by the Russian explorer Vladimir Arseniev. I obtained the public domain epub copy I read from the Internet Archive. There is also a free public domain audio version on the Internet Archive.

This account is considered the Russian counterpart to The Journals of Lewis and Clark, the subject matter being some of Vladimir Klavdievich Arseniev's explorations of the Ussurian taiga in the early 1900s on which he was accompanied by an indigenous Gold named Dersu Uzala.

I see this as a book for those that appreciate Nature and the value of wilderness, understanding our weedy specie's too often ignorant and destructive impacts on the natural world that sustains us, and our parasitical proclivities towards each other. Not even Vladimir Arseniev is exempt from humankind's contradictions, but he learned a lot from Dersu Uzala. Dresu, as depicted by Vladimir Arseniev, was a man that seemed to understand how to live in respectful coexistence with the natural world.

It's written like a travelog of some of the author's explorations with adventure to spare. Imagine encountering tusked large Ussuri wild boar, a towering angry Ussuri brown bear (think Kodiak bear), being stalked by a 500lb Amur tiger, being caught in a forest fire with an injured foot, or the opposite of being bone weary and caught in a blizzard in the wilderness far from any shelter or help. Not to mention the flood they got caught in ("The entire valley, from hill-side to hill-side, was filled with water."), and the bandits they had to deal with. Even reading this in your comfortable abode, wrapped up in the reality of this story you may feel anxious. That is if you can visualize the situations. Sadly, so many these days are so divorced from the natural world that they are likely to be bored with the story.

To those that have a feel for what real wilderness is though, it is a remarkable account. Also, if you've studied the diversity of flora and fauna, this accounting will be a delight, maybe even causing you to reach for your reference books :-)

[Timár_Krisztina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ezt bizony az indiános-vernés korszakomban kellett volna (először) olvasni. Akkor már kívülről tudnám. Ennek hiánya most igen komoly terhet jelent nekem, de nem kezdem elölről, most túl sok érdekes könyv van körülöttem, meg különben is, ahhoz a rövidítetlen kiadás kéne. A fene gondolta, hogy ebből vágtak is.
Ez tényleg a Winnetou meg az Old Shatterhand a szibériai tajgán, leszámítva a korukat meg a megjelenésüket. Ki is mondta a minap, hogy hiányoznak az irodalomból az alacsony férfihősök? :) Az illetőnek egyetlen problémája lesz a könyvvel: hogy nem regény. :) Derszu Uzala tényleg igen-igen menő: kicsi, okos, maga lövi a vacsoráját, szabad ég alatt alszik, sk. készült ruhákban jár, három lövésből kétszer eltalálja százötven lépésről a legyet, egy letört faágból elmondja az arra járt ember vagy állat teljes kórtörténetét, és legyen hóvihar vagy tűzvész, rendületlenül megmenti a legjobb barátja életét. (Halkan kérdezem: nem lehet, hogy ennyi minden nem is egyetlen emberhez köthető? Nem úgy értem, hogy nem létezett volna Derszu, dehogyis. De néha volt olyan érzésem, mintha azt is Derszuval csináltatná meg Arszenyev, amit esetleg más helybelinek köszönhetett, csak a hatás kedvéért.)
Megj.: a fényképek tanúsága szerint Arszenyev se volt sokkal magasabb. Sajnos nem tudott egyetlen ökölcsapással leütni egy lovat. Ellenben képes volt hóban-fagyban-tájfunban-szúnyogfelhőben emberhalál nélkül végigvezetni három expedíciót Kelet-Szibérián, felszereléssel vagy anélkül. Igaz, Derszu nélkül most a csendes eső moshatná a csontjaikat valahol a tajga közepében. Így meg még a lába ujját se hagyta ott. Az a legjobb, mikor megműti a saját elfertőződött sebét, aztán majdnem elájul, de megmarad. A lába is.
Nagyon figyeltem, hogy rajtakapom-e Arszenyevet bárminemű "nemesvademberezésen", amire elég érzékeny lettem, mióta kinőttem az indiános-vernés korszakomból, de nem fordult elő ilyesmi. Ellenben az egyik angol nyelvű értékelésből megtanultam a "bromance" szót, ami pontosan az ilyen nagyon-nagyon szoros, ám szexuális vonzalom nélküli férfibarátságokat jelenti. Óriási szerencséje van annak, akinek része lehet benne. És olyan szép látni, ahogyan ez a barátság szinte percek alatt eltüntet minden származás-, gondolkodás- és műveltségbeli különbséget.
Tetszik nekem az a rengeteg földrajzi-növénytani-állattani részlet is, amivel zsúfolásig tele a könyv, nemkülönben a néprajzi adalékok, bár utóbbiak nem felhőtlenül. Nagyon csúnya dolgokat műveltek ott egymással az emberek már száztíz évvel ezelőtt is. Az egyik (egyébként igen bizarr) fotó szerint a helybeli bűnözők levadászásában is részt vettek az egyik expedíció tagjai - a szövegből viszont hiányzik ennek a leírása, nem lehetett valami dicső, tehát fel fogom kutatni a teljes verziót. Mert akár vidáman, akár lehangoltan olvastam ezeket a szakaszokat, egyik esetben sem maradhatnak ki életemből és munkásságomból.
Úgyhogy találkozunk még, kedves Derszu és Valentyin, de jó eséllyel nem ebben a kiadásban.

[Katya Reimann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book. A 'classic,' in Russia, but... really a classic by any measure. Akira Kurasawa was inspired by this book to make his Oscar-winning movie Dersu Uzala, (1975), George Lukas was inspired by the syntax Arseniev puts in Dersu's mouth to create his character Yoda. The recent bestseller Tiger, (2010) by John Valliant, (also a lovely book) clearly takes its inspiration from Arseniev.

There's a wonderful page up by Chad Garcia, titled "Watching Dersu Uzala," which describes Kurasawa's relationship to the material. Kurasawa's movie was the first complete work he produced after a suicide attempt. I'd say--read Chad's page. No need for me to crib those thoughts here, when Chad has already written them so finely.

This said, my first reaction on reading the text? It was deep gratitude that I did not find the material to be "dated." I love Dersu's story so much that I'd bought extra copies for several friends. I knew *I* would love it--but what a pleasure to read those first paragraphs, those first pages, and know that my 'share'--it was going to be a good one.

The narrative is a factual account of Arseniev's three surveying trips in the coastal area north of Vladivostok--but the story is so much larger. Friendship, the slow terrible impact of one culture upon another, the slow terrible impact of human culture upon nature...

How can one expect this book, written by a man who was born the son of a serf? From what source does such human sensitivity arise?

"Sometimes it happens that the mountain and forest have such a cheerful and attractive appearance that one would be glad to linger there for ever. In others mountains seem surly and wild. It is a strange thing that such impressions are not purely personal and subjective, but were felt by all the men in the detachment... In that spot there was an oppressive feeling in the air, something unhappy and painful, and the sensation of gloom and ill-omen was felt by us all."

This book--when I read a book like this... what I want to do is... slink away, close the door to my study, and start writing. The charge I feel, reading the descriptions, the sentences; the feeling that courses through me, knowing that I am learning something new, yet something so connected to so much of what I have thought before.

So much about reading is that spark, that sense that one has made an acquaintance of a book at a time and place where the connection one has with one's reading... can be so strong.

I'm so grateful to have met this book and to have been able to read it in this way. And such a strong book--in this case I know my feelings are not mine alone.

[Owen Curtsinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first picked up this book after reading John Vaillant's thrilling book The Tiger, about a man-eating tiger in the taiga of Ussuria. I had also seen Kurosawa's film Dersu Uzala, and always thought that it was his oddest film but admittedly one of my favorites outside of his samurai classics. This book is a fairly interesting read, but not as engaging as I had hoped. As the narrative is in its essence the chronicle of a surveying expedition, it tends to get bogged down by repetition of which mountains were climbed and what rivers were forded and what various trappers and ginseng foragers were met along the way. It's worth reading for the interactions between Arseniev and Dersu, and for the lessons that Dersu teaches Arseniev about the wilderness of Ussuria, but Arseniev is not a master of language (maybe that's saying more about the translation than Arseniev), and any philosophical or poetic tidbits you must glean from the text on your own.

[Steve R · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly amazing non-fiction account of a surveyor's travels through the Ussuria region of Siberia in the first decade of the twentieth century that reads better than the overwhelming majority of fictional works. Although the figure of Dersu Uzala merits both the title and is definitely one of the main aspects of the story, it is more the taiga, the Russian word for tundra and its forests, streams, rivers, mountains, valleys, bogs, marshes, mists, flora, fauna, peoples, weather and all-encompassing physical challenges that predominates the story. The book truly falls within the 'noble savage' motif, not just as far as Dersu is concerned, but in terms of how all of the men in the surveyor's team struggle just to stay alive but at the same time find a sympathetic understanding of their oneness with the unremitting challenges of their environment.

Arseniev, the leader of the expeditions, observes that one gets an emotional response from mountains and forests than can be either positive or negative. Such reactions are not subjective: all expedition members usually agree on whether they have a good or bad feeling about the region they happen to be passing through. The challenges of uprooted trees, blinding snowstorms, sudden windstorms, floods, fires, treacherously narrow and icy mountain-edge footpaths, impassable shorelines that cause recurrent fordings of icy cold rivers: all of these are encountered by Arseniev, Dersu and the others in the year and half they traveled together, but after struggling through one expedition, they seemingly cannot wait to start the next. One night, after four days of hurricane-force winds and rain, they look out over the ocean to see the illumination of a clear night which was cast on the waters by the stars and the moon. Transfixed with wonder, they sensed how powerful was the love they felt for this land which so rigorously tested their physical strength and intellectual ingenuity. Indeed, I feel the taiga is the real main character of the book.

More than the human transients who come and go, the flora and fauna of the region dominate one's impression reading this work. The fact that birch trees burn better than ash, alder or fir (since they don't give off sparks that endanger one's clothes and tents), the multiple species of grasses, berries, ferns, minerals and other natural elements is well recounted by Arseniev, whose eye of a naturalist was very acute. Then there are the boars, the roe-deer, musk-deer, elks, bears, tigers, lynxes, wild cats, wolverines, sea lions, crows, many other species of birds, hens, salmon (so plentiful in the stream that one could catch them with one's hands!), char, trout, and, of course, the wapiti, for whom the Chinese settlers erected fences to drive them into pits. At one point, Arseniev counted over fifty such pits dug in a long line for the semi-brutal harvesting of these magnificent creatures. He himself was not above the pure adrenaline rush of going out one day to shoot a bear, a feat he managed to complete successfully. A scene with a bear using all of his ingenuity to topple a tree containing a bee hive's stock of honey was truly as humorous as it was enthralling. However, no animals quite match the impact on humans as the flies, mosquitoes and midges: during certain seasons and at certain times of the day, they provide an excruciating torment to both men and their horses that is nigh on unbelievable. Nothing they can do seems to alleviate the suffering such seemingly insignificant creatures inflicted on those passing through marshy areas.

The native peoples of the region seem to come in two distinct varieties: the exploiters (the Chinese) and the exploited (the aboriginal tribes, especially the Udehe, but also the Gold and the Solon) The former are rapacious destroyers: as Arseniev comments ruefully, all the Chinese whom have left their own country are crows, dogs and rats: they've killed off all the rest. The poor aboriginal tribal peoples are reduced to sheer slavery by the Chinese. They owe so much for previous loans, and having no real comprehension of money, find themselves caught in an inextricable pit of indebtedness. They end up working for the sheer profit of the usurious Chinese. When they don't bring in enough sable pelts, they are forced to sell their children and have their wives taken away. Should they protest, as some do, they are either drowned in a nearby river or buried alive. Commonly addicted to opium (also supplied by the Chinese), their dwellings are rundown, poverty stricken and their clothing near rags. As a Canadian, I feel we have not treated the Inuit people of our northern regions all that much better, but the inhumanity described here was truly disturbing.

Dersu Uzala is one of the most amazing characters I've ever encountered in either fiction or non-fiction readings. His uncanny sense of oneness with his environment allows him to accurately predict changes in the weather while his tracking skills lead him to know the behaviour of both human and animal travellers who have passed through a region recently. Beyond these, he has an seemingly pure compass with which to assess the moral value of virtually all human actions. So often, he counsels 'no shoot' - on one occasion since they could not take the meat of the 700 pound sea lion; on another, since catching the hens with a noose instead of shooting them conserves their cartridges. A member of the Gold tribe (like you, I'd never heard of them before or since either), he is amazed that both Chinese and Russian inhabitants of the region sometimes resort to brigandage - i.e., outright thievery and murder. 'You have tsar, but you have brigands. Gold have no tsar. Have no brigands' sums up the moral basis of his accurate political analysis of how far our civilization has not progressed. When faced, at the age of 58, with his deteriorating eyesight, which basically means he can no longer support himself, his stoical conclusion of 'Me little life left. Soon finish. Soon die.' is as eloquent as it is simple in its oneness with the natural order of things.

I found this book and wanted to read it after watching the 1975 film made by Akira Kurosawa. I heartily recommend both.The viewing and the reading will both leave an impression not soon if ever forgotten.

Truly a major accomplishment on so many different levels.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the superlative works of exploration and/or survey, as well as a touching story of how modern mores pretty much ruined anything.
Arseniev, the author, recounts here three expeditions he did along the Sihote Alin (and hinterlands) between the Russian frontier and the Sea of Japan in the 1900s. Dersu was his guide and friend, one of those almost mystical dudes who can read intent, age, and health from spoor and know a person by their tracks. None of this Hollywood Aragorn-patting-grass-where-hobbits-made-love: no, Dersu the Trapper was the real dilly, an unfortunate kind of human that fantasy and culture have ruined by taking their banality and making it something fantastic, while their counterparts in politics have seen to it that they are properly destroyed and forgotten.
Arseniev and Dersu battle tigers, bandits, and nature, while Dersu points up what an infant Arseniev and the other Russians are when it comes to reading the world around them.
A classic that makes we want to vanish with my berdianka into the wastes above Lake Hanka!

[Mana.Fa · Rating 2 out of 5]

داستان راجع مردی دانا ساکن جنگله و شکارچیه که با یک افسر شهری اشنا میشه و باهم دوست میشن و باهم ماجراهایی دارند ...کتاب بیشتر مناسب نوجوان هاست ولی داستانش دوست داشتنیه

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to note the unobtrusive personality of the Russian officer, who tells us about the Gold he so admires and not about himself. He expresses freely that he feels like a child in Dersu's hands whenever the taiga turns frightening. He learns from him like a child, too, as Dersu laments the onset of the end for the taiga as she was. Expect to be saddened, but you're with a likeable guy who cares about what he sees and hasn't a macho bone in his body.

More by luck than judgement I read this alongside A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990, and that proved interesting.

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuando con este proyecto ciclópeo de leer y reseñar aquellas obras que superan la maravillosa centuria de haber sido editadas, hoy el turno es para un clásico de la literatura rusa editado en 1921 y escrito por el capitán del ejército ruso zarista, Vladimir Arseniev en la que sería su obra maestra: Dersu Uzala.

Estamos ante un maravilloso libro que navega libremente y a sus anchas entre el relato de aventuras autobiográfico, un libro de viajes, un estudio geográfico y etnográfico, un trabajo de documentación cartográfica y sobre todo, una narración sobre el espíritu humano y la amistad en su vertiente más pura, sincera y desinteresada.
Puede sonar descabellado que en un solo libro, comulguen sin pelea tantos temas y a la vez resulte apasionante su lectura. Arseniev, bastante diestro para la literatura y la narración, logra a través de su asombrosa capacidad observadora transmitir al lector sus viajes con ojos de aventurero, cazador, cartógrafo y hasta biólogo, con un cierto tinte de poeta y literato que seguramente también asomó por su interesante vida. Vladimir Arseniev fue un explorador y capitán del ejército a las órdenes del zar Nicolás II, quien a principios del Siglo XX tuvo la misión de explorar y cartografiar las tierras del Ussuri siberiano recientemente arrebatadas a China, con ánimo de conocer las rutas, los recursos, la fauna y fundar así colonias rusas. Es en uno de estos recorridos por la taiga siberiana donde cruza su camino con el verdadero protagonista de esta historia: Dersu Uzala, un viejo cazador indígena de la tribu hezhen (o gold como se describe en la versión en español de libro), un conocedor absoluto de la fauna, flora, clima, secretos y recovecos del bosque boreal, quien pregona una especie de animismo y respeto por cada uno de los seres vivientes de la taiga. Es aquí cuando la amistad entre dos espíritus libres y aventureros empieza a tomar forma y se entrelaza cada vez más en medio de las dificultades y peligros que asoman en este tipo de expediciones a lo desconocido en tiempo pretéritos. A través de la majestuosa narración descriptiva de Arseniev, como lectores nos adentraremos en la taiga del Ussuri, conoceremos sus animales y plantas, su clima y sus ríos y meandros, sus pueblos aborígenes y la forma como viven de la recolección y la caza; mientras el personaje de Dersu nos aproxima a una visión panteísta de los elementos vivos de la taiga, a los ritmos vitales de la tierra y a su majestuosa belleza casi virgen, sin descuidar su aspecto terrorífico y colérico a través de tormentas de nieve, inundaciones, incendios y aluviones. Dersu se convierte entonces en la brújula no sólo de la expedición, sino también en el guía moral de ese ecologismo tan propio de las comunidades indígenas ancestrales y que el hipismo y la “nueva era” pervirtieron hasta el hartazgo y la insensatez. (“Fiel a la costumbre que es innata de los cosacos cazadores, Murzine apoyó y apuntó su fusil hacia la otaria más próxima, pero Derzu lo detuvo, apartando suavemente el cañón. – No hay que tirar- dijo-. Yo no podría siquiera llevar la carne del animal. Es malo disparar sin motivo”).

Lo que en un principio parece un diario de viaje de un explorador y cartógrafo, termina convertido en la construcción de un relato basado en la amistad recíproca, pura y libre de prejuicios, un poco parecido a lo que algunos pudimos ver en la famosa película “Danza con Lobos” de Kevin Costner (1990).

Un grandioso clásico que ha superado la barrera del tiempo y de ese siglo que ya lleva a cuestas, como un enorme y robusto cedro de la taiga Ussuriana que aún se mantiene en pie.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you currently lament the loss of the natural world and the exploitation of its resources and indigenous people, read this account of the same behavior from 115 years ago.

I’d seen the Kurosawa film and knew it was based on real people but was not aware of the book which is a classic. It did not disappoint. A matter of fact narrative of three expeditions from 1902-1908 in the Siberian Far East conducted by Arseniev. But it’s also a lament on the treatment of nature and indigenous peoples by “civilized” man.

Arseniev is like a Russian John Muir as he chronicles the flora and fauna of the taiga and mountains in the Ussuria region. He laments the wastage in game perpetrated by the Chinese as well as their exploitation of indigenous peoples into peon like slavery through debt and opium addiction. Arseniev routinely starts in May and finishes in November. He tends to minimize his role in the planning and logistics required but one knows it was anything but that. There’s a high level of spontaneity too. It’s a team effort with natives and Cossack soldiers. The Cossacks are real mountain men and show their endurance and resilience.

It is on the first expedition that Arseniev meets Dersu in the forest and they soon become inseparable. Dersu possesses a sixth sense and his skill as a tracker borders on the sublime. He’s like Mr Miyagi in The Karate Kid. His benevolent character endears him to even the rough and tough Cossacks. Lots of danger from not only the tigers and bears but also the weather. Dersu saves Arseniev’s life when a blizzard traps them.

By the third expedition Dersu is losing his keen vision which enables him to sight in on game. Arseniev offers his home in town to him. It’s too difficult an adjustment for Dersu as he chops a tree down in a park and is arrested. Arseniev then arranges for Dersu to live with a friend in the mountains. Shortly afterwards Arseniev is notified that Dersu’s body has been found. The book ends with Arseniev going back a year or two later to visit Dersu’s grave and unable to locate it due to development.

[Mariangel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a travel diary about Arsenyev's explorations of remote areas of eastern Russia, bordering with China. What makes the book special is the character of Dersu Uzala, a member of the gold tribe who has spent his life hunting in the wilderness. Dersu's knowledge of animal habits and atmospheric changes makes him an invaluable guide for several of Arsenyev's expeditions, as well as a good friend. However, during the last expedition, Dersu realizes that his eyesight is failing, and Arsenyev invites him to come live with him in the city.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great historical travelogue, a well born Russian officer exploring far eastern Siberia with a guide named Dersu. The area they are in is basically the part of Russia that is right next to China and Korea, the bit that's so far from Russia that it's really kinda crazy that it's even part of Russia, but it is. They get caught in blizzards and have run-ins with Siberian tigers and navigate icy rivers. Some of the first two expeditions drag a bit because Arseniev has this need to mention every tree and bird that he sees, and what the flowers looked like and what European flowers they resemble and what birds were in which tree and wether they were scared of him or didn't seem to care. That stuff should just be skimmed over though, unless you just adore Siberian botany or something. The real good stuff here is the window into what life was like in this area a hundred years ago.
I found it very interesting to think about the cross cultural stuff here. Arseniev is remarkably open to discussing the value of Dersu's native beliefs and animism, and he really puts the guy on a pedestal. He openly discusses the ways that the native way of life is superior to his 'cultured' background. But he does this partially because he spent his youth reading American frontier literature like 'Last of the Mohicans', and all kinds of other books that talked about American Indians as noble savages, and it was almost like he couldn't wait to get out to Siberia to find his own noble savages to write about. So off he went, and lo and behold, he found one.
Incidentally, Siberian tigers seem pretty badass. Can you imagine walking around the forest, not the jungle, just forest like we have in Maine and running into one of those things? No wonder the natives respected the hell out of nature. A mountain lion might kill someone once in a while, if it was starving, but these tigers will eat you soon as look at you.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this memoir of Siberian exploration because of Akira Kurosawa's superb film "Dersu Usala" which was based on it. Evidently it is or was a pretty well known book in Russia, but it reads exactly like a tale of adventure and discovery from a century earlier in the United States. It's a lot like reading about the Lewis & Clark expedition except that the explorers feel no shame in acknowledging how much the native saved their asses. V.K. Arseniev considered himself great friends with his Goldi guide Dersu. There's a lot of respect and admiration in his writing, as much for Dersu's determination to live just past the edge of the encroaching modern world as for the native wisdom without which Arseniev and the rest of his corps of discovery would have perished on several occasions.

[Iago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conocí esta novela por la película homónima (de Akira Kurosawa, 1975), que me encantó. La historia trata sobre un grupo de exploradores rusos que hacen una expedición a una zona en concreto de la Taiga y que conocen a un cazador con creencias animistas. El jefe de la expedición (que es el autor de la novela) entabla amistad con él, y aprende muchísimo de la vida del bosque. De su flora, de su fauna, del clima, de sus pobladores que viven de la caza y la recolección... Las descripciones de lo que vive el autor son mágicas. Uno se queda con ganas de ir a esos vastos bosques y vivir un tiempo en modo salvaje. Muy recomendable para todo tipo de lectores.

[Nicolas LeBrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un beau récit sur la nature et l'amitié qui donne franchement envie de quitter la ville pour partir à l'aventure...un jour

[Ana Sánchez Ferrón · Rating 5 out of 5]

És un dels llibres més macos que he llegit.

[Beatrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure why it took me 9 months to read this book. Whenever I opened it, I always progressed quite a lot in it, but when I didn't open it, I often didn't open it for months. And not because I didn't like it - I liked it a lot.

Still, I don't think this book suffers from my lack of speed. The adventures of Diersu and Arseniev - though often really dangerous and wild - are not the kind of adventures that compel the reader to run through them. I think it's because even though the adventures and explorations described in the book are factual and probably mostly real, the book is slow and pleasantly old-fashioned, and it managed to transport my imagination from the reality of 2020 into a very different world much more successfully than any kind of escapist fiction book could have done. And I really enjoyed being in this long-gone world, and I liked Arseniev's slow yet purposeful exploration.

And of course: I like and admire the idealized figure of Diersu - who couldn't?

Besides Diersu's knowledge of the wilderness and his uncanny path-finding and detective skills, I only enjoyed Arseniev's style more. I suppose he wasn't trying to be funny, but I did find it nicely funny that whenever he described a dangerous event, a crossing over a flooding river, an animal attack, a case of getting lost, or even just a surprisingly quiet and tender moment in the camp, he usually finished his description by saying: by the way, the mountains nearby are mostly composed of this and that mineral; and the neighboring forests are made up of this and that type of trees.
Of course, Arseniev was walking in the wilderness with a scientific purpose, so I understand that he always cuts the more story-oriented or emotional parts short. Yet - my favorite parts of the book are exactly the bits of stories and the bits of emotions: yes, the adventures themselves, Arseniev's meditations about the mysterious beauty of life and the wilderness, and the little sections here and there where Arseniev talks about society, about the habits of the different nationalities living in the area, or about the unstoppable progress of civilization - and luckily, there's quite a lot of such ruminations in the book, so my curiosity is satisfied, and in the end, I finished this book with a certain sad satisfaction - the ending feels like a symbolic ending to this whole era of exploration, not just the ending of this particular journey.

[Mikel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dersú Uzalá es un clásico de la literatura rusa, fue escrito por el militar y explorador Vladímir Arséniev en 1923 y relata las memorias de una expedición por la cuenca del río Ussuri y las montañas Sijoté-Alín en el extremo oriental del Imperio ruso en 1908, expedición que sirvió para explorar y cartografíar toda esa región, que en aquel momento era prácticamente desconocida. Un libro plagado de descripciones geográficas, zoológicas, botánicas y etnográficas, pero también lleno de pequeñas historias humanas del día a día de una expedición, que se va abriendo paso por un territorio inexplorado y muchas veces hostil, en lucha constante contra los elementos y lo que es más importante, lleno de profundas reflexiones del autor, nacidas de la observación, unas reflexiones que destilan gran sensibilidad, maravillándose a cada paso ante el encuentro con una naturaleza bella e indómita y a la vez urgencia y tristeza por el futuro sombrío e incierto de esa naturaleza, que ya empezaba a ser explotada y destruida sistemáticamente. Es ahora, poco más de cien años después de esa expedición, cuando estamos viendo toda esta devastación, muerte y extinción de innumerables especies provocadas por la falta de conciencia del ser humano y por este capitalismo devorador e insostenible que se ha enseñoreado del planeta, como un virus letal.

Podéis encontrar el resto de la reseña en mi página web: https://entreficciones.com/dersu-uzala/

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stayed up late reading this tender, touching, beautiful and sad classic memoir. The character of Dersu Uzala is a composite, according to the introduction, yet he is based on real people and is lovingly and beautifully portrayed, leaves a stamp on the imagination and made me want to go camping again. The essence of this book is Arsenyev's nostalgia and his loving wish to record for posterity this beautiful possibility of a way of life in harmony with the elements. It's as if he is leaving a trail for us to follow. A. is already conscious of a natural world under threat from the enslavement and oppression of native peoples, callously unnecessary hunting practices of so called "developed" cultures who lack compassion and a sense of interdependence. Arsenyev predicts the desertification of once naturally abundant ecosystems. Seems invaluable now to listen to voices like this -- the voices of the trees.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and this film about the Russian Far East. Dersu is a member of the Gold tribe--a tribe of hunters of the Russian Far East. He becomes a tracker for the legendary, but also real, explorer V.K. Arsenyev. The encounters with tigers, seals, and just Arsenyev's encyclopedic knowledge of flora and fauna makes this a great story about nature, about friendship, and about what is lost when progress takes over. The book is a classic and deserves to be rediscovered and Dersu is a true hero. Five stars.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly a naturalist's travelogue through east Russian taiga around 1900, this book reminds me of Wallace's _The Malay Archipelago_ with snow and ice. More significantly, it also has the character of Dersu, a native of the area who grew up fending for himself in the wilds. Much of the attraction of this book lies in descriptions of how Dersu reads the clues of the trail, the animals, and the weather, not merely with experience, but often with the logical inference one might expect from Sherlock Holmes.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arsenyev's work is a hidden jewel in Russian literature with it's simple yet poetic depiction of the immense grandeur of nature, perilous yet humbling adventuring and relationship with an expectational character of endearing inconsistencies and a gorgeous world view.
The reports into the landscapes and many numerous native and migrated peoples of the Ussurian Taiga are truly spectacular crossing many languages, races and cultures.

[Luiz Santiago · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um dos melhores livros que tive a oportunidade de ler este ano. Desde o início o leitor fica preso à narrativa, que além de nos relembrar um bocado de geografia daquela porção da Ásia, nos faz pensar a natureza de modo muito diferente. O final é igualmente poderoso. Esta é uma bela história de amizade para se reler de tempos em tempos.

[Batuhan Can · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bazı coğrafyalarda insanlar hayvanların tersine rekabet ederek değil birbirine destek olarak dayanışma içerisinde hayatta kalırlar. kitaptan çıkarılacak bir çok ders ve bakılacak bir çok farklı pencere var.Dersu'nun şehir ve temel ihtiyaçlar üzerine konuşması da çok harikaydı. Bu yüzden herkese okumasını tavsiye ederim. Zaten hacimli değil ayrıca akıcı bir kitap.

[Pablo Tierno Streich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viajes de exploración por la remota cordillera del Sikhote-Alin, en Siberia. Arseniév narra sus aventuras junto a Dersu Uzala, indígena nanái que le hace de guía por la región y con el que entabla amistad. A la vez que documenta el día a día de las expediciones, Arseniév realiza observaciones sobre la fauna, flora y climatología local, así como sobre las técnicas de supervivencia, tradiciones y creencias de los indígenas de la taiga. Esa combinación de temáticas hace que el libro sea interesante de principio a fin.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ya quisieran muchos escribir igual de bien que el capitán Arseniev. Sus crónicas gozan de un lirismo y una capacidad evocadora envidiables, y su narración rebosa autenticidad y honestidad. He tardado al menos un mes en leerlo, disfrutando cada palabra, transportado a la taiga de la mano de este curioso y tenaz explorador que se encontró con alguien fascinante y cuya amistad trascendió las barreras del espacio y el tiempo.

[David]

Molt bon llibre! El vaig descobrir per l'adaptació que va fer l'Akira Kurosawa, que també recomano. Crec que prefereixo el llibre, tot i que la pel·lícula la vaig veure fa cosa de 8 anys i quasi no me'n recordo. El llibre, això sí, es pot fer pesat perquè és més un diari de viatge que res. Tot i això , té un encant que no he trobat enlloc més i el recomano al 100%

[Nuria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Por la sinopsis me esperaba otra cosa, no un libro tan detallado en sus descripciones e información geográfica.
Que el personaje titular de la novela tenga una presencia tan anecdótica me mosquea bastante. He decidido darle dos estrellas y no tres justamente por esto.
El mejor capítulo ha sido el último donde la interacción entre el autor y Dersú brillaba con todo su esplendor.