“.. during all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared this would become known.” –ย Solzhenitsyn
When I quit work to pursue writing, part of me just wanted to get published. There were even weak moments of wanting to write something easily palatable, just like the bite-sized forgettable fictions that readers can ingest in a gulp. After two years of both actively and passively pursuing my ambitions, I read Tolstoy and it changed things. His understanding of human character gave me a glimpse of what the originalย Anna Kareninaย would have been like and how I, without any knowledge of Russian, would never experience it. An idea, masked in disappointment, was born that day.
Pursuing writing is a scary thing, specially due to its unpredictability and subjective nature. When people think of a writer, they imagine a dreamy artist lost in pen and paper. However, how would you feel if I were to tell you about a certain author who mentally wrote a 12,000 line autobiographical poem without pen and paper, amidst terrible tortures of a labour camp over a course of five years? Or, what about a writer who risked horrifying fate just to write his book, a manuscript whose safety was the last thing he ensured when he rose from his deathbed one final time?
It sounds unbelievable to the most of us, sitting comfortably in our so-called safe homes, to picture writers of some of the best literature in history who just wanted to write, without any desire to be published or even get known. Yet, this is exactly how it happened in Soviet Russia.
The opening quote of this piece is by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and who was indeed the aforementioned author who mentally wrote works in a labour camp. The latter events are from the life of Mikhail Bulgakov, the writer ofย The Master and Margarita, as told by his widow who published his manuscript 26 years after his death, when the ruling regime changed.
Living in the 21st century, our generation gets much stronger shoulders of history to stand on than any other time in the past. Counterintuitively enough, the instant gratification culture of today disallows us to view the world from the unique vantage point these shoulders offer us. Popular art has become ‘art that sells’, popular literature has become ‘stories easily read’ and popular entertainment is what the Autoplay feature of our video-on-demand websites feeds us.
Popular art has become ‘art that sells’, popular literature has become ‘stories easily read’ and popular entertainment is what the Autoplay feature of our video-on-demand websites feeds us.
My first instinct after reading about these authors was to write about them. Soon enough, it felt like a conveniently empty gesture that would in no way honour their memories. One of the greatest joys of a writer is the feeling of being read and the solution presented itself soon enough.
I will read their works in their original form. It’s rather simple if you think about it. There is no way to honour a writer than to read their works as they intended them to be read. Translations are a tricky thing,ย done more often wrong than right, and I don’t want to read second-hand versions of the tales these minds risked their lives to tell. Learning Russian is my first step towards this goal and that’s what this post is about.
We run around everyday to do things for specific purposes. As a consequence, we quit doing things that don’t serve one. This mindset needs to change. I have decided on a duration of 45 minutes each day to learn Russian to pursue my goal. No more, no less. You can breathe life into your passions with similar daily efforts. Just as I am about to start with my goal, I encourage you all to begin with yours. I don’t really know how long it will take me to make it to my goal, but I will be content with the fact that I am closer to my destination with every passing day.
See you all next Sunday as I post about my progress. I would be happy to entertain all queries via comments and email ๐
Copyright ยฉ Neha Sharma
This is so amazing …..I don’t have an aptitude for different languages ……but I really appreciate your passion for reading to motivate you to learn Russian. Kudos to u gal๐
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Thanks a lot, Sakshi! It’s encouragement of this sort that keeps me going. Appreciate it!
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My pleasure ๐
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You are a brave soul, Neha. To set a goal for something like and stick to it is an act of bravery. I really loved reading this post and you are right in saying that the writers of the 21 century had it easy with freedom of speech and everything. Being a writer, it is always the inner desire to get published but to know about the writers who did for years without any such desire is, humbling.
Though I very late to pass on best wishes for your Russian learning but hope that one day you would be able to read the masterworks in their original writings.
All the best!!
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Your wishes are much appreciated, Megha. What those writers went through and their accompanying reasons always make me feel so small with my normal, human dreams. I hope I live up to my goals pretty soon ๐
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Yes,all the best for that
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Thank you ๐
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Best of luck with your ambition goals. Desire and determination are half the work, so if you set your mind to it you will get it done.
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Thank you for your wishes! I hope so too ๐
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Now I get it. Seems quite interesting. How long have you been doing it?
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I am updating my progress in real-time to keep myself on track, so it’s been exactly 10 weeks now ๐
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Wow. 70 days? Thats super cool. Gave me inspiration as well. If i was to learn – i’ll probably learn the classic english, i’d love to read the classic romantic poetry โค
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Classic poetry is classic for a reason! Go on and count me in for reading your progress posts (if any!) โค
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Sure. I’ll take this into account for the month of august – I’m really happy that we met. ๐ I’ll keep you updated for certain โค
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I will wait! I am glad we met as well โค
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Such a beautifully written piece about passion and determination, things that the great Russian writers who inspired you weren’t short of either! And for the exact same reason I decided to study Russian too. Russian literature is so full of life and timeless, and you can always discover new things, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of ideas for my blog ๐ I wish you all the best with your studies and reading โค๏ธโค๏ธ
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Thank you so much for reading this. It always means so much to hear encouraging words and those words get even special when they come from people who are on a journey similar to your own โค โค
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You’re welcome! I recognise so much of what you write about. And, yes, the greatest tribute to a writer is to read his or her work ๐ My blog is for inspiration and fun ๐
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Your blog has inspired me for sure! What was the first thing that inspired you towards Russian literature? It is always fascinating to hear stories of other readers ๐ ๐
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It was my father, he was a big reader and he particularly loved Russian literature. He gave me the first Russian books to read. I then decided to study Russian. After that I got jobs that had nothing to with Russian or books, and that’s why I started my blog. I’m (re)reading everything and learning a lot. And I’m having a lot of fun ๐
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Wow! That sounds like such a beautiful childhood. So happy to know that you are enjoying this and even happier that we connected today ๐
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Yes, I definitely inherited the passion for books from my father ๐ I’m very happy too that we connected today โค๏ธ
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โค โค
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