[Haruchunja] 'Love Is Stronger Than Death' <1> - Conversation

Editor's NoteAsia Economy introduces this week's "One Thousand Characters a Day" newsletter readers to a prose poem by the great 19th-century Russian writer Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. Turgenev wrote many novels that realistically depicted 19th-century Russian society while offering insights into human nature, including ＜First Love＞ and ＜Fathers and Sons＞. His prose poems created in his later years are praised for condensing Turgenev's unique compassion for humanity, a sharp, distanced perspective, and fantastic imagery, all showcasing the mastery of a great artist. Professor Jo Joo-kwan, the foremost authority on Russian literature in Korea and Honorary Professor at Yonsei University, completed the first full Korean translation of all 83 of Turgenev's prose poems in 2018, marking the 200th anniversary of Turgenev's birth. Among them is the prose poem ＜Conversation＞, which begins with "There were no human footprints yet on the Jungfrau or the Finsteraarhorn." The text contains 1002 characters.

The summit of the Alps... a continuous chain of rugged peaks... the very heart of the mountains.

A silent bright sky of purgatorial blue spreads above the mountain. Bitter cold. Sparkling frozen snow. A stern rock mass, covered with ice and weathering wind and rain, rising piercingly through the snow.

Two rock masses rising from opposite horizons, two giants: the Jungfrau and the Finsteraarhorn.

The Jungfrau speaks to its neighbor.

"Any news? You have a better view. How is it down there?"

A few thousand years pass in an instant. The Finsteraarhorn's answer echoes.

"The earth is covered with thick clouds... wait!"

Again, thousands of years pass in an instant.

"Well, how is it now?" the Jungfrau asks.

"Now I can see. Down there remains the same. Mottled and small. The water is blue, the forest dark, and the piled stones are gray. Beetles still swarm around. As you know, those two-legged creatures who have never once defiled you or me yet."

"Humans?"

"Yes, humans."

Thousands of years flow in an instant.

"Well, how is it now?" the Jungfrau asks.

"The beetles seem fewer," the Finsteraarhorn replies loudly.

"The view below has become clearer. The water has decreased, and the forest has thinned."

Again, thousands of years pass.

"What do you see?" the Jungfrau asks.

"Our surroundings seem very clean," the Finsteraarhorn answers.

"There are still spots along the distant valley, and something moves slightly."

"Then how is it now?" After thousands of years pass in an instant, the Jungfrau asks.

"Now it is good," the Finsteraarhorn replies.

"Everywhere has become clean, completely white everywhere... Everywhere is all our eyes. Snow and ice are evenly spread. Everything has frozen. Now it is enough, it is quiet."

"Good," the Jungfrau murmurs. "Old friend, anyway, we have talked enough; it is time to rest."

"Time to rest."

The giant mountains are sleeping. The clear blue sky also sleeps forever over the silent earth.

-Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, ＜Love is Stronger than Death＞, translated by Jo Joo-kwan, Minumsa, 10,000 KRW