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Read The Three-Arched Bridge (2005)

The Three-Arched Bridge (2005)

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3.9 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
1559707925 (ISBN13: 9781559707923)
Language
English
Publisher
arcade publishing

The Three-Arched Bridge (2005) - Plot & Excerpts

الجسر كاداريه من جديد، اقترب متهيباً، فالذروة التي وصلتها مع (الحصار)، أعقبها هبوط مع (قصة مدينة الحجر)، فما الذي يخبئه لي كاداريه في جسره؟ صفحتين فقط، كل ما كان كاداريه يحتاجه ليشد أذني قبل انتباهي، وكأن الألباني العجوز الذي أمتعني في (الحصار) و(دورنتين) و(الوحش) غاضب من تشكيكي بقدراته، في هذه الرواية تتردد كالعادة موضوعة كاداريه الأثيرة الأسطورة عندما تمتزج بالواقع، لتصنع عالماً خاصاً. تدور أحداث الرواية في ألبانيا القرون الوسطى، على ضفة نهر الأويان يصرع رجل غريب، فيتحدث الناس عن أن هذه إشارة سماوية لبناء جسر على النهر، وبالفعل يظهر رجال غرباء ويتكفلون أمام الكونت (سترس دي جيكا) سيد البلد بتنفيذ الإشارة السماوية وبناء الجسر، هذا التطور في الأحداث يضر من سماهم المؤلف المائيين وهم أصحاب العبارات التي تنقل الناس بين ضفتي النهر، فعملهم الآن سيتوقف لو حقق الأرضيون أحلامهم وبنوا الجسر، ويبدأ الصراع مع بداية بناء الجسر، تظهر علامات تخريب ومحاولات لإعاقة إنجاز الجسر، كل هذا في ظل صراع دولي يخيم على البلقان مع محاولات العثمانيين الاستيلاء على قاعدة بحرية مهمة تدعى (أوريكوم) تكون منفذاً لهم يسيطرون من خلاله على جميع البلقان، هنا تتجلى عبقرية كاداريه عندما يستعيد أسطورة ألبانية تتناول قصة ثلاثة أخوة كانوا يبنون حصناً، وكيف أن جدران هذا الحصن كانت تنهار ليلاً، فلذا قرروا تقديم أضحية للجدران حتى تتماسك عملاً بنصيحة حكيم مشهور، فقاموا بحبس إحدى زوجاتهم، وهكذا سكنت الجدران ولم تنهر، هذه الأسطورة تتم مساءلتها واستعادتها ببراعة لإكمال بناء الجسر الذي يتهدم في كل ليلة، هل كان الرجل المصروع مدفوع من العثمانيين حتى يتم بناء الجسر الذي يمكنهم من خلاله نقل قواتهم بشكل سريع، فيسيطرون على قاعدة (أوريكوم)؟ الرجل الذي تم حبسه في الجسر كما في الأسطورة، هل هو ضحية أسطورة؟ أم أنه كان جاسوساً للمائيين، نال عقابه على يد الأرضيين، وتم الاستعانة بالأسطورة لإخفاء الجريمة؟ كل هذه أسئلة تثار ببراعة. لا أظن أن هناك من يضارع كاداريه في توظيف الأساطير، أسطورة حصان طروادة في (الوحش)، وأسطورة البسٌا في (من أعاد دورنتين؟)، والآن أسطورة الحبس في جدار في (الجسر)، عظمة لا يدانيها أحد.

The Three-Arched Bridge, written in Albania between 1976 and 1978, is based on a myth of sacrifice and creation, which also appears in other works by Kadare, and is present in different versions throughout the Balkans. The legend is about three brothers, all masons, whose efforts to build a castle were in vain because everything built during daytime was destroyed by an unknown force at night. After having unsuccessfully worked for a long time, the masons are told by a wise man that the construction will endure only if a human life is sacrificed, so the brothers decide to immure one of their brides in the foundations. The sacrifice should strike the first wife to come in the morning with the midday meal for her husband, and the youngest wife is consequently walled up alive, one breast left out so she can feed her infant even after her death. According to the narrator of The Three-Arched Bridge, the monk Gjon, the kernel of the legend was the idea that all labor requires some kind of sacrifice, and the spilled blood is in fact sweat. But the legend becomes reality when the construction of a bridge demands a human life, and a mason is found immured in the bridge piers. Thus, the notion of sacrifice, which is at the core of the story, can be read in several ways: as a legend, as a crime done in the name of the bridge, as the idea that all human orders are founded on blood, and at the end of the novel, when the monk, author of “this chronicle, [which:] like the bridge itself, may demand a sacrifice,” announces his own sacrifice, as a commentary on the essence of great art, always built on the sacrifice of the artist.

What do You think about The Three-Arched Bridge (2005)?

As the title of the book says, Ismail Kadare's De brug met drie bogen is about a bridge. It is constructed in the period 1377-1379 in a small Albanian village. The narrator, a monk named Gjon, intents to chronicle the construction of the bridge during bleak times. I am a proponent of a political reading: the bridge is constructed at a time when the Ottoman Empire expands on to the Balkan and threatens the people of the village. This is also a time of flowering capitalism. The bridge connects these two: the economic tide has demanded a bridge to be built, in order to ensure a stable route for trade, thereby enabling the Ottomans to approach faster. The villagers fear the bridge and they fear the Ottomans. Theirs is a world of myths and legends, some of which are crushed by the things the new era brings. Kadare remains true to these people: he doesn't condemn them, nor does he idealise them.Where I think he falls short, is when Gjon tries to say something about the Ottoman invasion. At one point, he is sent to the border of Albania with the Ottoman Empire. He remarks that this is where Asia now starts. Asia is in Europe! I find it somewhat strange to believe somebody from the end of the fourteenth century thinks like that. Or, when he hears of Albanian counties adopting the Muslim calendar, which effectively throws them back 600 years, he mocks them. That, to me, feels to modern to be believable.
—Jesse

As the narrator says, this is a simple but complex story. The narrator, a monk, called upon to translate for the rulers of his tiny universe, watches and reports on the building of a bridge and the changing landscape.There is the imagery of the middle ages, its superstition, its brutality, its insularity and the, perhaps, self fulfilling outlook that the world is beyond their control.The ruler of this area refuses a good strategic marriage for his daughter without concern for the wider world and the ramifications of his refusal on his citizens.Larger interests want a bridge. Those with vested interests for and against its construction use myths and superstition to manipulate the public.Once built, the bridge opens new worlds to people who are afraid to cross it. Eventually there is no alternative for crossing the river. Then, people have to pay to use the bridge. The world intrudes in ways that the ruler has no control over. The bridge is not the cause of these intrusions, but clearly aids and abets them.This book should be more compelling. It's hard to say why it isn't. The problem could be could be a weak translation or it could be that the personality of the narrator is not developed. This book has a great theme and presents a very good sketch of life in the middle ages, the subtle intrusion of the Ottoman Empire and the evolution of technology. While it is a good narrative, the content is powerful and deserves an even stronger narrative.
—Louise

In 1377 a monk, Gjon [John] Ukcama, begins his chronicle of the events of that time in his corner of Albania. What follows is a mesmerizing, frightening tale. It can be read on several levels; the straightforward narrative of a bridge being built over a raging river, the Ujana e Keqe ["Wild waters"], construction undermined by sabotage, bitter rivalry between two entities: Boats & Rafts and Roads & Bridges. Byzantium is crumbling; the Ottoman Empire encroaches on Albania; Gjon writes on the last page of his chronicle, "times are black; soon night may fall..." "I, the monk Gjon, sonne of Gjorg Ukcama, who hath finished this knowynge that ther is no thynge wrytene in owre tonge about the Brigge of the Ujana e Keqe and the euil whyche is upon us, and for the love of owre worlde." Or the novella can be read on an allegorical level. Kadare lived during the brutal dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, so most of what he wrote is purposely veiled in hidden meaning. This tale could be the bloody history of his people, possibly present-day [well, when Kadare wrote it in 1976-78] events. The author used the conflict of the 14th century as a metaphor. The man walled up in the bridge, a sacrifice to propitiate the bridge, seemed like a symbol that Albania would not progress without violence and shedding of blood. The short chapters ranging from one to five pp. brought to my mind old Hollywood movies where tearing off calendar pages would indicate passage of time. I have read other Kadare and he can be difficult to understand, but this parable seemed unambiguous. It reminds me of the surreal, grotesque stories of Kafka in how this story and those of Kafka's can have layered meanings. The atmosphere of desolation and foreboding is conveyed marvelously throughout.
—Jane

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