Hurska's kurjuus
Hurskas kurjuus is a novel by the Finnish Nobel Prize winner Frans Eemil Sillanpää . In German it first appeared in 1948 in a translation by Edzard Schaper as Das pious misery , later under the title Die Die und Auferstehen . In 2014 a new translation by Reetta Karjalainen and Anu Katariina Lindemann was published under the title Frommes Elend . He describes the life story of Johan Abraham Benjaminsson and how it happened that he was executed by “whites” at the age of 60 in the Finnish Civil War . The novel was published just a year after the Civil War in 1919.
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The main character of the novel, even if she is entered in the church book as Johan Abraham Benjaminsson, actually has no name. Depending on the occasion it is called Jussi Juha, Johan or Janne, which is preceded by the absence of last name, the place name: Nikkilä-Jussi, Tuorila-Jussi Toivola-Juha etc. This man comes in 1857 on the Nikkilä farm in the landscape Satakunta to the world . His father is the alcoholic farmer Penjami, who impregnated his maid and later third wife Maja. Despite the marriage, Maja continues to address her husband as “farmer” and “you”. Two daughters from a previous marriage also live on the farm. Jussi has poor thinking skills. His first memory is how the father beat up his mother. The children only receive undivided attention if they also receive a beating.
In the summer of 1866 it rained continuously, the field remained untilled and the time of debt to the Olilla farmer began. At the height of the famine , the cattle are even thrown the putrid straw from the barn roof to eat. The decline becomes apparent when the beggars are no longer chased from the farm. Finally, Jussi's father gives his basic letter for bread and brandy to Olilla. The community bailiff comes to drive the family away, but Penjami - the last representative in a long line of farmers - dies on the last night he is allowed to spend on the farm.
The mother leaves the farm with her little son, and the step-sisters and farmhands also join the long trains of beggars, from which occasionally a dead man is left lying on the roadside. Maja brings her child to her brother in Tuorila, where Jussi is allowed to stay on the condition that she moves on herself. In the spring she returns to the farm terminally ill and dies. Jussi's childhood is over.
His uncle Kalle does not have to go hungry, because he distributes the state aid supplies, of which little reaches those in need. The dumb Jussi works as a shepherd and is assigned a place in the back room. He was confirmed at the age of 16. His position in the community of servants and maidservants is unclear to him, before he comes of age at 21, he is not allowed to leave. When everyone else is having fun in the village on Sundays, he stays on the farm. On one occasion he is beaten with an end of a rope by the farmer, his own uncle.
Uncle Kalle succeeds in the business of his life by selling a piece of forest and the increased prosperity also broadens his intellectual horizon. Uncle and aunt feel drawn to the awakening Finnism . They organize a festival to which purely Swedish people are invited. Jussi is supposed to look after the horses. Kustaa - one of his confirmation mates - allows himself the trick of loosening the screws from the wagon wheels. Jussi tries to tighten the screws again, but he no longer succeeds in all cars. The resulting accidents are blamed on him and he is chased from the yard.
Jussi flees to his supposed friend Kustaa on the Kate in Toivola, but he is not ready to take responsibility for his prank and is silent. When the forest is cut down, Jussi becomes a forest worker. The workers form a team in pairs and are also paid in pairs, with Jussi being defrauded again. Only when foreman Keinonen realizes how bad he has been played does he ensure that the wages are paid out individually - for the first time in his life, Jussi has experienced something like justice. But dealing with his own money overwhelmed him and he gambled it away again with a game of cards.
When the forest is cleared, it stays with the forest workers and hires out rafting. Since he still lacks a surname, he is now jokingly called "John the Baptist". He stays in Keinonen's service, cuts trees in various areas of Finland and occasionally experiences moments of happiness in nature. When Keinonen suddenly dies, he is in his hometown of Nikkilä, of all places.
Jussi, who is now called Juha, stays in Nikkilä, where the former parental farm has become the best farm in the village under the new farmer. A feeling of defiance rises in Juha at the sight. He works as a servant on a small farm. He has not yet had any experience with women, but when he makes advances to the maid Riina, she surprisingly agrees. One evening he drinks his courage, wins a little fight and lies in her bed in this exhilaration. She has been impregnated by the farmer's son, but has no hope of marriage and foisted the child-to-be on Juha. He believes the story of his fatherhood and marries Riina. You get a kätner position at the Yrjölä farmer, but the resulting rights and obligations are not recorded in writing. When Juha succeeds in getting the Kätner position in good shape, he receives a visit from the farmer who claims that Juha has not kept the agreements. In the panic of losing his livelihood, Juha - who is more and more often called Janne - agrees to further work commitments.
Riina gives birth to her first son Kalle Johannes, has more children in quick succession - Ville, Hiltu, Lempi, Martti - and sits limp between pregnancies. The married couple quarrel, and Janne is increasingly talking about the brandy; on the other hand, he makes good money with paper feeds. The firstborn son Kalle beats his brother Ville to a cripple in an argument, whereupon his mother finds him a job far from the village. Ville is languishing. Janne sells his only horse for reasons that he later no longer understands, and the farm goes to waste. When the Yrjölä farmer is replaced by the son, the latter does not recognize the rights and obligations of the farmer.
In his distress, Juha wanders to his relatives in Tuorila and asks for help. There he saw a phone for the first time in his life. He receives ten marks and sleeps in a cleanly made bed. Stimulated by the unusual circumstances, he takes stock of his life at the age of 50. The son Ville dies, however, and Riina's strength also decreases. Juha suffers a breach that he keeps secret. Riina has cancer, collapses after a sauna visit, and dies after a few days. In the following years Juha flourished, although he now had two small children to look after. He remains a Kätner and has to continue doing daily work. The eldest daughter Hiltu becomes a maid for a principal in the city. From there he receives a letter from the almost forgotten son Kalle, who has become a carter. Kalle also regularly sends him a social democratic newspaper so that he becomes aware of the social issue. One day a letter arrives from Kalle, in which he reports that Hiltu had killed himself.
When Janne took up his job at the Yrjölä farmer, a day's work with which he processed the lease consisted of fifteen hours. The growing prosperity also affects him, a working day now only has twelve hours. Juha can now vote, but does not use his right to vote. Although he is objectively better, his dissatisfaction grows. In the village he gives inflammatory speeches in which religious references repeatedly flow. Red flags are carried at a funeral, while the gentlemen have raised the white flag with the blue cross. In the summer of 1917 there was a strike in the dairy. The social democratic idea replaces eternal bliss.
His own Kate is decaying, lice are nesting. There is no more hay for the cow, only potatoes with brine for the children. Juha made friends with a socialist named Rinne, who occasionally slipped him money. When he visits Rinne again, he ends up in a conspiratorial meeting where weapons can also be seen.
During the "red" period, the men collect compulsory taxes from the farmers, in which Juha also takes part. Juha's own son appears as a company commander, but the relationship remains distant. In the civil war, which the comrades call the "War of Freedom", the front runs very close to Kuuskoski. Juha is instructed by them to take care of the Lord over Paitula. The front at Kuuskoski collapses, Juha encounters fleeing soldiers, but is unsure himself what to do. During the night figures appear to pick up the gentleman from Paitula, later Juha hears gunshots.
He wanders home, where nothing has changed, gets his rifle, and looks for the corpse, which he also finds. In a panic, he lays the rifle next to the corpse and flees - later the rifle can be assigned to him, and he has also been seen near Paitula. Juha is picked up by “white” nationalists and locked in a makeshift prison camp. The judges, who barely speak Finnish, sentenced nine of the prisoners to be shot dead. The prisoners have to undress at the mass grave. Juha, who comes last, lies down next to the other corpses, which the firing squad doesn't like. He has to get up again and is shot.
Hiltu and Ragnar
One of the chapters originally contained the story of the retarded daughter Hiltu, who was housed as a maid. Sillanpää reworked it into the independent story Hiltu ja Ragnar , which appeared in 1923. In 2015 Hiltu and Ragnar appeared in the German translation by Reetta Karjalainen.
Original edition
- Hurska's kurjuus . Porvoo 1919.
Translations
- German: The pious misery . Classen, Zurich 1948. Translated by Edzard Schaper.
- later under the title: Dying and Resurrecting . Fischer, Frankfurt and Hamburg 1956. The same.
- Pious misery . Guggolz Verlag, Berlin 2014. Translated by Reetta Karjalainen and Anu Katariina Lindemann
- Swedish: Det fromma eländet
- English: Meek Heritage