The book wasn t that long, and i stayed home all day so i finished the bookpretty quick. Ihad no idea that Hesse wrote the book in German, and was quite taken aback when i finally noticed (I was about 2 pgs into the book). It was disastrous, becauseI hate translated books. Translations can never do justice to its original. Never. No matter who the translator is, the work is bound to be an utter disaster. And to a novel, for christ s sake! For anovel, prose is everything. The flow, the subtlety, the entire atmosphere is all about the words that comprisethe novel. These are words that have been carefully selected and knitted together by the author to complete a work.I mean, if books were simply about plot, or conveying straight-forward facts, it would be OK to translate them. And it would be perfectlysatisfying to read translations. It wouldn t matter, because the original message would still be unscathed. But it isnever that way with novels. It can never be so.
And so i hate translations. But i kept reading anyways, because a friend of mine recommended this book a while back. She was reading a translation (korean version), too. So i thought i d give it a try. Idid, and just as i d expected, the book had its awkward parts--you know, the certain awkwardness one can feel on translated works. Still, i found the novel intriguing. Ididn t have fun reading it, particularly--but it was interesting. It was interesting to read about someone like Emil Sinclair, and veryappealing (I dont know why exactly) to witness he and Demian s friendship.
Nevertheless, the story didn t touch me that deep. You d expect, from critics or simply from Hesse s manner of narrative, that reading the book wouldenlighten youor something like it. But to be perfectly honest, i have never been so serious about life as Sinclair. So the story doesn t ring to me that much. Ormaybe i just don t get the message Hesse s trying to convey. Idon t know. Maybe I m just ignorant of life and its very substantial meaning. All i know is that i don t want to spend my life in agony or in seclusion. Iwant to cherish it with the peopleI love. That doesn t mean i want to dedicatemy lifeto plain pleasure. ButI want to enjoy itwhile it lasts, which i know isn ttoo long.
Iknow from past experiences that books like "demian" have different messages for one in different passages of life. Like with "the catcher in the rye". Ihad to stuff thewords in my head the 1st, 2nd, 3rd timeI read it (in my middle school years, when mom would yell at me to).But on my last take,I just flew through the book. It made much more sense, and i could relate to it. That was last year. So for "demian",I guessit could havemore meaning when I come back to it a couple of years later.
데미안을 통해 참다운 자아를 찾아가는 소년 싱클레어의 이야기로, 한 폭의 수채화같이 아름답고 유려한 문체로 전 세계인의 사랑을 받고 있는 작품. 감수성이 풍부한 주인공 싱클레어가 소년기에서 청년기를 거쳐 성장해가는 과정이 세밀하고 지적인 문장으로 그려져 있다. 1차 세계대전 직후 패전으로 말미암아 혼미상태에 빠져 있던 독일의 청년들에게 깊은 감명을 주었으며, 문학계에도 일대 센세이션을 일으켰다. 데미안이란 말은 데몬(Demon)과 같은 뜻으로 ‘악마에 홀린 것’이라는 뜻에서 유래했다고 한다. 참 자아를 얻고자 하는 모든 사람들의 필독서.
Demian es la obra que catapulto a Hermann Hesse a la fama. La novela, que refleja la crisis personal de Hesse, es la historia de un hombre desgarrado entre su ordenada vida burguesa y un caotico mundo de sensualidad
1. Two Realms
2. Cain
3. Among Thieves
4. Beatrice
5. The Bird Flights Its Way Out of the Egg
6. Jacob Wrestling
7. Eva
8. The End Begins