Dersu Uzala (Russian: Дерсу Узала; alternate U.S. titles: With Dersu the Hunter and Dersu the Trapper) is a 1923 memoir by the Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, concerning his travels in the Russian Far East with the Goldi hunter Dersu Uzala.
Still photo from the 1975 film Dersu Uzala, with Maxim Munzuk (left front) as Dersu | |
| Author | V. K. Arseniev |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Travelogue |
| Publisher | McPherson |
Publication date | October 1996 |
| Publication place | United States |
| ISBN | 978-0-929701-49-3 |
The story was made into a 1975 film Dersu Uzala, directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Plot
editArsenyev tells of his travels in the Ussuri basin in the Russian Far East. Dersu Uzala (c. 1849–1908) was a Goldi hunter who acted as a guide for Arsenyev's surveying crew mapping the taiga from 1902 to 1907 and saved them from starvation and cold. Arsenyev portrays him as a simple yet great man, an animist who sees animals and plants as equal to man. From 1907, Arsenyev invited Dersu to live in his house in Khabarovsk as Dersu's failing sight hampered his ability to live as a hunter. In the spring of 1908, Dersu bade farewell to Arsenyev and walked back toward his home in the woods of the Primorsky Krai; he was killed before he could reach them, near the town of Korfovskiy, evidently for the highly valuable latest model Russian military rifle given to him by Arsenyev as a parting gift to replace his old, worn, Berdianka. He was buried in a hastily dug grave, unmarked but for Dersu's walking stick, stuck in the earth beside it by a heartsick Arsenyev.
Historical accuracy
editAccording to Arsenyev's diary, he met the historical Dersu in 1906, not 1902. It appears that the Dersu character is a composite of several trappers who Arsenyev met during his expedition.[1] In reality, although Arsenyev was heartbroken by Dersu's murder, he was unable to find his grave.[2]
Editions in Russian
edit- Дерсу Узала. Сквозь тайгу Издательство: Терра - Книжный клуб (1997) Н. Е. Кабанова (ed.) ISBN 9785300010973 (English: Dersu Uzala. Taiga Publishing House: Terra Book Club) (1997) N. ya. Kabanov (ed.) ISBN 9785300010973)
English translations
edit- Dersu the Trapper, translated by Malcolm Burr from the heavily redacted 1926 edition V debryakh Ussuriyskogo kraya (In the wilds of the Ussuri krai)[3]
- Pub: Secker & Warburg, London 1939. First English edition.
- Pub: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. New York: 1941. ISBN 0-929701-49-6 First American edition.
- Pub: McPherson and others, 1996, 2001. ISBN 0-929701-49-6. Mass market paperback.
- Dersu Uzala, translated by Victor Shneerson from the heavily redacted 1944 edition Dersu Uzala[3]
- Pub: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, ca 1950
- Pub: Raduga Publishers, Moscow 1990, ISBN 5-05-002822-1
- Pub: University Press of the Pacific 2004 ISBN 1-4102-1347-1
- With Dersu the Hunter: Adventures in the Taiga, adapted by Anne Terry White. A shortened version of Shneerson's 1950 translation.[3]
- Pub: George Braziller 1965, A Venture Book, New York. ISBN 0-8076-0325-2
Film adaptations
edit- (1961) Dersu Uzala (Дерсу Узала) Soviet Union, director Agasi Babayan
- (1975) Dersu Uzala (Дерсу Узала) Soviet Union/Japan, director Akira Kurosawa
References
edit- ^ Круглов, Леонид (2011). "По следам капитана Арсеньева и Дерсу Узала (Часть 1)". GEO.
- ^ Круглов, Леонид (2011). "По следам капитана Арсеньева и Дерсу Узала (Часть 2)". GEO.
- ^ a b c Arsenyev, Vladimir K. (2016). "Translator's Introduction". Across the Ussuri Kray: Travels in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Translated by Slaght, Jonathan C. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253022196.