Jakob Vaserman: Zašto bijete ruku koja za vas stvara?

Abstract

Jakob Vaserman pisao je uglavnom novele i romane – njegova djela su prevedena na sve svjetske jezike, bio je "slavan i čuven" književnik, jedan među prvima na njemačkom Parnasu, koji u tom periodu nije oskudjevao velikim i blistavim imenima. Sve svoje sposobnosti, svoje jevrejsko i evropsko obrazovanje, stavlja u službu književnog stvaranja. Od svoje šesnaeste godine, nakon što je završio školu, bio je prepušten sam sebi. Deset godina, koje su slijedile, prikazao je u romanu "Engelhart Ratgeber". Opisao je kako je stigao do ujaka u Beč i kakav je bio početak njegove trgovačke karijere, kako je nakon nekoliko mjeseci pobjegao, kako i drugi put odlazi u Beč, kako ponovno bježi, kako u Vircburgu služi vojni rok, doživljavajući beskrajna poniženja, kako pokušava da se probije u Nirnbergu, Cirihu, Frajburgu, kako mu u Minhenu dvaput vraćaju rukopise. Svuda se kreće bez ikakvih sredstava, gladan luta šumama danima i tjednima, nalazeći sklonište jedino kod seljaka, gdje mu djeca donose hljeb, jer im priča priče koje izmišlja. Spasila ga je priroda i – riječ.

Jacob Wasserman wrote mostly novels - his works were translated into all world languages, he was a "glorious and famous" writer, one of the leading in German Parnassus, that did not miss the great and glamorous names during that period. He put in service of literary creation all his abilities, his Jewish and European education. From the age of sixteen, after leaving school, he was left to himself. He presented the ten years that followed in the novel "Engelhart Ratgeber". He described how he reached his uncle in Vienna and his career at the beginning; how he escaped after a few months; how he went to Vienna a second time; his escape again; military service in Wurzburg; endless humiliation; how trying to came through in Nürnberg, Zurich, Freiburg; returning his manuscripts twice in Munich. He moves everywhere without any means, hungry, wandering the woods for days and weeks, finding shelter only with the villagers, where his children bring him the bread because he tells them the stories he invents. Nature and the word saved him.