The Town of Secrets

Om Ramoth-Bezer

Af : Bruno Berni

Those who have a high regard for translators and translation work usually think that the only thing that distinguishes an author from a translator in their creative work is the story: both produce a piece of stylistic handiwork, which involves sitting down at a desk and filing, smoothing and polishing something, but whereas the author invents the actual story, the translator creates within the confines of a given model. When the latter has practised his art for long enough, however, he wants to employ all his creative talents and to invent the story himself.
   Niels Brunse (born 1949) is mostly known in Denmark as one of the best translators from Russian, German and English and as a writer of books and articles about translation. However, he is also a creative writer and sometimes wants to give expression to all his artistic talents and to invent the story. In fact, there are two stories in Niels Brunse's splendid novel, Ramon-Bezer, which intertwine at many different levels in a most remarkable way.
   The first is the story of the rediscovered manuscript that the protagonist Robert Zahme, a 62-year-old, ex-university teacher, forced into reclusion by what he calls The Beast - a severe form of agoraphobia - has received from one of his former students, Ulla. The girl found the manuscript - Beschreibung einer Reise nach der Stadt Ramoth oder Bezer - at the home of an East German academic, which is the tale of Erhardt von Erlenberg's journey to Ramoth or Bezer in 1767. Ramoth-Bezer - it has two biblical names - is a secret town in Germany, governed by sages, and Ulla told him that while she was staying in Halle, Lienhard von Erlenberg, the Erhardt descendant who had inherited this family heirloom, gave her permission to translate the manuscript into Danish, but not to copy or export it. And it is of this translation that Robert, following the tragic death of Ulla in an accident, is now beginning to make a fair copy.
   The writing of the fair copy is really a waste of time and serves no particular purpose, but it is only through interpreting her handwriting and immersing himself in something she gave him that he can rekindle the memory of Ulla. Then we discover that the girl first tried to help him as a home help when he was ill and isolated, before becoming a good friend whose visits brought many hours of inspired and inspiring conversation. A deep, mutual attachment which remained platonic, thus strengthening their boundless regard for each other, now permeates the whole novel with a gentle atmosphere of love, memory and longing.
   The other story in the novel is the story in the manuscript, the protagonist of which, Erhardt von Erlenberg, relates his experiences in Ramoth-Vezer, the secret town of the sages, which he visits out of curiosity and where, in accordance with the rules of the town, he is detained, since nobody who has seen the town may leave it. Erhardt finds out all about the government of the town, and we follow his increasing interest in the secret of the mysterious perpetual motion machines which keep the town's workshops, mills and clocks going without any visible means of external help, and his growing desire to escape from Ramoth-Bezer, which has become his prison. Erhardt's attempt to unravel the secret of the mysterious formulas runs parallel with Robert's attempt to do the same, despite the inadequate information in Ulla's manuscript.
   But there is also a third story: the story of how Ulla, with the aid of her skills as a translator and a stylist and through her deep attachment to Robert, manages to inspire in him the same interest in the secret, but also the same urge for freedom that makes Erhardt break out of his prison - the town of Ramoth-Bezer - in order to resume his place in the world outside and which makes Robert Zahme conquer his illness and escape from his home and The Beast in order to fly to Munich, where Erlenberg now lives, in order to see the original .... which turns out to be a rather banal Beschreibung einer Reise nach den Städten Mailand und Genua.
   As a final declaration of love, perhaps the last one of her life, the girl had invented a secret in order to draw her curious friend out of his prison, and Ramoth-Bezer (which is an anagram for Robert Zahme) turns out to be a masterly exercise in style on the part of both Ulla and Niels Brunse.

Denne artikel blev første gang bragt i Danish Literary Magazine 12

Oversat af Barbara Haveland