困難なのは水源を見つけることではなく、それを見分けることだ。私は牧草地の前に立っている。持ってきた地図は役に立たない。私の目の前には用水路が流れている。水はさほど深くなく、溝幅は(end173)せいぜい五十センチメートル。水面はところどころ穴の開いた黄緑色のアオウキクサの絨毯に覆われ、ほとりには麦わらのような薄黄色のスゲが生えている。地中深くから水が湧き出ていると思われる所にだけ、緑色の苔が繁茂している。何を期待していたのだろう。ほとばしる泉? 案内板? 私はもう一度地図に目を落とし、青いほつれた線を探す。それは緑色で示された森林地帯の下にある、卵殻色 [らんからいろ] の広い部分から始まっている。水源はこの上の方の、何軒かの家の裏手に延びる山林を探すべきかもしれない。この家々のおかげでここは村落になっており、私はタクシーの運転手にその名前を告げることができたのだった。運転手はきっと、私がここに何の用があるのかと訝しく思ったにちがいない。しかも聖土曜日に。だが好奇心だけでは、このあたりの人の口を開かせることはできない。ここの人々は真面目で無関心――まるで名状しがたい苦悩にのみ込まれでもしたかのように――そしてこの土地の風景と同じく、言葉なしでもやっていけるのだった。
(ユーディット・シャランスキー/細井直子訳『失われたいくつかの物の目録』(河出書房新社、二〇二〇年)、173~174; 「グライフスヴァルト港」)
- 一年前からニュース。
(……)新聞一面にはロシア軍がウクライナ全土三一五箇所にミサイル攻撃をおこなったとの報。事前に一〇〇箇所ほどに攻撃すると通告していたらしいが、じっさいにはその三倍になったと。マリウポリはもうほぼ制圧されたようすだが製鉄所を拠点にウクライナ軍とアゾフ大隊の一〇〇〇人ほどが抵抗をつづけており、投降しなければ全滅させるというロシア軍の最後通告も拒否して抗戦をえらんだ。市民らも一〇〇〇人ほどが避難して生活しているらしい。というのもこの製鉄所の地下にはソ連時代につくられたひろい領域があって(図からすると複数階層になっているようだった)、園芸所とかカフェとかもそなえられているといい、市内のほかの地下施設にもつながっているとか。ロシアがわはあたらしい市長の就任をいっぽうてきに発表しており、かんぜんな制圧を待たずに統治をはじめるもようと。
- 「読みかえし2」より。
Ian Garner, “How Putin is preparing children to ‘die for the motherland’”(2022/11/23, Wed.)(https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/23/how-putin-is-preparing-children-to-die-for-the-motherland(https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/23/how-putin-is-preparing-children-to-die-for-the-motherland))
1382
But the regime is also turbocharging indoctrination efforts aimed at its youngest subjects. This includes well-worn tactics such as closing off social media and online dissent, and rolling out propaganda lessons in schools. But its most effective tool may be a myriad of new youth groups that introduce children to the Russian state’s world of constant war with a dazzling barrage of social media infotainment.
The biggest such organisation is the Youth Army, established in 2016 under the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, with the explicit intention of preparing children for careers in the state or military apparatus. It is fronted not by a greying politician, or career soldier, but by the popular 25-year-old Olympic and World Championship gymnast Nikita Nagornyy. Charismatic and handsome, as well as hugely popular on social media, Nagornyy uses influencer-style videos and posts to spread the state’s gospel.
*
Equal parts Instagram influencer, teen heart-throb, and chief scout, Nagornyy is the embodiment of the state’s vision for its youth. He is the perfect role model for a 21st-century paramilitary movement. PR photos show him visiting “veterans” of the war in Ukraine, which Nagornyy has repeatedly praised. In turn, his young followers swamp anyone who steps out of line in comment threads: “Go to Ukraine! We don’t need fascists here! Bon voyage!” All over Russia, groups of “young soldiers” clad in distinctive red berets and khaki uniforms practise military manoeuvres and firing guns, attend lessons on patriotic history and gather aid for the “ethnic Russians” the state purports to be rescuing in Ukraine.
A network of such influencers mirrors Nagornyy’s feeds. The 21-year-old champion skier Veronika Stepanova, for instance, posts about her life as an athlete today, as a teen Youth Army member in the past, and about politics and the war in Ukraine. When a Youth Army “veteran” such as Stepanova praises Putin while receiving a state award, she links her enviable lifestyle, the Youth Army and the regime.
The state has thrown massive political and financial support behind the Youth Army project, and it appears to be paying off. Last year a 185m federal subsidy was announced, and the group is growing rapidly. A million children are already members, and enrolment is projected to hit 20% of the school-age population by 2030.
Membership is painted as an enjoyable way to make friends and attain an influencer-like lifestyle. The Youth Army’s official website is packed with uniformed cartoon characters, warlike video game clips and soft-focus images of smiling “soldiers”. Using the group’s social media feeds and official app, children can play games and photograph themselves completing “patriotic” activities – such as visiting war memorials – to win prizes. Many of the young recruits imitate the methods of Nagornyy and the Youth Army by incorporating their Youth Army participation into their carefully curated social media lives – in particular on TikTok, which, despite an official ban, remains widely popular among Russian teens.
The state promises power, self-actualisation and, above all, social belonging. The apathetic and apolitical are left to gaze at this fantasy world from the outside. A series of Youth Army members and leaders I interviewed this summer were unequivocal: joining up wasn’t a totalitarian imposition; it was a proactive choice to belong to a patriotic community. One regional leader told me that his group could barely cope with the number of applications received since 24 February.
But the Youth Army isn’t an ordinary army cadet group, and patriotic social media chatter is not idle talk. Its members are being taught “to die for the motherland”. They learn serious military skills in classrooms and summer training camps. The Russian media whip up expectations about their military capabilities: “The only reason the Youth Army is on the EU’s sanctions list is the west’s fear of Russian children!”
As the state pivots its propaganda away from the measured inculcation of apathy and toward proactive indoctrination, children as young as six learn to speak the language of war: “I want to defend my country and my loved ones,” one new elementary-aged recruit confidently declared to a local TV journalist. And older children must live its reality. Some of the programme’s graduates are already at the front. Online tributes to the former “youth soldiers” who have “died a hero’s death” in Ukraine reify these young men’s deaths, linking their lives to the unattainable ideal of Nagornyy, to the curated Instagram feeds of “young soldiers,” and finally to the paths that Russia’s children are being taught to follow more widely: join up, train in the military arts, discover a sense of community and your perfect self, prepare to defend the motherland.
- パウル・ツェランも。さいしょの「饗宴」というのは冒頭のフレーズをあらためて読んだとたんに、これはなんかいいかも、よくわからんがすごいかもという感覚が立った。
1387
饗宴
夜が誘惑の高い梁の間のいくつもの瓶から空けれますように、
敷居に歯で溝がつけられ、朝の前に 怒りの発作の種が播かれますように――
ぼくたちには おそらくまだ苔が丈高く伸びるだろう、水車小屋からかれらがここに来る前に、
ひそやかな穀物を ぼくたち かれらのゆっくりとした歯車のもとで見つけようと……毒をもった空たちの下では 別の茎たちはおそらくもっと黄灰色だろう、
夢は こことは ぼくたちが快楽を賭けて賽を振るところとは異なって 造り出されるだろう、
こことは 暗闇のなかで 忘却と不思議が交換されるところとは、
すべてが 一時間しか有効でなく そして ぼくたちによって舌鼓みを打って吐き出さ(end44)れ、
輝いている櫃たちの中の窓たちの貪欲な水のなかに投げつけられるところとは異なって―――
人間の道路の上では すべては 雲を讃えてはじける!そこでお前たちは 外套にくるまり そしてぼくと一緒にテーブルの上にのぼれ――
杯たちの只中で 立ったままでいる以外 どうやって眠ることができよう?
ゆっくりとした歯車である誰のために ぼくたちはまだ夢を乾杯するのだろう?(中村朝子訳『パウル・ツェラン全詩集 第一巻』(青土社、一九九二年)、44~45; 『罌粟と記憶』(一九五二))
1390
海からの石
ぼくたちの世界の白い心、暴力はなく ぼくたちはそれを今日 黄ばんだとうもろこしの葉の時刻に失った――
丸い糸玉、そういう風に それは ぼくたちの手から軽々と転がった。
そういう風に ぼくたちには 紡ぐために 新しい赤い眠りの羊毛が 夢の砂の墓場の傍に残された――
もはや心ではない、けれどおそらく深みからきた石の頭髪が、
貝や波を想っているその額の乏しい飾りが。多分、あの街の門口で 一つの夜の意志がその石を空中に高めるだろう、
石の東の目は 石に ぼくたちが横たわる家のうえで 話してきかせるだろう、
口もとの海の黒さと 髪にさしたオランダからのチューリップについて。(end48)
かれらはその石に先立って槍をかかげていく、そういう風に ぼくたちは夢をかかげていった、そういう風に ぼくたちからぼくたちの
世界の白い心が転がり落ちたのだ。そういう風に 縮れた
紡ぎ糸が 石の頭のまわりに生まれたのだ――奇妙な羊毛、
心のかわりに 美しく。おお 来てそして消え去った鼓動! 終わりあるもののなかで ヴェールが翻る。
(中村朝子訳『パウル・ツェラン全詩集 第一巻』(青土社、一九九二年)、48~49; 『罌粟と記憶』(一九五二))
1391
夜の光
一番明るく燃えたのは ぼくの夕べの恋人の髪――
彼女にぼくは 一番軽い木でできた柩を送る。
そのまわりは ぼくたちがローマで夢を見た寝台のように 波立つ、
それは ぼくのように 白い鬘をかぶり そしてかすれた声で語る、
それは話すのだ、ぼくのように、ぼくが心たちに入ることを許すとき、
それは知っているのだ、愛について歌うフランスの歌を、それをぼくは秋に歌った。
旅の途上に晩い国にとどまり 朝に宛てて手紙を書いたときに。一叟の美しい小舟だ その柩は、様々な感情の木材から彫られて。
ぼくもまた それにのって血の流れを下っていった、お前の目よりも若かった時に。
いま お前は 三月の雪につつまれた一羽の死んだ小鳥のように若い、(end55)
いま それは お前のもとに来て そのフランスの歌を歌う。
お前たちは軽い――お前たちはぼくの春を最期まで眠る。
ぼくはもっと軽い――
ぼくは見知らぬ者たちの前で歌う。(中村朝子訳『パウル・ツェラン全詩集 第一巻』(青土社、一九九二年)、55~56; 『罌粟と記憶』(一九五二))
1395
晩く そして 深く
黄金の言葉のように意地悪く この夜は始まる。
ぼくたちは啞の人々の林檎を食べる。
ぼくたちはそれぞれの星に喜んで委ねる仕事をする、
ぼくたちはぼくたちの菩提樹の秋のなかに 物想う旗の赤さとなって立つ、
南方から来た燃えている客となって。
ぼくたちは誓う キリストに 新しき人にかけて 塵を塵と、
鳥たちをさまよう靴と、
ぼくたちの心を水の中の階と契らせることを。
ぼくたちは世界に砂の神聖な誓いを誓う、
ぼくたちはそれを喜んで誓う、
ぼくたちは夢のない眠りの屋根から大声でそれを誓い(end62)
そして 時の白い髪を振る……かれらは叫ぶ、「お前たちは冒瀆している!」と。
ぼくたちはそれをとうに知っている。
ぼくたちはそれをとうに知っている、けれどそれがどうしたというのだ?
お前たちは死のひき臼で 約束の白い粉を挽く、
お前たちはそれを ぼくたちの兄弟たちと姉妹たちの前に置く―ぼくたちは時の白い髪を振る。
お前たちはぼくたちに警告する、「お前たちは冒瀆している!」と。
ぼくたちはそれをよく知っている、
ぼくたちのうえに罪が来るように。
あらゆる警告のしるしの罪がぼくたちのうえに来るように、
ごぼごぼと音を立てる海が
甲冑に身をかためて向きを変えた突風が(end63)
真夜中のような昼が来るように、
決していまだかつてなかったものが来るように!ひとりの人間が墓から来るように。
- (……)さんのブログから。したのラカンの言はすばらしいとおもうが、「何も理解できないものが希望を可能にする」というより、恐怖と拒絶を呼ぶことがままあるのが現今の世だなあともおもう。
ラカンはしばしば、彼がそのような難しさをどれだけ重要と考えているか述べている。たとえば、セミネール第18巻における『エクリ』についての見解を見られたい。「多くのひとたちが躊躇うことなく私に「何ひとつとして分からない」と言っていた。それだけでもたいしたものだと気づいてほしい。何も理解できないものが希望を可能にする。それはあなたがその理解できないものに触発されているしるしなのだ。だからあなたが何も理解できなかったのは良いことである。なぜならあなたは、自分の頭のなかにすでに確かにあったこと以外、決して何も理解できないからだ」(…)。
(ブルース・フィンク/上尾真道、小倉拓也、渋谷亮・訳『「エクリ」を読む 文字に添って』 p.245)
- したの記述は古井由吉が『詩への小路』のさいしょの章で紹介していた。ブーバーの名も出典としてあがっていた気がする。ドイツ語原本からじぶんで訳したのだろう。
アラファート巡礼月の祭のさいに彼は語った、「おお、愚かな者たちに道を示されるかたよ!」そして彼は、すべての人びとが祈っているのを見ると、ある丘の上に登って人びとの姿を眺めたが、人びとがみなもとの場所にもどったとき、自分の身を打ちたたきながら叫んだ、「崇高なる主よ、あなたが純なるかたであることを私は知っています。あなたは賞賛する者たちの賞賛に汚れず、賛美する者たちのあらゆる賛美、思考する者たちのあらゆる思考に汚れることなく純であられます。わが神よ! 私にはあなたを賞めたたえるという義務が果たしえないことを、あなたはご存じです。私にかわってどうかみずから自分を賞めたたえてください、それこそが真の賞賛なのですから。」
(マルティン・ブーバー/田口義弘・訳『忘我の告白』より「フサイン・アル・ハッラージュについて」)
「神を探し求める者は、懺悔の影のなかに、神に探し求められる者は、無垢の影のなかに坐っている。」
「神を探し求める者の走行は、神の啓示に先立って駆け、神に探し求められる者の走行は、神の啓示によって追いこされる。」
(マルティン・ブーバー/田口義弘・訳『忘我の告白』より「フサイン・アル・ハッラージュについて」)
- せっかくなので『詩への小路』のほうも。
――崇高なる神よ、私は知っている、あなたは純白だ。そして私は言いたい。あなたは人の讃美する、すべての讃美にも染まらない。人の礼讃する、すべての礼讃にも染まらない。人の思惟する、すべての思惟にも染まらない。神よ、あなたは知っている、私には称賛のつとめが果たせない。私に代って、御自身で御自身をほめたたえ給わんことを。それこそまことの称賛。
(古井由吉『詩への小路 ドゥイノの悲歌』(講談社文芸文庫、二〇二〇年)、12; 「1 ふたつの処刑詩」; フセイン・アル・ハラージ)
――神を探す者は、啓示の先を駈ける。神が探す者は、啓示がその駈足を追い抜く。
(古井由吉『詩への小路 ドゥイノの悲歌』(講談社文芸文庫、二〇二〇年)、13; 「1 ふたつの処刑詩」; フセイン・アル・ハラージ)
- Guardian staff and agencies, “Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 420 of the invasion”(2023/4/18, Tue.)(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/19/russia-ukraine-war-at-a-glance-what-we-know-on-day-420-of-the-invasion(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/19/russia-ukraine-war-at-a-glance-what-we-know-on-day-420-of-the-invasion))
Ukraine’s government has criticised Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his efforts to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, and invited the Brazilian leader to visit the war-torn country and see for himself the consequences of the Russian invasion. Lula responded by condemning the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity by Russia and again called for mediation to end the war.
The G7 has criticised Russia’s threat to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, promising to intensify sanctions on Moscow for its war on neighbouring Ukraine. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting with the Russian-installed head of Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Tuesday, the state-run Belta news agency reported.
*
Poland has said that it has reached an agreement on restarting transit of Ukrainian grains through its territory as of Friday, according to Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus.
Poland also announced plans to install thousands of cameras and motion sensors along its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave to prevent what Warsaw says are illegal migrant crossings orchestrated by Moscow. Polish interior minister Mariusz Kaminski said the system would join a barbed wire fence being built on the 200-kilometre frontier.
*
Security concerns have prompted Russian authorities this year to cancel traditional nationwide victory day processions where people carry portraits of relatives who fought against Nazi Germany in the second world war, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Russia is “not yet” planning to block Wikipedia, its minister of digital affairs said on Tuesday as a Moscow court handed the online encyclopedia another fine for failing to remove content Russia deems illegal.
- Pjotr Sauer, “Wagner mercenary admits ‘tossing grenades’ at injured Ukrainian PoWs”(2023/4/18, Tue.)(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/18/wagner-mercenary-admits-tossing-grenades-at-injured-ukrainian-pows(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/18/wagner-mercenary-admits-tossing-grenades-at-injured-ukrainian-pows))
Aformer Wagner mercenary has admitted to killing and torturing dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war, in one of the most detailed first-person accounts of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Alexey Savichev, 49, a former Russian convict recruited by Wagner last September, told the Guardian in a telephone interview that he participated in summary executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war during his six months of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“We were told not to take any prisoners, and just shoot them on the spot,” he said.
In one instance, while fighting near the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar last autumn, Savichev said he participated in the killings of 20 Ukrainian soldiers who were surrounded. “We sprayed them with our bullets,” he said. “It is war and I do not regret a single thing I did there. If I could, I would go back.”
Savichev said that in another episode, with other Wagner fighters he had killed “several dozen” injured Ukrainian PoWs by “tossing grenades” into the ditch where they were held near the city Bakhmut in January. “We would torture soldiers too, there weren’t any rules,” he said.
Savichev’s account was first published on Monday by the [Gulagu.net](http://gulagu.net/) rights group in an hour an 17 minute-long video, where he appeared alongside another former Wagner fighter, identified as Azamat Uldarov, who also said he had killed civilians, including children, during the battle for Bakhmut.
Uldarov said his fellow mercenaries in one instance killed a group of people who had taken shelter in the basement of a nine-floor block of flats in Bakhmut, including a young girl. “She was screaming, she was a little kid, she was five or six and I shot her, a kill shot. I wasn’t allowed to let anyone out, you understand?” Uldarov told Vladimir Osechkin, the head of the [Gulagu.net](http://gulagu.net/) rights group. He could not be reached for comment.
The Guardian cannot independently verify either man’s harrowing claim but has seen Russian penal documents showing that Savichev, who was a convicted murderer, was released from a prison in Voronezh, a city in south-west Russia, on a presidential pardon on 12 September.
Wagner has recruited tens of thousands of inmates, including convicted murderers, to fight in eastern Ukraine. They were offered freedom if they survived a near-suicidal six-month stint, one Savichev completed on 12 March.
- Verna Yu, “How one man went from China’s Communist party golden child to enemy of the state”(2023/4/17, Mon.)(https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/apr/17/how-one-man-went-from-chinas-communist-party-golden-child-to-enemy-of-the-state(https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/apr/17/how-one-man-went-from-chinas-communist-party-golden-child-to-enemy-of-the-state))
The 50-year-old human rights lawyer and champion of social equality was sentenced to 14 years in jail earlier this month, along with fellow activist and lawyer Ding Jiaxi, who was jailed for 12 years. Both were convicted of the crime of “subversion of state power.”
The Communist party-controlled court has accused Xu of intending to overthrow the current regime by promoting his vision of “a beautiful China.” According to a court indictment, with a series of articles, blogs, websites and secret meetings, Xu, Ding and other activists were “seriously endangering national security and social stability.”
But the government once felt very differently about Xu, and experts say Xu’s dramatic life symbolises the rise and fall of China’s ill-fated rights movement.
Twenty years ago, Xu was a golden boy feted by the Chinese government and the state media. Along with fellow PhD law graduates Teng Biao and Yu Jiang, he successfully lobbied the national legislature to abolish rules on detaining and repatriating migrants after a young man was beaten to death in custody. The trio were hailed by the Ministry of Justice and state broadcaster CCTV as “the top ten legal figures of 2003.”
The “Sun Zhigang incident” in 2003, named after the young man who died, marked the beginning of China’s rights defence movement.
In the following years, Xu and Teng made it their mission to seek justice for the underprivileged. They and other lawyers set up the Open Constitution Institute, a non-profit legal aid centre, to provide free legal advice for people with grievances. Xu also campaigned for children of migrant workers’ education rights, investigated extralegal “black jails” which locked up petitioners and wrote research reports on social issues. He was showered with awards by the state media, and was named one of “Ten most outstanding young leaders” by a state-run magazine in 2006.
But as Xu’s popularity grew, the authorities became increasingly wary. In 2009 the authorities closed Open Constitution Institute, accusing it of tax evasion. Xu, a lecturer, was taken into custody and barred from teaching.
Upon his release in 2009, he said in an interview that his vision remained unchanged: “I dream of a country that has democracy, rule of law, equality, and justice … a simple and happy society.”
In the following years, Xu set up the social campaign New Citizens Movement, a loose network of activists who met regularly to discuss rights issues and the country’s future. When Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012, Xu wrote an open letter, challenging him to implement constitutional democracy. Around then, the police stepped up their surveillance on him, frequently detaining him or putting him under house arrest .
*
After staging protests for equal rights for migrant children and demanding official transparency over private assets, Xu was arrested in July 2013 and jailed in January 2014 for “assembling a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.” He wept when his lawyer showed him a picture of his baby daughter, born two weeks before the sentencing.
Even after his release in 2017, he insisted on pushing his civil society initiatives – efforts that the court indictment called “subverting state power through advocating non-violent ‘colour revolution’.” After a gathering of about 20 lawyers and activists in Fujian province in December 2019, the authorities arrested more than half of the participants, including Ding. While hiding, Xu published an essay to urge Xi to resign over the coronavirus crisis and the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests. He was arrested in Guangzhou in February 2020 and along with Ding, were tried in June 2022 for “subversion of state power.”
- Simon Tisdall, “When Macron met Xi: welcome to the new world disorder”(2023/4/16, Sun.)(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/16/when-emmanuel-macron-met-xi-jinping-new-world-disorder(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/16/when-emmanuel-macron-met-xi-jinping-new-world-disorder))
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- 日記読み: 2022/4/19, Tue.
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