{"id":417262,"date":"2019-03-15T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/?p=417262"},"modified":"2019-03-15T11:24:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T15:24:13","slug":"landscape-in-concrete-by-jakov-lind-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2019\/03\/15\/landscape-in-concrete-by-jakov-lind-excerpt\/","title":{"rendered":"“Landscape in Concrete” by Jakov Lind [Excerpt]"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>hen you lose your way in the Ardennes, you\u2019re lost. What use are plans and prayers. A landscape without faces is like air nobody breathes. A landscape in itself is nothing. The country through which German Sergeant Gauthier Bachmann was making his way on the second Monday before Easter was green but lifeless. [. . .]<\/p>\n

And then the unexpected happened. From a hole in the ground no bigger than a fox\u2019s burrow popped a creature with his finger pressed to his lips. Pst, pst, he went, and a man, small, dark, and skinny, crawled out of the hole, shook his fist in Bachmann\u2019s stomach and yelled: You\u2019re caving in my entrance, you damn fool.<\/p>\n

Get away from me, you! Bachmann was scared stiff. He hauled off and poked his stick into the ghost\u2019s side. It writhed with pain and made faces. You\u2019ve hurt my kidney, the critter whimpered. Good, said Bachmann and got ready to strike again. Then it dawned on him: the ghost spoke his mother tongue. You\u2019re not a mole?<\/p>\n

Me a mole? Are you crazy? I\u2019m a German.<\/p>\n

A German? Bachmann wasn\u2019t going to be made a fool of. He was delirious with hunger. In such a state, he knew, all sorts of things can happen. The critter held his side and limped around him in a circle.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re a liar! Whish! He tried to shoo him away, but the little fellow kept nimbly beyond his reach. Whish, Bachmann went, get away! He spun around, brandishing the stick. How can it be a German? Must be some cross between a man and a beast, like those mongrels that sometimes get born in out-of-the-way places.<\/p>\n

But I am a German. We talk the same language, don\u2019t we? The argument had its effect. Standing by the entrance to the burrow, Bachmann lifted his right boot. Don\u2019t, the other cried out. Don\u2019t do it! That\u2019s my home! His home? ran through Bachmann\u2019s head, then he must be lying. That\u2019s no kind of home for a human being. He brought his right boot down with full force. The boot vanished in the ground. The construction was frail, further proof that the whole thing must be a trap. [. . .]<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your name?<\/p>\n

Xavier Schnotz, my company is over there. He pointed in the direction from which Bachmann had come. You know that? Bachmann was amazed. You know that and you stay here? I didn\u2019t see a thing. I haven\u2019t met a soul in a whole month. If it weren\u2019t for the planes, I\u2019d have thought I was dead long ago. The Elysian fields.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t insult the fields, said Schnotz. Without these fields I\u2019d have been dead long ago. Do you realize how warm it is down there?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

Plenty warm. You\u2019re a stinker. You\u2019ve wrecked my house. But I won\u2019t go with you. If you keep on going, you\u2019ll be at the border by tonight. Without me. I\u2019m staying here until it\u2019s over. Have to dig myself a new hole. It\u2019s too risky in the hut.<\/p>\n

Hut?<\/p>\n

Too risky, I tell you. It\u2019s up against the wall for the like of us, or the noose.<\/p>\n

Bachmann stood up: I\u2019m beginning to catch on. You\u2019re a deserter.<\/p>\n

Sure, what else.<\/p>\n

And I thought you were lost. So you\u2019re a deserter. That\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

Schnotz detected something wrong in the tone.<\/p>\n

What do you mean: So you\u2019re a deserter? What are you, a Wehrmacht patrol?<\/p>\n

Not at all. But I\u2019m not a deserter either. Not by a long shot. The opposite. I\u2019m looking for my regiment.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t get you.<\/p>\n

Oh yes, you do. I\u2019m looking for my regiment. And if I don\u2019t find my own, I\u2019ll join another. Been on sick leave long enough. High time I was doing something.<\/p>\n

Schnotz was thunderstruck. He must be pretty far gone. Or he\u2019s an informer. Crazy idea. They wouldn\u2019t send out an informer like that. [. . .]<\/p>\n

What Bachmann was telling him struck him as so implausible that he didn\u2019t trust his ears. Plan A, said Bachmann, is maybe the simplest. I creep into an army camp at night and hide in the cellar. I wait for a fresh batch of recruits to turn up, and as soon as I hear them marching through the gate, I pop out. I wait till they\u2019re in the shower room, naked everybody looks alike. Then to the quartermaster\u2019s, I draw a new uniform, and I\u2019m in the clear. Sure, I lose my rank, but I get a second chance. That\u2019s worth the sacrifice. What I need is an old camp building with as many passages, rooms, and storerooms as possible. You don\u2019t think much of it, I can see that by your face. Plan B. Combat situation. It\u2019s hard to get there. There are sentries, patrols, and manned trenches all over. But once you\u2019ve broken through, you\u2019re in the clear. After that you just have to show you\u2019ve got what it takes. I\u2019m no coward, friend, you can take my word for it. Mortars and such things don\u2019t scare me. The more noise there is the better I like it. You don\u2019t know me. The only part I don\u2019t go for is wet trenches and mud. Aside from that any kind of terrain suits me. Once the fighting is over, I lay my cards on the table. I tell them frankly who I am\u2014but they reward me for bravery in battle. My discharge is canceled. It stands to reason; because I proved I\u2019m a man, I showed them I\u2019ve got what it takes. I\u2019ll even come in for a decoration. But that\u2019s not what I\u2019m out for, don\u2019t get that idea. [. . .]<\/p>\n

Plan C, Schnotz, may sound fantastic. But it has its points. Would you kindly cut out sniffing and running around? Listen to me, you can learn a thing or two. I\u2019ll need a military cemetery. I pick out a suitable spot between two graves and bury myself. Like you in your fox burrow. Only I can\u2019t afford to leave such a big hole. The air shaft mustn\u2019t be any bigger than a water-pipe with a diameter of two and a half inches. Otherwise people would notice it. So I lie in this grave and wait for a funeral. I\u2019ll need about a dozen people in civilian clothes. Uncles, aunts, parents, and such. As soon as the services start, in between the priest\u2019s blessing and sermon\u2014before the visitors and relatives have recovered from their emotion\u2014I rise up out of the grave. Anyone who sees a soldier in uniform rising out of the grave is bound to stand up for him. People can\u2019t say no to a soldier with catalepsy, that\u2019s a safe bet, they\u2019re too sentimental. And what does the man want? Nothing, except to be marked fit for active duty. He wants to join his buddies at the front. It\u2019s sure to work, there\u2019s only one possible hitch.<\/p>\n

Use LIND<\/a> at checkout to receive 30% off.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you lose your way in the Ardennes, you\u2019re lost. What use are plans and prayers. A landscape without faces is like air nobody breathes. A landscape in itself is nothing. The country through which German Sergeant Gauthier Bachmann was making his way on the second Monday before Easter was green but lifeless. [. . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":417232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486],"tags":[68252,16786],"class_list":["post-417262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-author-of-the-month","tag-jakov-lind"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417282,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417262\/revisions\/417282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}