"ლისაბონის ღამე" ერიხ მარია რემარკი "The Night in Lisbon"

"The Night in Lisbon" is the fruit of Erich Maria Remarque’s work, steeped in soul-stirring realism and masterful artistry. Through the person of a single individual, the novel tells the story of the hopeless, doomed existence of refugees left homeless, loveless, alone, and at the mercy of fate - for whom the struggle for human connection, self-assertion, securing a basic livelihood, and overall survival constitutes their daily routine. This was a time when passports, visas, permits to work or even exist in a given territory, and the pileup of countless other meaningless papers were given precedence over humanism, elevated feelings, and spirituality. Yes, this was the period preceding World War II - a time when the whole world had turned into a powder keg waiting for a small spark, which, the moment it appeared, would blow up everyone and everything. And the scarlet tongues of flame and suffocating smoke would, of course, reach the refugees first.

The plot of the book unfolds around the life of one such refugee, whose devastated inner world merges tragically with the disaster sweeping the globe. Known under a forged name and surname - Josef Schwarz - the man does not trust his own memory and wishes to preserve the adventures (if they can be called that) that befell him in recent years in another person’s mind, unadulterated and unfabricated. This “honor” falls to another nameless refugee, whose unfulfilled dream is to emigrate to a country where the flowers of freedom, dignity, and humanity still bloom. That country is America. I say unfulfilled because neither he nor his wife possesses visas or steamship tickets to travel to America. Fortunately, Schwarz, appearing as their savior, easily resolves these problems and wins the narrator’s heart: in exchange for a pair of steamship tickets, American visas, and passports, he asks him to spend one night listening to his life story and printing it in its original form in his mind. The latter agrees. And so, before the reader’s eyes unfolds a thrilling world of extraordinary perseverance and fateful dread, boundless love and equally fierce hatred, terrible cruelty and exemplary mercy, sudden abandonment and remarkable loyalty.

It all begins when Schwarz is denounced in Germany by his own brother-in-law, George - a corrupt Nazi and devoted follower of Hitler - and imprisoned in a concentration camp. Through a stroke of good fortune, Josef escapes the camp and flees to France. It is from this moment that his five-year-long senseless, aimless life, filled with unbearable fear and terror, a life that can hardly even be called a life, begins. It was a aimless, meaningless wandering through darkened streets, waking up every morning in terror that the Gestapo was standing over you, eagerly awaiting the decision of your fate, calculating every step before doing anything, and countless attempts during these hard times to preserve not only life, but a human face, one’s own beliefs, and the hope that someday this hell would surely end. In this truly terrifying darkness, a spark of hope appears in the form of the real Josef Schwarz, who, before his death, hands over his passport and collection of artwork to the future Schwarz. It is precisely this golden breeze of unexpected happiness that turns into the powerful storm that impels him to return to his homeland, Germany, and seek out his immensely missed wife, Helen.

Despite the countless inherent obstacles of crossing the border illegally, Schwarz reaches Germany, contacts a childhood friend, Dr. Martens, and asks him to gather all information about Helen’s current condition and let him know. Soon after, the husband and wife meet in a German church and take refuge in their former home. Yet, due to the constant threat of the Gestapo at every step, they flee first to Switzerland and then to France. Here they find temporary shelter in small hotels, trying to ignore the workings of the world shattered to pieces outside, and on a small island of fantasy and happiness under the shade of sunlit trees, where bees still hummed and the golden light of late summer flickered, greedily drink the miraculous medicine of fleeting joy, just as greedily as a camel drinks water before setting out into the desert.

Unfortunately, the inevitability of impending disaster quickly catches up with this brief communion with luminous happiness: Schwarz is arrested, and later Helen is imprisoned with him in a French jail. As if this were not enough, the cruel thorns of separation arise between the couple - they are sent to separate concentration camps. During this time of misfortune, Schwarz is further poisoned by the venom of terrible jealousy and restlessness. Yet despite the agonizing conditions, he once again displays resourcefulness and escapes from the camp. Soon he tracks down his wife, and before plunging once more into the open abyss, they speed away to a small town in France. Here they first take shelter in a chateau, spending a few days in simulated lightheartedness and transparent happiness, before moving into a boarding house. Unfortunately, Helen’s incurable illness soon manifests itself. As the saying goes, one misfortune follows another—one day while near the consulate, Georg catches Schwarz, captures him, and tortures him. The situation escalates to the point that Josef kills Georg. Afterward, Schwarz uses the latter’s car and newly acquired Nazi passport to travel with Helen to Lisbon (saving a young boy along the way). Tragically, this turns out to be Helen’s final resting place - tormented by physical and emotional pain, the woman takes her own life. Thus tragically ends the touching story of "Josef Schwarz."

Erich Maria Remarque’s mastery is also evident in the fact that while telling the story, Schwarz and his listener are forced to move from one bar to another several times. This is a metaphorical statement that speaks to the restlessness of the world at that time and the daily reality of refugees: constant movement, change, transformation, and shift.

"The Night in Lisbon" is a magnificent work that vividly presents the cruelty of war against the backdrop of humanity, feelings, spirituality, and tragedy.