Off the Beaten Tracks by Irina Bogatyreva

Author:Irina Bogatyreva [Savelyev, Igor; Bogatyreva, Irina; Mazepina, Tatiana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9785717201049
Publisher: GLAS New Russian Writing

Translated by Arch Tait

Tatiana Mazepina

TRAVELING TO PARADISE

To Egypt by Land

“There are two ways to live: it is entirely proper and respectable to walk on dry land – to measure, to weigh, to look ahead. But one can also walk on the waters. Then one cannot measure or look ahead, one must only have faith. Lose faith for an instant – and you begin to sink.”

Mother Maria Skobtsova, 20th-cent. Christian ascetic

I had left the house hundreds of times, walked past the pond with its little central island, down the overgrown crooked lane to the light-rail station. I had left the house hundreds of times on my way to university, to work, downtown… Today, 29 December, I am leaving it once again but this time I have a different purpose. I walk across the small square in the direction of the pond; the weight of my backpack forces me to look down but at the same time it gives me wings. I lift my head and it seems to me that I see, or maybe I really do see there, beyond the horizon, the sharp minarets of mosques rising proudly and invitingly heavenward. Pale blue, lavender, grey. I can already hear the muezzin’s call to prayer.

I am going to the Middle East. Eastern Turkey, Kurdistan, Syria, Jordan, Egypt…

Step by step, day by day, country by country I will walk along and come to mosques and minarets that I can see even now. To come walking is not the same as to come by plane. And even though I won’t be walking very much, my chosen means of transportation will afford me the opportunity to not just fly by, dash past or drive through, the opportunity to experience my journey to the fullest. I’m going by random cars: hitchhiking.

To live as our Lord commanded, even just for a short while, even for not very long, even for only a month, to place everything in His hands, everything, my very being, really everything I have. To give myself completely. To accept the priceless gift of His care, to accept that His will is upon everything. What is free will anyway when you place everything in His hands…

But it’s time to begin my story.

Chapter I. In a Turkish family

Early in the morning, the ferry brought me from Russian Sochi to Turkish Trabzon.

At night, the ferry still on the home shore, I look towards the line that separates sky and earth, towards that other world that I want so irresistibly to reach but still do not dare believe I will. I had spent five days in Sochi waiting for the ferry that, like everyone else, was celebrating the 2009 New Year. And every day brought the same disappointment: my call to the port was invariably answered with “There will be no ferry today. Call tomorrow.”

I got on the ferry in the end, but was nearly convinced that my native land would not let me go, that it would keep me tied to itself just as it held the boat, and that the dream of minarets in that other world would remain only a mirage.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.