EXUPÉRY'S CRASH IN THE SAHARA IN 1935
THE EARTH OF THE HUMANS
by Saint-Exupéry
We are currently preparing a stage adaptation of the other famous novel. The text of the novel, which was awarded the Prix Goncout, was newly translated into German by Thomas Waldkircher for this project. Anja Pirling will direct and stage also this play.
THE EARTH OF MEN (original title Terre des Hommes ) is one of the most important novels by the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The work was awarded one of the most important literary prizes in France,
awarded the "Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française".
The first edition of this modern work was published in 1939 and was a great success in German translation in the same year. A few years later, the American translation appeared under the title "Wind, Sand and the Stars", which was partly translated back into German: "Wind, Sand and Stars".
In the book, Saint-Exupéry deals with his own experiences as a flying mail pilot between 1926 and 1935.
In particular, the author explores the philosophical question of man's destiny based on extreme situations he has experienced. He describes his experiences as a reporter and courier in the Spanish Civil War and creates a literary monument to the pioneers of postal aviation.
The core of the book , however, are the chapters describing his desert flights in North Africa. This goes all the way to the flight in 1935 in which he wanted to win prize money for the fastest flight from Paris to Saigon, and two days after his takeoff he was unable to make the planned stopover in Cairo due to a lack of orientation.
He landed in the Sahara about 200 km west of Cairo at 2:45 a.m., remained unharmed and set out on foot to search for a settlement. When he was almost dying of thirst, he came across Bedouins who rescued him.
These experiences, described here for the first time, later inspired him to write his book
"The Little Prince".
Further thoughts also deal with the state of the "Earth of Man," whose roads lead us again and again to the inhabited regions where we have set up the backdrops of our cities to admire our achievements, like Catherine the Great once did on her travels through poor Russia. It calls us to expose ourselves to the vastness and emptiness of the world in order to be able to think and gain insight.
In a great twist, the final scenes of the novel take place on a transport train for prisoners of war in Poland, where a nameless woman gives birth to her child. The smiling newborn, which in the author's mind is linked to Mozart as well as to the Christ child, gives rise to a tender hope for the redemption of humanity in the midst of the grime of war.
"I am already one with the desert. I no longer produce saliva or images to long for. The sun has dried up the source of tears..."
"Now the Sahara is within us, and only then does it reveal itself. Getting close to it does not mean visiting an oasis. Rather, it means believing deeply and fervently in a well."
A monument in Tarfaya, Cape Juby, Morocco, commemorating the postal stop of Aéropostale and Saint-Exupéry.
THE CRASH IN THE SAHARA
On December 30, 1935, at 2:45 a.m. after 19 hours and 44 minutes in the air, Saint-Exupéry crashed in the Sahara desert together with his mechanic André Prévot.
They attempted to break the speed record in a race from Paris to Saigon and win a prize of 150,000 francs.
The crash site was probably near the Wadi Natrun valley, close to the Nile Delta.
Both Saint-Exupéry and Prévot miraculously survived the crash, despite being mercilessly exposed to rapid dehydration caused by the sweltering heat of the desert.
Their maps were primitive and unclear, so they had no idea where they were.
Their only supplies were strawberries, ten oranges, a thermos of sweet juice, chocolate, a handful of crackers and some wine.
The two had only one day's worth of fluids. Both began seeing mirages and experiencing auditory hallucinations, which were soon followed by vivid delusions. By the second and third days, they were so dehydrated that they stopped sweating altogether.
On the fourth day, a Bedouin on a camel finally spotted her and saved her life by providing her with a rehydration treatment common among the Bedouins.
The near-death experience played a central role in his 1939 memoirs, "Wind, Sand and Stars" (Terre des hommes). The work was honored with several awards.
Saint-Exupéry's classic novella The Little Prince , which begins with a pilot who has crashed in the desert, refers to this dramatic near-death experience of Exupéry's.
From: (Wiki English translation, Anja Pirling)
Thomas Waldkircher
