For new students considering Russian as a second language

（注）「第二外国語・初修外国語でロシア語を学ぼうと考えている新入生へ」の英語版です。

Congratulations on passing the entrance exam! *1)

For those considering studying the Russian language at university or who are currently undecided, it is understandable that you may be experiencing a range of emotions. So do I. The military aggression on Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which commenced on February 24, has undoubtedly had a profound impact on the global landscape in which we live.

Your aims of studying Russian may vary. Some of them have been undeniably undermined by this war. It is also true that the reputation of the Russian Federation has been seriously damaged in the world. As a researcher who has studied Siberia from the standpoint of cultural anthropology, I would tell you that a good deal of what I have built and what I have been trying to accomplish as an ethnographer who wishes to comprehend other cultures from their point of view (here I intentionally express the traditional and even old-fashioned style of interpretive anthropology)—although it is only a very small part—has been destroyed. My perspective on Russian has also undergone a severe transformation.

Nevertheless, I am writing you this letter to convey two key points.

First, it should be noted that Russian is not solely used within the Russian Federation. It is also employed in Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Central Asia. As may be discussed in a lecture of mine, the attitudes to Russia of Russian speakers in these countries are not straightforward. Numerous individuals speak Russian, consider themselves Russian, but are critical of the Russian government. Additionally, there are Ukrainians who speak only Russian. Since the onset of the conflict, I have been watching internet news and exposed to a plethora of pictures and video clips. Quite a few voices emanating from Ukraine were in Russian. Some interviewees asserted that they would no longer speak Russian and only speak Ukrainian. It is imaginable and even logical that there is a categorically negative sentiment towards the Russian language among Ukrainian citizens. However, the conception that the world can be divided into distinct linguistic communities, with one language attached to one country and another to another, is a factual error. The “one-nation, one-language principle” might be conducive to a hostile mindset that could facilitate military invasion.

Secondly, I am of the opinion that some words have an obligation to be received. It is up to you to decide whether or not they should be received; therefore, I will present my stance. In this conflict, what I believe should be heard immediately are the moans of the pain of the dying, the lamentations of those who have lost loved ones, and the voices of those who oppose this war, particularly ones of the Russian people who are taking to the streets to express their opposition to the war despite the ten days of detention that await them. The majority of these voices are in Ukrainian. Some of them are in Russian expressed as “Net voine [Нет войне].” The literal translation of this phrase is “No to war.”

Have you ever participated in a demonstration? Indeed, I have. There are several reasons for demonstrating, but the most important reason is that your intentions, which you express while walking through the streets, become visible to others. The individuals to whom you wish to convey your message are those who are observing your demonstration, including the police, who may be present. Even if the likelihood of successful communication with the police is low, it remains a possibility. It is also important to note that the mass media can convey the events to those who are not present, which may enhance the power and effects of your demonstration. The analogy can be extended to a metaphorical act of casting a bottle containing a letter into the ocean. While the likelihood of the bottle reaching its intended recipient is minimal and arguably negligible, the possibility remains. In this case, rather than the image of a bottle being thrown into the ocean, it is more accurate to say that voices or leaves *2) at a demonstration are released into the air. Such utterances will soon dissipate, much like soap bubbles, but, like seeds that land far away, it is my hope that they will be received by someone, somewhere. For this reason, placards utilized at demonstrations are often written in multiple languages, not just the language most commonly spoken on the site. This is done in order to ensure that they can be received by a diverse population, germinate in it, and lead to the next word or action.

I think that many poets have grasped this concept, albeit from different standpoints and with different literary techniques. Taras Shevchenko, one of the most renowned Ukrainian poets, wrote (the Japanese translation by Etsuko Fujii):

My poems, the thoughts of my heart,
My flowers, my children!
I have nurtured them with care and watched over them
Where shall I send them now?

Paul Celan, who defined poetry as “a communication of a bottle tossed in the belief that it will one day wash up on some shore,” wrote the following (the Japanese translation by Kazuyuki Hosomi).:

It has come, it has come.
A word has come, a word has come.
It came through the night.
It tried to shine, it tried to shine.

The decision of whether or not to receive the voice, and if so, how to receive it, is at the discretion of each of you. It is imperative, however, to first understand the nature of the voice. The capacity for the task in our context is tantamount to the ability to comprehend the Russian language. I am looking forward to the participation of all those who are willing to listen to the voice with their ears open and to read it with their eyes wide open here, at the Komaba Campus, where the birds are tweeting in abundance.

                                                                                                        March 10, 2022

 [The English version of the text in Japanese posted on Notes, https://note.com/hyw1970/n/n4fd389c7ff80, March 10, 2022, with some additions and annotations.]

 *1) The results of the entrance examination conducted by The University of Tokyo are to be made available to the general public on March 10.

*2) The word kotoba (word) in Japanese is written in Chinese characters as言葉 (koto no ha or word-leaf).

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©Hibi Y. Watanabe