In einer Schachtel am Strassenrand habe ich drei Paperbacks entdeckt und natürlich nach Hause getragen: Ian Fleming's James-Bond-Novellen "You only live twice", "Moonraker" und "For your eyes only". Als erstes lese ich "You only live twice" und begegne einem alten Bekannten: Lafcadio Hearn.

You only live twice

Anfang der 60er Jahre. James Bond befindet sich nach langer Rekonvaleszenz (Blofled hat seine Frau Tracy ermordet) in Japan. Die japanischen Geheimdienste haben ein sowjetisches Chiffriersystem geknackt. 007 soll Geheimdienstchef "Tiger" Tanka dazu bewegen, die gewonnenen Informationen nicht nur der CIA, sondern auch dem britischen Geheimdienst weiterzugeben. Tanaka ist dazu bereit, wenn Bond Guntram Shatterhand unschädlich machen kann. Shatterhand, ein obskurer Wissenschaftler mit Schweizer Pass, betreibt im Süden Japans auf einer Insel ein "Castle of Death". Hinter dem Pseudonym verbirgt sich natürlich niemand anders als Blofeld.

"Tigers" Auftrag an Bond, den unerwünschten Ausländer zu eliminieren, geht ein langes Gespräch über Ausländer in Japan voraus. Der Japaner, im Herzen selbstverständlich ein Samurai, lässt den Engländer seine ganze Verachtung für den Westen spüren. Im besten Fall seien die Ausländer Spinner oder Gelehrte, die in Japan toleriert würden, aber im Grunde weder die Menschen noch die Kultur verstünden. Als Beispiel erwähnt er den Journalisten und Schriftsteller Lafcadio Hearn.

Lafcadio Hearn


Seit Jahren steht Jonathan Cotts Biographie über Lafcadio Hearn "Wandering Ghost" in meinem Büchergestell, ein Geburstagsgeschenk meiner Frau. Vor einige Monaten habe ich endlich begonnen, das Werk zu lesen. Hearn wurde 1850 als Sohn eines irischen Armeearztes und einer Griechin in Griechenland geboren. Über Irland gelangte er in die USA (Cincinnati, New Orleans, New York) und nach Japan, wo er 1904 starb. Er war wegen eins Unfalls während der Schulzeit fast blind, brachte es aber dennoch als Schriftsteller, Journalist und Übersetzer zu höchsten Ehren als Professor für englische Literatur an der kaiserlichen Universtität von Tokio und als Vermittler japanischer Kultur im Westen.

Hearn lebte ein abenteuerliches Leben sondergleichen. Wie weit sich Fleming mit ihm befasst hat, ist mir nicht bekannt. In Flemings Bibliothek, die er der Universität von Indiana vermacht hat, ist kein Werk von Hearn aufgeführt. In einer Anmerkung im Manuskript von You only life twice" schreibt er:

"I have visited Japan twice and, on the second occasion, as a conscientious biographer, I followed, as closely as prudence would allow, in the footsteps of James Bond. I was accompanied by the two expert investigators to whom this book is dedicated — one, the Far Eastern Representative of The Sunday Times, and the other the Editor-in-Chief of that distinguished annual This is Japan' published by the Asahi Shimbun. But, without these two friends at hand, and in my endeavour to do justice to the extremely foreign excitements and circumstances which James Bond will certainly have experienced, during the actual writing of this book I had very occasional recourse to four recent works of reference on Japan, all of which, for a closer understanding of the background to James Bond's perilous undertaking, I heartily recommend. They were:

Meeting with Japan by Fosco Maraini, Hutchinson 50/- Hekura: The Diving Girls' Island by Fosco Maraini, Hamish Hamilton 25/- The Heart of Japan by Alexander Campbell, Longmans 21 /- The Horned Islands by James Kirkup, Collins 35/-" (Quelle: Lilly Library (Indiana University, Bloomington). The Ian Fleming Collection of 19th-20th Century Source Material Concerning Western Civilization together with the Originals of the James Bond-007 Tales. [4], 3-53 p. : ill., ports., facsims. ; 28 cm. [Lilly Library], [Bloomington, IN] [1971].)

Shortly after I came home tonight, while I was preparing dinner, the phone rang. It was Nusa from Ljubljana. "I have bad news for you, very bad news", she said. Before she said anything else I realized that Dusan has died. And then she said: "Dusan is dead."

When I read about an accident in the newspaper or some other tragic event I sometimes imagine how I would tell such bad news to somebody else. So far I have never had to do that. And then it happens the other way round, out of the blue. "I have very bad news for you."

Dusan died in the hospital last Friday a week ago. As I understood it, he had a terrible cold,antibiotics did not help. She could not reach us earlier because she did not have our phone numbers.

The last time I saw Dusan alive was two years ago. I was in Klagenfurt in Austria at a convention and afterwards I took the train to Ljubljana to visit Dusan and Nusa. It was a beautiful train ride through a sunny snowed in landscape, almost as if in a fairy tale. In Villach I changed to the train from Munich to Belgrad. The intercity Sava slowly proceeded through borderland towards Rosenbach and the Karwankentunnel, which connects Austria and Slovenia. Jesenice, the first stop south of the mountains, and the border police looked a lot less grim then they did 25 years ago when my wife and I did that trip the first time. In Ljubljana Dusan and Nusa picked me up and drove me to their new apartment, a modern flat in a apartment house in the southern part of the city almost out of town. Outside it was quite cold and foggy, but in the apartement it was nice and warm. Nusa had a thick soup with sausage ready and we ate and talked about life in Slovenia and drank some wine. Later Dusan showed me his website and some of his photographs.

We met Dusan in the early 80s when he came to the Work Gallery in Zurich to show his photographs. He had very bad heart troubles and was in Switzerland for treatment. He was an impressive person, not too tall but quite big with a huge head and big beard. He clothes looked more like pyjamas then anything else. He smoked hand rolled cigarettes, liked to eat and drink which was not particularly good for him. He did not have any money, the Yugoslawian dinar wasn't worth anything. But he had a big heart and a trained eye for the absurdities of life. He was very resourceful in a way people who are used to buying everything they need cannot imagine.

Not long after we went to Ljubljana to visit Dusan and Nusa and to look at buildings by Josef Plečnik. We bought food at the colonaded fish market and drank hot honey liquor on the triple bridge across the Ljubljanica. In the evening we went out to see plays by the theater group Ana Monro but did not understand a single word. We were invited for dinner by his parents who spoke a little German. We made friends with his friends, got drunk on Slovenian gin and new wine somewhere in the country. When we left on the night train on new year eve we found a bottle of Krimsekt and two glasses in our luggage to celebrate New Year on our train trip back to Switzerland.

Since that first time, we went a few more times to Ljubljana and we spent unforgetable holidays together with Dusan and Nusa in Turkey. The Tollar replaced the Dinar and the Euro the Tollar, the crooks got richer, the city poorer and the shopping centers bigger. For Dusan, his friends, and Nusa it was a mixed blessing, but they managed.


"Born 5 November 1952 in Ljubljana. Since 1981 I have been a freelance artist, a member of the Association of Slovene Fine Artists' Societies and a founding member of TDS Equrna. I have worked with or been a member of various groups, including the street theatre company Predrazpadom, the Papa Kinjal Band, the Hidrogizma Project and the Ana Monró Theatre.

In the art world I am probably best known as a photographer who uses a non-corrected monocle lens on a classical SLR camera and who transposes photography into photocopy printing. Recent research has explored digitized and digital photographic media", I read on his website.



I look at the colorful pictures he took in Turkey and Syria. Dusan, we would have liked to go with you once more on a trip to Asia Minor. We waited too long for that, thinking there is still so much time.