Oldal 328 [328]
JOHANNA DOMOKOS
JUOKSU AND PALVELIJAN LOIKKA | THE SERVING STRIDE
Susanne Gottberg’s image of a faceless runner, which appears on the cover of
Juoksu (see the picture below), suggests the heightened psychological state of
emptiness that can come from physical exercise. Clearing the mind can lead
to a mystical experience, to the so-called union with a higher consciousness.
Both the book and the essay are connected through this painting.
Picture no.1. Cover of Jari Ehrnrooth’s novel, which features a painting
by Susanne Gottberg
In his essay The Yearning Stride, Ehnrnrooth comments on the painting:
In the photo the running servant would have a face but he has none. Image is to
the soul as the clock is to the time. The faceless runner finds an ally he can trust,
not in his inner moans, but in the gushing of the wind, the beating of the rain, the
splash and slap of his footfalls. Running is about surrendering and forgetting and
forgetting what one is surrendering. It is the sea that offers room for emptiness.
But emptiness will never come. Something is always left—that which is most
valuable.”
As many of Ehrnrooth’s titles immediately demonstrate, he often plays with
the multiple meanings of words, not only in his mother tongue but across
languages. For the English edition of this work, Ehrnrooth suggested the
title of The Servant Stride for Palvelijan loikka, (literally, ‘the stride of the
servant’)—which binds together the nominal and adjectival meanings of the
word “servant” as well as the nominal and verbal meanings of “stride.”
® Jari Ehrnrooth, Kaipaava askel / The Yearning Stride, 80.
+ 326 +
Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 326 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:27