By Julian Dierkes
One of the joys to me of having moved to Germany is that there are a number of literary translations of Mongolian fiction available in German that I have slowly been discovering.
As a bookwork, I really appreciate the glimpses into Mongolian life from the state-socialist era that some of these stories allow, much like movie productions from the era are perhaps most interesting from the life that can be seen in the background of scenes.
So, working my way through some of these translations, my favourite so far may have been Die Farbe der Seele by Sonomyn Lochin (Lotschin in German), though I read Lodoidamba’s Der durchsichtige Tamir (Тунгалаг Тамир) some years ago and enjoyed that very much as an insight on the revolutionary era.
But now, S Erdene‘s “two Mongolian tales”, Die Frau des Jägers (The Hunter’s Wife) and Das Ende des Serüün Tempels (The End of the Seruun Temple), neither of which seem to exist in English. Simon Wickham-Smith has translated Erdene’s Suncranes but these two tales have not made it into English.
There is one scene in particular that caught my attention in The Hunter’s Wife.
Lese gerade S Erdene “Die Frau des Jägers”. Spannend wenn ein (Chalk, ist aber nicht ausdrücklich erwähnt) Mongole, der selber in der Jurte auf dem Land lebt, Zaatan begegnet und sich an der Einfachheit ihres Lebens(stils) erfreut.
— Mongolia Focus (@mongoliafocus.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 11:58 AM
Sharaa, the hunter’s wife, gets her father in law to tell her why he has a shaman’s drum in his yurt. He recalls how he travelled to the West of Lake Khuvsgul as a young man desperate on a hunt to find some sable furs. He encounters some Tsaatan reindeer herders. He describes this encounter as follows (my translation from the German):
In general, when you encounter the Tsaatan for the first time, they might strike you as savages. But then you realize that they can’t be any different in this primeval forrest. There is no animal that is better suited for riding in this environment than reindeer. People are dressed in the furs of the animals that they have hunted, and they live off these animals’ meat. They don’t need all this stuff: these trunks and cupboards, carts and sleighs. They take their tent apart, load the furs onto one or two reindeer, shove their clothes and whatever else they have in a fur bag – ready to go. (p. 24-25)
This is a Khalk Mongol encountering Tsaatan. What struck me so much about this passage is that it seems to romanticize the “simple” nomadic life in the same way that (particularly European) tourists often romanticize nomadism. Ah, to be rid of all possessions and in touch with nature… But this is a Mongolia, who in the eyes of a tourist might be thought to be leading that beautiful simple life in touch with nature, looking at a Tsaatan leading an even simpler life, even more determined by environmental circumstances.
Side note: The author S Erdene is the father of Erdeneiin Bat-Uul, a golden swallow of the democratic revolution, long-time leader of the democratic party and former mayor of Ulaanbaatar.
