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| Tien Shan [Photo: Maureen Barlin] |
Monday, August 26, 2019
The Adventures of Zhang Qian in Alexandria Eschate, 128 BC
After years of trekking through the scorching deserts of the Tarim Basin, Zhang Qian —famed diplomat and explorer on a mission to procure horses for Great Emperor Wu's campaigns against the Huns— arrived at Alexandria Eschate, where settled the furthest diaspora of the Macedonian Empire. Seeing the snow-capped peaks of Tien Shan in the distance, he exclaimed: Truly, I must have been the first of anyone in the Heavenly Kingdom to lay my eyes on such a wondrous sight! And then he had for lunch a huge bowl of beef la-mian from Chinatown down the street, because travelling also made him very hungry.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Abbé Musa
This was the week before the autumnal equinox. In one of the nights the people who stood sentry at the monastery's ramparts noted an unearthly, flickering red glow on the ground on the distance, but could not discern how it had happened. At the same time Sister Irannika was in the throes of a nightmarish vision which she later recounted to Abbé Musa. This was how it went:
A demon, which seemed to be three men welded into one in the inferno. Three heads, three torsos, an indeterminable number of arms and legs, none being where they belonged. The faces locked in grimace, their complexions at once deflated and ashen and glowing with impotent rage, their voices chanting and announcing their names: Ivanov, Beria, Dzhugashvili; Ivanov, Beria, Dzhugashvili...
"The local demons of Taimiria," noted Abbé Musa. "In the empire which spanned this land of eons past, the pharaohs sent their men to work to the death in Taimiria and as far east as Šaškotan, where poor and noble alike built the road and were buried under it when the cold claimed them, and to where the souls of the pharaohs themselves were banished."
Sister Irannika Yasin continued: And then at once the three heads spoke to me. Dogs! Swine! The tribe of Tanezeden are little better than animals. They dared speak against our Prince of Toyogarov; they spoke treason against the Taimirian race. They shall not even be seen as equal as flies, whose wings and legs we pull apart for sport. And that is what we will do to them.
Lies, lies! I cried. But they laughed at me. Lies? They believed the lies of the Metropolitan of Archangel and his representative. Lies, but who speaks truth? We are at war, truth we have long trampled into the sod. The bleeding edge of the sword, the smoking barrel of a gun, these are now our Truth.
We do not ask "what is true?", but rather "whose side are you on?" I will show you what happens when you are no longer on our side. I will show you the monsters that the Tanezeden clan really are. The truth, our Truth! The men we tortured until death, the women we violated in sight of their kinsmen. And all taken apart to pieces to hung on rotting boughs, heads against legs, arms against trunks. Monsters that we vanquished and humiliated, a testament to our might!
Poor Irannika was drenched with tears at this point. "These were my cousins, my kinsfolk that were murdered by Prince Jaromil. I could not bear to look, but I could not tear away my eyes. I felt I had had a glimpse of hell. I know in the past that people who see hell do so while protected by Maryam Eme. Why not now?"
Abbé Musa replied. "I had a dream last night, too. I did not pay attention to it and let myself forget it in the busyness of the day's affairs, but it has come back to me now. Maryam Eme gave me a horse-drawn cart, but it had been set alight in a bright flame. Be assured that your cousins are now restored to dignity and risen to the bosoms of our Mother, with the forerunners of Amatodate, as what was done to Elias Nabi on his last day on Earth."
Notes
1. This passage takes its inspiration from discourse surrounding current events, and also the particular work of Francisco Goya depicted.
2. The role of Maryam Eme was described earlier in Haji Thexeira.
3. The character of Irannika Yasin was first introduced in Lisbeta Griadina.
4. The present iteration of the monastery Amatodate is taken as the setting here. Previous iterations are described in Amatodate. The monastery is ultimately based on the presently vacant Territorial Abbacy of Tŏkwon, now the site of the University of Wonsan, North Korea.
5. The many-headed demon references figures in Soviet leadership Lenin, Stalin, and Lavrentiy Beria.
6. A phrase from the demon's monologue was lifted from a quote by Mao Zedong.
7. The Abbé referred to the "Road of Bones". This is the place which we know today as the Federal Highway R504 "Kolyma" of the Russian Far East.
8. The Abbé references the story of Prophet Elijah taken to Heaven (2 Kings 2:11)
9. The name "Šaškotan" comes from an island in the northern Kuriles. In the present context, it is understood simply to mean the furthest east of the Asian landmass.
A demon, which seemed to be three men welded into one in the inferno. Three heads, three torsos, an indeterminable number of arms and legs, none being where they belonged. The faces locked in grimace, their complexions at once deflated and ashen and glowing with impotent rage, their voices chanting and announcing their names: Ivanov, Beria, Dzhugashvili; Ivanov, Beria, Dzhugashvili...
"The local demons of Taimiria," noted Abbé Musa. "In the empire which spanned this land of eons past, the pharaohs sent their men to work to the death in Taimiria and as far east as Šaškotan, where poor and noble alike built the road and were buried under it when the cold claimed them, and to where the souls of the pharaohs themselves were banished."
Sister Irannika Yasin continued: And then at once the three heads spoke to me. Dogs! Swine! The tribe of Tanezeden are little better than animals. They dared speak against our Prince of Toyogarov; they spoke treason against the Taimirian race. They shall not even be seen as equal as flies, whose wings and legs we pull apart for sport. And that is what we will do to them.
Lies, lies! I cried. But they laughed at me. Lies? They believed the lies of the Metropolitan of Archangel and his representative. Lies, but who speaks truth? We are at war, truth we have long trampled into the sod. The bleeding edge of the sword, the smoking barrel of a gun, these are now our Truth.
We do not ask "what is true?", but rather "whose side are you on?" I will show you what happens when you are no longer on our side. I will show you the monsters that the Tanezeden clan really are. The truth, our Truth! The men we tortured until death, the women we violated in sight of their kinsmen. And all taken apart to pieces to hung on rotting boughs, heads against legs, arms against trunks. Monsters that we vanquished and humiliated, a testament to our might!
Poor Irannika was drenched with tears at this point. "These were my cousins, my kinsfolk that were murdered by Prince Jaromil. I could not bear to look, but I could not tear away my eyes. I felt I had had a glimpse of hell. I know in the past that people who see hell do so while protected by Maryam Eme. Why not now?"
Abbé Musa replied. "I had a dream last night, too. I did not pay attention to it and let myself forget it in the busyness of the day's affairs, but it has come back to me now. Maryam Eme gave me a horse-drawn cart, but it had been set alight in a bright flame. Be assured that your cousins are now restored to dignity and risen to the bosoms of our Mother, with the forerunners of Amatodate, as what was done to Elias Nabi on his last day on Earth."
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| Los desastres de la guerra, plate No. 39: Grande hazaña! Con muertos! (A heroic feat! With dead men!). Francisco Goya, circa 1810 |
Notes
1. This passage takes its inspiration from discourse surrounding current events, and also the particular work of Francisco Goya depicted.
2. The role of Maryam Eme was described earlier in Haji Thexeira.
3. The character of Irannika Yasin was first introduced in Lisbeta Griadina.
4. The present iteration of the monastery Amatodate is taken as the setting here. Previous iterations are described in Amatodate. The monastery is ultimately based on the presently vacant Territorial Abbacy of Tŏkwon, now the site of the University of Wonsan, North Korea.
5. The many-headed demon references figures in Soviet leadership Lenin, Stalin, and Lavrentiy Beria.
6. A phrase from the demon's monologue was lifted from a quote by Mao Zedong.
7. The Abbé referred to the "Road of Bones". This is the place which we know today as the Federal Highway R504 "Kolyma" of the Russian Far East.
8. The Abbé references the story of Prophet Elijah taken to Heaven (2 Kings 2:11)
9. The name "Šaškotan" comes from an island in the northern Kuriles. In the present context, it is understood simply to mean the furthest east of the Asian landmass.
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