This was one of the first pages I built in 1998 after learning some HTML. Of course, with the intention to come back and write more. It was the discovery of the new cyber world...
May 2004. Many things changed since then. I leave the original photos on the page, plus, the segments of "Sheba Story" (in reversed chronology). In revesed order because I the past from the present. The end of of the story, our time where there is no future and no past for tomorrow.
It's all in the past -- man, woman, family, history. Even the big history has the end. Everything has. Oh, it is thirty years from the end, but so difficult to accept it...
Family? What family? Don't I know what took place? What takes place...
No, I don't have a heart to write about it. To write what is ahead of us. The postmodern world is unrecognizable, with no blood lines and generations -- what blood? What generations? The words from the past. And who is interested in the past, we love only the future with this freedom from everything, with the complete independence from everyone. Welcome to America, to Post-America, to the Global "Village"...
Very soon we will think that "history" is no more than "mythology"...
" And the Queen departed and came into the country of BÂLÂ ZADÎSÂRĔYÂ nine months and five days after she [p. 38] had separated from King SOLOMON. And the pains of childbirth laid hold upon her, and she brought forth a man child, and she gave it to the nurse with great pride and delight. And she tarried until the days of her purification were ended, and then she came to her own country with great pomp and ceremony. And her officers who had remained there brought gifts to their mistress, and made obeisance to her, and did homage to her, and all the borders of the country rejoiced at her coming. Those who were nobles among them she arrayed in splendid apparel, and to some she gave gold and silver, and hyacinthine and purple robes; and she gave them all manner of things that could be desired. And she ordered her kingdom aright, and none disobeyed her command; for she loved wisdom and God strengthened her kingdom." [ Kebra Nagast 32 ]
My mother's photo at the top was taken in Addis Ababa on March 1969 (Ethiopian calendar). It was 1976, according to our calendar. She died in prison.
There are a few photographs I have from my mother's wedding in 1955.
She is on the right with the girls. And the wedding cake western style.
They gave birth to six of us, three boys and three girls. All are in the States. In New York, California, Las Vegas and in Alaska. We don't see each other that often. As if we live in different countries on different continents.
Here is my grandmother. We lived with her during the Red Terror, when both our parents were in prison. We were rescued in 1978, this story is on another page.
granny: She was married to the Crown Prince in her teens, and she divorced him. The rest of her life she lived like a nun and painted big canvases.
We are not only descendants, we are also ancesters! It's hard to remember it, but time won't forget to remaind us this fact.
" And the child grew and she called his name BAYNA-LEḤKEM. And the child reached the age of twelve years, and he asked his friends among the boys who were being educated with him, and said unto them, "Who is my father?" And they said unto him, "SOLOMON the King." And he went to the Queen his mother, and said unto her, "O Queen, make me to know who is my father." And the Queen spake unto him angrily, wishing to frighten him so that he might not desire to go [to his father] saying, "Why dost thou ask me about thy father? I am thy father and thy mother; seek not to know any more." And the boy went forth from her presence, and sat down. And a second time, and a third time he asked her, and he importuned her to tell him. One day, however, she told him, saying, "His country is far away, and the road thither is very difficult; wouldst thou not rather be here?" And the youth BAYNA-LEḤKEM was handsome, and his whole body and his members, and the bearing of his shoulders resembled those of King SOLOMON his father, and his eyes, and his legs, and his p. 39 whole gait resembled those of SOLOMON the King. And when he was two and twenty years old he was skilled in the whole art of war and of horsemanship, and in the hunting and trapping of wild beasts, and in everything that young men are wont to learn. And he said unto the Queen, "I will go and look upon the face of my father, and I will come back here by the Will of God, the Lord of ISRAEL." [ Kebra Nagast 32 ]
ON WOMAN
by William Butler Yeats
May God be praised for woman
That gives up all her mind,
A man may find in no man
a friendship of her kind
That covers all he has brought
As with her flesh and bone,
Nor quarrels with a thought
Because it is not her own.
Though pedantry denies,
It's plain the Bible means
That Solomon grew wise
While talking with his queens,
Yet never could, although
They say he counted the grass,
Count all the praises due
When Sheba was his lass,
When she the iron wrought, or
When from the smithy fire
It shuddered in the water:
Harshness of their desire
That made them stretch and yawn,
Pleasure that comes from sleep,
Shudder that made them one.
What else He give or keep
Go grant me - no, not here,
For I am not so bold,
To hope a thing so dear
Now I am growing old,
But when, if the tale's true,
The pestle of the moon
That pounds up all anew
Brings me to birth again -
To find what once I had
And know what once I have known,
Until I am driven mad,
Sleep driven from my bed,
By tenderness and care,
Pity, an aching head,
Gnashing of teeth, despair;
And all because of some one
Perverse creature of chance,
And live like Solomon
That led Sheba a dance.
MY DAUGHTER: In the Fall she goes to High School. Sasha plays violin and already takes some college class. (For more on our life in Alaska, please, visit "4X4 Family" Page). [ 1998 -- this is very old page. Recent pix -- at the bottom. ]
"And the Queen rejoiced, and she went forth in order to depart, and the King set her on her way with great pomp and ceremony. And SOLOMON took her aside so that they might be alone together, and he took off the ring that was upon his little finger, and he gave it to the Queen, and said unto her, "Take [this] so that thou mayest not forget me. And if it happen that I obtain seed from thee, this ring shall be unto it a sign; and if it be a man child he shall come to me; and the peace of God be with thee! Whilst I was sleeping with thee I saw many visions in a dream, [and it seemed] as if a sun had risen upon ISRAEL, but it snatched itself away and flew off and lighted up the country of ETHIOPIA; peradventure that country shall be blessed through thee; God knoweth. And as for thee, observe what I have told thee, so that thou mayest worship God with all thy heart and perform His Will. For He punisheth those who are arrogant, and He showeth compassion upon those who are humble, and He removeth the thrones of the mighty, and He maketh to be honoured those who are needy. For death and life are from Him, and riches and poverty are bestowed by His Will. For everything is His, and none can oppose His command and His judgment in the heavens, or in the earth, or in the sea, or in the abysses. And may God be with thee! Go in peace." And they separated from each other." [ Kebra Nagast 31 ]
Please, come back to read MARRIAGE & POLITICS. (And about my generation and my two sisters).
....Arranged by the dying Menelik in 1911 at the age of nineteen Dedjazmatch Tafari was married to weyzero Menen who was the grand-daughter of Negus Mikael of Wello and niece to Yassu, heir to the throne. The Power was a family business and family was a business of power.... Check the Addis Tribune online for Pankhurst's articles on Women in Ethiopian History.
"And how this Queen was born I have discovered written in that manuscript, and in this manner also doth the Evangelist mention that woman. And our Lord JESUS CHRIST, in condemning the Jewish people, the crucifiers, who lived at that time, spake, saying: "The Queen of the South shall rise up on the Day of Judgment and shall dispute with, and condemn, and overcome this generation who would not hearken unto [p. 17] the preaching of My word, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of SOLOMON."1 And the Queen of the South of whom He spake was the Queen of ETHIOPIA. And in the words "ends of the earth" [He maketh allusion] to the delicacy of the constitution of women, and the long distance of the journey, and the burning heat of the sun, and the hunger on the way, and the thirst for water. And this Queen of the South was very beautiful in face, and her stature was superb, and her understanding and intelligence, which God had given her, were of such high character that she went to JERUSALEM to hear the wisdom of SOLOMON; now this was done by the command of God and it was His good pleasure. And moreover, she was exceedingly rich, for God had given her glory, and riches, and gold, and silver, and splendid apparel, and camels, and slaves, and trading men (or, merchants). And they carried on her business and trafficked for her by sea and by land, and in INDIA, and in ’ASWÂN (SYENE). [ Kebra Nagast, 21 ]
