Zarifa and you may Musya-“the initial couple of this kind from Russia to register its ”-was basically hitched getting twelve years
Regarding girlhood, an element of the reputation into the “Alisa Shopping Demise” is determined never to be their own mom, which the time committing suicide and who she remembers that have contempt; she “was constantly passionately in love and you can sustained spectacularly, to the level of your own psycho wards
For the “The new Dragon additionally the Phoenix,” the first of your own four tales that comprise region one, we see a beneficial lesbian partners, Zarifa and you can Musya. Today it inhabit Cyprus. And even though Musya understands that “merely a person is a husband,” and you will “to this day the expression lesbian” renders their particular “freeze, instance a small girl stuck stealing”-and although the wedding possess alienated one another women from their Armenian and you can Azerbaijani relatives-Musya and you may Zarifa had been pleased to one another (on account of or perhaps in spite of the entirely contrary characters?).
However Zarifa are dying out-of malignant tumors, an undeniable fact therefore inappropriate so you can Musya one she’s become covertly asking a couple of old sorceresses “regarding a complicated change of one heart for the next.” The woman is tossed on your state whenever she need certainly to handle Zarifa’s estranged elderly aunt, Said, who dislikes their unique (to possess him, the new women’s partnership is blasphemy), but which Zarifa has summoned away from Karabakh having guidelines to bring a particular friends heirloom: a carpet are put on brand new coffin from the their funeral service. Meanwhile Zarifa also has summoned “our most practical pal,” Zhenya, to help you set to their certain deathbed concerns, included in this “why you can’t really chair Armenians and Azerbaie table.” For which the latest flummoxed Zhenya doesn’t have a good address.
He’s in the first place from the exact same urban area inside the Karabakh, but their relationships failed to initiate up to age later, after they must know each other into the Moscow
Musya amazing things at rug’s specialized structure, a good dragon and you can an effective phoenix “closed inside fatal and you can endless handle.” “It is impossible to inform who inside is the warrior, which the fresh sorcerer, who is evil and you may who is a, because they’re bound forever toward one to immobile and you will indissoluble band.” However it is that it violent artwork you to definitely afterwards pierces their particular much time-pent-upwards grief, their own unrestrained outburst leading to a moment regarding oneness and shared solace among mourners, an embrace away from foes, one minute whenever “who was simply the new spouse, just who the fresh new spouse, no-one cared.”
” (You to history keywords is among the most numerous one to remaining me personally out-of previously completely neglecting that, even if usually enjoyably viewable, what are an interpretation. Certainly one of other rough areas where my personal notice snagged: “A female, their human anatomy flattened on the sides in accordance with resolute bust”; “the only thing Lilya realized from the their particular age she exercise”-Schiltz-“on account of which she are teased due to the fact ‘shilly-shally.’”)
To have Alisa, “the fear off losing towards someone’s stamina was more powerful than some other anxieties right in order to feminine: out of solitude, out-of childlessness, of impoverishment.” Meaning, wedding was out. On 60-four, after a profitable job as the an engineering draftsman and you can 10 years off comfy old-age, Alisa moves a hit inside her better-prepared lifetime whenever an excellent fainting spell causes advice of death. This new fainting happens to be little really serious, nevertheless concern nags: Who will care for her in the event the inescapable appear? Actually ever simple, she check outs a health care provider and you will asks your to offer their resting tablets. For when it comes time, she shows you: “I just want it myself a simple demise bana italyanca karД±sД± bul.”
The doctor is actually an excellent widower, a kind and you may cultured guy who has already been way of life a single lives. The guy cannot offer Alisa the new pills, but once they see once again-by accident, from the a performance-they initiate an event whoever repairing bliss surprises and you may delights all of them each other. Though ready to deal with his offer away from matrimony, Alisa reminds him: little persists permanently; when it comes time, she will nonetheless wanted that simple death. Knowing it could be ineffective so you’re able to argue along with her, the doctor believes to that really unusual matrimony gift.
