The Mountain and the Wall by Alisa Ganieva

Author:Alisa Ganieva [Ganieva, Alisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781941920145
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
Published: 2015-06-07T22:00:00+00:00

3

Makhmud Tagirovich ran along the dislodged slabs of pavement in his Lak sandals, favoring his right foot a bit. Signs leaped past: “Cement milling;” “Limousine Rental for Matchmaking;” “Air Conditioners, Humidifiers, Dehumidifiers;” “Amelia’s Facials;” “Cinder block removal;” “Fine Couture;” “Glass and Aluminum Design.”

Exhausted, he leaned against a gray spackled wall, on which someone had scrawled in chalk: CHAT 647987669. A gust of wind then whisked Makhmud Tagirovich’s straw hat off his head and bore it off in the direction of an industrial complex. Some passerby tried to snag it with two fingers, but after alighting briefly on the ground, the hat was immediately swept off to one side and barely escaped being crushed under the wheels of passing cars.

Makhmud Tagirovich stood panting, trying to catch his breath. Anticipating how upset his wife would be, he headed to a little square where some of the trees had been cut down, figuring he could spend some time there pondering his great epic poem. (In fact his novel was his life’s work, but he’d gotten blocked and had turned to verse as an outlet for his creative energy.) The poem was dedicated to his wife, of course, and told the story of her early years in her mountain village.

According to his outline, the “Childhood” stanzas would flow smoothly into “Youth,” at which point the heroine would meet this same Makhmud Tagirovich. Then there would be a travelogue of the wedding cortege’s journey to Makhachkala, with a detailed listing and description of all the stops along the way. In the finale, the happy bride and groom would gaze up at the starlit sky and whisper:

Together forever, wife and man

Nature bound us, and Dagestan.

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