Feel yourself like at home - страница 10

Now, prior to mention another important wish (and a kind of a greeting in a specific case) of Turkmen, let me to make two small digressions.

I have to introduce two residents of our town, linked with each other by family (I emphasize – family!) bonds, Mered and Kurban by names, both over fifty years old..

Also I would remind the reader about a classical saying, which became a cliché: “a man in his life ought to fulfill three tasks: to build a home, to have a son, and to plant a tree”.

So, after some quite difficult years, Mered has finally finished building and remodeling a house in the Poltavka village near own town. Besides, he implemented some designer ideas which were not common at the provincial areas. I am a brother and a cousin to them both Mered and Kurban, and that is why at the time I often visited Mered to have a tea with him. At my next visit, the host started, with some surprise and sadness, to tell me about Kurban’s first visit to his new home.

Already at his second sentence I started to smile and then even began to laugh because I guessed at once what I would hear next. I know Kurban’s personality so well that I can predict what and in which situation he could say.

I will continue my story reciting, nearly word-by-word, my dialogue with Mered that took place in his study, featuring a TV set half wall-wide:

“You know, I showed him the entire new home, opening doors into every room. You did not yet see those rooms, you just came and sat down here without further moving.”

Just then I could not suppress smiling and then burst out laughing immediately upon hearing a continuation and seeing that expression of Mered’s face which would be impossible to describe in words – a mixture of a bewilderment, light injury and, at the same time, some bitter humor.

“And then he [Kurban] said suddenly: ‘Two men at Poltavka, they just finished building their houses, and then hung themselves’” (!?).

Here Mered glanced at me and asked: “What’s so funny?”

“Hey, I know in advance what he could say. Kurban just is not able to be glad for the of success of another person.”

So what was the trick?

It is appropriate among the Turkmen to wish “nesip etsin” “(“let it bring goodness for you”) in such cases as a building of a house, a car purchase, or another significant acquisition.

Formally, Kurban was right; indeed at the Poltavka village two men committed suicides after moving to newly built houses. Whether he had to mention them to Mered at the latter’s new house, let it be solely up to Kurban’s conscience.

Then, I would not hide that at the moment I felt myself some awkwardness: “Didn’t I myself forget to make an appropriate wish? It is quite possible, with my absent-mindlessness”

Possibly, I did say something otherwise Mered would not fail to sting, would he? At once I recalled that just while entering his yard through the gate of a yard, a hearty “Berekella!” (“good of you” or “bravo”) burst out from my lips.

It happened that I did not visit Mered for a friendly chat for several months, and that is why I witnessed neither a start of the construction, nor a result of it. After my first exclamation I went on with my habitual saying “