Queen of Flowers and Pearls , livre ebook

Q UEEN
of FLOWERS and PEARLS
Global African Voices
DOMINIC THOMAS, EDITOR
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Blue White Red: A Novel ALAIN MABANCKOU Translated by Alison Dundy
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Indiana University Press
BLOOMINGTON INDIANAPOLIS
Q UEEN
of FLOWERS and PEARLS
a novel
GABRIELLA GHERMANDI
Translated by Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto
This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350, 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
This book was originally published in Italy by Donzelli Editore under the title Regina di fiori e di perle 2007 Donzelli Editore
2015 by Indiana University Press All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
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Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ghermandi, Gabriella, [date]- [Regina di fiori e di perle. English] Queen of flowers and pearls : a novel / Gabriella Ghermandi; translated by Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto. pages cm - (Global African voices) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-253-01546-4 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01547-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01548-8 (ebook) 1. Ethiopia-History-1889-1974-Fiction. 2. Italy-Colonies-Africa-History-Fiction. 3. Italians-Ethiopia-History-20th century-Fiction. I. Bellesia, Giovanna, translator. II. Poletto, Victoria Offredi, translator. III. Title. PQ4907.H48R4413 2015 853 .92-dc23
2014044313
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I gather flowers and pearls. Flowers of all kinds: large, small, invisible, anonymous. Flowers brightly colored like the imperious sun, and others, with subdued colors, like a spring breeze. Fragrant flowers and flowers whose secret scent tells stories to the soul. I gather pearls and flowers. Pearls of all kinds: shiny, perfect, imperfect, white, pink, and black. Hidden pearls and visible pearls. I gather flowers and pearls from the enchanted garden of my land .

CONTENTS
Translators Note
Note on Amharic Pronunciation
List of Amharic Words and Expressions
THE PROMISE
C HAPTER 1
Yacob s Story
C HAPTER 2
The Passage
Adolescence
The Advice
The Flower of the Month
The Saturday Market!
The Consent
The First Day of Work
At Legesse s Shop
The West
Announcement! Announcement!
Arada Sefer
The Move
The First Celebration of Timket in the Capital
The Chaos before the Calm
Return to Debre Zeit
The Departure
THE RETURN
C HAPTER 3
The Story of the Stupid Lion and the Monkey
C HAPTER 4
The Story of Abbaba Igirsa Salo
C HAPTER 5
Farisa Alula the Great
C HAPTER 6
The Turtle Lady s Story
Kebedech Seyoum
C HAPTER 7
The Story of Woizero Bekelech and Signor Antonio
C HAPTER 8
C HAPTER 9
TRANSLATORS NOTE
IN QUEEN OF FLOWERS AND PEARLS THE ITALIAN-ETHIOPIAN author, Gabriella Ghermandi, has presented us, the translators, with a dual challenge: we are translating from Italian into English, but often the culture behind the words-at times even the phrasing-is purely Amharic. As Cristina Lombardi-Diop says in the afterword to the Italian edition, Ghermandi has invented a new Italian, a language based on the oral culture of Ethiopia. We have endeavored to transmit the flavor of this duality.
Throughout we have retained the Amharic honorifics ( Abba, Woizero, Ras , etc.) and also the Italian ones ( Signor and Signora ) to give the reader a clearer sense of place. Wherever possible, we have paraphrased the words in Amharic that appear in both the Italian and the English versions, to avoid interruption of the storyline. Others are defined in footnotes and in the list below. Still others are self-explanatory and create a delightful leitmotif to the story, such as Woine !, a recurrent Amharic expression of dismay. In a few instances where the Amharic is loosely rendered into Italian, we have chosen to rephrase the meaning, rather than try to find a specific equivalent expression in English that the readers might find both jarring and distracting.
Finally, Gabriella Ghermandi s original intent in writing this captivating story was to educate Italians about their own colonial history, largely ignored and rewritten to hide the brutality of the occupation. We hope that this translation will help a much larger audience understand the far-reaching consequences, both past and present, of the Italian colonization of the Horn of Africa.
-Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto S MITH C OLLEGE , N ORTHAMPTON , M ASSACHUSETTS
NOTE ON AMHARIC PRONUNCIATION
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE MAIN RECURRING sounds, transcribed from Amharic, of proper and common nouns found in this book. The spelling of certain place names has been changed to reflect the accepted English spelling.
Ch as in ch ild
Ci as in ki n
Gh as in g in
Gi as in gi ggle
Ge as in gue st
J as in j am
Sh as in sh e
Ts as in Ts etse Fly
W as in l oo p
Proper nouns are often preceded by forms of address. These are the main ones, each followed by an explanation:
Abba = father, in a respectful way, reserved for older men; Ato = mister, in an informal way; Etie = madam, in an informal way; Immebet = madam, in a very polite way; Gash = mister, in a respectful way; Woizero = madam, in a respectful way; Atse = honorary term used for past emperors.
The Ethiopian calendar follows the Julian calendar and has thirteen months. Twelve months have thirty days and one month five. This calendar is eight years behind ours. The year begins with the first day of Meskerem, approximately September 11 or 12, and it continues with the months of Tikmt, Hedar, Tahsas, Tir, Yekatit, Megabit, Meyazeya, Genbot, Senay, Hamlay, Nahasey, and Pagume, the month that only has five days.
AMHARIC WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS
aja A cereal similar to barley.
amba A flat-topped mountain.
arbegna Ethiopian Resistance fighter(s).
areke Distilled corn liquor.
Ascari Indigenous soldiers from Eritrea and Ethiopia who were part of the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops of the Italian Army during the period 1889-1941.
azmari Storyteller and poet, the equivalent of the East African griot .
banda Scouts.
berbere Mixture of spices and hot chili peppers that is the base of most Ethiopian dishes.
Danakil An ethnic group in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Afar.
dirkosh Pieces of dried injera .
doro wot Spicy sauce with chicken.
fir fir Traditional dry bread, broken into pieces, used to soak up sauces.
fukera Traditional war chants.
gabi A piece of cloth similar to the shemma , but a little heavier.
gebi Palace.
genfo Porridge made from different flours, served with a hole in the middle for melted butter, spices, hot pepper, and yogurt.
getoch Master, boss.
gibir Feast.
Habesha Term Ethiopians sometimes use to define themselves.
injera Traditional bread, made from teff flour.
kallicha Fortune tellers or people able to communicate with spirits.
karia A hot green chili pepper.
kebele Neighborhood committee.
kolo A common Ethiopian snack. Crunchy roasted barley grains, peppered with chickpeas, dusted in a light salty seasoning.
korkoralleo A peddler.
masinko A traditional singlestring violin.
Meskel The feast of the Holy Cross, one of the principal religious celebrations in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Meskerem Approximately September 11 or 12. The beginning of the year in Ethiopia.
mezmur Church hymns or songs.
mitmitta A very spicy small chili pepper.
nech White.
negarit A kind of bass drum.
netela Thin, white cotton shawl, spun and woven by hand with a brightly colored border, used only by women.
qene Ethiopian style of speech, in which one says one thing while implying a different meaning at the same time and in the same sentence.
quanta Spiced dried meat.
Ras Noble feudal chief of a region and the head of a regional army, subordinate to the Emperor.
sefer Neighborhood.
Selam Peace be with you. Used as a greeting.
shemma Thick, white cotton cloth, spun and woven by hand, used for wrapping around the body, especially by men.
shiro Sauce made from chickpea flour and spices.
sigawot A spicy beef stew.
sistrum An Ethiopian metal musical instrument.
sollato From the Italian soldato (soldier).
Tabot Wooden or marble tablets, forty-four in all; replicas of the Tablets of the Law as given to Moses; each one dedicated to a saint, to an Archangel, or to Our Lady, and used in the practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
talian From the Italian italiano (Italian).
teff Whole-grain flour made from an ancient cereal grass.
tej Fermented Ethiopian mead or honey wine.
tella Fermented barley beer.
tibs Meat saut ed with onions and hot green chili peppers.
Timket The Ethiopian Orthodox celeb