| My Dedication To Dominique Moceanu | |||||||||||||||||
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Dominique Moceanu is a wonderful gymnast she is stunning to watch, stunning to talk to, and stunning to listen to. She should be back at the next olypmics but if she isn't I have composed this page to alloe anybody who is interested in talking to her or getting to know her better to e-mail me and I will personally hand her only a couple of the e-mails that you send to me. Ask away, but remember to keep them within a limit, don't make them into a book and don't be rude to the young lady. Yes, she is a friend of mine, and yes I know her personally, and you will be able to carry on a conversation with her through me! Now I promise you one thing though, she will only get a certain number of letters from me from you people out their so make the words that you say count. Thanks and enjoy this new web page in dedication to DOMINIQUE MOCEANU and God Bless you. | |||||||||||||||||
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You ever wonder about the story of Gilgamesh? well here it is online for your viewing pleasure: GILGAMESH A verse narrative by Herbert Mason. It is an old story But one that can still be told About a man who loved And lost a friend to death And learned he lacked the power To bring him back to life. It is the story of Gilgamesh And his friend Enkidu. 1. Gilgamesh was king of Uruk, A city set between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in acient Babylonia. Enkidu was born on the Steppe where he grew up among the animals. Gilgamesh was called a god and man; Enkidu was an animal and man. It is the story of their becoming human together. As a king, gilgamesh was a tyrant to his people. He demanded, from an old birthright, the privilege of sleeping with their brides before the husbands were permitted. Sometimes he pushed his people have to death with working rebuilding Uruk's walls, and then without an explanation let the walls go unattended and decay, and left his people dreaming og the past and longing for a change. They had grown tired of his contradictions and his callous ways. They knew his world was old and cluttered with spoiled arts that they defended but could not revive. Enkindu was ignorant of oldness. He ran with the animals, drank at their springs, not known fear or wisdom. He freed them from traps the hunters set. A hunter's son one day saw Enkindu opening a trap: the creature was all covered with hair and yet his hands had the dexterity of men's; he ran beside the freed gazelle like a brother and they drank together at a pool like two friends sharring some common journey not needing to speak but just continue. Gilgamesh was a godlike man alone with his thoughts in idleness except for those evenings when he went down into the market place to the Family House to sleep with the virgins, or when he told his dreams to his mother, Ninsun. The hunter listened to his son's description of Enkidu and was both angry and afraid he told his son to go to Uruk and to tell what he had seen to Gilgamesh and to ask him to send a prostitute who would sleep with Enkidu and make the animals ashamed of him. Gilgamesh would understand, for he was king. The hunter's son made the day's journey to Uruk and told what he had seen to Gilgamesh, showing him his father's anger and his fear and praising the strength of the strange creature who had come to his father's plains and freed the animals from the traps and lived as one of them and threatened the livelihood of me. Gilgamesh listened but he had heard so many stories of the Wondrous creatures of the forest and the Steppe that he could hardly be aroused. He sent the prostitute but then forgot what he had listened to. The hunter left the prostitute alone at the spring. When the evening came, Enkindu appeared among the animals and drank with them and rested at their side. When he awoke and saw a creature unlike any he had seen before standing near the water, its skin smooth, tan and harless except for its head and between its legs. He wanted to touch it, but then it made sounds he had never heard of, not like the sounds of his friends, the animals, and he was afraid. The prostitute came close to him and the animals withdrew. She took his hand and guided it across her breasts and between her legs and touched him with her fingers gently bend down and moistened him with her lips then drew him down slowly to the ground. Whe he rose again looking for his friends who had gone, he felt a strange exhaustion, as if life had left his body. He felt their absence. He imagined the gazelles raising the dry dust like soft brush floating on the crests of sand swiftly changing directions, and the sepents asleep at the springs, slipping effortlessly into the water, and the wild she-camel vanishing into the desert. His friends had left him to the vast aloneness he have never felt before. The lions returned to the mountains, the water buffalo to the rivers, the birds to the sky. Gilgamesh woke anxiously from a dream and said to Ninsun: I saw a star fall from the sky, and the people of Uruk stood around and admired it, and I was jealous and tried to carry it away but I was too weak and I failed. What does it mean? I have not dreamed like this before. She said: Your equal is the star which fell, as if a sign from Heaven had been sent which is too heavy but which you will try to lift and drive away, and fail. But I have never failed before, he interrupted her, surpised himself at his anxiety. It will be a person, she continued, speaking in her somber monotone, a compainion who is your equal in strength, a person loyal to a friend, who will not forsake you and whom you will never wish to leave. Gilgamesh was queit at this interpretation of his dream. That night he had a vison of an ax. What does this mean, he said on waking; the people stood around the ax when I tried to lift, and I failed. I feel such tiredness. I cannot explain. Ninsun said: The ax is a man who is your friend and equal. He will come. A graceful man who will lift you out of tiredness. > >O Ninsun, I want your word s to be true. I have never know such weariness before, as if some life in me has disappeared or need to be >filled in me has disappeared or needs to be filled up again. I am alone and I have longed for some companionship. My people also have grown tired of my solitude. > > ~~ >The prostitute slept beside Enkidu until he was used to her body. She knew how gradually one stop desiring to run with old companions. One morning she awoke and said to him: Why do you still want to run with the animals? You are a human being now, not like them. You are like a god, like Gilgamesh. I will lead you to Uruk where you belong, to the Temple of Anu where Gilgamesh rules over his people And is strong, and you will recognize yourself in him, as in a clear stream you will see your own face, a man's face. He listened to her words and to the unfamiliar names of Anu, Gilgamesh ... and he felt weak. He let her clothe him in a portion of her scarlet robe and lead him to a Shepherd's house where he was welcomed and taught to eat bread and drink the liquor that the shepherds drank. His soul felt new and strange and his face was hot with sweat and somehow gay. The prostitute shaved the long hair off his body; she washed him with perfumes an oils, and he became a man. At night he stood watched for the shepherds against the lions so they could sleep, he captured wolves for them, and he was known as their Protector. > One day a man who was going to Uruk stopped to eat at the shepherd's house. He told them he was hurrying to the marketplace to choose for himself a virgin bride whom Gilgamesh by his birthright would sleep with before him. Enkidu's face was pale. He felt a weakness in his body and the mention of their king. He asked the prostitute why this should be his birthright. She answered: He is king. Enkidu entered Uruk. The prostitute walked behind him. The marketplace filled with people when they heard that he was coming. People said: He looks Like Gilgamesh but he is shorter and also stronger; he has power of Steppe, the milk of the animals he sucked. They hailed him as equal as their king. Gilgamesh spoke then: We go to kill the Evil One, Humbaba. We must prove Ourselves more powerful than he. Enkidu was afraid of the forest of Humbaba And urged him not to go, but he Was not as strong as Gilgamesh in argument, And they were friends: They had embraced and made their vow To stay together always, No matter what the obstacle. Enkidu tried to hold his fear But he knew he was sick at heart: I feel the weakness that I felt before Come over my body, as I try to lift My arms and found that they were hollow. It is Humbaba who has taken your strength, Gilgamesh spoke out, anxious For the journey. We must kill him And end his evil power over us. No, Enkidu cried; it is the journey That will take away our life. Don't be afraid, said Gilgamesh. We are together. Their is nothing We should fear. I learned, Enkidu said, when I lived with the animals never to go down Into that forest. I learned that there is death In Humbaba. Why do you want To raise his anger? Only half-listening Gilgamesh thought aloud about the cedars he would climb. How can we climb those cedars? Enkidu tried to say his thoughts: Humbaba never sleeps. He is the guardian Whom Enlil has commanded to protect The sacred trees by terror. I have learned His sounds is like a flood's sound Slowly forming in the distance, Then enveloping all other sounds. Even cries of animals cannot be heard. Trees are hushed, the wind Still moves them back and forth But noiselessly. As when one senses Violence gathering its force, Soon there is no sound apart from it, Not even one's own thought in terror. I have learned that from his mouths springs fire That scorches the earth and in a moment There is nothing left alive, No tree, no insect, as in a dream That makes one wake and cry Out of the pain one cannot find The source of, out of nothing; One wakes and everything has vanished. I have learned Humbaba is the face of death. He hears each insect crawling toward the edge Of the forest; he twitches and it dies. Do you think he could not hear two men? Why are you worried about death? Only the gods are immortal anyway, Sighed Gilgamesh. What men do is nothing, so fear is never Justified. What happened to your power That I once could challenge and equal mine? I will go ahead of you, and if I die I will at least have the reward Of having people say: He died in war Against Humbaba. You cannot discourage me With fears and hesitations. I will fight Humbaba, I will cut down cedars. Tell the armorers to build us two-edged swords And double shields and tell them I am impatient and cannot wait long. Thus Gilgamesh and Enkidu went Together to the marketplace To notify the Elders of Uruk Who were meeting in their senate. They too were talking of Humbaba, As they often did, Edging always in their thoughts Towards the forbidden. The one you speak of, Gilgamesh addressed them, I now must meet. I want to prove Him not the awesome thing we think he is And that the boundaries set up by gods Are not unbreakable. I will defeat him In his cedar forest. The youth of Uruk Need this fight. They have grown soft And restless. The old men leaned a little forward Remembering old wars. A flush burned on Their cheeks. It seemed a little dangerous And yet they saw their king Was seized with passion for this fight. Their voices gave the confidence his friends Had failed to give him; some even said Enkidu's wisdom was a sign of cowardice. You see, my friend, laughed Gilgamesh, The wise of Uruk have outnumbered you. Amidst the speeches in the hall That called upon the gods for their protection, Gilgamesh saw in his friend that pain He had seen before and asked him what it was That troubled him. Enkidu could not speak. He held his tears Back. Barely audibly he said: It is a road which you have never traveled. The armorers brought to Gilgamesh his weapons And put them in his hands. He took his quiver, Box and ax, and two-edged sword, And they began to march. The Elders gave their austere blessing And the people shouted: Let Enkidu lead, Don't trust your strength, he knows the forests, The one who goes ahead will save his friend. May Shamash bring you victory. Enkidu was resolved to lead his friend Who was determined but did not know the way. Now Gilgamesh was certain with his friend Beside him. They went to Ninsun, his mother, Who would advise them how to guard their steps. Her words still filled his mind As they started their journey, Just as a mother's voice is heard Sometimes in a man's mindLong past childhood Calling his name, calling him from sleep Or from some pleasureful moment On a foreign street When every trace of origin seems left And one has almost passed into a land That promises a vision of secret Of one's life, when one feels almost god enough To be free of voices, her voice Calls out like a voice from childhood, Reminding him he once tossed in his dreams. He still could smell in incense she had burned To Shamash saying: why did you give my son A restless heart, and now you touch him With this passion to destroy Humbaba, And you send him on a journey to a battle He may never understand, to a door He cannot open. You inspire him to end The evil | ||||||||||||||||
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