{"id":70,"date":"2008-12-26T17:05:01","date_gmt":"2008-12-26T12:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=70"},"modified":"2009-01-07T15:01:18","modified_gmt":"2009-01-07T10:01:18","slug":"her-majesty-the-water-%e2%80%93-the-queen-of-life-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=70","title":{"rendered":"HER MAJESTY THE WATER \u2013 THE QUEEN OF LIFE (part 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autor: by Alexander Fainberg<\/strong>
\nAuthorized translation: by Sergei Zubkov<\/strong>
\nIllustrations: by Leyla Basharova<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is the sea pitching and rolling fast?
\nYes, but let the wave be steep
\nto the most,
\nDreamer crucified across the mast
\nWill be first-noticed by his Dream
\nfrom a distant spot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m lazy sunbathing and fishing
\nin July
\nAt the riverside biting a grass-blade
\nTackling the problem: to get up or
\nto lie
\nOr to flick from the face a cool
\ngrain of sand.<\/p>\n

A wave\u2019s lapped. A martin
\nflushed away.
\nA ferryman shouted at boys
\nin a boat\u2026
\nAfresh golden peace and quiet
\nprevail
\nAnd water surface does not sway
\nmy float.<\/p>\n

Dragon-flies are suspended over
\ngrass in the air.
\nSpider\u2019s web across the sky is
\nmotionless.
\nA narrow path runs through
\nheated haze
\nTo the river\u2019s low bank green
\nwith water meadows.<\/p>\n

Clouds in the noon sky have
\nstiffened fixed.
\nSuch radiant joy\u2019s reigning in the heart,
\nThat there\u2019s no way for being a skinflint
\nAges for a wink of quiet bliss willing
\nto barter.<\/p>\n

So\u2026Well, craving for a quiet bliss… You have got a hope!
\nTV and radio airwaves are packed to capacity with alarmed voices of studio commentators. Tragic newspaper and magazine photo-accounts lash across the eyes.
\n\u201cMassacre in South Ossetia\u2026water supply – destroyed\u2026\u201d \u201cTerror in Mumbai \u2013 killers came by water in boats\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cFlood in China\u2026Evacuated\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cTaiga is in flames\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cFlood is progressing in Stavropol\u2026Water-wells jammed with silt\u2026No drinking water available\u2026\u201d
\nIt is unbearable neither to listen to nor to watch. There is Venice in Siberia. Bellowing cows fright-stricken are taken across high waters in Gondolas. Halloo! America, UN, Europe, India. Hi! My crazy world! The world of terror acts, rapists, billionaires, beggars, show-gangsters.<\/p>\n


\nOh sheer mental house of mine! My dear Planet! Whom and what have we sinned against to receive so severe a punishment? Cities have been sinking; and as to Your woods, my Lord, they are blazing in fires and no water is available to put them out. Special fire-killing airplanes are not in sufficient numbers. What\u2019s the matter?! But I must halt. What right do I have to disturb the Creator? Isn\u2019t it high time for me and for you, and for all of us to use our heads and understand that one ought always to remember the popular wisdom \u2013 \u201ccast no dirt in the well that gives you water\u201d – the water-well granted to us by heavens? People are born to work but not to fight wars. You never know what may happen once. All may go to hell \u2013 and you and me and even leaders of religious confessions and governments. Here they are \u2013 seas befouled with oil, dolphins leaping out to beaches from radioactive contaminated waves, acid rains. And all these happen because of us \u2013 people. That\u2019s why water rises in rebellion; – now\u2026escaping from rivers and seas, now\u2026attacking towns and villages.
\nTo loll on the sand behind
\na breakwater
\nTowards the wave I stretch
\nmy hands.
\nLet them wash and tell me
\nwhat for,
\nAll should protect our waters
\nand lands.<\/p>\n

Wind and waves take my
\nsorrows away,
\nIn oblivion dispatching
\nall of them,
\nI\u2019m not afraid to sail too far
\nand fall prey
\nTo my sinful ever undying
\nfame.<\/p>\n

Though I\u2018ve been unfaithful
\nto girlfriends
\nMy courage never failed me, I
\nbroke no pledges
\nSeeking consolation in
\nunknown places.
\nThe celestial protectress forgives
\nmy trespasses.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll share happiness with all
\naround us:
\nRocks, seagulls, waves, sails and
\nsailors.
\nWhere\u2019s the Sea of Luck, where\u2019re
\nIslands of Happiness?
\nWho\u2019d provide me with heavenly
\nfavors?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019ve got a vision of the Aral Sea rapidly disappearing with every passing day. Very long ago various committees had been established for saving the dying sea. Business trips, assignments, per diem, salaries\u2026But skeletons of fish and ships remain to be skeletons. It\u2019s tragedy of the planet. Truth to tell, one Russian sage caused confusion in the senior executives\u2019 ranks of the committees on saving the sea, and for a while made them pondering. He uttered a word of wisdom: \u201cIt\u2019s expedient to drop down icebergs from the Arctic Ocean into the Aral depression\u201d.
\nA clever person he is.., – Ilya Muromets has wakened up. Would you, please, put him to sleep once more for the period of about eight hundred years!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNo, not the vast Sahara desert can be seen on the African continent through seven-colored rainbows. I\u2019ve the vision of a small country. I have something in common with it through my ancient ancestors. As a matter of fact, kinship is very distant \u2013 from time immemorial. The country is called Israel. I\u2019d prefer to refrain from making a remark about dried-up limestone soil of the desert, serving as the farming land fertilized by sweat and human blood for growing green grass and palms, pine woodlands on the hillsides and tangerine groves. But then, one lady-emigrant from Kiev dared to lecture native Israelis on Sinai history:
\n– Your Moses (she used the abusive language) had been taking you along through the desert for forty years. Instead of bringing his people to Kuwait land full with oodles of oil, he dragged them here\u2026
\nWhat a humor caper, ah! That\u2019s wailing, isn\u2019t it? My I ask you, young perky lady, – what brought you here from independent Ukraine \u2013 the blessed nation among the countries \u2013 to this pitiful state, the Promised Land? However let you —- off (I\u2019d better abstain from using the four-letter language). It\u2019s not that what I mean. I\u2019m speaking about \u041d2\u041e. There are three seas surrounding the country \u2013 the country occupying the territory that is hardly equals the area of Tashkent province. Three seas, but they are all salty. And desalination plants are more expensive than purchase of soft water from Turkey. Cisterns are everywhere \u2013 on every roof. Collecting drops. The only fresh water lake is Kinereth has been waiting for precipitation – snow or rain. All over the country \u2013 beg your pardon – toilet sinks are equipped with two handles; one of them dumps less, another one – more water. And it goes without saying, water meters are everywhere. Not to mention drip irrigation. By the way, the one who had hit the \u201cdrip watering\u201d idea used to be a resident of Tashkent. But it so happened that at that time there lived soviet red tape clerks who managed to sink this flash of inspiration in the paper sea. So, the inventor had taken his heels and got to the Jordan River banks \u2013 and now descendants of those clerks purchase the drip technology from the Middle East country at the account of common taxpayers \u2013 and I am in their number.
\nIn essence, this idea springs from chygkyr. It\u2019s the same, isn\u2019t it?
\nThere is a startling phenomenon. When wild nature is overtaken by the drought period then all the animals would simultaneously bend heads to remaining water sources: among them lions, cheetahs, leopards, and, what are most astonishing, – antelopes and zebras. None of these vegetarian animals escapes from beasts of prey and none of the latter attack to feed. At this time, water reconciles every creature, balance, so to say conflicting interests. It is normal, isn\u2019t it? So, do we \u2013 people \u2013 need the doomsday global dry heat to make peace with each other in the long run?
\nWhat else? Ages ago it had been well known that to assure achieving a turn for the better a person has to start such betterment from improving oneself. And if misfortune overtakes personally you, look back \u2013 haven\u2019t you once upon a time been a cause of pain, mental anguish or similar misfortune to someone? Let it be very long ago, let be unintentional. Doesn\u2019t its return serve you right? Didn\u2019t somebody\u2019s tear roll down sometime – a tear of somebody whom you reduced to tears \u2013 tears that rolled down upon the page of The Book of Providence? Had not that page got covered with tar from a tree cut down to no purpose? Let it be not you who cut it. But you simply passed by, minding your own business. Everybody is guilty \u2013 of everything.
\nIt\u2019s my fault that in vain animals die.
\nI\u2019m not quite aware of the reasons why \u2013
\nA mother in countryside wipes sad tears,
\nSon in the metropolis is deaf \u2013 nothing
\nhears.<\/p>\n

I am guilty of all railway-n-air crashes.
\nI\u2019m guilty. Of my crime \u2013 no witnesses.
\nMy fault \u2013 the crop is killed by
\nhail-storm flashes.
\nAnd the ship\u2019s team drowned in the
\nCaspian Sea.<\/p>\n

For emissions of the reactor\u2019s wreck I\u2019m
\nto blame
\nfor cracks of fires, age-old trees
\nin flames.
\nI\u2019m to blame for crucifying The Saviour,
\nwho later rose from under the shroud
\nveil.<\/p>\n

Volcano-torrents of inferno coals
\ncover everything,
\nBurn the planet\u2019s face \u2013 to everything
\nI confess.
\nI plead guilty, oh Lord, oh heaven, for
\nmy only sin
\nImploring: \u201cPlease, don\u2019t you accuse me
\nof everything!\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many waterfalls on the Earth. Image of one of them has crossed my mind \u2013 it is called Niagara. Splendid! Super! Inconceivable amount of water! And there are also the Arctic and Antarctic. Immense amounts of ice!
\nI remember the day when the oldest Tashkent cinema theatre was demolished \u2013 for the building had been damaged in the notorious 1966 earthquake. What a sight! Firstly, plush fabric curtains fell down from the advertising windows, and all everybody sees Stalin\u2019s sculpture busts looking at my \u2013 dusty at that time – mother-town. The sculptures that had been concealed \u2013 just in case – de bene esse. We see about a hundred small Stalin\u2019s busts grouped around the big one. What were they looking at? Oh, but they stared at our land where aryks had desiccated because of our natural disaster. And from under the ground springy sprouts of stern camel’s-thorn (Alhagi camelorum) begin to shoot. Where do we live? So, a set phrase \u201cWater is life\u201d is not a garish slogan, but the noiseless genuine truth. Didn\u2019t we once fish in the purest canal Salar catching out silver marinkas with bamboo fishing rods? There used to be such a fish in our time. This I say for youngsters, who might accidentally read these lines. There was time when the fish could be found in city waterways. Yes, we enjoyed the Salar and aryks from which we gulped down water – flushed from a football game. Surprisingly, even without concrete flumes those aryks were always clean, full of pure transparent running water similar to mountain springs. Tiny baby fishes dashed away when we cooled our faces in aryk water. Every spring all of us went out to clean and drudge these aryks \u2013 with spades and shovels, dustpans and choppers. Nobody forced anybody, nobody summoned \u2013 all on their own.
\nTransparent wings of dragonflies \u2013 they stand still over waterside brush of sedge. Water is flowing in the wide aryk. Let it flow forever – hope to God! And let a boy and a girl stand alongside a chigkyr.
\n– I cannot, – my young friend says \u2013 pull a hose over the tap. There is an aryk over there. I plop with my bucket into the aryk and water my furrows. Say, what about making myself some small makeshift chigkyr \u2013 why not?
\nThen staying for a while silent, he sighs out: – Provided if there is enough water\u2026
\nAnd in conclusion: – I hate when \u041d2\u041e has been permanently dropping from a faulty stopcock with no use \u2013 dropping to obscurity, to nowhere.<\/p>\n

Not much remains. Now – just a little remains…
\nTo look at the sky \u2013 wave farewell to friends.<\/p>\n

Fairy-colored leaves of autumn grove-trees,
\nBearing no grudge I touch red rowan berries.<\/p>\n

Nothing\u2019s left, but to remember only one thing,
\nTrees and flowers also suffer remorse\u2019s sting.<\/p>\n

An icy cold spring reflects all colors of the fall
\nAnd is iridescent like a Russian orthodox icon.<\/p>\n

In the end I\u2019d like to hear the parting song of
\na sunset bird, to worship Water \u2013 all I long for.<\/p>\n

So much remains! So little of you will be left!
\nSo much is omitted to make\u2026So much is left\u2026<\/p>\n

Remains?… Much?..
\nThere is so much zest for life.<\/p>\n

From the swimming pool\u2026dripped with splashes of a city\u2019s fountain\u2026between boulders in a turbulent river\u2026to sand beach pebbles of the blue lake\u2026 they are running out \u2013 a dark-haired boy and a golden-haired girl. And rainbows, rainbows, rainbows are emanating from their wide-spread hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Autor: by Alexander Fainberg Authorized translation: by Sergei Zubkov Illustrations: by Leyla Basharova Is the sea pitching and rolling fast? Yes, but let the wave be steep to the most, Dreamer crucified across the mast Will be first-noticed by his Dream from a distant spot. I\u2019m lazy sunbathing and fishing in July At the riverside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}