Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

Dadiani bent over the table, reached for the wine carafe and filled their glasses. When he looked up again, he smiledenigmatically. "To a long friendship," he said when they clinked glasses.Darkness had fallen. They had finished their meal. The servant cleared the table, brought a storm light and anotherdecanter, this time with cognac. Dadiani filled the snifter glasses, and Konrad discovered that the cognac was of the bestquality."This is another product from Tsinandali. In this case it compares well with French cognac."They were silent for a while. Dadiani looked into the candle and sipped his cognac. Konrad was moved, but still could notfathom Dadiani’s intentions nor understand what was happening to himself."Do you have any plans for tomorrow morning?" Dadiani asked. "The easiest thing would be for you to stay overnight. Aroom has been prepared for you, and in this way you will meet my wife tomorrow morning."Konrad accepted happily. He felt comfortable in the presence of this man. Where would Dadiani’s conversation lead?The question fascinated and ensnared him. And in any case, Dadiani had not yet given his permission for Alexandra tojoin his expedition."What do you know about the dark sides of Georgia?" Dadiani asked. "You think, of course, that we are extroverts,because we gesticulate with our hands and talk a great deal. That is a misunderstanding. As you become more familiarwith Georgia you will find that we are really introverted. We love tragedy, not in the unrestrained, depraved way of theRussians, we live in a warm and plentiful land, the more we drink of our wines the less tongue-tied we get. The Russiansdrink to forget, we to remember.... You should once attend a Georgian funeral, it would open your eyes to our sense ofthe tragic: We are poets and actors in the best sense of the Greek drama.— And then there is the Georgian woman...."Dadiani raised his glass and toasted: "To the women we all depend on for our lives. To my incomparable wife and herbeautiful but difficult daughter!"Dadiani looked into space and smiled affectionately. His smile vanished, and absentmindedly twirling his mustache hecontinued. "At breakfast tomorrow you will meet my wife. The etiquette of our society demands that she not be present ata first meeting like ours. This could mislead you to assume that we live in a patriarchal society. This would be amisunderstanding, a myth perpetrated by Georgians and visitors alike. Our patriarchal behavior is a façade behind whichhides an all-encompassing matriarchal order, to which an outsider rarely has access. If you ask a Georgian where hecomes from, he will say, my mother was a Dadeshkeliani and my grandmother an Orbeliani—both were formidablewomen, who influenced my life deeply. Men are only of secondary consequence, they give the children their name. Thewomen are in the know, without them the Georgian man is helpless. If he is exiled to a far-away land he dies tragically ofhis nostalgic yearning for the Georgian woman."He drank a glass of the marvelously perfumed cognac to his grandmothers’ memory."I assume that Leist has introduced you to Shota Rustaveli’s epos The Knight in the Tiger Skin. Don’t take Rustaveli atface value, he was a medieval troubadour, rather reread the story of Jason and Medea, if you want to understandGeorgia. Medea who seduced Jason, not by offering her body, but by putting her brothers to sleep and stealing theGolden Fleece for Jason, the only thing he had his mind on. She compromised him, and he had to take her along. Doyou remember the tragic end? Jason left her and their children for another woman of his own tribe. Medea, again veryGeorgian, did not kill him, but killed her children. Jason died of guilt."They spent a long time nursing their cognacs in silence. "Forgive my melancholic monologue, Konrad Rost. But I had thefeeling that someone had to introduce you to the hidden aspects of this country before its magic bewitches you."Konrad made an attempt to thank him for the evening, but Dadiani waved him off, took him to his room, and bid him agood night.Konrad sat by the light of a candle. This evening had taken a very different turn from what he had expected. There was alight knock on his door. Startled, he turned around, and, to his utter astonishment, saw Alexandra slip in without waitingfor his permission to enter."Konrad, what did my father say, may I come along?" she whispered."What, you don’t know?" Konrad exclaimed with raised eyebrows. "He recommended you as my interpreter, foreignenvoy, and Beatrice all in one. But he did not clearly say ‘yes, she may go.’ Please Alexandra, do not discredit me in yourfather’s house."She vanished as noiselessly as she had come.He shook his head. How had it happened that he had addressed her by her first name and in the personal Du?By next morning the cobwebs of the night had vanished. Dadiani showed himself from his most engaging side. He teasedhis daughter and joked with her two brothers. Over a glass of wine before breakfast he offered Konrad the personal Du inGerman, so that nobody noticed that Alexandra addressed Konrad again by his first name.Konrad felt so much at home among these people that he forgot his astonishment about the course of events. He hadnever had a real family life—his father had died early, and his mother had turned into a care-worn, penniless widow. Theeasy acceptance of him into their family circle pleased him.Alexandra’s mother appeared only when all had sat down to breakfast. Dadiani introduced Konrad. Princess TamaraChavchavadze did not participate in the lively banter around the breakfast table. Although she seemed fluent in German,15