Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

They slowly rode up the hill north of Mtatsminda David, passed Kodjori, a small village of summerhouses, and soonfound themselves in a magnificent, deciduous forest."I talked to Papá about us," Alexandra began. "Did you realize that you have a powerful advocate in him? Father trulylikes you, it makes me very happy. But my mother has different ideas of what kind of man I should marry. Fatherpromised to help us overcome the resistance of my mother and the Chavchavadze family."Konrad remembered his puzzlement about the reticent silence of her mother. He slowed his horse. "I have met yourmother only once, very briefly at breakfast in Zaguramo. She did not speak more than the most formal words a hostess isrequired to say. You hardly ever mention her, so completely are you in love with your father! I sensed your mother’sreservations towards me."Alexandra blushed. "Ach, dear Konrad, my relations with Mother are a long, sad story, which is not easily told, andmoreover you do as yet know little about Georgian women, their dilemma and the conventions in which they areenmeshed."She sighed but then picked up her thought again, resolved to get this subject over with. It weighed on her since she hadconfessed her love for Konrad to her father. "You think I am the most Georgian woman you ever met. I am not. I am arebellious outsider in this society, the black sheep in my family. And my mother and the Chavchavadze ascribe this misfitin their midst to father’s Mingrelian origins."They had reached the edge of the woods. Among fields and meadows lay the scattered houses of a village. Konrad wasstruck, this scene looked so much like a village in the Black Forest. He stopped his horse. "This landscape could besomewhere near Baden-Baden, it is so German."Alexandra smiled. "I don’t know Germany, but this village is called Elisabethtal, and its inhabitants are German Swabiansfrom the Black Forest! These people settled here during Empress Catherine’s time. They still speak German with aSwabian accent."She turned east, back into the woods and after a while returned to the difficult subject of her father’s doting and hermother’s disapproval of her wishes and actions."My parent’s different attitudes are in part a result of the prejudices between Western and Eastern Georgia. Mingrelia, theold Kolkhis in the West, is much richer than Kartli in the East. The Mingrelians are rich landowners who live well. SinceJason’s times they have been known as cunning and treacherous, you should be mindful of them! While here in Kartlithey are poets and professors, and these poor intellectuals look down on the Western Georgians. The Chavchavadzeconsider themselves one of the politically powerful families in Kartli. Father, a Mingrelian who chose to become aprofessor in Tiflis, has had a hard time measuring up to the expectations of his Chavchavadze in-laws."She looked at Konrad uncertain whether he appreciated the deep, personal effect that these age-old family feuds had onher. She gave her horse the reins, but after a short distance changed her mind. There were still her personal troubleswith Mother."Mother is the true Georgian woman," she began anew. "She is a good mother to us children, but foremost she is adevoted wife to her husband, whom she loves and admires deeply. Father, by virtue of his intelligence and his wife’sadmission, is the decisive person in our family. But following old Georgian custom, father tactfully defers internal familymatters to her, and among those is the decision about who I should marry. Mother has always thought of an arrangedmarriage for me with some suitably boring member of a well-known family."Eyes blazing dangerously, she impatiently spurred her horse. "I will make my own decision in this matter, and she knowsthat!"She calmed herself. An idea to ease the tensions between all of them had occurred to her. She turned to Konrad. "Youknow, there is one all-important thing you could do—learn some Georgian. Not to speak it colloquially immediately, noneof us speaks much Georgian at home, but to be able to recite some of our poetry. It would instantly win the hearts of allChavchavadzes."Konrad laughed. "That was exactly what your father suggested on our very first meeting: ‘Alexandra should teach youGeorgian.’ I feel that he has not only been your accomplice for a long time, but he knew all along that you had set youreyes on me! And I, in those long-gone days, did not have the nerve to ask you to teach me Georgian. I would love tolearn some poetry from you."With a mischievous sparkle in her eyes that reminded Konrad of her just alluded to Mingrelian genes, she said. "I haveanother idea. Father indicated that you should visit him soon. You will have to ask formally for the hand of his daughter. Ifyou could learn those words in Georgian, it would be a complete surprise for both my parents. Maybe this would be thefirst phrase I should teach you."Konrad reigned in his horse and kissed her hand and said laughing. "Dearest Lady Alexandra, may I first formally askyou for your hand in marriage? I promise to be a good husband, a doting father to your children, and the quiet spirit inyour tempestuous life."Alexandra blushed deeply and, a little awkwardly, leaned from horse to horse and kissed him.They had arrived at a clearing in the woods. At their feet lay, surrounded by an apple orchard, lay the church of Betania.A narrow bridle path led down into the valley, and in another fifteen minutes they reached the church.23