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Amsterdam, 2026-10-31
Collection: The Twists of The Way
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Amsterdam, 2026-10-31
Collection: The Twists of Power
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Darkness Rumbling in the distance The wind is picking up As it gets light, the wind dies down There is a large tent Four shadows of women in the tent Lilith comes out as a belly dancer and makes graceful movements with her arms; while she lightly addresses the people in the hall, she continues to dance a little [1-188] How do you tell something? How do you tell your children for example, where grandpa and grandma come from? Cain invented God God had drawn Grandpa out of the clay and made Grandma from a rib of Adam Cain didn't know how it worked yet Man's small trunk actually came later, as an addition to the female-human, and now that we know that, we must call it what it is: God created the female-human and with an adaption the male-human as well No more man and wo-man! No ish and ish-sha And while we're at it we'll also do something about the use of the words fairy and whore; you could expand them to man-fairy and man-whore bi- and non-bi-fairy and -whore trans-fairy and trans-whore - there's no end to it, but personally I prefer to keep it simple: no more fairy and whore! I do not exist to be looked at but not seen and I am certainly not a man-nequin, a little man! Lilith pauses for a moment It has become lighter in the tent by now Fairies are simply spirits So call them that: spirits And male-humans lie down next to a female-human more easily than vice versa, so in practice there are more male-whores than female-whores Many more male-humans rape At the word rape, Emzara looks up While Lilith continues speaking, Emzara stands up and walks through the tent a female-human than vice versa They are the whores! For female-humans, the term is discriminatory, stigmatising, unusable! Male-humans are whores if they are looking for an opportunity to stick their aroused little trunk into another human Emzara looks intently at Lilith While Lilith continues speaking, Emzara walks towards her She sits down close to her Whores are humans, yeah who have many sexual partners Call them humpers - male, female, whatever Humper is a word that is usable for everyone, just like the word human In society everyone is: human! Only at home does a gender difference remain At home, we hold the words father and mother in high regard due to the biological difference in bringing children into the world and in the functioning of mothers and fathers Short speaking break How do you tell something? Which words are correct? Cain invented God as our father-mother Adam and I are humans and then, when I was ready I let him come inside me for the first time... and Cain was born Our lives changed! We enjoyed our baby but the time of paradise was over From then on, Adam often went alone I had taught him to pay attention to the locations of the fruit trees and to trust his nose to know where the fruit is ripe And I had taught him to get up earlier than the others, to go out in the moonlight to be the first just a little further away the one who picks the ripe fruit He was not entirely satisfied with that, he felt his pride wounded And I remember that he didn't dare to eat a fruit, but because I didn't get sick from it I was able to tempt him to take a bite Still, he got angry instead of thanking me Later he came around, but he never considered fruit-picking hís job Cain soon noticed that and then came up with paradise with the tree and the serpent and God's prohibition because once you have God in your head you can't get him out you always have to invent a sequel like the story of the apple Now it is Rebekah who looks up and sits closer or the fig, a ripe fruit with the serpent that tempted us and the knowledge we gained and the journey we made Adam walked ahead He knew the way, he said And I kept my mouth shut He just followed the river When Cain himself had children and wanted to explain to them why we kept moving he invented an angel who had sent us away to discover the world and to take care of the animals and the plants everywhere And by the time of Methuselah his grandchildren had expanded the story even further for if Adam and I were the first to have done something wrong then apparently it also had to be told who was the first to have killed a human Not an animal, to eat at a feast, and in winter when there was little other food No, a human! Miriam shakes her head and gives Rebekah a meaningful look And that was just pinned on Cain! He was assigned a brother for the murder story They didn't invent anything particularly remarkable about that brother, he is merely a cardboard figure who has no lines for his role is simply to be murdered For instruction and entertainment It did create a problem, though A matter of honour For the narrator did not want to be descended from a murderer! So, alright, he invented another brother! What do facts matter in a story? They called our third son Seth He was assigned Cain's life but without the fratricide After all, he was only 'born' after that And now it was he who cultivated trees beans and grasses with edible seeds Now it was he who dug canals and built a house of clay with a sturdy roof Now it was he who made tools and built beds while Cain's descendants lived elsewhere, although they did have virtually the same names That is a negligence in the story Why not change the names? Fortunately, the Flood provided a solution: Cain's offspring drowned, and of Seth's descendants Noah was saved by God At the word Noah, Emzara looks up While Lilith continues speaking, she stands up and goes to stand next to Lilith Thus, the sequel coils its way through the facts like a snake being a poetic summary of evolution, from nothing to man, from wandering to a fixed dwelling place with customs and rules of conduct until they are shaken up Lilith puts an arm around Emzara EMZARA [189-200] [E12] A fixed dwelling place... We only had that in the boat We were stuck while it drifted around Customs, habits... They changed in the boat We couldn't go anywhere and became stiff with boredom Paradise seemed lost for good You have known the real paradise What was that like? Where was it? LILITH [201-212] [L200] That was when we were young and thought of each other all the time When we still lived carefree Without worries about the future of our child It was not a special place only: a fertile place It was a way of life Being together Enjoying together Harmony Peace EMZARA [213-400] [E200] We Nomads see paradise primarily as a life in peace in a land without enemies A free land, spacious with grassy meadows and nut and fruit trees I know three, paradises One in the north: Between the Two Rivers One in the south: the River Delta And one in the middle: here, where we are the Lowlands which were cursed but still a paradise, ultimately our country, unfortunately cursed by ourselves - you couldn't imagine anything more absurd! Of course it was wrong What am I saying! Dead! I wanted to be dead! My own son, no less! Like a snake he slipped into the inner tent, dragged me to the bed and wriggled out of his skin Excited, he tugged at my clothes, forced me to undress and looked at me furiously to silence me Besides, no one was home and I didn't dare tell my husband Women are cast out for less and I couldn't do it I was nothing anymore, dead I wanted to be dead Where did I get the energy to get up and wash myself make dinner and pretend that nothing was wrong and it was over and that he wouldn't come back? If only he had... Eventually, it ended His brothers caught him and told their father Who did nothing Not even when I turned out to be pregnant All those months of tension Growing anger in his belly The baby had the same face the same build as Ham What certainty could that provide regarding paternity? But to Noah it was clear He raged, shouted savage sounds so as not to curse but he did put a curse well considered, at the table - the men and I in a circle and the baby on my lap He ignored Ham and struck him at his worst by pointing to the little one and saying very calmly: Canaan and all his descendants will serve the other families the people of Shem, the people of Japheth It is a punishment from God What else could he do? His honour had been tarnished and he was old, not as hard as during the Flood Then he stood there up on the deck, alone and he turned a deaf ear to his brothers and sisters He turned a deaf ear to his niece who herself immersed her little baby in the rising water which was up to her lips The cattle and the birds had already drowned It was a punishment from God We were inside the boat hearing water bubbling from time to time, last breaths Of people we know My parents were too old They wouldn't have been able to handle the journey to us, and Noah did not think they were serious enough But my little sisters My sweet little sisters,... He was rock-hard when they stood there on the shore calling out to be allowed to come with us And yes, I have never been able to talk about it with my daughters-in-law Their families, that is such a sensitive matter Never, definitely never again would they see their family as if they themselves had truly been abducted to a new world He was harsh. He explained it It was impossible to save everyone The boat wasn't that big, after all And with whom do you draw the line? Besides, it wasn't his idea It had to be that way because of God It was Him who wanted to start over A new world, as it were He did tell me about that niece As a curiosity which you observe from a distance, somewhat like I think God views people with wonder I don't know, maybe I would rather have been there rather drowned than live with this memory Well, God's plan failed that idiotic idea of a new beginning a clean slate Noah made a covenant with him, but our sons and their wives, the seven of us: were we a clean slate? I feel guilty complicit in all those dead all those people to whom we did not reach out a hand and if I had died back then in that Flood, no matter how terrible I would have been better off, and that with Ham would not have happened The curse was, of course, passed on to the grandchildren those of Shem and Japheth And they considered themselves good people To spare me, Grandma, and my decency they beat around the bush about what exactly had happened In their story, they limited the shame to seeing Noah's nakedness and it's a disgrace they placed the blame for it on him! As if it is touching that he, the great father of mankind would have been drinking! Besides, he has never been a farmer with a vineyard! But children believe everything And with this story Shem and Japheth made themselves better people than their pious father All lies! For my own good too they said, yes, if you are the kind of man for whom women are temptresses In the best families rape does not occur and if it does happen the woman must be guilty Guilty, even if she is your mother And now I sit here, outside the city in the land of Canaan my youngest son Jerusalem, city of peace it is called, oh, may that not bring war! For you cannot undo a curse REBECCA, the youngest of the four women Jerusalem, Jerusalem... Peace is not the core of this city on the Rock Here is Hell! Down below, in the gorge of the Valley of Hinnom, there is the gate to Hell! Hence all those ancient tombs Close to the underworld Here the kings Ahaz and Manasseh came to make a sacrifice when they went to wage their umpteenth war They offered sacrifices to the heavenly King so that He would grant them victory as earthly kings In full regalia they came to monitor the construction of the long trench and its filling with dry branches which were set ablaze along the entire line just before the ceremony Parents had designated one of their children, a son or a daughter to endure the ordeal and run through the trench from beginning to end The kings had to set the example, had to designate one of their sons even though they knew the outcome The participants burned alive and their blood flowed away into the chasm, into the underworld Burning dead, that is Hell The prophets made accuses but it took centuries for the valley to become a garbage dump to prevent the sacrifices And even then, the corpses of criminals were dumped on the refuse and set on fire Burning dead, that is Hell 233 EMZARA [] 297 LILITH [] 305 EMZARA [] 309 REBECCA 329 LILITH [] 393 REBECCA 397 LILITH [] 401 REBECCA 417 LILITH [] 421 REBECCA 437 LILITH [] 465 REBECCA 469 LILITH [] 477 REBECCA 478 EMZARA [] 482 MIRIAM [] 490 LILITH [] 498 MIRIAM [] 499 LILITH [] 519 EMZARA [] 523 MIRIAM [] 539 EMZARA [] 555 LILITH [] 559 MIRIAM [] 563 LILITH [] 591 MIRIAM [] 595 XX LILITH [] 647 EMZARA [] 651 MIRIAM [] 663 EMZARA [] 675 REBECCA [] 679 LILITH [] 687 REBECCA [] 691 MIRIAM [] 695 Het was een onzeker leven |
Amsterdam, 2026-08-31
Collection: The Twists of the Serpent
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Stories are fluid: |
Amsterdam, 2026-06-22
Haroun and The Sea of Stories (Salman Rushdie) - 1990
Fairy tale, chapters 4 - 9
Collection: Sludge
Tribute to: Rushdie, Salman
| There is little news, | |
| we have a toast and repeat -- | |
| our favourite tales. | |
| Er is weinig nieuws, | Nichts Neues, zum Wohl! |
| we proosten en herhalen -- | Lustig wiederholen wir -- |
| onze verhalen. | Lieblingsgeschichten. |
Amsterdam, 2024-09-05
Collection: Local traffic
| Human babies are | |
| infected from birth, with the -- | |
| story parasite. | |
| Mensen besmetten | Menschen verseuchen |
| hun baby's meteen met de -- | ihre Babys sofort mit -- |
| verhaalparasiet. | ihren Geschichten. |
Amsterdam, 2024-03-18
Two Years Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights (Salman Rushdie) - 2015
Novel "Two Years Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights" (which is 1001 nights), chapter 4 "The Strangenessses"
Collection: Wind
Tribute to: Rushdie, Salman
| Let us tell stories, | |
| because then words become worlds -- | |
| to be discovered. | |
| Vertel verhalen: | Erzähl Geschichten: |
| woorden worden werelden -- | Worte werden zu Welten -- |
| om te ontdekken. | die wir entdecken. |
Amsterdam, 2022-12-05
Words become Worlds (Ellen van Wolde) - 1994
Study, page ix
Collection: No wonder
Tribute to: Van Wolde, Ellen
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Everything is a continuation |
Amsterdam, 2022-11-21
Dreamtime
Collection: Secrets & Believers
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They recorded four hundred |
Amsterdam, 2020-04-18
Abraham about his wives and his descendants
Collection: A Home
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Stories are too good |
Amsterdam, 2019-11-08
Collection: The Yellow House Museum
| My story is nice, | |
| but the reality is -- | |
| vague and threatening. | |
| Mijn verhaal is mooi, | Meine Geschichte, |
| maar de werkelijkheid is -- | aber die Wirklichkeit ist -- |
| vaag en bedreigend. | vage und drohend. |
Amsterdam, 2018-09-27
A happy smile (Andreas Burnier) - 1965
Novel "Een tevreden lach", chapter 'De muzikant' (The musician)
Collection: Appearances
Tribute to: Burnier, Andreas
| Overgrowing graves, | |
| overbridging time: ivy -- | |
| of all the stories. | |
| Over de graven, | Über die Gräber, |
| over de tijd heen: klimop -- | über die Zeit: der Efeu -- |
| van de verhalen. | aller Geschichten. |
Amsterdam, 2014-06-28
Poem "Epigram" (1999, Frank Koenegracht, collection "Alles valt")
Collection: A Home
Tribute to: Koenegracht, Frank
| People just repeat | |
| the stories from their childhood -- | |
| the children's stories. | |
| Mensen herhalen | Menschen sagen nach |
| de verhalen uit hun jeugd -- | was ihnen erzählt wurde -- |
| kinderverhalen. | Kindergeschichten. |
Amsterdam, 2012-11-30
Collection: The King
