Fast asleep in the back seat of an automobile, she was awakened by the rattling against the car windows. . . where was she? Of a sudden, she remembered -- she was in Lebanon, visiting her cousin Garbis (Dagermenjian), with her friend Gail. And where were those two? They weren't in the car, the car doors were locked, the moon shone over a long, smooth, sandy beach as the shallow waves rolled in . . . and the car was surrounded by soldiers in Lebanese army uniforms, carrying long rifles aimed at Marash Girl who was, thankfully, inside of a locked car! What to do? The only thing she could think to do was sing, and she started singing as if her life depended on it! She sang every song she could think of -- Bye, Bye, Blackbird; You Are My Sunshine; Jesus Loves Me . . . The soldiers were non-plussed. She sang and sang, until at long last, she spied her cousin and Gail in the distance, bathed by the light of the moon, walking towards the car . . . accompanied by a man in military uniform carrying a rifle . . . Arriving at the car, Garbis explained (in Arabic) to the soldiers in attendance that Marash Girl was his cousin, his chaperone, as it were, and Gail was his fiancee. . . at least that's what he told the girls that he had explained to the soldiers. The soldiers released the three young people and let them go on their way . . . off the grounds of what turned out to have been the beachhead fortification of the Lebanese Army. . . and Marash Girl survived to tell the tale!
So, your forte was to ring the bell of the soldier's march?
ReplyDeleteMrs. Bell, mr. March, and miss Forte would have been proud of you. Have you considered that our childhood was enveloped by appellations of a higher order, nominal luminaries whose light cast a shadow over any appellation the French could possibly have offered in Bordeaux or Burgundy? Mustard the march, and one's forte becomes the bell of liberty.
The osmanlis had their taxim, but, we in the west have our poetic pirouette.
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