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Meltha Magazine Online

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1997, Volume 3, No.1(7) page 32

Under the Veil of the Eternal Mystery

(Review of M. R. Manukyan’s story The Flower of Immortals).

It is very hard to restore a legend which mystery has been unveiled throughout centuries as well as to revive real heroes who became part of the myths. The story of Semiramis (Shamuramat, Shamiram) and of love of the Assyrian queen to the Armenian king Ara the Beautiful was a bold attempt "0' of Maria Manukyan to give her own interpretation of the legend, but in our opinion, this is just a fact less guessing game with no real historic ground to take off. Well, even the long corridors of pyramids searchers may find something factual. Therefore it looks virtually unrealistic to find facts about the queen' s secret love as her own character seems legendary or mythical all the same. Only good knowledge of the period in question could help reconstruct this legend anyway.

So what was the legendary Semiramis like in the real life? Her beauty urged the Great Nabukhadnessar to create one of the Seven Wonders of the World, t1)e Heavenly hoisted gardens. Much later Alexander the Macedonian found his rest in those gardens after his famous wartime deeds.

The period in question saw the formation of slave-ownership where cruel wars, very high taxes and slaves became normal or practical very soon. And it just came very natural that the country which had reached a very high level of civilization was virtually invincible. This way the Assyrian power was being built. As a matter of fact, the history of mankind as it went on shows that all the nations seek to be an empire which tend to go up and come down these days just like it used to be before. Lack of knowledge of the period in question generally results in somewhat misconception of the ancient Assyria namely a cruel. society. However the socialistically oriented societies like we once knew in the USSR may take so .many human lives that 'terror' of the Assyrian empire as well as of many others just loses out so much in comparison.

Time will take its toll, and who cares about good or bad things of the past now? But every people wants to know its history and feel some pride. The author of «The Flower of Immortals» does not seem to have a goal to give the clue of the period she describes. In the epic from M. R. Manukyan employs power of logic as she soars in her fantasy based on deep knowledge of the subject trying to go into the psychology of that distant period depicting the man in all his complications and collisions of life through many likes and paths he walks in search of his destiny. The author puts herself in the grounds of the story participating in those distant events. And again she achieves this by way of correct psychological presentation of characters and by power of her immaculate logic sys- tem. It is noteworthy that her logic of live in its full power is so beautiful that probably quite few writers have been able to show this far. The author obviously is a talent that helps disclose and unfold love in every reader I know.

The character of Semiramis is full of mystery and attraction. It raises many questions indeed. In the end M. R. Manukyan brings the reader to the sacramental question, who was she?

«She's the queen! She's the dove! She comes on the battlefield in a chariot of fire! What is more, she's the wife to Nabukhadnessar!».

And there is no end to answers for her charm is the mystery of her character .

The story by Maria Manukyan contains all necessary artistic elements, namely con- tents form, beautiful composition, epithets, speculations, monologues, aphorisms plots, etc. All these really add a lot to the author's artistry.

Undoubtedly the Assyrian society will receive this storybook with kind attention and we gladly accept this highly gifted writer, and wish her further success. So be lucky and enjoy best recognition.

.Marona Arsanis

p.s. The story by M. R. Manukyan along with some other works by modern Assyrian authors from CIS countries will be published in one of the next issues of “Meltha “ Bulletin