Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
let's talk about great writers and poets Letizia Mancino, Hilde Domin and Betty MacDonald.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member, artist and writer Letizia Mancino shares her delightful story THE SECOND PARADISE.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mary Holmes did such a great job in translating THE SECOND PARADISE.
Thanks a million dearest Mary.
We are really very grateful.
I'm one of Letizia Maninco's many devoted fans.
Letizia Mancino sent this connecting piece to " The Second Paradise".
DEFIANT AS A COCK
Copyright 2011/2015 by Letizia Mancino
translated by Mary Holmes
All rights reserved
That was how my friend Hilde Domin was, dear Betty! You would have liked her so much. She had also been in America. At that time you were a famous author but she was still unknown.
-Did she love cats like you do?
-Yes Betty, she sure did!! Otherwise how do you think she could have been a friend of mine?
-Oh Letizia, don’t boast! Hilde was famous!
-It’s all the same to me, Betty, whether a person is famous or not but that person must love animals
-Why was she as defiant as a cock?
-Well Betty, she was simply so!
-Like a pregnant woman in my “Egg and I”?
-No not so! Betty, Hilde was a whole farm!
- A farm, how was that?
- No Betty, Hilde was more! Almost a zoo! Even more. She was all the animals in the world!
-You loved her very much.
-As I love all animals.
You Betty, if I had known you, I would have loved you exactly so because you loved animals.
-But as defiant as a cock from my Bob-farm!
-Yes and no! (Hilde really loved this double form of answer). Listen Betty , I’ll tell you a story about how Hilde was. You would certainly have loved her.
I’ll call my story “The Second Paradise”.
THE SECOND PARADISE
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
translated by Mary Holmes
All rights reserved
The Lord God, one day, met Adam in Paradise and saw him lying under a palm.
And God spoke to him: Adam, my son, are you happy, are you content with Paradise ?
Adam answered: Oh Lord, it is wonderful!
And God said: But I will create a second Paradise and give you a wife.
Adam answered: Oh Lord, that is wonderful!
And God said: I will create the wife according to your wishes.
And Adam stood under the palm and thought hard.
And God said: Adam, are you ready?
Adam answered: My wife should be as lively as a bird but she should not fly. She should swim like a goldfish but not be a fish….. She should be as playful as a cat but not catch mice….. She should be as busy as an ant but not so small.
And God said: So shall she be: Like a bird, a goldfish, a cat, an ant…
Adam answered: Oh Lord, that is wonderful, but she should be as faithful as a dog.
And God asked: Adam, have you finished?
Oh Lord, cried Adam. She should also be as delightful and gentle as a lamb and as defiant as a cock!
….She should be as curious as a monkey and as pampered as a lapdog.
And God said: So shall she be.
And Adam said: My wife should be as courageous as a lion and as headstrong as a goat…
And God said: So, like a bird, a goldfish, a cat, an ant, a dog, a lamb, a cock, a monkey, a lapdog, a lion, a goat… and slowly and surely he wished to begin creating…
But Adam stretched himself under the palm and called:
Lord, Lord, she should be as adaptable as a chameleon but not creep on four feet.
She should have sparkling eyes like, like… real diamonds. She should be as fiery as a volcano
But … she should have crystal-clear thoughts like a mountain spring.
God, the Almighty, was speechless…
And Adam spoke: Also she should be as quick as lightening…
And God said: Man, have you finished????
No, said Adam! She should be as strong as a horse, as long living as an elephant but as light as a butterfly!
God found Adam’s thoughts were good and said: So, bird, goldfish, cat, ant, dog, lamb, cock, monkey, lapdog, lion, goat, chameleon, genuine diamonds, volcano, mountain spring, lightening, horse, elephant…. butterfly…
God wished at last to begin creating her…
Lord, called Adam… she should be as stable as steel, but as sweet as three graceful women in one…
And God asked: Should she also be a poet?
Yes, called Adam from under the palm…
And God said: Adam have you finished?
Lord, I wish that, in the second Paradise I shall be one and doubled:
So God according to Adams last words created:
HILDE PALM DOMIN
Very best wishes
Letizia Mancino
Letizia Mancino is an outstanding writer and artist.
I know you will enjoy this very charming and witty story the same way I did!
Thanks a Million, dear Letiza Mancino! You made my day!
As you know I'm very interested in pets and excellent literature.
Betty MacDonald Fan Club founder Wolfgang Hampel is working on a Eva Vargas biography. I'd love to know: Did Eva Vargas like pets and cats?
Letizia Mancino is part of Wolfgang Hampel's new project 'Vita Magica'.
We got so many requests from fans from all over the world and have great info for you.
Wolfgang Hampel's stories and satirical poems will be published in several languages for his many fans from all over the world.
Have a nice Monday,
Greta
Vita Magica
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Syrian Hospitals Hit as Battlefield Grows More Chaotic
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The prospect of a wider war loomed over an increasingly chaotic battlefield in northern Syria on Monday, as fast-moving clashes pitted United States allies against one another and tensions grew between two major powers, Russia and Turkey.
Taking
advantage of fierce Russian airstrikes, Kurdish-led forces advanced
into shrinking rebel territory in the northern part of Aleppo Province,
infuriating the insurgents and their principal backer, Turkey, which
threatened “a severe response” if the Kurds moved farther.
The
situation has pitted a dizzying array of warring parties against one
another, illustrating how the enemy of my enemy is, as often as not, my
enemy. Tensions have never been higher between Kurds and Syrian Arab
rebels, who now accuse the Kurds of opportunistically attacking them in
league with Russia and the Syrian government to advance their goal of
seizing territory along the border with Turkey.
Those
clashes are fueling a risky escalation of tensions, especially between
Turkey and Russia. And they are pitting two American-backed groups
against each other, since both the Kurds and many rebel groups in Aleppo
receive American support.
As
always, caught in the middle are civilians, with four hospitals bombed
in a single day on Monday and Turkey and the Syrian insurgents accusing
Russia of targeting them deliberately to drive them out of the area. Two
of the hospitals were supported by Unicef, including a pediatric and
maternity hospital, and at least 50 people were killed in all of the
attacks, including children, said Farhan Haq, a United Nations
spokesman.
Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that has been tracking attacks on health care workers and infrastructure amid the Syrian conflict,
says that 697 health care workers have been killed in 336 attacks on
medical sites, the vast majority carried out by the Syrian government
and its allies.
Two of the hospitals hit on Monday were in Azaz, a major prize in the fierce battles
unfolding in Aleppo Province. One was struck by what residents and the
Turkish government said was a ballistic missile. A school housing
displaced people was also hit, residents said.
The
attacks came as Kurdish militias and Arab allies advanced closer to
Azaz, a critical border town, and overran Tal Rifaat, a town on the road
to the border from the city of Aleppo.
Turkey,
which views the Kurds as its worst enemy in the region and does not
want to see more Kurdish-controlled areas along its border, shelled the
advancing forces, led by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Front, for a
third consecutive day.
“We
will not let Azaz fall,” Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told
reporters on his plane en route to Ukraine, according to the
semiofficial Anadolu News Agency. He threatened “a severe response” if
Kurdish forces advanced on the town.
The
advances were made by the Syrian Democratic Front, whose most powerful
elements are Syrian Kurdish militias, the People’s Protection Units, or
Y.P.G., but which also includes some Arab forces. The United States
supports the S.D.F. in battles against the Islamic State farther east,
but Turkey — a crucial American ally and NATO member — considers the
Y.P.G. a terrorist group.
American admonitions to both the Turks and the Kurds to refrain from attacks appeared to have little immediate effect.
The Kurdish advances raised Turkish fears that they were aiming to unite the two Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria,
now separated by a patch of Syrian rebel territory and a larger area
controlled by the Islamic State. The larger fear is of Kurdish
separatism in southeast Turkey, which could be inflamed by the formation
of a de facto Kurdish state in the chaos of northern Syria and Iraq.
Mr. Davutoglu declared that Turkey would not allow the enclaves to
unite.
Russia’s
Foreign Ministry declared that Turkey, by shelling the Kurds as they
battled insurgents, was providing “direct support for international
terrorism.” It also insisted that the American-led coalition against the
Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, was responsible for a
hospital bombing in Maarat al-Noaman, though United States military
officials said there were no coalition strikes in the area.
The
hospital in Maarat al-Noaman was hit by four missiles in two sets of
attacks within a few minutes of one another, according to the medical
charity Doctors Without Borders, which supports the site.
Both
Russian and Syrian warplanes operate over the area, in the
insurgent-held Idlib Province. Residents said that at least seven people
were killed, including five patients, a staff member and a guard. Eight
more staff members and an unknown number of patients were missing.
The charity said about 15 buildings had been struck in residential areas nearby.
It was the second time in a week that a hospital working with Doctors Without Borders had been hit. The charity said an affiliated hospital was bombed on Feb. 9 in Dara’a Province in southern Syria.
“This
appears to be a deliberate attack on a health structure, and we condemn
this attack in the strongest possible terms,” Massimiliano Rebaudengo,
the Doctors Without Borders head of mission, said about Monday’s strike.
Deliberate attacks on medical facilities are forbidden under
international law.
Russian
officials have said their country’s airstrikes do not target civilians
and have not killed any, though the United States and allied insurgent
groups say that Moscow has bombed indiscriminately.
Syrian
antigovernment monitoring groups say that Russian strikes have been the
largest single cause of deaths in the war this year, with hundreds of
civilians killed.
Doctors
Without Borders hospitals have been increasingly under fire in conflict
zones. American airstrikes killed 42 people at an affiliated hospital
in Kunduz, Afghanistan, last year. The charity’s hospitals have also
been hit in a Saudi Arabian air campaign in Yemen.
The
latest strike came amid days of escalation along the Syria-Turkey
border, despite — or, experts say, perhaps because of — the United
States and Russia having agreed on Thursday in Munich to work toward a cease-fire, said to be starting by the end of this week.
On
Monday, though, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said its warplanes would keep
attacking rebel positions even after the cease-fire because it
considered the rebels to be terrorists. President Bashar al-Assad of
Syria, whose military position has strengthened with Russia’s help, also
minimized the significance of any cease-fire, telling a conference in Damascus that it would not stop his forces from attacking groups he deems to be terrorists.
Despite
these apparent obstacles, the United Nations special envoy for Syria,
Staffan de Mistura, said in an email message that he had made a
“surprise visit to Damascus to discuss concrete and timely follow-up of
Munich commitments.”
