Ismail Kadare - The Siege

They all turned round to look at her, with curiosity in their eyes. Even the blonde girl stopped staring at the carpet and cupped her chin in her hand.

“Well, it’s because I had a lot of milk, and when he hugged me, he got a thrill from feeling his chest getting wet.”

“Is that so?” Exher asked in wide-eyed astonishment.

“Yes, it is. On evenings when I was down to lie with him, he had me instructed not to breastfeed my daughter so that …”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this before?”

“I was embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed? Among us?”

Ajsel shrugged.

“Will I have a lot of milk as well?” Exher asked.

They all laughed.

“Who knows?”

“You don’t hook a man by your milk,” Ajsel observed.

“So what do you think the trick is?”

“God alone knows …”

They looked at Lejla. Not only had she already been on a campaign, she was also the only one of them to have known another man. So she seemed to them all to be the wisest, in all circumstances.

“Men are the greatest enigma in the world,” she said. “I … I … Honestly, my greatest dream has always been to talk to a man … To have a chat, I mean. Not to sleep with him, but to talk, for hours on end, until dawn … until you just can’t talk any more …”

“What are you going on about?” Ajsel objected. “Didn’t you ever talk to your first husband?”

“Never! He was as grim as night. As for this one , he’s only ever spoken to me once. And do you know what it was about? I’m horrified even when I just think back on it. Well, what he asked was: ‘Tell me how the other man did it with you.’”

“Really? Did you tell him?”

“Of course I did. I was shaking with fear. I thought he would kill me afterwards, but oddly enough, the opposite happened. He got more affectionate. Or maybe I just thought he was being kinder because I expected him to be angry.”

“Fine,” Exher said after a pause. “Tell us something else.”

“What would you like me to tell you? I’ve already said all I know.”

And indeed she had already told them everything, and more than once, especially about men’s organs, which were sometimes as straight as a Christian’s sword, and sometimes as slant as a Turkish yatagan.

They chatted on about other episodes in the life of the harem and were surprised to feel homesick so soon for their house in Bursa. They recalled their last night there; most of them hadn’t got a wink of sleep. Some at home were sad to see friends leave, others disappointed at not having been chosen to go on the campaign.

“I knew it was war we were going to,” Lejla said for the benefit of Exher and Blondie, “but I didn’t want to spoil your joy. Exher, you were really over the moon. You kept on asking me, ‘What’s war like, then?’ And you just couldn’t wait for it to be morning.”

“Maybe it’s because he is born in pain and blood that man has a natural inclination to make his whole life a blood-soaked affair.”

“What will you come up with next, Ajsel!”

“Who can say how this war will end?”

“How can you know?” Lejla answered. “May Allah’s will be done. But whatever the outcome, it won’t change things much for us. If he is victorious, he’ll get promotion and acquire new riches, he’ll buy more wives, and we’ll have new friends.”

“Ah! That would be fun!” Exher exclaimed.

“But if he loses, we’ll be sold as well, and who knows what our fate will then be. Perhaps better, perhaps worse.”

“Ah! That would be fun!” Exher said again. “I’d love to change master.”

“Be quiet, you silly woman,” Lejla said. “The eunuch might hear you.”

“And where has Hasan got to?” the blonde girl wailed. “If he could bring us some water!”

“I think they’re preparing to cut off the citadel’s water,” Ajsel said. “I heard Hasan talking about it with one of the sentries yesterday.”

“Really? Then the war will soon be over,” Lejla concluded. “In this heat, who can hold out without water?”

“But how are they going to cut it off?” Exher asked.

“How? They usually look for the watercourses, and when they find the channel, they destroy it,” Lejla answered.

“That’s right,” Ajsel said. “They were talking about an aqueduct that they couldn’t manage to locate.”

“Thank goodness we have Hasan to bring us news from outside every so often.”

“The day before yesterday, when he was walking around among the troops, he heard men say that the Mufti objects to us,” Ajsel remarked.

“The Mufti? What has he got to do with us?”

“He claims we bring bad luck.”

“That’s typical!” Lejla exclaimed. “Soon they’ll say it’s our fault the citadel hasn’t fallen!”

“Oh God, let us get away from here as soon as possible!” the blonde girl blurted out in exasperation.

“You’re only yearning to get back to your Gyzel!” Exher said spitefully.

The blonde girl didn’t react. She blushed slightly, and then turned away in embarrassment.

“Avoid making jokes of that kind,” Ajsel said. “Hasan could hear you. Do you remember what happened when Kekike and that Greek girl were caught kissing?”

“I hadn’t joined you yet,” Exher said. “What’s the name of the marsh where they were drowned?”

“Avdi Batak. That’s where adulterous wives are usually dealt with. Apparently you can hear them screaming all night long.”

“Adulterous …” Exher repeated thoughtfully. “What an odd word!”

“I shall never forget that night,” Ajsel repeated.

“And I’ll never forget this tent, where we are being cooked alive!” Exher shouted.

“Don’t complain. There is worse,” Lejla retorted.

“And what could be worse than this tent?”

“Oh! There are things that are much worse,” Lejla insisted. “Being captured by the enemy, for example.”

Exher’s face lit up.

“I’ve never been a captive …”

“Be quiet, you nitwit,” Ajsel scolded. “What if the eunuch heard you?”

“Would you really like to be taken prisoner?” Lejla remonstrated. “Have you forgotten what Hasan told us about the Albanian girls the akinxhis brought back two weeks ago? They only lasted one night in our camp. By dawn they were in the ground.”

Exher lowered her head.

“Hasan saw them,” Ajsel went on. “He’d got up before dawn and gone out for some air. As he came back in, he tripped over a basin and woke me up. He came up to me and said: ‘Ajsel hanum , I saw them, they were all white, as white as sheets.’”

“Poor Hasan! His heart can’t bear to see a woman in pain.”

Exher suddenly burst into tears.

“That’s enough, Ajsel,” Lejla said. “In her state, Exher shouldn’t hear that kind of story.”

They fell silent while the younger among them went on weeping. Then the blonde woman spoke up:

“Ooof! I’m bursting!” she said as she put her hand through her hair.

The two other women were fanning themselves as hard as they could.

“Hasan told me other horrors,” Ajsel whispered in Lejla’s ear. “The next night the soldiers wanted to reopen the graves. Have you ever heard of men who enjoy raping corpses? I’ve forgotten what the word for it is. Well, in the middle of the night …”

“I think Hasan is coming back, I can hear the sound of his footstep,” Exher said.

And the eunuch did indeed appear.

“Where have you been?” they all said, almost in unison. “How can you leave us alone in this oven?”

“I was watching our engineers trying to find the water line,” Hasan said. “They’ve covered the plain with little holes, but the aqueduct is still in hiding.”