Zuzana’s Breath
Published in Issue #31 Translated from Czech by Melvyn Clarke(Excerpt from a Novel)
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Childhood
Liliana Liebeskindová is not able as yet to conceive.
She can’t keep this to herself, so she gets a lot of advice from experienced friends. Some of them judge her to be too thin, while others recommend her to eat a piece of raw liver. Liliana hangs around the kitchen, and when the cook isn’t looking she tears off a little bit of the bloody stuff and then — even though she’s Jewish — chews it and swallows.
With clockwork regularity Liliana menstruates every month. This business of bleeding in all kinds of circumstances will be inherited by her daughter, but in 1899 when, laced up in a corset and holding an armful of long-stemmed lilies, she marries Abraham Liebeskind, the sugar refinery owner, she has no notion yet of her daughter. The wedding takes place in February and the glasshouse flowers are frozen solid. The pollen drops off and Liliana’s gloves turn yellow.
The wedding is Jewish, even though the Heckels and the Liebeskinds, represented only by the groom, his father, and several aunties, rarely attend the synagogue.
The betrothed, who have stepped beneath the canopy and heard the blessing, are absent in spirit. Abraham is thinking about the final accounts, and Liliana about the jug that burst asunder this morning as the maid Herta was pouring hot water into it.
The events of the day go by as follows:
Liliana wakes up, Herta brings the water, the porcelain jug cracks.
A sea of water spills over Herta’s feet in her sturdy, practical shoes. Liliana helps the maid mop up. In her dressing gown...
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