Rhyming

Rhyming  adds rhytm, beauty,  solemnity to the text. I like it, and whenever possible, use it. There are rhyming dictionaries available in many languages,  and that helps  give the 'masses'  access to some basic form of rhyming 'poetry.'

Usually, it is the sad, tragic events in life that trigger the need to 'color' the text in rhymes-  at least in my case. I wrote about the loss of my dear ones in rhymed verses.

I composed  the speech for my Mom's funeral (delivered in hebrew to the participants) in three languages: romanian, hebrew, english - and used rhyming. 

Here' are some examples of rhymed little poems ( the english part only;  naturally, the romanian and hebrew parts are more elaborate, as I have a better knowledge  of these languages) :

Siblings

Mina-Ruhale, my elder sis.  I wish I could hug her and kiss.

I've got no photo of her, never had.  In Transnistria she starved to death.

Just try to imagine the tragic event:

A small girl in the concentration camp  

No food, no water, no air,  only disease.  

She closes her eyes, her tiny soul for Heaven leaves.

So, I never felt what's like

To have a sister by my side

Sharing things, dreaming together,

 making plans, helping each other.

Herman  (Hersh) my beloved brother

Tall, handsome, a real charmer

His virtuous playing the violin

Raised pleasure bumps on the skin

His great, catchy sense of humor

Became  a widely persistent rumor.

Suddenly, taken away from me

July 98, in Budapest, Hungary.

Hershole, my older brother

Was a Holocaust child survivor

Should have been given more years

To wipe out suffering and tears.

The Season Connection

In Spring,  Mom got ill and fragile.

It sure looked an ominous sign

In Summer, when all outside was bright

My mother and my brother Hersh, died.

In Autumn, with the sky cloudy and grey

Father David and nephew Shai, passed away

In Winter, in the cold, gloomy weather

We had to part from uncle Chaim forever.

Transnistria - The Unrecognized State

I have some strong personal reasons for wishing to visit this place, but I'm advised not to do so, as it's considered dangerous zone - result of its political instability.

If you look it up on the internet you'll come upon expressions such as "improbable state","break away country", 'phantom nation", "nobody's land", "the Cuba of Europe", "frozen conflict zone", "self proclaimed republic", "illegal state", "separatist region", "disputed sovereignity".

I must say, it all sounds quite intriguing and even....thrilling. Good stuff for writers and movie makers , especially with all those rumors about activities such as smuggling, drugs, arms and human traffic going on there. Besides, it is said to have excellent ...cognacs.

Transnistria, or more accurately, Transdniestria , a strip of land beyond the Dniester River, is bordered by two ex-USSR countries :Ukraine (east) and Moldova (west), On the map, its shape is that of a snake (see the top picture with the stamps), 400 km long, 20 km wide. There is indeed something 'snaky' and obscure about this territory and its history.

The capital city is Tiraspol ('Tyras' being the greek name for the river Dniester). Transnistria has a population of some half a million people and the languages spoken are russian, ukrainien, and moldovan (a dialect of romanian but spelt in cyrillic ,not latin script). Russian, is the official language of the government.

Transnistria and its borders (Web map)

De juro,Transnistria is part of Moldova; de facto, it is an independent state since 1990 , though not recognized as such internationally.

It should be mentioned that in summer 1941 , Transnistria, was conquered by German and Roumanian troops and its territory used as concentration camps for jews residents of north Romania and Ukraine. It was the land of atrocities against thousands of innocent people. This lasted until 1944 with the arrival of The Red Army.

Peace talks and negotiations have been going on and off since the brief war between Moldova and Transnistria in 1992, the participants being representatives of the relevant sides: Transnistria, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Eu. It seems nobody's in a hurry to solve the problem , the present situation probably suits their interests. Transnistria is pro-Russia and has russian military protection. Moldova is pro-Romania and pro-EU (European Union), and although she wants her honor and piece of territory back, the Transnistria issue might confront her with Big Mother Russia and interfere with her own aspirations of possible integration in the EU .

My wild guess is Tranistria snake will stay like this, and eventually be accepted by the UN and its members. Nowadays, a tiny , breakaway, independent country is no longer considered a curiosity .

Moreover, I think the future belongs to small countries with more or less homogenous population. We're ,perhaps, going to witness a fragmentation of the world's bigger countries into smaller entities as a result of the constantly deterioration of world economy and rising of social tension.

In the meantime, my advice to those participating in the peace talks is: keep talking people! "Talk more - No war" is my slogan .