My Meeting with Ashur Panipal: Using a Time Machine to Explore our
Past! ( Part 5)
By: Ashur Sada. Feb. 7th, 2006
Only two days now
separate me from seeing his majesty, King Ashur Panipal. I will spend these 48
hours in excitement and some nervous anticipation. But let me not waste any more
time, I should start thinking about what I will talk to the King about. I ask
the guard for a pen and paper, but he has no idea what I am talking about. Silly
me, there was no pen or paper then. Where should I note down my ideas now? I
could use the wall of my room as my paper, but what about my pen? After
struggling to find a way to write on the wall, I gave up. I will just memorize
what I have to talk to the king about, and what things I will ask him.
So my list started with:
-I will introduce myself to the King
-I will tell him that I come from a different place and time
-I will ask him about the secret behind the great Assyrian army and warfare
-I will ask him who the Assyrians worshipped as their God
-I will ask him anything else that comes to my mind
-I will then ask him if he has any questions for me about where and when I come
from
It is now early in the morning, one day before my much-awaited meeting with the
King. I am waiting for the guard to bring my breakfast; they are dead sharp with
their schedules. He finally shows up, and presents me with an amazing Assyrian
breakfast. Before he leaves, he asks me if I wanted something else. I told him
that I not only want, but really need something. He asks me what it was, and I
told him:
-“Yesterday, I was entertained by a
lovely beautiful girl, named Beleet. Is it possible to have her come here and
entertain me once again with her Assyrian poem and dialogue reading?”
-“I don’t mind asking her, but she
may be serving another guest at the moment or for this time of the day…”
-“I realize that, but please ask her
at least. If she is occupied for the day, I totally understand”
The guard leaves the room, and I start having my breakfast. But the thought of
Beleet coming to entertain me once again, made me so excited, to a point where I
even lost appetite for eating. But I did end up eating a little bit. Moments
later, there was a very kind and smooth knock on the door; a knock so kind, it
felt like an angel was knocking on my door. I opened the door, and to my great
surprise and joy, Beleet was standing outside. She had a great smile on her
face. She looked stunningly beautiful. She greeted me, and went on to tell me
that although she was occupied, she left everything behind and came to entertain
me.
I am now starting to feel that the feeling of attraction to one another was no
longer ones-sided. I had a feeling she was starting to have a feeling for me
too. I know we only met once before, but that was one hell of a meeting.
She then asks me a few questions about myself, where I come from, and why I look
different from the Assyrians of then. I cautioned her that to answer her
questions, would take some time. She agreed. Indeed, it took me close to an hour
to explain to her where I had come from. By the end, her whole approach and
feelings towards me changed. It felt as if she was more afraid of me now, while
mystifying my whole being. In other words, I was like an angel to her; Angels
are both a divine mystery and a lovely creature.
It is now time for her to perform her act. Before she does that, she starts
asking me about how people sing in my time. How they dance. And how they read
poems. Once again, I had to tell her that answering these questions would take
me a long time; and that she didn’t mind. In fact, this is part of her reply,
which shocked me:
-“………..edyo ana kuli bet toyan dyoukh”
in other words “today, I am all yours!”
So I start telling her about how they sing and read poems in our modern world
today. I tell her about Linda George, Sargon Gabriel, Walter Aziz, Evin Agassi,
Ashur Sargis etc. As I am uttering the name ‘Ashur Sargis’ she stops me, and in
a joking kind of way, she tells me:
"not
sure who your Ashur Sargis is, or how good he is, but we have our own Ashur
Sargis too. He is one of our best reciters (their idea of a singer/poet) The
majority of his songs are about Assyria, Nineveh and Ashur Panipal. He is so
good and loved by Assyrians, the king himself is his personal friend…”
I was so amazed to hear this; this sounded so much like our current Ashur Bet-Sargis.
I went on, continuing my talking about our music of this day. I even thought
about telling her about “Stuart Benyamin” the new Assyrian phenomenon who
appeared on American Idol, but that would take me another hour to explain, since
she didn’t know what “America” meant!
Having finished telling her about today’s singers, poem and music, she finally
started her performance, which lasted for about half an hour. During her reading
of her poems, we were interrupted by one of the hotel servants. He was checking
to see what and why it took her so long to serve me. She told him that I was a
“special guest” The servant excused us and left, with no more questions asked.
Her recital came to an end. She had to leave now. But I just couldn’t let her
ago. I am already thinking about the unthinkable: taking her forward with me in
time to 2006. We talked for a few more minutes, exchanged greetings and she
left. It is now late in the afternoon, less than half a day away from meeting
the King. This is too much time to stay locked up in my boring room, and too
short of a time for me not to be nervous.
As I am leaving my room, I encounter that same group of people whom I saw few
days earlier. The group that was speaking in an old form of an English
dialect. Looked to me like they were tourist guests in the hotel. They were
leaving their room too, going somewhere. This time, I made sure I take my time
to listen to their dialect. Again, it was so hard to understand, Shakespeare’s
English would sound much more comprehensive. After following them for a few
minutes, I was finally able to pick the following part sentences:
“we are to play our roles in the best
way we might… we have to do our job in a huge secrecy…. avoiding the plot
revealing is so much a necessity for us... we have to get all the secrets about
the Assyrian army, so as to ensure that we defeat them in any wars of
tomorrow…while as guests, let us play nice and pay tribute to the king, to avoid
any suspicions from the authorities…”
My God, they were spies for a foreign country, working against Assyria! This is
so serious, and enormous, I don’t know how to respond to it. Should I tell the
authorities about it right away? After all, I am Assyrian too, and wouldn’t want
a foreigner or stranger spying on my nation. But the matter was more complicated
than this. It wasn’t just about telling the authorities what I heard. The other
problem is, I have a meeting with the king tomorrow, and by revealing what I
heard from these spies, I may be arrested and thought of as working with them
(the English-speaking spies)
I finally decided to keep my mouth shut, and not say anything about them until
after I meet the king. Nevertheless, I already thought of a good way of telling
the authorities about these spies. This is how I would do it:
-I would tell the Assyrian authorities about these spies, in exchange for
letting me take Beleet with me to the future (Canada, 2006)
Coming up next: it is early in the morning, and I am
escorted by the top Assyrian military escorts to the great and grand palace of
his Majesty King Ashur. During our meeting, so many things are said and done,
some of which are shocking.