We went into his house, which 1 had seen once sAs 278 a
A Woman's Liberation
before, an old mansion of some owner of the Corporation days. He thanked the guards and shut the door. "Dinner," he said. "The cook's out-1 meant to take you to a restaurant. I forgot." He led me to the kitchen, where we found cold rice and salad and wine- After we ate he looked at me across the kitchen table and looked down again. His hesitance made me hold still and say nothing. After a long time he said, "Oh, Rakam! will you let me make love to you?"
"I want to make love to you," I said, "I never did. I never made love to anyone."
He got up smiling and took my hand. We went upstairs together, passing what had been the entrance to the men's side of the house. "I live in the beza," he said, "in the harem. I live on the woman's side. I like the view."
We came to his room. There he stood still, looking at me, then looked away. I was so frightened, so bewildered, I thought I could not go to him or touch him. I made myself go to him. I raised my hand and touched his face, the scars by his eye and on his mouth, and put my arms around him. Then I could hold him to me, closer and closer.
Some time in that night as we lay drowsing entangled I said, "Did you sleep with Dr. Yeron?"
I felt Havzhiva laugh, a slow, soft laugh in his belly, which was against my belly. "No," he said.
"No one on Yeowe but you. And you, no one on Yeowe but me. We were virgins, Yeowan virgins. .. . Rakam, araha...." He rested his head in the hollow of my shoulder and said something else in a foreign language and fell asleep. He slept deeply, silently.
Later that year I came up north to the University,
a? 279 Ao
FOUR WAYS TO FORGIVENESS
where I was taken on the faculty as a teacher of history. By their standards at that time, I was competent.
I have worked there ever since, teaching and as editor of the press.
As he had said he would be, Havzhiva was there constantly, or almost.
The Amendments to the Constitution were
voted, by secret ballot, mostly, in the Yeowan Year of
Liberty 18. Of the events that led to this, and what has followed, you may read in the new three-volume History of Yeowe from the University Press- I have told theAstory 1 was asked to tell. I have closed it, as so many stories close, with a joining of two people. What is one man's and one woman's love and desire, against the history of two worlds, the great revolutions of our lifetimes, the hope, the unending cruelty of our species? A little thing. But a key is a little thing, next to the door it opens. If you lose the key, the door may never be unlocked. It is in our bodies that we lose or begin our freedom, in our bodies that we accept or end our slavery. So I wrote this book for my friend, with whom I have lived and will die free.
•a 280
Notes on Werel and Yeowe
cAA)
1. Pronunciation of Names and Words
GATAYAN, vowels have the usual "European values": a as in father (ah) e as in hey (ay) or let (eh) i as in machine (ee) or it (in) o as in go (o) or off (oh) u as in ruby (oo)
In Voe Dean the accent is normally on the next-to-last syllable. Thus:
Arkamye — ar-KAHM-yeh
Bambur — BAHM-boor
Boeba — bo-AY-bah
Dosse — DOHS-seh
Erod — EH-rod
a® 281 •=-•£'
FOUR WAYS TO FORGIVENESS
gareot — gah-RAY-ot
Gatay — gah-TAH-ee
gede — GHEH-deh
Geu — GAY-oo
Hame — HAH-meh
Hagayot — hah-GAH-yot
Hayawa — hah-YAH-wah
Kamye — KAHM-yeh
Keo — KAY-o
makil — MAH-kihl
Nadami — nah-DAH-mee
Noeha — no-AY-hah
Ramayo — rah-MAH-yo
rega — RAY-gah
Rewe — REH-weh
San Ubattat — sahn-oo-BAHT-taht
Seugi — say-00-ghee
Shomeke — sho-MEH-keh
Suhame — soo-HAH-meh
Tazeu — tah-ZAY-oo
Teyeo — teh-YAY-o
Tikuli — tee-KOO-lee
Toebawe — to-eh-BAH-weh
Tual — too-AHL or TWAHL
veot — VAY-ot Voe Deo — vo-eh-DAY-o Walsu — WAHL-soo Werel — WEH-rehl Yeowe — yay-0-way Yeron — YEH-rohn Yoke — YO-keh Yotebber — yo-TEHB-ber Yowa — YO-wah As 282
Notes on Werel and Yeowe
Names formed with the name of the deities Kamye (Kam) and Tual tend to keep a stress on that element, thus:
Abberkam — AHB-ber-KAHM Batikam — BAH-tih-KAHM Rakam — RAH-KAHM Sezi-Tual — SAY-zih-TWAHL Tualtak — TWAHL-tahk HAINISH
(The extremely long lineage-names common among the Hainish are cut down for daily use; thus Mattin-yehedarhed-dyura-ga-muruskets becomes Yehedarhed.)
araha — ah-RAH-ha
Ekumen (from an Ancient Terran word) — EK-yoo-men
Esdardon Aya — ez-DAR-don-AH-ya
Havzhiva — HAHV-zhi-vah
lyan lyan — ee-YAHN-ee-YAHN Kathhad — KAHTH-hahd Mezhe — MEH-zheh
Stse — STSEH (like the capitalized letters in English "beST SEt'A
Tiu — TYOO
Ve — VEH
Yehedarhed — yeh-heh-DAR-hed
2. The Planets Werel and Yeowe
From A Handbook of the Known Worlds, printed in Darranda, Ham, Hainish Cycle 93, Local Year 5467.
a® 283 -.-*•»
FOUR WAYS TO FORGIVENESS
Ecumenical Year 2102 is counted as Present when historical dates are given as years Before Present (BP).
The Werel-Yeowe solar system consists of 16 planets orbiting a yellow-white star (RK-tamo-5544-34). Life developed on the third, fourth, and fifth planets. The fifth, called Rakuli in Voe Dean, has only invertebrate life-forms tolerant of arid cold, and has not been exploited or colonised. The third and fourth planets, Yeowe and Werel, are well within the Hainish Norm of atmosphere, gravity, climate, etc. Werel was colonised by Hain late in the Expansion, within the last million years. It appears that there was no native fauna to displace, as all animal life-forms found on Werel, as well as some flora, are of Hainish derivation-Yeowe had no animal life until Werel colonised it 365 years BP.
Werel
Natural History
The fourth planet out from its sun, Werel has seven small moons. Its current climate is cool tem-
perate, severely cold at the poles. Its flora is largely indigenous, its fauna entirely of Hainish origin, modified deliberately to obtain cobiosis with the native plants, and further modified through genetic drift and adaptation. Human adaptations include a cyanotic skin coloration (from black to pale, with a bluish cast) and eyes without visible whites, both
oao 284 3a®
Notes on Werel and Yeowe
evidently adjustments to elements in the solar radiation spectrum.
Voe Deo: Recent History: 4000-3500 years BP, aggressive, progressive black-skinned people from south of the equator on the single great continent (the region that is now the nation of Voe Deo) invaded and dominated the lighter-skinned peoples of the north.
These conquerors instituted a master-slave society based on skin color.
Voe Deo is the largest, most numerous, wealthiest nation on the planet; all other nations in both hemispheres are dependencies, client states, or eco-
nomically dependent on Voe Deo. Voe Dean economics have been based on capitalism and slavery for at least 3000 years. Voe Dean hegemony permits the general description of Werel as if it were all one society- As the society is in rapid change, however, this account will be put in the past tense.
Social Classes under Slavery
Class: master (owner or gareot) and slave
(asset). Your class was your mother's class, without
exception.
Skin color ranges from blue-black through bluish or greyish beige to an almost depigmented white. (Only albinism affects hair and eyes, which are dark). Ideally and in the abstract, class was skin color: owners black, assets white- Actually, many owners were black, most were dark; some assets were black, most beige, some white.