Best Enemies
Aug. 12th, 2012 03:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere's a wonderful little collage post about "The Best of Enemies." I love the sizzling chemistry between hero and villain.
My desert language Seshaa has some vocabulary for this ...
duush (noun) – This one is quite exclusively a bandit concept, not known either in Waterjewel nor in decadent regions, and the closest English equivalent is “best enemy.” It’s a concept common to many cultures that place a lot of value on fighting, and it refers to a person you fight with a lot, seeking each other out in battle, always on opposite sides – yet you respect each other, and would miss him terribly if he were killed and you couldn’t fight with him anymore. You bring out the best in each other on the battlefield, which gives you both a chance to go home covered in glory if you’re lucky, and if not, at least to take turns doing so, because you’re about evenly matched in skill level. Somehow or other, Shareem seems to have encountered this term, because I’ve heard hir saying “dear enemy” to gutterfox friends, which is just too close a translation for coincidence.
murzhip (noun) – In bandit use, means “the state of affairs when a man has a woman for a best enemy.” It’s something like “hetero-aggressive,” as the expectation is that best enemies are supposed to be two men. A zorbanniyeh who has a best enemy will almost always choose a man, rather than another woman; but men strongly prefer to contest with each other. So murzhip is frowned upon, almost as much as homosexuality is in other cultures. Men will excuse it by saying such things as, “I couldn’t help it! She was irresistible. She ruined my life.” The related adjective is murzhipil and the adverb is murzhipul.
oymiki (verb) – In Whispering Sands use, means “to sculpt each other” or “to decorate each other.” The cultural connotations are subtle and complex. Bandit men use this as slang for exchanging scars in battle, especially between best enemies; decadents use it similarly for political or economic opponents trading more figurative attacks. Both bandit and decadent women use it to mean helping each other with beautification processes which are less than pleasant. In Waterjewel and Tazha use, it takes on a much gentler meaning, of two people making mutual accommodations as they form a close relationship.
yankilama (noun) – In Waterjewel, means roughly “resonance” or “echo” or “reaction.” This is a thing people share that runs deeper than affinity. Whereas benzesh is a thing between friends, and the basis for a strong friendship or romance, yankilama goes beyond that to suggest that in some way their souls were cut from the same cloth. When these two people come together, something in each of them resonates to the other, the way if you pluck a certain harpstring then certain other strings will sound in sympathy with it. It’s a perceptible hum or vibration, which some people find intensely attractive and others find intolerable – but there is no denying it and no doing away with it, any more than you could scrape off the color of your skin (which doesn’t necessarily stop people from trying). Some do manage to ignore or overlook the sensation, especially the type of people who habitually damp down their emotions; but usually it’s something you can feel the first time you meet. The people may not like each other, may indeed be so alike that they can’t stand each other; or they may be like two nuts in a cluster, barely distinguishable. When their lives touch, they immediately start to entwine, even if both of them are living totally different lifestyles. It’s like setting two pots of mint side by side; they immediately put out runners and start growing together. Then if you want to move them a week later, you have to rip the new shoots out by the roots, and they leave pieces of themselves behind in each other. Lucky people sometimes wind up in a relationship (platonic or erotic) with both yankilama and benzesh, which makes for a very intense and intimate bond. Best enemies often have yankilama between them. People in a love/hate relationship almost always do, hence the come-here-go-away dynamic with Shareem and Amal.
My desert language Seshaa has some vocabulary for this ...
duush (noun) – This one is quite exclusively a bandit concept, not known either in Waterjewel nor in decadent regions, and the closest English equivalent is “best enemy.” It’s a concept common to many cultures that place a lot of value on fighting, and it refers to a person you fight with a lot, seeking each other out in battle, always on opposite sides – yet you respect each other, and would miss him terribly if he were killed and you couldn’t fight with him anymore. You bring out the best in each other on the battlefield, which gives you both a chance to go home covered in glory if you’re lucky, and if not, at least to take turns doing so, because you’re about evenly matched in skill level. Somehow or other, Shareem seems to have encountered this term, because I’ve heard hir saying “dear enemy” to gutterfox friends, which is just too close a translation for coincidence.
murzhip (noun) – In bandit use, means “the state of affairs when a man has a woman for a best enemy.” It’s something like “hetero-aggressive,” as the expectation is that best enemies are supposed to be two men. A zorbanniyeh who has a best enemy will almost always choose a man, rather than another woman; but men strongly prefer to contest with each other. So murzhip is frowned upon, almost as much as homosexuality is in other cultures. Men will excuse it by saying such things as, “I couldn’t help it! She was irresistible. She ruined my life.” The related adjective is murzhipil and the adverb is murzhipul.
oymiki (verb) – In Whispering Sands use, means “to sculpt each other” or “to decorate each other.” The cultural connotations are subtle and complex. Bandit men use this as slang for exchanging scars in battle, especially between best enemies; decadents use it similarly for political or economic opponents trading more figurative attacks. Both bandit and decadent women use it to mean helping each other with beautification processes which are less than pleasant. In Waterjewel and Tazha use, it takes on a much gentler meaning, of two people making mutual accommodations as they form a close relationship.
yankilama (noun) – In Waterjewel, means roughly “resonance” or “echo” or “reaction.” This is a thing people share that runs deeper than affinity. Whereas benzesh is a thing between friends, and the basis for a strong friendship or romance, yankilama goes beyond that to suggest that in some way their souls were cut from the same cloth. When these two people come together, something in each of them resonates to the other, the way if you pluck a certain harpstring then certain other strings will sound in sympathy with it. It’s a perceptible hum or vibration, which some people find intensely attractive and others find intolerable – but there is no denying it and no doing away with it, any more than you could scrape off the color of your skin (which doesn’t necessarily stop people from trying). Some do manage to ignore or overlook the sensation, especially the type of people who habitually damp down their emotions; but usually it’s something you can feel the first time you meet. The people may not like each other, may indeed be so alike that they can’t stand each other; or they may be like two nuts in a cluster, barely distinguishable. When their lives touch, they immediately start to entwine, even if both of them are living totally different lifestyles. It’s like setting two pots of mint side by side; they immediately put out runners and start growing together. Then if you want to move them a week later, you have to rip the new shoots out by the roots, and they leave pieces of themselves behind in each other. Lucky people sometimes wind up in a relationship (platonic or erotic) with both yankilama and benzesh, which makes for a very intense and intimate bond. Best enemies often have yankilama between them. People in a love/hate relationship almost always do, hence the come-here-go-away dynamic with Shareem and Amal.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-12 04:10 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2012-08-12 07:06 pm (UTC)Yay!
One of the fun things about this setting is the nested cultures. The desertfolk all have some things in common. But there are broad groups within that -- Waterjewel, the Tazha, the bandit tribes, and the decadents; and even individual tribes or cities have smaller variations. That shows up in the language.
>>It sounds very similar and language among the Kurdish Yazidi Peoples and the Tuareg of Mali. <<
There are some overlaps with Turkish, Arabic, and Farsi and a few other Middle Eastern sources.
>> When you mentioned the different hours eg. Peacock Hour, Hawk Hour, etc. again, it went right back to the Yazidi and their belief of the Peacock Angel as Creator of the world and sunrise.<<
I'd come across the Peacock Angel, eventually, but that was in Islam as a tangential messenger -- not as a Creator spirit. Got any links for the Yazidi version? It may be closer to mine.
Some related vocabulary:
ēyshanaz (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means roughly “godseye” or “little icon.” This word refers a variety of objects in some way associated with the Divine, such as a peacock feather, a holy statue or its eyes, a religious medallion, or the diamond-shaped godseye ornament made from yarn and sticks. The implication is that some divine entity could view through this object if desired.
gozimi ilâhin (phrase) – In decadent use, this is a colorful term for “peacock.” It literally means “eyes of God.”
tawu (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “peacock.” Noble or rich folk in decadent regions often keep peafowl in their gardens; the feathers and the general appearance of the bird are thus fairly well known in the desert as a whole. The phrase at tawuvi (“peacock horse”) is what the decadents use for the perhaps mythical black horse whose hair has true iridescence, giving it an overlay of purple, blue, even green over the black.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2012-08-12 09:51 pm (UTC)As to your question about my links. Please try some of these from the group Azazel / Malek Taus on Facebook that I posted. I tried to put in all of the resources I gathered on my notes so that others can further their own research. If I missed someone, it was either non intentional or that resource disappeared from my radar. If they do not work for you, let me know and I can PM the text to you.
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/groups/159510037469201/doc/161671937253011/
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/groups/159510037469201/doc/161873457232859/
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/groups/159510037469201/doc/161874010566137/
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/groups/159510037469201/doc/161872810566257/
And a fic that I wrote here on Dreamwidth in the group musing_way.
http://musing-way.dreamwidth.org/406518.html#cutid1
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2012-08-27 02:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-12 06:03 pm (UTC)They've been known to utterly defeat a skumgrod, and then let them go, so they can have the pleasure of fighting them again later.
Very much like duush in you list above.
For my all time pairing here, I have to go with Batman/Joker. It's been kind of screwed up by the endless continuity*, but Bob Kane tapped into something very, very powerful when he came up with the Joker, and no matter how goofy they try to make him, it still always comes through.
*As they mention at the link, even with the reboots, after 70 years, it gets kind of ridiculous that neither of them has gotten killed or crippled. But that's how Myths and Archetypes roll.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-13 06:46 am (UTC):)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-13 10:19 am (UTC)The words are beautiful in themselves, and the concepts are very intriguing indeed.
Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-14 03:17 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2013-12-14 07:44 pm (UTC)