1st Strophe: Following, we analyze the final product of the coupling of a woman with a man:
The child.
The child is
co-created by the two then the woman gives birth.1 Maternity means when the woman’s womb grows round gradually, for nine months, with a higher frequency in the last three months. After that begins the process of delivery, which varies from a few hours to one or two days. Finally, a new individual appears who doesn’t produce but only consumes for a certain period depending on the context.
1st Antistrophe: “The child, after it’s born, is irrelevant from a moral point of view and doesn’t have the right to live. Babies are potential persons and not real ones; they are not considered human beings until the moment their parents decide that. It’s not possible to affect a newborn if you prevent it from developing its potential to become a person in a relevant sense from a moral point of view. The life of the baby starts when the parent decides.”
2nd Strophe: What are children?
2nd Antistrophe: Child = boy or girl in the first years of life (until adolescence)
3rd Strophe: From a grammatical point of view, “children” is a common noun, simple, definite, articulated, plural.
3rd Antistrophe: Disambiguation one: child equals
Offspring grown from the bottom of the plant’s stem, from the fist node
Wooden or metal nail thrust into the hinge from the door or gate pole
4th Strophe: From a literary point of view, there are many confusions regarding this category of individuals; it’s not possible to find clear elements that could be introduced in a correct argument.
4th Antistrophe: Second Disambiguation: child equals
A naïve, inexperienced person
5th Strophe: From a social point of view, children are the consequences of he and she getting closer. Falling in love. The woman loves the man and the man loves the woman. This is clear—history has proven it. The state knows all these things and encourages the love between them. The more they love each other, the stronger the state grows. And happier. To show its gratitude, the State created the Family. Inside the family, they can legally love each other, in other words: invisible love becomes visible, materializing at the surface. But any framework has its boundaries. Thus, the children can appear within the framework or outside it. Regardless of where they come from, they are loved. The State creates a new framework for the children without one, so they are not left out.
5th Antistrophe: “Newborns don’t have the right to live and parents can decide to kill their children for various reasons: if they feel they can’t bear the costs of raising the child, if they realize they can’t take care of and educate him, if the baby cries a lot, if he’s not good looking or doesn’t have the eyes of a certain family member. The parents will decide if a child born alive is truly alive. They can choose if the baby should live or not because babies are not people.”
6th Strophe: The child would be “a cheek, a round face, a round body, curled around a mouth and an anus . . . Something that sucks and eliminates and again sucks and again eliminates . . .”
6th Antistrophe: In fact, “there are no children, and the problem of the consciousness is not only a human problem. [. . .] This (consciousness) is a general state of the human that he has probably in the foetus phase . . . A millennia-long disease that shows no signs of weakness . . .”
Epode: The children are overcome with love from everywhere and always. Mama could eat them up!
THE PRICE OF FLESH
The child.
The child is
co-created by the two then the woman gives birth.1 Maternity means when the woman’s womb grows round gradually, for nine months, with a higher frequency in the last three months. After that begins the process of delivery, which varies from a few hours to one or two days. Finally, a new individual appears who doesn’t produce but only consumes for a certain period depending on the context.
1st Antistrophe: “The child, after it’s born, is irrelevant from a moral point of view and doesn’t have the right to live. Babies are potential persons and not real ones; they are not considered human beings until the moment their parents decide that. It’s not possible to affect a newborn if you prevent it from developing its potential to become a person in a relevant sense from a moral point of view. The life of the baby starts when the parent decides.”
2nd Strophe: What are children?
2nd Antistrophe: Child = boy or girl in the first years of life (until adolescence)
3rd Strophe: From a grammatical point of view, “children” is a common noun, simple, definite, articulated, plural.
3rd Antistrophe: Disambiguation one: child equals
Offspring grown from the bottom of the plant’s stem, from the fist node
Wooden or metal nail thrust into the hinge from the door or gate pole
4th Strophe: From a literary point of view, there are many confusions regarding this category of individuals; it’s not possible to find clear elements that could be introduced in a correct argument.
4th Antistrophe: Second Disambiguation: child equals
A naïve, inexperienced person
5th Strophe: From a social point of view, children are the consequences of he and she getting closer. Falling in love. The woman loves the man and the man loves the woman. This is clear—history has proven it. The state knows all these things and encourages the love between them. The more they love each other, the stronger the state grows. And happier. To show its gratitude, the State created the Family. Inside the family, they can legally love each other, in other words: invisible love becomes visible, materializing at the surface. But any framework has its boundaries. Thus, the children can appear within the framework or outside it. Regardless of where they come from, they are loved. The State creates a new framework for the children without one, so they are not left out.
5th Antistrophe: “Newborns don’t have the right to live and parents can decide to kill their children for various reasons: if they feel they can’t bear the costs of raising the child, if they realize they can’t take care of and educate him, if the baby cries a lot, if he’s not good looking or doesn’t have the eyes of a certain family member. The parents will decide if a child born alive is truly alive. They can choose if the baby should live or not because babies are not people.”
6th Strophe: The child would be “a cheek, a round face, a round body, curled around a mouth and an anus . . . Something that sucks and eliminates and again sucks and again eliminates . . .”
6th Antistrophe: In fact, “there are no children, and the problem of the consciousness is not only a human problem. [. . .] This (consciousness) is a general state of the human that he has probably in the foetus phase . . . A millennia-long disease that shows no signs of weakness . . .”
Epode: The children are overcome with love from everywhere and always. Mama could eat them up!
THE PRICE OF FLESH
1. The Ballad of the Woman Behind the Counter (Replay)
The ballad of the woman behind the counter is a ballad that speaks about a wooden, moldy counter and the woman who stands behind it.
The significance of the woman and the counter are not specified in the poem.
Look closely at the counter.
It’s old, made of cherry wood of superior quality, they don’t make them like this anymore,
only it’s pierced by woodworms.
The scents wafting off the counter are the remains of all the products that rested there throughout history.
The link between the woman and the counter is the virginity lost by the former on the latter when the woman was only 14, with one of the regular clients. Now, she uses it to give the goods and to rest her breasts on it, because the woman’s breasts are the real deal. These giants hide under them the store treasure, the coins used to give change to the customers. The breasts are longish with large, dark brown nipples, but with the disadvantage of perspiring profusely, so the coins are always damp. Despite that, the clients are happy, smiling wide.
The ones who love these breasts the most are the children who bite and suckle them greedily.
She’s crazy about them and shouts:
Let the children come to me!
2. The Free Market. March 27, 1947
County of Bălţi Prosecutor’s Office
Arrested the residents of Sângerei village:
Ţurcan Afajia, Ţurcan Daria, and Ţurcan Eudochia.
They are accused that, on March 17, 1947,
They invited as a houseguest citizen Chiriac Zinovia
And strangled citizen Chiriac Zinovia
Part of her flesh they used
For food, and part of her flesh they sold
At the Bălţi market,
Priced at 40 rubles per kilogram.
3. Meat
Meat is the best food. The doctors recommend it. Consumption of
Meat increases intelligence and helps the body develop harmoniously. Populations that don’t use
Meat in their diet are backward from an intellectual point of view.
Meat is used in many weight loss regimens. Generally speaking, the sources of
Meat are: various animals, preferably domestic ones, rarely wild. The difference is in the taste, tenderness, but also in the quantity of
Meat resulted from carving. Protein deficiency can result in serious diseases, such as: breast cancer, colon cancer, low cardiac frequency, cardiovasculary disease, anemia, etc. Trifunctional protein deficiciency (TFP) is a rare disease that appears in children as well as in adults. Lastly, even death can occur. That’s all for now about
Meat.
4. “Everyone Died” (in Eight Episodes and an Ending)
Pilot Episode: On the houses’ doors, they wrote “Everyone died!”
When the Action Takes Place: February 13, 1947
Protagonists:
Deputy President of the People’s Commissaries of the MSSR, comrade
N. Smorigo
Chief Chancellor of the People’s Commissaries of the MSSR, comrade L. Diacenko
Prosecutor of the MSSR, State judicial counsellor, comrade Colesnic
Attorney General of the USSR, comrade Gorsenin C.P.
Peasants of both sexes, residents of various villages and districts
Children
Plot: Decision no. 13, from January 6, 1945, regarding the export of wheat to the Habarovsc and Primorsc regions, decides:
1. To mandate the chief of the lugozagotzerno office, comrade Tevosean, to ship to the Habarovsc and Primorsc regions 40,000 tons of grain, including: 24,000 tons in January and 16,000 tons in February.
2. The chief of the Chişinău railroad, comrade Baniveţki, must provide train cars to be loaded and shipped according to the lugozagotzerno’s requests.
3. To mandate the presidents of the county and district committees to ensure completion of the transport plan of the bread to localities without access to train stations.
4. In charge of verifying compliance with this decision will be the State Inspection Commissariat of the MSSR.
The Climax: Special report “Concerning the hard situation of the population of the MSSR”
“Through the present report, I consider it is my duty to inform you of the following:
“Because of the drought and the lack of crops, there were created extremely difficult conditions regarding the food situation which led to complications within the population, especially in villages, causing mass dystrophy, increase of mortality, and cases of
cannibalism.
“From the preliminary information, until February 5, 1947, in the Republic were reported 213,000 cases of dystrophy, of which children up to 4 years old: 39,000 cases; between 4 and 14 years old: 33,000 cases. 14,000 beds in temporary barracks were installed. In total, 9,000 people were deceased.
“The number of sick and of deceased grows day by day. For example, from February 1 to February 5, the number of dystrophy cases has grown to 24,000 people; in these five days, 2,000 people were deceased.
“34 cases of cannibalism were discovered (certificates with detailed descriptions are attached). On February 6, 1947, the Office of the CC of WCP passed the resolution which mentions the rise in criminality regarding the food problem and recommends measures taken to help the Ministry of Internal Affairs by the party and soviet authorities and even the population, to defend and intensify the fight against criminality.
“These things I had to report.”
Protagonists’ Voices/Survivor Testimonies Collected by Alexei Vakulovski:
Voice 1: We were eating even weeds. We mixed them with milk, sprinkled them with a handful of bulgur, and ate them. Today we feed even the cattle better food, but then . . . Then, in Purcari, some women ate two kids. The kids were without parents: their father was in prison and their mother died of hunger. Those women called the kids over and ate them. Their heads and all their remains were found later. The women were taken to prison.
Voice 2: Only hunger shouldn’t exist. Because hunger . . . hunger wouldn’t have killed so many people if they hadn’t taken all the bread from our homes.
Voice 3: Terrible things were happening. What could be more terrible than sacrificing children? A man from Palanca, or from Tudora, smelled burnt meat near a house. He went in and saw someone who had lost his mind pushing a child into the oven and getting ready to eat him. In our village I don’t think there were such cases, although the people bulged with hunger and died daily. Can you imagine a village where there isn’t a rooster crowing? Strange, isn’t it? That’s how our Antoneşti village was during the hunger.
Voice 4: One time, mother made samp and I put aside some of it for the boys, for Valentin and Gică, I only had them at the time, so they can eat when they are back from school at noon. But a Gypsy man came into the house, saw the samp on the stove, reached out and took it. Mother blocked his way and said: “Don’t take all of it, leave my boys a piece.” That’s what they did: they shared that piece of samp. That man ate his piece, then got out of the house.
Voice 5: During the hunger, people didn’t talk to each other. They looked at each other and went on their way if they didn’t see in the other’s hand something to eat.
Voice 6: They were buried without coffins; many times they put several bodies in a hole, in common graves. Two of my sister’s children died then as well. They died of hunger. They were older, one was in school, I think. They didn’t have a life, poor kids . . . That time, you didn’t think of others. You were trying to safeguard your own life.
Voice 7: I heard that in some other towns the parents ate their own children, they say people ate other people only to live, to stay alive. When I was driving vegetables to the other side of the Dniester, some friends of mine, drivers, showed me a man and said: “Here, this one ate a man’s flesh during the hunger.” I went closer to him and watched him carefully: he had savage eyes.
Voice 8: We stopped at a train station and I remember how uncle Luca comes closer, touches my shoulder, and says: “Foca, give me a piece of bread because I can’t stand anymore.” He was exhausted, he couldn’t go any further. We left him there . . . When we got back, we didn’t find him. No one knew anything of him. Old man Luca died there. I told you: who cared at that time for another? Who? Old man Luca’s son was with us as well. Yes, and he left behind his own father. In fact, no one could save him. If you were weaker, or with mercy, you could die, too . . .
Voice 9: Yes, surely more people died during the hunger than during the war.
Voice 10: Everywhere you looked, you could see people on their porches dozing off like chicken. No one gave them food, they didn’t have any grain, and they sat facing the sun until they closed their eyes. Walking on the road, you could see dead people. Lying there, until their relatives would hear and came to take them. In the beginning of the hunger, the village was full of sobs; later, no one was crying. They were burying people in silence.
Episode 1:
January 17, 1947, Cotovski district, Caracui village
There was a case of homicide and of using a two-year-old child for food. On January 18, 1947, citizen Şveţ Evdochia Sergheevna goes to get her bread ration where she spends an hour or two. Coming back home, she finds her daughter Vasiliţa, aged 2, dead. The girl’s body was cut into two pieces. The murderers turn out to be the three other siblings: Serghei, 11 years old, Maria, 8 years old, and Vasile, 5 years old. The day before, Serghei suggested to his mother to kill Vasiliţa. The mother opposed this categorically and forbade him to do this odious murder. But when she came back from the point of bread distribution, the three children have already eaten the body and the legs. Upon investigation, it is found that the Şveţ family lives in unbelievable squalor. The woman’s husband died 10 days ago, leaving her with four children. They are sick with grade 2 and 3 dystrophy; they have eaten cat and dog meat before.
They were isolated in a home for dystrophy patients.
Episode 2:
January 22, 1947, Milești village
Scarevnea Stepan Stepanovici, born in 1912, poor peasant, aiding and abetting his sister, Graur Anastasia Feodorovna, 48 years old, murdered the daughter of the latter, Parascovia, 3 years old, and ate her. After a few days, with the same purpose, Scarevnea killed his sister, Graur Anastasia Feodorovna. In the current month of January, Scarevnea brought to his house four teenagers’ bodies, of which one he used for food, another one he gave to Scarevnea Vera Antonovna, and two bodies of girls, aged between 7 and 10 years old, he cut to pieces and brought to the Cigherleni village. In addition, at his house was found the body of a 14-year-old teenager without head, arms, and legs, hidden in the stove, covered with clothes. Scarevnea is physically healthy, has received often his food ration, which he partially sold.
He was arrested.
Episode 3:
January 25, Tresteni village, Chișinău county
Caracuian Grigorii Andreevici, born in 1903, medium income peasant, cut his son, Iacob, born in 1933, and ate him together with the family.
Caracuian was arrested.
Episode 4:
December 23, 1946, Taraclia village, Taraclia district
Citizen Randopula M.I., poor Bulgarian ethnic, gave birth to a child on December 21, 1946. On December 23, 1946, she kills the baby and eats him.
Randopula was arrested.
Episode 5:
February 7, 1947, Baurci village, Congaz district
Citizen Ialanin Andrei Ivanovici, born in 1916, Orthodox Turk ethnic, in agreement with his wife, cuts up his own daughter, aged 6 years old, and eats her.
Ialanin was arrested.
Episode 6:
January 26, 1947, Besalia village
Citizen Ciacu Gheorghii Gheorghievici, born in 1912, poor peasant of Orthodox Turkish ethnicity, cuts up his daughter, born in 1940, and consumes her as food. On January 28, the same individual kills his son, aged 5. Some of the flesh he eats and some he tries to sell to the market.
He was arrested.
Episode 7:
January 23, 1947, Sadaclia village, Roman district
Cardarar Ioana, born in 1906, in complicity with her sister, killed her son aged six. They cut him to pieces that they boiled to be consumed as food. Cardarar is a Gypsy ethnic. She doesn’t possess land or wealth.
She is a nomad.
Episode 8:
December 24, 1946, 7 a.m., Grigoriopol district (on the left bank of the Dniester River), Sipca village
Bulat Aculina, born in 1910, not married, cuts to pieces, with an axe, her eight-year-old son, then she boils and eats him.
Bulat was arrested. She confessed the murder.
Ending:
“According to the order of the Internal Affairs Ministry of the MSSR,
“All those accused of cannibalism will be escorted to Chișinău city, to prison no. 2.
“In many cases, the investigation is closed, but, because many defendants are sick with acute dystrophy, we can’t possibly escort them to prison, which delays the judicial proceedings, in closed sessions, of the
“Supreme Court of the MSSR.”
5. Ars Poetica
Language—the First Protest Against the Final Solution:
The biggest problem they had / was the lice.
But poetry has to be a beautiful representation,
Poetry must conquer everyday banality.
Then and only then,
The woman was cutting with an unsharpened razor.
Then and only then,
She was stepping over the piles of feces spread in the room.
But poetry has to talk only about me
Poetry has to be chockful of originality ORiginAL.
Give them less to eat / and they will shit less.
Language—the most vicious entity. “An absolutely normal physiological process.”
But poetry has to be . . .
Epode: Run. Be/come animal again again and again without end.
1“By approaching human beings not only in terms of their being-in-the-world but also in terms of their coming-in-the-world, they not only appear as subject but also as objects, not only as the res cogitans of their consciousness but also as the res extensa of their bodies with which they experience and act in the world.”
