A Union

Life was alone, no name, no memory. It had hands, but no one to

touch. It had a tongue, but no one to talk to. Life was one, and one was

none.

Then desire drew his bow. The arrow of desire split life down the

middle, and life was two.

When they caught sight of each other, they laughed. When they touched each other,

they laughed again.

- Eduardo Galeano

The Love of Loves

I am black, but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon.
                                                    Song of Solomon 1: 5

Genevieve Nnaji

               King Solomon sang to the most womanly of his women. He sang to her body and to the door and to the lushness of the shared bed.
                The  Song of Songs is not the least like the other books of the Bible of Jerusalem. Why is it there?
                According to the rabbis, it is an allegory of God's love for Israel. According to the priests,  a jubilant homage to Christ's marriage to the Church. But not a single verse mentions God, much less Christ or the Church, which emerged long after the Song was sung.
               It seems more likely that this encounter between a Jewish king and a black woman was a celebration of human passion and of the diversity of our colors.
               "Better than wine are the kisses of your lips,"  the woman sang.
               And in the version that has lasted to our days, she also sang: "I am black but I am beautiful,"
               and she excused herself, attributing her color to her work in the sun, in the vineyards.
               Other versions, however, insist the "but" was snuck in. She sang :
               " I am black and I am beautiful."
                                                      
                                          --Eduardo Galeano

" In the modern era of civilization, we are subject to laughing lies that mock the struggle to stand for Life. After the slaughter of thousands of Iraqis, mostly women and children, after activists for Life stood up and said no to war - Bush confessed that “the weapons of mass destruction never existed.” But says Galeano, “‘the most lethal weapons ever devised’ were his own speeches.”