![]() ![]() ![]() Instead of what has been talked about, people would be looking for hidden meanings and motives behind the uttered words. Literature, as well, is controlled by indirections, where they are ‘suffused with parables and protracted symbolisms.’ As a result, conversations are ‘full of evasive remarks’ (Levine 1988, p. Hana criticized his friend for serving him unhygienic food. However, the gold (deeper meaning) of the hebre-qal has a completely different rendering, which is very distant from blessing, as the word aytu can also mean ‘that rat.’ The gold therefore is intended to say: ‘I have eaten your food but do not think that I have not seen “that rat” jumping out of the mesob.’ Hence, in the disguise of a blessing, Alaka G. Its wax renders: I have enjoyed your dinner and I pray that you may not lack food for your table. The hebere-qal (the double-layered word) in this poem is aytu. He then went on to employ the wax and gold approach to his blessings saying: Hana, who had a reputation for unleashing scathing criticisms (often using the wax and gold poetic system) even on the authorities, had to say words of blessing after the dinner. ![]() ![]() Hana had seen the unexpected (and understandably unpleasant) guest at the dinner party – ayt (= a rat). However, the hosting family did not realize that Aleka G. While waiting for the food to be served, he, as the story goes, was disgusted to see a rat jumping out of the Mesob (= a traditional breadbasket) where they put Enjera (= an Ethiopian equivalent of pancake), which is usually served with diverse sorts of stews and sauces known as wett. Aleka Gebre-Hana, a famous Ethiopian priest and Bale-Qene (= poet), was once invited by a friend for a dinner. As a consequence, there was little dichotomy, if at all, between political and theological decisions.Įven then, wax and gold’s affinity with dualism seems to have served an unintended purpose–the ambiguity surrounding it, at times, seems to have provided a space in which to criticize people who otherwise are hard to reprimand. That is, because of the supposed spiritual nature of their authority, their grip on power does not hinge on human approval or disapproval. As a result, both political and ecclesiastical leaders, and, at times, spiritual and pious people are considered to be too holy to criticize. This therefore is the reason why political and ecclesiastical authorities are believed to have their roots in the spiritual realm rather than in a human electoral process. Christians, it is often taught, ought to take sides with the ‘spiritual’ realm rather than with the material realm, which, according to this conception, has a close affinity with what is evil. It is often believed that there is continuous tension (rather than coherence) between the material and the spiritual. That is, in the theology and/or philosophy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), dualism provides a framework to understand (created) realty. Despite its powerful manifestation in the Ethiopian literary system, the wax and gold trope seems to have a metaphysical origin. Messay Kebede elaborates: ‘The prototype being the superposition within a single verb of the apparent meaning on the hidden significance, ambiguity, or a double-entendre pervades the whole style’ (Messay 1999, p. While the apparent meaning, on the surface, is known as Sem (= wax), the underlying true, and, at times, spiritual meaning, is known as Werq (= gold).ĭonald Levine, an Ethiopianist from University of Chicago, defines the wax and gold tradition as ‘a poetic form which is built on two semantic layers.’ In other words, the apparent figurative meaning of the words is called wax, while the hidden and ‘actual’ significance is known as gold (Levine 1965, p. As a literary system, the wax and gold method plays with double-layered meaning. It is this metaphor, therefore, that is applied to a literary system that is given as a compulsory course in secondary and high schools in Ethiopia: Sen-ena-Werq (= wax and gold). It is an element that covers the gold in order to get the purest gold, it has to undergo the process of melting in fire. The wax and gold tradition, what is it? Literally, wax is a natural secretion of gold that is produced in the process of purification. ![]()
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