GENGHIS KHAN: Why would I cast my first decree from my mind? I remember. I haven’t forgotten it, but time passes, events unfold, new things become old, and decrees are updated. BORTE: Everything grows old, but the blood in your veins does not age. Your mother’s relatives are not renewed. GENGHIS KHAN: You better tell me, did you show Tolui the girl? And my mother? BORTE: I showed her to both of them. GENGHIS KHAN: Did mother like her? BORTE: She liked her very much. She was worrying and fussing like a sheep which has found a lost lamb. GENGHIS KHAN: Oh, my God. And the woman who is getting married, did Tolui say anything about her, his fiancée? BORTE: He said, ‘As long as you two and grandmother like her, I don’t mind.’ GENGHIS KHAN: What a compromiser; a grandmother’s pupil. He nods his head at everything. Though as soon as I saw the girl, I immediately agreed. Well done! (Laughs). BORTE: Where will we hold the wedding? In the capital of China, Beijing, or in the capital here, Karakorym? GENGHIS KHAN: It will be more correct to hold it in Beijing. BORTE: That’s probably a good idea. Let the Chinese admire this spectacle to their fill and see how the Mongols ‘ribs swell and knees buckle’ from violent dances. Like this, for example. Borte performs the dance of the Mongolian Kazakhs called the dance of joints, ‘Kara Zhorga’ (Black pacer). Genghis Khan watches her with a smile. Like this! Well, after we celebrate the wedding in China, we’ll probably go to the West immediately, although I don’t want that. Borte finishes the dance and exits. GENGHIS KHAN: (Shaking his head in sorrow again) This ba… This woman – neither fear nor old age will ever take her.
* * *
The scene starts in darkness. Drumming is heard. Again, it is the drawn-out howl of military alarm. The clanging and crackling of swords and spears clash together. Genghis Khan lies bedridden. In a silver cup, Borte brings him a drink, goes to the headboard and, lifting his head, helps him drink its contents. BORTE: Oh, how hard it pulled you when you chased the onager. It didn’t come with age; it didn’t come from crazy foolishness. From all the troubles your head managed to get
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