Sweeter Than All the World (49 page)

At my feet Trientje exclaims, “Oh oh, you cut one.”

And so I have. Cut it in half, the white meat of the
eadschock
like two precious coins shining in the black earth.

But I have dug too long, and now straightened up too fast. Nausea uncoils in my head and stomach, spreads like the ancient warmth of desire I can still feel, sometimes, so easily remember when I see the shape of a bright body bend. The sky spins with it, a taste edging into my mouth; anchored on my shovel I lower myself deeper into it until I rest on my knees, tilt my face down to Trientje’s hands burrowing at the split potato, the earth and potato smell of it.

She is Trientje now. When she is old enough to marry she will become Trien, and years later, God keep her safe and it please Him, somewhere in the world she will be Grossma Triena.

“Here,” I say, and our hands grub in the earth together. We each nudge out one piece and hold it, touch them together like a toast. Our spring and autumn jubilee. I give her my pocket knife and she laughs; with her left hand she cuts a thin slice from hers and one from mine. Then we place them on each other’s tongue. Potato fresh from the earth, sweet and sharp as coming winter snow, moist together in our laughing mouths.

Parts of this novel, in very different form, have appeared in
Canadian Fiction Magazine, Kunapipi, Malahat Review, More Than Words Can Say
, and
The New Quarterly
. I thank their editors for first publishing this fiction. Also, I sincerely thank the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for originally commissioning a version of
Sailing to Danzig
as a radio play, and Carol Dyck of Edmonton for composing the music for the broadcast in August 1986.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

The first quote on
this page
is an excerpt from “You’re coming home again. What does that mean?” from
Joseph Brodsky: Selected Poems
by Joseph Brodsky. English translation copyright © 1973 George L. Kline. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

The second quote on
this page
is f
rom Journey to Yalta
by Sarah Klassen. Copyright © 1988 by Sarah Klassen. Reprinted by permission of Turnstone Press.

The quote on
this page
is from
Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories
by Franz Kafka, edited by Nahum N. Glatzer. Copyright © 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1954, 1958, 1971 by Schocken Books. Used by permission of Schocken Books, a division of Random House, Inc. “The Next Village” from
The Complete Stories
by Franz Kafka, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir published by Secker & Warburg. Used by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

The quotes on
this page
and
this page
are from
A Gun for Sale
by Graham Greene. Copyright © 1936, 1973 by Graham Greene. Reproduced by permission of David Higham Associates.

The quote on
this page
and the first quote on
this page
are from
The Death of Adolf Hitler: Unknown Documents from Soviet Archives
by Lev Bezymenski, copyright © 1968 by Christian Wegner Verlag, Hamburg, English translation copyright © 1986 by Harcourt, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.

The first quote on
this page
and the second quote on
this page
are reprinted with permission from
The Mind of Norman Bethune
, edited by Roderick Stewart © 1977, published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Markham, Ontario.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders; in the event of an inadvertent omission or error, please notify the publisher.

Beyond the standard Mennonite history texts, the following books were particularly helpful.

Auss-Bundt, Das ist: Etliche schöne Christliche Lieder, wie die in der Gefägnus zu Passau in dem Schloss von denen Schweitzer-Brüderen und von anderen rechtglaubigen Christen hin and her gedichtet worden…
. Basel, Switzerland: n.d. [1550, 1838 (?)]

Braght, Thieleman J. van, trans. Joseph Sohm.
The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith, and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus, Their Saviour, From the Time of Christ to the Year A.D. 1660
. Mennonite Publishing House, Elkhart, Ind.: 1886; Scottdale, Pa., and Kitchener, Ont.: Herald Press, 1987.

Cuny, Georg. “Die Maler Deneter und Seemann,”
Mitteilungen des Westpreussischen Geschichtsvereins
, 1913, pp. 48–54.

Curicken, Georg Reinhold.
Der Stadt Dantzigk historiche Beschreibung…
1645. Amsterdam and Danzig: Johan & Gillis Janssons, 1686.

Epp, Jacob, trans, and ed. Harvey Dyck.
A Mennonite in Russia
. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Friccius, Carl.
Geschichte der Befestigungen und Belagerungen Danzigs
. Berlin: Veit & Comp, 1854.

Janzen, Anna.
Eine Beschreibung der Ausreise von Deutschland nach Russfond
. Baunatal, Germany: Manfred Sinning, 1995.

Klassen, Peter.
A Homeland for Strangers
. Fresno, Calif.: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 1989.

Penner, Horst.
Die ost—und westpreussischen Mennoniten
. Weierhof, Germany: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 2 v., 1978, 1987.

Penner, Horst. “Die Wiebes.”
Mennonitisches Jahrbuch
. Newton, Kans.: 1951, pp. 14–20.

Rempel, John, and Paul Tiessen, eds.
Forever Summer, Forever Sunday: Peter Gerhard Rempel’s Photographs of Mennonites in Russia, 1890–19
17. St. Jacobs, Ont.: Sand Hills Books, 1981.

Thiessen, Jack.
Mennonite Low German Dictionary
. Steinbach, Man.: Hanover Steinbach Historical Society, n.d. [2000].

Visser, Piet, and Mary Sprunger.
Menno Simons
. Altona, Man.: Friesens, 1996.

Rudy Wiebe, widely published internationally and winner of numerous awards, including two Governor General’s Awards, is the author of nine novels, four short-story collections, three books of essays and
Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman
, which he co-authored with Yvonne Johnson. Rudy Wiebe is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and lives in Edmonton.