KEYWORDS: gypsy, love, everybody, maria, women, things

Abrahim's Gypsy Life

David Berg

DFO1480TSC Ranch, Texas, 7/5/70

1. MAYBE I BE A GOOD GYPSY IF I DRINK WINE. We know how to make it. We play mandolin, we play guitar, we play music, castanets, we play tambourines & we drink wine & we dance & we sing. We have much fun! We like make love around campfire.

2. (MARIA: DOES EVERYBODY MAKE LOVE AROUND CAMPFIRE?) When everybody tired of dance & sing, then we all make love 'round campfire. Everybody happy, everybody one big family. It's OK. (Maria: Do the little children watch?) … We put them to bed 'fore we have big party.

3. ON MY WEDDING NIGHT I MARRY NEW BRIDE, pretty girl like you. I have pretty wagon. Everybody have big party & we have wedding & we mix blood & we all drink wine & we have big fire, much music, much singing, & then everybody make love & I take Gypsy, new queen, young queen, to my wagon & we make love.

4. WE SO HAPPY! Oh, she good little lover! Good little lover! Very good! All Gypsy know how love good. Gypsy very full of life! Young Gypsy girl really know how to love. She bounce & she ride & she twist & turn & up & down & all around & she love me real good, like you. Just like you! She so much like you. Ah‚ she make love to me so good like you!

5. THESE GIRLS TOO STIFF, AMERICAN GIRLS TOO STIFF! They too fake! Fake. See fake. No natural. Our Gypsy girl very natural. NO wear panties, no wear bras. Just wear casual clothes, casual. Wear pretty clothes, pretty skirts. Their skirts go way out & show pretty bodies. Beautiful! God made them.

6. BODY MADE BY GOD. MADE TO ENJOY. Why hide body? Clothes made to keep warm, keep clean, protect from bush. But when make love no need. When dance so pretty. Gypsy dance. No thing. (No thing?) Nothing! So good, beautiful body!

7. MY WIFE, MY NEW WIFE‚ SHE DANCE WILD around campfire! She can dance real good. She good lover. She very much for life! She very lively. Very full of life. Not dead like American women. American women dead, stiff, proud!

8. GYPSY WOMEN NO CARE! SHE MAKE LOVE ANYWHERE! Anywhere she make love. Out by campfire where everybody she love all around. No wrong. No wrong make love. God make love. God make love. Why we no make love? Why we no make love in front everybody? Can we?

9. OLD CHIEF, MAKE LOVE. Many times I make love by campfire. Many times I teach how we make love. Old Gypsy teach many young Gypsies to make love. (Maria: Old Gypsy what?) You listen! Old Gypsy teach young Gypsy how make love before old Gypsies. Old Gypsy show how to make love on back wagon, on back boards of wagon.

10. OLD GYPSY SHOW HOW KING MAKE LOVE to young wife. Ah‚ it's great! Feel good! Feel very good to make love!—For old Gypsy show how make love. Everybody like! That way everybody get share. Everybody enjoy! Everybody like see how king love new life.

11. DANCE & PLAY & MAKE LOVE FOR EVERYBODY. Work? (Did you say work?) Oh, yes! (Maria: What do they do?) We make many things. We sell & we trade things & we make things, pretty things. We paint things & we make a leather things. Everybody come out from little town & buy our things & they pay with food or pig or little lamb or goat or money or grain they give for our pretty things we make.

12. (MARIA: DO YOU HAVE SHEEP & GOATS? Oh, yes! We take many sheep & goats. What you think we eat? We eat like everybody eat. We especially like goats, 'cause it don't take much to feed goats. Goats eat everything!—They eat bushes & they eat many things & they very strong. They climb mountains! (Tongues.)—And we have sheep & we have some cows & we have some...

13. —WE HAVE DOGS TO CHASE SHEEP & to bark for us when the enemies come‚ because nobody like us. They only like to buy our things. But they don't like us. (Maria: Why don't they like you?) Oh, we so free, we too free! We different & we free. We travel & we don't speak their language. We different.

14. NOBODY LIKE PEOPLE FREE OR DIFFERENT. Most people like...(Tongues:) No, they don't like, but they like what we make. They like our pretty things, pretty cloth‚ pretty pictures, pretty leather things. Oh, many things we trade.

15. (MARIA: HOW CAN YOU BE SO FREE?) 'Cause we leave long ago somewhere. We leave home & we no more care what people think. We just leave home. (How did you get to be king?) I'm son of chief, son of chief. We have many chiefs. Long line, many years of chiefs. Many years when come from India. I tol' you! I tol' young wife all about. Why you don't remember? You don't remember? ...

16. WE GO FROM INDIA, we go Armenia. (Maria: Rumania?) No, no! Not Rumania! India, Persia‚ Armenia, Rushke, Rumania, Bulgaria. We live in Bulgaria in big forest & we camp & we very free. We have good time in Bulgaria. (Maria: How did you know the people?) Ah! Me papa! Me papa!(Father?) I'm like father.

17. SHE TAKE OFF CLOTHES. She fuck & make love. Ahh! She have long hair like Gypsy. Sometimes Gypsy have brown, blond hair, because somebody make love our women. Men like fuck our women, our beautiful women. They like better than wife. They like our women better because they wild lovers.—When we very poor, very, very poor & hungry, we need money, we need food, some of our women fuck men for money, for food‚ feed whole tribe!

18. (MARIA: WHAT MEN DID THEY FUCK?) These people where we live—outside people. They come & love our women. Sometimes they good to us. They give us food or money. Sometimes they very bad, like Turks. They don't pay, they don't give food. They steal, they kill! (Strong tongues:) They fuck our women!

19. BUT I DON'T BLAME THEM. They like our women. They need women, they take. They take, & they give back, & our women, she have child. She have part Gypsy, part Turk. Part Gypsy, part Rumanian, part Gypsy, part Rushke, part Gypsy‚ part Bulgarian. Many children, many children, because these people where we live, they very bad to us. They fuck our women but we can't help it.

20. (HEARS DOG BARKING:) MY DOG, OUTSIDE MY WAGON, my dog! King dog, he guard king wife. He smart, that dog! He go hunting, He bark.

21. AMERICA WOMAN, she very pretty, but she cold, proud woman. She don't give very much. She take, take—she don't give very much. Gypsy woman give‚ give, give! She don't take much. She give, give, give. She cook. Oh, she cook!—Oh an open fire‚ open campfire. She cook for everybody. We all eat together. It so good! Everybody out of same pot. We make big pot of food.

22. EVERYBODY KING LIKE. You understand my English? My English not very good. I learn your language best I can. (Maria: How many wives did you have?) Two. Old queen, new queen. I just married when Turks come. Big party, big wedding & everybody sing & dance & play & have big fun with much wine & everybody fall down & make love & attack new young queen tonight.

23. (DO YOU HAVE MANY CHILDREN?) Three children. My new bride, my old, Turks kill. Five. (Where did you go if you're king after you went to Heaven?) I have many people I help before Gypsy come. I help Armenians, Christians‚ across desert. I help Gypsy come across desert. (Tongues:) Didn't I told you? I do so many missions I don't remember.

24. IT'S FUNNY THINGS YOU HAVE. (Maria: What? Radio?) We just have dogs, & they bark, bark, bark! (Maria: Did you go on missions & then go back to Heaven?) Sure‚ we go & we come. We come back & we tell, we report. (And then God sends you again?) Messenger.

25. GYPSY LANGUAGE MORE EASY‚ more pretty. (Says little poem in Gypsy tongue.) (Maria: It's beautiful. Tell me what it says.) We roll over hills, over plains, over grass, through trees, through sun, through rain, we keep going again. We keep on going anywhere. We just travel everywhere.

26. WHEN YOU WENT BACK FROM HEAVEN did you help anybody but Gypsy?) Of course, I tell you! Armenian, Gypsy, Christian. Always help Christians. Only Christians. Only Christians know Jesus. Only people of God. Allah.

27. (HOW DID YOU HELP THEM?) We help in mind of kings, in mind of chiefs, in mind of leader, in mind. In mind. Moshe? Moses? Abrahim. Moshe. (Maria: Abrahim in Moses?) Amen! (What Abrahim?) Abrahim! (Abrahim in Old Testament?) Oh, no! It's Gypsy! Oh, you funny girl! You so funny!

28. ABRAHIM IN BIBLE ... he's big king, very big king‚ & many, many sheeps, oxes, camels. Big king, bigger than Gypsy. But Abrahim Gypsy just little chief‚ little king, small band‚ few little Gypsies, & only tu jik. Two jiks. My Gypsies. Abrahim have many jiks. Why don't you understand your father?

29. OLD ABRAHIM HAVE MANY, MANY MEN. Rich sheik. I only have maybe two shiks. (Two men?) No, no!—Two shiks! Tujikamen. (Counts by 10's to 100, it seems like, in his language, & then says:) Jik! I have two jik. (Two hundreds?) (We think the word he uses means a hundred.) (Sheep?) No, no sheep!—Gypsies! (Maria: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100—100.) Jik. I have two jiks. (200?) (Maria: Oh‚ 200!—200 Gypsies?)

30. YOU FUCK GOOD! You like? Gypsy queen fuck nice! I love you. I love you! (Maria: You wear kerchief.—What else do you wear?) Shirt, big sleeves. Belt. Moses, she marry me? She cook good for Moses. She make love too? To Moses? (Falls asleep.)