To Know, know, Kyrgyzstan … is to …
You know how it is … for some reason you think of a song … start singing it to yourself … and then you can’t get it out of your mind. It just keeps repeating itself over, and over, and over again. Well that happened to me recently with the Phil Spector hit “To Know him is to love him“:
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xxx xxx |
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. . . . To know know know him |
There is a story that Phil Spector got the inspiration for the lyrics from the epitaph on his father’s grave: “To know me is to love me”.
The song was originally released by his group, The Teddy Bears, in 1958, and it went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and since then there have been many cover versions, (in some of which the pronoun changed from him to “her” or “you”), released by artists as varied as the Beatles, Marc Bolan, Gloria Jones, Gary Glitter, Peter and Gordon, Steeleye Span, T-Rex and Amy Winehouse as well as a version by trio of Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and Emmalou Harris.
I certainly recall hearing the song in my youth, although I was really to young to remember it from the original version, and I suppose that the version I first encountered was that by Peter and Gordon but I can’t say that any of the other versions strike me, personally, as particularly memorable.
I suppose that a perfectly understandable question is: why should this particular song should manifest itself in my consciousness as it did, after all these years? To be honest, I am not sure why the song should haunt me the way that it did. Maybe it has something to do with the repetitive phrases: “know, know, know”, “and I do, and I do, and I do” … (which incidentally goes on for many more iterations written in the lyrics) … but I can tell you how the song came to resurrect itself and appear in my train of thought.
It came about as a result of an interview. The reporter had obviously done her homework and as a result of her research she kept referring to things that I had said or written on previous occasions. As she got to the point in the interview about how come, why, I had remained here in Kyrgyzstan when so many other people had decided to follow their careers elsewhere, she said I obviously liked the place. That brought a smile to my face and the usual riposte that, of course I liked Kyrgyzstan – “if I didn’t, then I would have packed my bags and gone a long time ago”.
It seemed to me, however, that she was looking for some romantic connection because used the word loobov – to love – rather than enravitsa – to like. That brought another smile to face … it is not the first time I have been asked something like this. A previous British ambassador made the observation that there were not that many British investments in the country, but that many that were here were the representative of a “love affair” – either between particular individuals, or with the country as a whole, (for example, an affinity with the landscape or traditional culture.)
When I first saw that reported in the press, (yes, that’s right …), it also brought a smile to my face. After a while, however, when I thought about it I realized that there is an element of truth in it. After all, one of the original investors in Celestial Mountains fell in love with and married a Kyrgyzskaya - a Kyrgyz woman – and as I mentally went through a list of my friends and acquaintances I noted that there were more than just a handful of cases where someone had decided to make a new home and start a new family here.
It’s not just affection for particular people, but also for the place and the way of life. The last time that I found myself in London, for example, I was surprised at how strange certain aspects of daily life seemed. It was all so familiar … and yet, in many little ways, so different. It seemed as if I felt more comfortable and more at home in Kyrgyzstan than I did back “home” in the UK.
This shouldn’t really be all that surprising. It is, after all, a feature of life, especially but not exclusively ex-pat life. As young people grow up, they leave their family home and set out to fashion their own futures, starting work, creating a family and setting up home for themselves – often in a new community, not the one in which they grew up. As they get to know their new surroundings, develop relationships and make friends – they feel more and more comfortable in their surroundings, and an affinity and affection for the surrounding culture and social milieu as they adapt to their new, adopted home.
Anyway, as I thought about my reply to her question, I commented on how Kyrgyzstan tends to split visitors into two quite distinct groups – those who say “Been there, done that – got the passport stamp” and who can’t wait to move onto the next destination … and those who develop an affinity for the place, the people, the culture … who want top extend their stay or at least to return … and I am obviously one of those.
It was then that the couplet sprang into my mind:
To know, know Kyrgyzstan
Is to love, love Kyrgyzstan …
which seems to me to scan quite well … maybe I need to set to work on my own cover version …
Bishkek