New Waw, Saharan Oasis (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation)

by Ibrahim Al-Koni

  “Do I understand from this that my guest has preferred to join the doubting faction?”

  “My master’s guest does not prefer to join any faction. I’m simply talking about the will of the fates. The course of time will answer my master’s question.”

  The diviner watched him inquisitively. He straightened his knee, raising it higher, and left his other thigh on the ground. He said, “I didn’t, in any case, send for our dignified guest to debate the subject of migrations. I want to discuss another matter.”

  The Lover continued to dig in the dirt, collecting pebbles carefully in his palm. He replied, “I never doubted that, because the diviner would not send for a creature to debate with him a heavenly matter or a concern that we customarily reserve for the nobles in the Council of Sages.”

  “Not so fast! Slow down! I see my guest is about to lose his way. As a matter of fact, I did send for my distinguished guest for a subject that is intimately linked to the heavens.”

  The Lover stopped raking the dirt with his finger and looked at the diviner inquisitively for the first time. The diviner continued, “I thought I would surround my master’s tomb with a building, and you know you’re the only master builder in the whole tribe.”

  The pebbles tumbled from his left hand, and he picked them up with the deftness of a person who has lost a treasure. Then he replied, “I hope my master thinks well of me, but I don’t understand the pressing need to build a tomb around the tomb.”

  “We have built a tomb to hide the bodies of the dead, and we will build a tomb to shelter the bodies of the living!”

  “I really don’t understand.”

  “Because we are a nomadic people, our forefathers taught us to erect a structure around the bones of a deceased man. We bury our dead today and travel the next day. But the Law has left us no statute regarding dead men we have decided to keep near us forever because they have become our destiny and our only path to the heavens.”

  From behind his veil he glanced stealthily at his companion, whose fingers he saw were working in the dirt with the ardor of armies of ants. He smiled and continued, “Today we guide our lives by the firebrand that comes from the tomb the way a nomad guides himself by the stars and the way our ancestors before us guided themselves by the light of the lost Law.”

  “I’ve begun to understand. My master wishes to replace the tent post we lost with a building that will play the role of two tent posts at one and the same time: the tent post that collapsed when the leader passed on and the tent post that will fall when we fold our tents forever to become food for larvae and grubs.”

  The diviner ignored the guest’s allusion and spoke without any circumlocution. “People will gather at the tomb out of curiosity. Others will come seeking prophecies regarding secret matters monopolized by the Unseen and known only to the people of the Unseen. Nomads will also arrive, and tribes will send messengers to clarify signs or to plead for counsels. Communities will crowd together there, and the number of people will grow so great that eventually you won’t find a place around the site to set a foot and the virgin won’t be able to stretch out, lie down, or sleep. So be quick and ingenious about erecting a building. Divide it into three chambers. One will house the tomb, one will be suitable for the virgin’s habitation, and the third will be a courtyard where sacrificial animals are slaughtered and visitors, messengers, and people seeking a prophecy are received.”

  A pebble escaped from his fingers, and he searched the earth carefully, digging in the dirt to look for it. Only after he had retrieved it did he ask, “What form does my master have in mind for the building?”

  “To what form is my distinguished guest referring?”

  “I meant to say that the form of the tomb has always been based on a circular body, because the ancients, when they built the first house for the first deceased, wanted to imitate the Spirit World. So they constructed the tomb of the wasteland as a replica of the eternal home. So what form will a structure built atop another building take?”

  “The truth is that I haven’t given any thought to this.”

  “My master knows that each body in the desert is destined to be circular.”

  “Actually this is the first time I’ve considered the matter.”

  “My master knows that gold is circular.”

  “Gold?”

  “For this reason smiths work this metal into circular forms when they make jewelry and other decorative items.”

  “The truth is that I. …”

  “The snake is also round.”

  “The snake?”

  “My master knows that the snake always has some ulterior motive. If it is tubular and coils round itself, there is some secret behind that.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “The desert also has a circular body.”

  “Hold on.”

  “It is said that the snake only coils into a circle to imitate the mother that gave birth to it.”

  “But. …”

  “Iyba—the spirit, Master, is also in a round body.”

  “Iyba?”

  “Since the iyba, or spirit, is round, we can deduce that the Spirit World is also a round body.”

  “Wait. …”

  “For this reason, the forefathers insisted on making the first edabni round.”9

  “You can construct the building in any form you wish, but. …”

  “I, Master, am a creature who has no wishes because I do not intend to disobey the laws of the Spirit World and don’t want to prolong the building process unnecessarily.”

  “You’re right. I meant to say that what matters to me is the building. The form of the building is the responsibility of the master builder.”

  “I thought the diviner would surpass me in enthusiasm for the Law of the Spirit World, especially when the matter pertains to the form of the rocks that will become a sanctuary for the people.”

  “The diviner is interested in every invisible matter, but what is visible and in public view becomes the property of the people.”

  The Lover of Stones stopped digging in the dirt and whispered as if to himself, “Wouldn’t it interest the diviner to know that prophecy also has a round body?”

  The diviner contemplated him curiously and asked, also in a whisper, “Prophecy?”

  But the Lover stood up. He roamed far through the emptiness and transferred his handful of pebbles from his left palm to his right and then back to the left before he shot off without a word of farewell.

  4

  Before the Lover dispatched an army of vassals into the neighboring hillsides to start digging up rocks, he sent the Virgin a letter stating: “I will build you, by hand, a mausoleum unlike any your grandfathers built for their fathers and more splendid than any the desert has ever witnessed.” It was said that the Virgin smiled enigmatically when she received the message but that this unusual flirtation did not elicit any overt reaction from her. She continued to respond with this mysterious smile whenever a girlfriend reminded her of the missive or whenever the Lover recited the message during their fleeting encounters in the open countryside, between the campsites, or during soirées celebrating the full moon.

  The Lover roamed the crowns of the northern heights and harvested stones from the hills, using men who had time on their hands, the hoi polloi, and gangs of youths. When he had finished with nearby peaks, he advanced west, reaching the lower slopes of the farthest mountains. Then he stripped away their rocky surface and scaled their peaks till it was rumored that he was teaching the vassals and encouraging his assistants to imitate the expertise of the birds in making circular nests in order to succeed in chipping a round, beautiful stone. It was also said that he had tugged dolts repeatedly by their ears and led them to places where birds were accustomed to hide their nests—not to demonstrate the birds’ skill in weaving their nests but to pluck from the nests speckled eggs that he thrust in the idiots’ faces, saying, “Have you seen the marvels produced by birds? Don’t you see that they
do not merely build their nests in a circular pattern but also lay round eggs? Don’t you see that a body that isn’t born in a round house doesn’t survive? Don’t you know that a building that isn’t round isn’t fit for human habitation? Do you think I’m as crazy as you because I want to teach you to follow the path to which the desert leads us?”

  These comments reached the diviner’s ears. Local historians said that he never stopped smiling, perhaps because the Lover, when addressing the masses, hadn’t used the same idiom he had employed when he spoke with the diviner that night. He felt well disposed toward the master builder, who did not slight wisdom by refusing to employ its language when addressing a people who are hostile to wisdom and who doubt the intentions of the people of wisdom.

  The Lover finally began to construct the building. He chiseled down the boulders and evened out the solid slabs. In his hands rocks turned into lumps of dough. The people of the settlement gazed at him with admiration when they saw him busy shaping the stones with all the longing of a true lover. Their admiration turned to astonishment when they observed the three linked buildings rise with their noble domes. Over the tomb he built a circular house with a dome. Next to it he built the Virgin’s house and connected the two by an arched doorway, which was also rounded. Thus entering the sanctuary meant transiting the Virgin’s residence. Then he connected to these two houses a third dwelling that accessed the Virgin’s house from the opposite side through an arched door with a round top set in curved walls. He told people that its name was “House of Sacrificial Victims and Offerings.”

  The building wasn’t merely a marvel because the offspring of nomads customarily avoided buildings and in their travels saw only the graves of nomads and the tombs of the ancients, but also because the sages affirmed that not even in most of the oases had they ever seen anything that compared to this building in luxury and opulence. Not even the intellectuals discerned the veiled resemblance that the body of the building borrowed from the tombs of their forefathers and the graves of their ancestors. People attributed the building’s form to the fascination of the Lover of Stones with the circular body and his strange belief in the circularity of every spiritual body.

  5

  When the Lover had finished his work, he sat down with the diviner, who praised the building and repeated, “Great job!” several times. He discussed the splendor of buildings he had seen in the desert’s oases and concluded by saying the domes were truly captivating, although they were more severe than was necessary.

  The Lover listened silently. Throughout the discussion he was bent over the ground, gathering pebbles and collecting them in a small pile. He spoke without turning his head, “Doesn’t my master consider severity to be one of the attributes of the Spirit World?”

  “You’re right; you’re absolutely right. But don’t forget that we want the building to draw people to the tomb.”

  “People won’t be drawn to the tomb by the fabric of the building if a love of prophecy doesn’t attract them.”

  “You’re right again, but not so fast. Are you casting doubt on the ability of a vessel to tempt us? Don’t you see that nomads are merely grown-up children who must be lured with dolls if you want them to follow you?”

  “I haven’t invented any heresy, Master. Every game or sport has its ancient law.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve said what must be said just as previously I did what needed to be done. I said that we have a duty to discover the symbol in everything. Similarly we must appeal for guidance to the dictates of the ancients when a difference about a matter arises between us. Or does my master belong to the group that only reads these dictates in the remnants of the Lost Book?”

  “The truth is that I don’t understand.”

  “The tombs of the first peoples are also a sign, Master. The graves of the forefathers are also a message. Everything in the desert is an ancient lesson and information that deserves our greatest attention. What I have done is merely to attempt to decipher the message. I have gone to great effort to decode the symbols of the dictates. The severity that has troubled my master is an indivisible part of the Law of the ancients.”

  The diviner did not respond. He drew a symbol on the ground. He dug in the dirt and pulled a stone from the cavity. The Lover continued, “My master should not forget that we didn’t construct the building to honor just the leader; we decided to host the whole sky in it as well. If we want our hospitality to be complete, we must construct a house that imitates and resembles the heavens, because the house’s circularity is borrowed from the circularity of the sky. That first day I told you that all exalted things are circular, because the Spirit World has a circular form.”

  “I find you speak of the circularity of the Spirit World with all the certainty of a person who has returned from a visit to the Spirit World.”

  “Each of us, Master, is a child of the Spirit World. Each of us has come from the realm of the Spirit World, and each of us will return there.”

  “I hope you won’t think poorly of me, but the tribe’s intellectuals have complained to me that your infatuation with circles is suspect and distasteful.”

  “I am sad to hear this from a tongue that usually is cleansed by the utterance of a prophecy.”

  “I told you that this is not something I have said; the intellectuals have said it.”

  “If it was the tongue of someone claiming a monopoly over the intellect who said this, then how remote these people are from the intellect and from mastery of the intellect! I don’t know how a person can claim mastery of the intellect while denying the roundness of the heavens, the Spirit World, or prophecy. So may the Spirit World grant us protection from an intellect like this! Beseech the Spirit World to shield you from an intellect like this as well, Master.”

  He hopped. He hopped to his feet and disappeared into the gloom. The diviner called after him, “Not so fast! Not so fast!”

  But he didn’t turn. In the wink of an eye, the gloom swallowed him.

  6

  That evening the Lover didn’t merely vanish from the environs of the diviner’s tent but from the entire settlement. He vanished from the land of the tribe. No one saw him after that day in the northern wadis, in the encampments of the neighboring tribes, in the distant oases, or accompanying any of the caravans in transit. He disappeared because he had fled from the entire desert. He vanished, as if he had returned to his homeland, as if the Spirit World had swallowed him.

  After his disappearance, reports circulated widely in the tribe when gossips gave free rein to their tongues, as is their wont during such periods. They said they had discovered the Lover’s secret. They said that they had assumed he was merely a lover of stones when they called him “Lover” but that after he had fled they had discovered his passionate love for the Virgin. It was also said that he had told one of his construction assistants that he had kept his promise and built for his beloved with his own hands a mausoleum unlike any their cleverest forefathers had built in the desert. So what was the Lover to do in a land where he had buried his beloved with his own hands?

  ______________

  9. The tomb.

  VII

  THE DYADIC BIRD OF THE SPIRIT WORLD

  Music differs from all the other arts because it does not express Ideas or grades of the objectification of the will, but directly the will itself.

  Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Chapter XXXIX, “On the Metaphysics of Music”

  He was not forgotten and the anguish of his lyrics was also not forgotten, because he persisted in seeking to create what was lost in sorrows.

  Søren Kierkegaard

  1

  The tribes knew another bird.

  The tribes knew another bird in other times, and succeeding generations described it in praise poems that people still enjoy reciting today. Songs mentioned that he was a skillful singer and had only lost his marvelous body as a result of absorption in songs and fascination with m
elodies. But he was never absent from the world of the wasteland, because many blessed individuals saw him. Seeing him was a good omen for them, because they soon lost their bodies too and were liberated from captivity in the wasteland.

  It was reported in histories that successive generations learned from experience that individuals whom the Spirit World favored saw its noble bird and soon shared its fate. They too lost their troublesome bodies and fled from the desert as the void became their homeland.

  2

  He arrived the way he always did, with the first breaths of autumn.

  Yellow was garlanding the clumps of trees in Retem Valley, and the wind was variable. It blew from the East but then immediately changed and blew from the sea. Then it suddenly became so still that people in the encampments were sure it had departed to distant lands. Next it blew from the North at dusk with even greater force. Plants throughout the desert were agitated, the scant grass seeking the earth’s protection swayed back and forth, and retem tufts and acacia crests responded with fervent trembling. The desert was singing with delight at the change of the seasons.

  The bird came from the Unknown to sing his song as well.

  He came to sing about the sad change in the trees’ characteristics and to celebrate in songs of sorrow the mysterious, precious thing that autumn filches from the breasts of the wasteland’s people every year. They feel really sad at its loss, even though they have never perceived its secret. They often feel sad, but would experience a greater suffering if they knew that this lost jewel is called “life”!

  3

  Narrators disagreed about his size, color, and behavior.