New Waw, Saharan Oasis (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation) by Ibrahim al-Koni

Author:Ibrahim al-Koni [al-Koni, Ibrahim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2015-05-17T22:00:00+00:00

2

They traversed further distances.

Suddenly the leader asked, “Do you know why I wanted you to accompany me to the Western Hammada?”

He replied, “I’m good at deciphering the Unknown but have never been good at deciphering my master’s intentions!”

The leader, however, ignored this jest and said with the sternness that has always been a hallmark of leadership, “You’ve always been beside me; I’ve never deferred to anyone the way I’ve deferred to you. You have been my buttress. You’re the only person to whom I have revealed a secret, because you have never betrayed my trust. I have been isolated, and my solitude might have proved lethal but for your presence beside me. I have always doubted whether what is called a friend truly exists under heaven’s dome. Had your conduct not told me that a friend must either be a companion or not, I would have been certain that a confidant was one of the many lies we devise and embrace to deceive ourselves. How can you not want me to choose you as a companion for a journey to the settlements of the Western Hammada since you have been my companion in the wasteland?”

The diviner replied gratefully, “I have tried to live up to my master’s good opinion of me. I feel this is my obligation. If I have succeeded, may my master allow me to express my delight.”

The leader inquired, “Are you delighted even though you know the terrors of a trip to the settlements of the Western Hammada?”

He replied, “My master’s company is something that surpasses delight. My master’s company is something greater than happiness. My master’s company is a treasure in the diviner’s breast that can only be compared to a prophecy.”

The leader probed further, “Are you sure?”

He answered this question with a question: “Does my master doubt the truth of what I say?”

The leader, however, commented sorrowfully, “I’m not pressing this question because I doubt you but because I know how intensely tribe members hate to travel the route to the Western Hammada. I wouldn’t want to compel you to do something you’re not keen on.”

He rolled a stone with his sandal and smiled twice behind his black veil. He said, “I didn’t know that the route to the Western Hammada had a worse reputation in the hearts of members of the tribe than the venom of forest serpents. I also acknowledge to my master my negative feeling toward it, although I have a secret conviction that it isn’t as evil as we think. In fact I’ve often thought that its evil isn’t concealed in the terrors we attribute to it but that we dread it out of our ignorance of it. Since my master has chosen me to accompany him on this unaccustomed route, how can I decline his company, when it is an honor for which he has singled me out?”

The leader said, “I don’t want you to do this for my sake, because the trip to the Western Hammada is the only

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