The Homeland by Hamida Na'na

Author:Hamida Na'na [Hamida Na'na]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Garnet Publishing (UK) Ltd
Published: 2014-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

3

Nadia collected her things and headed towards the door of the café. She left the drinkers and the warmth and Le Temps des Cerises, and she opened her heart to the night and the cold autumnal wind. She went round a corner in Boulevard Jourdan, passing through the Porte d’Orléans Metro station. She stopped at the corner of the street and listened to the noise of the night, a monotone at that hour. One of the vagabonds of the quarter passed her, leaning unsteadily, with a bottle of wine in his hand, spilling what was left of it over his head. She was afraid and quickened her pace. She lifted her eyes and surveyed the high windows, their curtains hanging down and the lights switched off behind them. There was hardly a soul left on the streets at that time. There was no more light to illuminate the world. With something resembling sorrow, she thought of Ayntab, which was ablaze and had not known sleep for a year. All the while the towns and cities of Europe slept without even being tired. Without that exhaustion … She turned into Rue Beaunier opposite the café where she habitually took her morning coffee. She went past Lenin’s house, number twenty-four. For a while she remained fixed to the spot outside the pink stones which must have felt the fingers of the great man. She put her forehead against the wall and did not move. She thought of how she had stood transfixed for minutes on that spot when Frank told her about Lenin’s first arrival in Paris. Nocturnal grief assailed her, as though she had only just finished burying a man whom she had loved. But Lenin had been dead a long time. He had died without coming to Ayntab and she was compelled to come here instead. She spoke another language. It was other faces she cradled in her arms. She lived other days in order to get to know him well.

She tried to collect her voice inside her, to launch it into the human desolation which surrounded her. To repeat everything she heard with her ears to make certain that it had been said, and to be sure that she was still alive and that the blood was still coursing through her veins. But she found that her voice had escaped her, betrayed her. She remembered that her house was in the other street and she had to pick her body up and hurry to her bed to sleep, so that she could awaken tomorrow to run after the Metro of death and live through the tiring day.

Suddenly she remembered her insect. The moment she thought of it she became fixed in front of Lenin’s house. She stretched out her hand and pressed it against the wall to stop herself from falling over. She will return home, and there she will confront the insect and listen to it and she will warm to the familiarity of its voice until the daylight comes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.