Why? A Survey of the Journalists

(1) Why are you still a bachelor?
(2) Has your opinion of marriage changed from what it was before?

My assignment was to visit the honorable journalists — "and a fine visit it was" — and to put to them the following questions:
- Why are you still a bachelor?
- And has your opinion of marriage changed from what it was before, and why?

Said Freiha

- I did not dare assail him with the question, for he was in a state that warned of an approaching storm. So I took refuge in all sorts of distant questions that circled around the intended target...
- Tell me, Ustad, is marriage happiness?...
- He threw his pen aside and began looking at me inquiringly, then said:
- Marriage! Happiness... you must be mad! Marriage is paradise — but what do you want from me? I am a married man with a chain around my neck! Go ask Hanna Ghosn...
- But say: aren't you regretful?
Here he thought a little before answering in the negative, as though he feared something:
- No, I am not regretful at all... and why should I regret? I am the head of a family that I love and that loves me...
- But wouldn't you prefer to be free and unfettered?...
- I beg you not to thrust yourself into my life and my freedom... I told you I am not regretful, and that is enough... Have you come to overturn for me a life I built with my uprightness and my devotion...
- Very well — are you truly devoted to your family?...
He sprang up from his seat, and with him sprang up every sign of the whirlwind:
- O patience of Job! Will you make me understand what you mean by these cold questions??
I found no way out but to declare that I was the correspondent of "The Woman's Voice" and that I had no personal stake in the matter.
- Ah! A correspondent... and you want me to tell you that I am regretful and wretched! You mean to cast me into the inferno with your calm questions that drip with pity... Goodbye! And do not forget that I am the happiest of husbands and the happiest of fathers... and...
But he is the most wretched of journalists and artists, because he is married...

Zuhayr Usayran

He received me with cheer and welcome, the exact opposite of the married men, so I saw no need for twisting and turning in order to question him, and I flung out my question:
- Why are you still a bachelor?...
- And who told you I am still a bachelor?
- Then you are married?
- Not at all! I am betwixt and between...
- Very well, has your opinion of marriage changed from what it was before?
- I told you, Miss, that I have not married yet, and I am not a bachelor.
- You have bewildered me, Ustad — are you divorced, then?...
- Not at all! I am a candidate for marriage — that is, betrothed... And if my married life proceeds along the same course I am on now, that is, in the era of betrothal, there is no doubt that I shall be among the happiest of the happy... I believe that even now — indeed, I am certain of it...
And I left him asserting and swearing that he would be the happiest of husbands (God willing)...

Gibran Tueni..

I knocked at the door of his splendid office, and his resounding voice answered me..
- Come in... So I entered.
- You — what do you want this time..
- Tell me, has your opinion of marriage changed?
- No, never. Even if I were a bachelor, even at the age of eighty, I would wish to find a partner for my life. For marriage casts upon a man delightful responsibilities and gives him the feeling that he has founded for himself an independent homeland.. A man's manhood is not complete except through marriage.. Goodbye.

Naim Mughabghab..

His outward appearance was the very opposite of his declaration...
- I have not married and I shall not marry

For two considerations that go back to a single cause: for several years now I have found a great pleasure in serving a cause.. and in the course of this service I am exposed to what they call dangers, which are among the necessities of this work.. So I fear, were I to bind myself in marriage — in which I know there is an ample share of happiness — that I should load upon my life's partner such responsibility and dangers as her acceptance of them could not be reconciled with her love; and I fear, on the other hand, that my attachment to her and her attachment to me might lessen my readiness to serve the cause to which I wish to devote myself entirely.

This is what the Ustad said, in his imitation Egyptian accent and his theatrical gestures, and then his drowsy glances.

Iskandar al-Riyashi

I made for his hermitage, and I do not deny that I was afraid. My good luck willed that the office should be crowded with visitors, but he began apologizing and begging me to come back at another hour. But I stood firm before him and asked that I be allowed to ask him now what I wished — or else I would never return...

And it was as though he were ashamed to refuse a lady's plea — he being the gentleman... as he claims... So he answered me what he answered, and it is for the reader to make sense of the wayward journalist — whether he spoke truly or was afraid of home.

- A married man must forget the first fifteen years of his marriage and not think of them... Then he will know, in the last days of his youth, that marriage was a divine blessing not to be regretted... And I am not regretful...

Al-Nassouli

- Marriage, Miss, is a binding duty and a deep, sacred wisdom. I wish for everyone to enjoy the blessing of marriage, and especially the journalist and the man of letters, because through it he can set his life in order and rescue it from the chaos in which the journalist lives in this country.

Ramiz Sarkis

I was certain from the first moment that he was not regretful, when he received me with a knot between his brows and a roughness in his voice; and he changed his tone only when he came to know who I was — that I am a journalist...

- Forgive me, Miss, for I frightened you — I am a man of work, as you see.. But I, Miss, am very happy in my marriage and delighted in my family... Marriage is necessary, and one of the refinements of life... And I wish you a happy marriage...

Hanna Ghosn

- Will you remain a bachelor?
- What business of yours is my marriage.. How strange! Am I not free...
- But you must marry.
- I beg you, Miss, keep your precious advice (and let's stay friends) — every time you come at me with a new question.

- But what fault is it of mine? I am only a correspondent — so will you answer my questions?

- And what do I care whether you marry or never marry at all... Do you think you are extraordinarily handsome, or what?...

- Here the Ustad choked, his fury subsided, and he answered me that he had thought seriously of marriage, but that he was hesitant as to whether the bride would accept him or not... And I swore never to go back to him again, so as not to hear his shouting.