What's Happening in Egypt's Literary Salons!

• In Egypt politics overwhelms everything — even the literary salons and social circles.
• The story of "fate's game" in Jadhibiyya Sidqi's salon.
• The members of the "Story Club" debate the nature of "candid literature."
• What do Bint al-Shati', Yusuf al-Siba'i, Louis Awad, Yusuf Idris, and others think??

The focus of the world's eyes... that is what Egypt has lately become! So how should it not become the focus of mine???...

And I packed my bags on my way there, filled with curiosity, and longing... and eagerness!

In this talk of mine about Egypt I meant not to wade into "politics"... its talk is tangled... and rough going!...

But what can I do... when politics possesses the Egyptians... and overruns their lives... In vain do they try to rid themselves of it... even in the literary salons and social circles...

In Cairo I attended two literary gatherings... One had its seat in the literary salon that the story-writer Jadhibiyya Sidqi is accustomed to hold at her home every Tuesday evening... The other was held at the Story Club!

The beads of the first circle were bright of color... varied in size and shape... There were the man of letters and the woman of letters... the story-writer and the story-writeress... the journalist and the lady journalist... the doctor and the lady doctor!

As for the mistress of the "salon"... she looked plainly worn out... broken, shattered... Yes, shattered in the literal sense of the word... Raw bruises swept over her body, drawing red and blue and black patches on her skin...

And the story of "fate's game" with her was the opening theme of the talk in the "literary salon" that day. The young story-writer had been crossing the street, her eyes open, her inner sight closed... Her eyes were open, and nothing was wrong with them, but she could not see... Tears of pain formed a thick veil that shut out light and vision!

And halfway to the opposite sidewalk... she felt an enormous solid body collide with her small one... and she knew nothing more of what befell her... She opened her eyes and found herself stretched out in a dark, narrow place... grease and oil trickling onto her cheeks from the iron ceiling close overhead... And there came to her ears sounds of wailing and weeping... all calling out to her to be patient and hold on... help was coming!

Quickly she grasped the horror of the situation... She was under the wheels of the electric tramcar... which crouched over her gently and tenderly without doing her any harm... Minutes passed that she reckoned as years; the narrowness parted, the darkness lifted, the car was raised... and the breezes of life tickled her cheeks anew, after her feet had trodden the threshold of eternity and turned back from it... For fate... that tyrannical bully... did not choose to put an end to her life... it was only playing with her... mere play!

And the company's mouths fell open in amazement... Fate's game... how perilous it is!

Jadhibiyya did not want that stifling air to hang over her "salon"... so she passed to another subject... an artistic, theatrical one!

Dr. Yusuf Idris spoke — that skillful physician whom literature summoned, and who yielded to it meekly... and who has shone in the writing of literary dramas and social plays... He spoke of the failure of the modern Egyptian artistic troupe that recently made a tour of the Arab countries... and he explained its failure thus: it did not present local colors, of the kind the peoples of the Arab lands crave, and which Arab artists excel in performing... because they are drawn from the very heart of their lives... Instead, those in charge of the troupe's management would have it present specimens of Western literature, translated into Arabic in a feeble, distorted, insipid style...

And if you ask about the reasons... then look for "her"... not the woman this time... but politics!

And everyone moved on to plunge into it... politics... Did I not say that it overruns everything there... even the literary salons and social circles?!

And at the Story Club... a session was held to discuss "candid literature"...

What is "candid literature"... How can we distinguish between "candid literature" and cheap sex-writing?

What are the limits a writer must not overstep in his writing?... And are there limits to expressing the stirrings of the human soul?

One party of the writers in Egypt... does not recognize what they call "candid literature"... Of this party is the conservative woman of letters "Bint al-Shati'"... She believes, and declares openly, that what they call "candid literature" is ill breeding, not literature... that it is a new way of committing suicide by literature... And Bint al-Shati' believes that singing of love, and expressing it in a beautiful style, is the loftiest form of literature... but when the writer oversteps the bound into arousing the animal instincts, the writing becomes disgraceful, and literature becomes absurdity and vice!

At the Story Club the subject was taken up in analysis and debate by the writers Yusuf al-Siba'i, Louis Awad, Amin Yusuf Ghurab, and Ahmad Ali Bakathir... The talks were followed by comments from Abd al-Halim Abdullah and Anwar Ahmad, and then Dr. Yusuf Idris, who mounted the platform saying that only minutes before he had been listening to the news bulletin, with reports of the disturbances raging through Jordan, and then the text of the new memorandum issued on the ending of the Canal crisis... He marveled at these incongruities... People are in an uproar over world events crowding one upon another... and here is a session to discuss "candid literature"... And he went on: What use is a session like this, held for three hours to discuss subjects that have no connection, near or far, with our lives...

And this time it was I who was astonished... astonished that such a man believes literary gatherings should be held to discuss not literary subjects but political ones...

I wondered that such a man believes literature must fall silent and dumb when politics speaks...

Did I not say that politics possesses the Egyptians... and overruns their lives... even in the literary salons and social circles!?