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"...