The Earth's Drum by Nada Adel Sobhi - Poem

Dum! Dum! Dum!

Goes the drum

Of the earth’s core.

You’ll hear it,

Once you leave the shore.

Like a ticking clock,

A beating heart,

It goes tick-tock

And thum-thum.

The earth is alive and raging;

She wants to explode!

All her power and might, she is summoning

To strike once and end it all.

Once her fury is unleashed,

None and nothing shall stand tall;

Everyone and everything will fall!

To the dust and ashes from whence they came,

They will return, and the earth will begin anew;

Nothing will be the same…

Aquamarine Dreams by Nada Adel Sobhi - Poem

I glide on the rhythmic water,
rising to meet the sun at first dawn.

Floating on the waves,
enjoying the new day;
my fins glitter silver
under the majestic sun.

I can hear the distant crashing
of waves upon rocks.
I can see an endless sea
spreading before me.

I dive with force,
plunging into enigmatic depths.
Living, mesmerizing colours, I see;
of orange, of yellow and of red.

Starfish and Rainbow fish...
Killer Whales saying 'hello';
playing with my fins,
I tease their black expanse.

Of seaweed and algae a-plenty,
of shaped rocks,
and naughty sharks nodding their heads
as I pass them.

Sunken ships galore,
with treasures never seen before;
gold pieces, coins and mighty swords,
and colourful jewels on my skin I try.

I am a Mermaid of the sea,
always swimming wild and free.

Al-Tameema (The Amulet) - English Book Review

 

Al-Tameema – or as I would translate it “The Amulet” – is a novella by the renowned police story writer Nabil Farouk, who has published nearly 150 books – as I came to realise. The novella took me around a week to finish (since I had to skip a couple of days). It is easy and different.

The Amulet is the first science fiction novella I have read in Arabic (stories read at school excluded), and I am aware that there many Egyptian and Arab writers experimenting with the sci-fi genre in Arabic.

The novella revolves around an amulet that travels across history and the globe; we see it with people in the Ice Age, Moses and the Pharaoh, Cleopatra, King Richard the Lion Heart in Jerusalem, the British invasion in Egypt and finally it arrives to our present time. Its present owner is a girl named Zainab, who works as a doctor, and who has inherited the amulet from her mother, who in turn has inherited from her mother (that is, Zainab’s grandmother).

The amulet is said to protect whoever wears it from harm. The writer gives several examples of its protection throughout the first chapters and then in the middle of the novella.

When the amulet arrives to our present time, a struggle begins as to who can possess it, use it, and unleash its power. People also begin to hope that discovering the secrets this amulet holds would earn them millions and billions of pounds or a Nobel Prize.

The Amulet is a fairly interesting novella, with a different ending when compared to other sci-fi novels. Its opening chapters are short and very enjoyable. Afterwards, the pace slows down as we reach our present time and many parties begin to seek out the amulet and understand how it works and what other secrets it holds.

The amulet protects the person wearing it through a monstrous beast – described towards the end – that is seen by everyone except the person wearing the amulet. We later learn that the amulet protects its wearer only because it aims to protect itself.

Whilst reading the novella, I noticed how – at first at least – the amulet tended to fall into the hands of rulers and important people, and this reminded me of The One Ring from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I have given this novella a three-star rating on www.goodreads.comfor several reasons. First, I was waiting to be ‘wowed’. Second, there were so many irritating bits with the language and the style of the writer that just turned me off. I ended up crossing out the bits I found unnecessary throughout the novella. I cannot go into detail here for it is an Arabic novella and many of the bits relate to Arabic structure, grammar and writing. As far as I know, the novella has not yet been translated into English. I sincerely hope, though, that the downsides in the Arabic would be omitted or at least lessened in the English translation.

Amongst the things that bothered me was the writer’s use excessive use of commas. Arabic, unlike English, does not use commas often; it prefers the conjunction letter ‘wa’ meaning ‘and’. The writer uses a comma almost every other word or few words, which is both odd and annoying. Moreover, he uses some words or structures that are unfamiliar or that pertain to the spoken Arabic rather than the High Arabic used in this novella. Another thing that bothered me was that the writer often repeats the same image for the same situation in successive pages, which shows an obvious lack in creativity. An image that the reader would find intriguing would lose its glamour on the next page when it is repeated as copy/paste for the same situation.

Last but not least, the writer uses the verb “mumble” extensively as if there were no other verbs in the Arabic language. And I do not think a character can ‘mumble’ for four successive lines!

Nabil Farouk’s The Amulet is an interesting sci-fi that is worth the read. It will not wow you but you will have bits of fun. It is interesting to discover where this amulet came from and why it was made in the first place, which makes the ending intriguing.

For my detailed Arabic review of Al-Tameema (The Amulet), please click on the link below: 

http://nadanessinmotion.blogspot.com/2013/04/blog-post.html

 

 

التميمة

قصة "التميمة" هي القصة الأولى لي للكاتب نبيل فاروق والذي اكتشفت أن له سلاسل من الكتب أي يصل إجمالي عدد كتبه لنحو 150 كتاباً وأشهرها سلسلة "رجل المستحيل" التي كانت تقرأها أمي منذ سنوات عديدة. وقد قرأت أمي قصة أو رواية "التميمة" في يومين فقط في حين قرأتها أنا في أقل من أسبوع (أيام متفرقة على مدار أسبوع)، وقالت أنها رواية سهلة ومختلفة وظريفة. وكانت رواية "التميمة" كذلك بالنسبة لي مع بعض الإضافات والاختلافات.

فرواية "التميمة" هي رواية الخيال العلمي الأولى التي أقرأها باللغة العربية (بعيداً عن القصص التي درسناها في المدرسة) وأنا على دراية أن هناك العديد من الكُتاب المصريين والعرب الذين يقومون بتجارب في هذا المجال الأدبي الذي يستخدمه كثيراً الكُتاب الأوروبيين والأمريكيين.

تدور أحداث رواية  عن تميمة أو قلادة يتوارثها الناس عبر عصور التاريخ وأنحاء الكرة الأرضية المختلفة بدءاً من العصر الجليدي ومروراً بموسى وفرعون وبعصر كليوبترا وبالملك ريتشارد قلب الأسد والاستعمار البريطاني لمصر وأخيراً تصل إلى زماننا هذا أي الحاضر. والفكرة السائدة هي أن هذه التميمة تحمي من يرتديها ويقدم الكاتب عدة أمثلة عبر عصور وفصول الرواية. عندما تصل التميمة إلى عصرنا هذا يبدأ الصراع على تملكها وكشف خباياها وأسرارها وكيفية عملها وغيرهم.

تعد "التميمة" رواية مثيرة خاصة في فصولها الأولى ثم تبدأ الأحداث تتباطأ بعد وصول التميمة إلى الحاضر حيث تمتلك التميمة فتاة اسمها زينب ورثت التميمة عن أمها التي ورثتها عن أمها – أي جدة زينب - ثم يعود عنصري التشويق والإثارة في الفصول الأخيرة التي تمتاز بسرعة الأحداث.

وتقوم التميمة بحماية من يرتديها من خلال وحش رهيب لا يراه الشخص الذي يرتديها.

تنتهي الرواية على نهاية سعيدة حيث ينال الأشرار والماكرون على جزائهم في حين يحصل الأبطال على أحلامهم.

وقد لاحظت أن التميمة كثيراً ما تقع في أيدي الملوك والقادة كبار الشخصيات مما يذكرنا بالخاتم في ثلاثية "ملك الخواتم" للكاتب الشهير جيه أر أر تولكين.

وقد أعطيت هذه الرواية ثلاث نجوم على موقع جود ريدز (www.goodreads.com) لأن هناك عدة أشياء ضايقتني أثناء قرائتي لها، أولها أسلوب الكاتب في الدلالة على استمرار شيء ما أو للدلالة على هول أو سوء هذا الشيء، فتكرار الكلمات على أسطر متتالية لا يفي بالغرض بل عادة ما يكون زيادة عن الحد المناسب أو المطلوب لموقفٍ ما في الرواية، وعلى سبيل المثال في صفحة 64:

"ولكن الشبان الثلاثة انقضوا فجأة، بكل وحشية الدنيا...

وصرخت زينب...

وصرخت...

وصرخت..."

في حين أن قوله صرخة واحدة رننانة كانت ستفي بالغرض.

كما يستخدم الكاتب "الفصلة" بصورة مرعبة كما لو أن اللغة العربية تعشق الفصلات وهو أمر غير صحيح. ويستخدم الكاتب كلمة "للغاية" كثيراً جداً في روايته وعند قراءتها في غير محلها فهي تستفز القارئ وتضعف من قوة الجملة والكلمة التي سابقتها، وعلى سبيل المثال في صفحة 11:

"وصار المشهد كله بالفعل أشبه بلوحة مخيفة..

للغاية.."    

استخدام "للغاية" هنا يضعف كلمة "مخيفة" التي تبعث الرعب في قلب القارئ وعقله، كما أن استخدام الكاتب للفعل "راح" بدلاً من "صار" أو "أصبح" أو "بدأ" أو غيرهم من الأفعال يؤدي إلى ركاكة في اللغة العربية كما أن فعل "راح" أقرب للعامية ولا يتماشى مع اللغة العربية الفصحة المستخدمة في الرواية. ويستخدم الكاتب أيضاً حرف الجر "في" في غير مواضعه المتعارف عليها أو المعتادة، فيقول مثلاً: "في بطء" و"في صعوبة" في حين أن المتعارف عليه هو "ببطء" و"بصعوبة"، كما يقع في الخطأ الشائع باستخدامه "أية" في حين أن الكلمة الصحيحة هي "أي" سواء اتبعها مذكر أو مؤنث (وإن كانت النقطة الأخيرة غلطة المراجع – إن وجد – وليس بالتحديد المؤلف).

وأحياناً يستخدم الكاتب نفس الوصف لنفس الشيء في مواقف متقاربة مثل استخدامه في الفصل الأول "يولون ذلك الصندوق العاجي أهمية بالغة" وفي الصفحة التالية "يوليه الجميع أهمية بالغة". فأين الابتكار في هذه الرواية الجديدة؟

وكثيراً لا يوجد فواصل عند الانتقال بين الشخصيات والمشاهد المختلفة في الرواية مما يؤدي إلى استغراب القارئ ويضطره للتوقف للحظة لاستيعاب ما حدث، كما يستخدم الكاتب النقاط المتتالية أكثر مما ينبغي فالمعتاد هو ثلاث نقاط متتالية ( ... ) كما يستخدم أداة الاستفهام يليها أداة التعجب يليهما عدة نقاط وهو خطأ في اللغتي الانجليزية والعربية.

وأخيراً يستخدم الكاتب فعل "يغمغم" كما لو أن اللغة العربية قد خلت من الأفعال! ويلاحظ أنه يستحيل أن "يغمغم" شخصاً لمدة أربع أسطر متتالية!

إن رواية "التميمة" ليست طويلة مما يساعد القارئ على القراءة السريعة وعلى الشعور بالراحة عند قراءة عدة فصول متتالية كما أنها تمتاز بعدة أجراء شيقة، إضافة إلى أنها جديدة ونهايتها وفكرتها مختلفة عن قصص الخيال العلمية الأجنبية والعربية، وهي رواية تستحق القراءة. أن أ

Witness My Fury by Nada Adel Sobhi - Poem

No more will you hurt me,
Trespass over me and my dignity.
No more will you mock me
For now the flames of my raging fury
Shall torment you forever!

Ever heard of “torturing to insanity”?
Oh well,
You'll know it anyway!

You think you are better than me,
More knowledgeable, more bright,
Well you can forget that now,
You can wish you never crossed my path,
Wish I were a mere nightmare,
But all your wishes will be petty ashes.
I am real!
And the pain I will cause you
Will be too real!

I will make your life a living-hell,
Draw you out of the crowd,
Humiliate you, like you did me;
Agony and misery will be your food and drink,
Torture will be your daily routine.
Your suffering will be my utmost pleasure!

I will be everywhere and in everything
You see, hear, feel, eat, drink

And even dream and breathe!
My fury will bind you, burn you,
And when you scream
No one will care, no one will bother.
Your cries will be sucked into oblivion
And forgotten forever!

You think I lie?
That I am not up to my word?

TRY ME!!

I will writhe every single hope out of you.
Your life and your sleep will be an ever-lasting agony!

The pain, the torture,
The misery, the excruciation
That I will inflict upon you
Will be the most devastating,
The most destructive,
The most wrecking,
The most obliterating of all!!

I will haunt your dreams,
Spoil your joy,
Annihilate all your hope,
I will shatter your very existence!

Death would be your saviour,
Your refuge, your relief,
But I will never kill you,
NEVER!

I will torture you till your brain boils,
Till your heart explodes,
Till your soul fades,
And your sanity will be lost
Forever!

You will be a living corpse,
A vampire would have more feeling,
Would know passion
As opposed to you!

Oh, the living-hell
I will put you through;
Death will be a paradise lost
Never to be regained.
Life will be an agonising 
Ever-lasting inferno!

And I,
I am the one to do it ALL!

They Ride

Once ancient greedy kings,

Now servants on dragons' wings

To do and destroy,

Middle Earth is the Dark Lord's toy!

So, armies and an alliance are made

To overthrow a king,

His armies and his wraiths,

To eradicate evil for good!

Together they ride

From far and wide,

Side by side,

To their doom or glory!

From Rivendell and Lothlorien,

from beneath the mountains,

from the Shire

and from lands of Men.

Together they all ride,

from far and wide,

side by side,

To their doom or glory!

They ride!

With bows and arrows,

with swords, and staffs,

with axes and daggers,

and with rock and stone.

Alongside one other, they fight,

So let this be a remembered night.

When all races together stood,

For evil to stop and for the continuity of good!

Together they all ride,

from far and wide,

side by side,

whether to their doom or to glory!

Let this be a remembered night.

When all races together stood,

for evil to stop and for the continuity of good!

The Metamorphosis - A Commentary

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is the first novella I have read for Kafka. Unfortunately, I read in English for my German skills have not reached that level of sophistication. It is nonetheless an interesting piece.

The book published by Bantam Classics comprises an introduction, the novella, explanatory notes to the text, some documents, some critical essays about Kafka, his writing and finally some selected bibliography.

I must say that not only is the introduction a bore; it also contains a spoiler that tells the reader how the story ends. Although, The Metamorphosis is not your average story, still I would have liked some tiny bit left for me as a reader to find out for myself whilst reading.

The book is 201 pages, but the novella itself is only 59 pages long, divided on three chapters. The story begins with the climax, as critic Martin Greenberg points out. (The Metamorphosis, p. 61) “When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” (The Metamorphosis, p. 3)

The novella begins with the metamorphosis and throughout there is no reference as to how this transformation occurred or why it did. Despite that, it is an interesting novel, and if it were not for the spoiler in the introduction, it might have been even more interesting. The story begins with a fact and a state of helplessness. Throughout, both the transformed Gregor and his family await another miracle that would change Gregor back to his former self. They hope that things would be back to the way they were; in other words a normal life.

Although the story is written in the third person, the reader cannot help but notice that the dominant atmosphere is that of Gregor. True, the story is about him and his ordeal, but nonetheless, the other characters’ emotions are seen, often, through Gregor himself. The story does not have the amount of action that I would have liked; it is not an action-filled novella, but it is nonetheless not devoid of it. The little things that happen to Gregor become actions in it. The reader cannot help but sympathise with him, for although he wakes up to find himself transformed “into a monstrous vermin”, Gregor constantly desires – or at least wishes to turn back - to save his family from looming poverty and hardship. Gregor sacrifices his life in order to work for the firm so that he can give his parents and sister a comfortable life and pay off his father’s debts. Even as a vermin, he still seeks to do the same – if he could.

Although Grete, Gregor’s sister, is seen as taking up the lead in caring for Gregor at the beginning, towards the end, I, as a reader, feel that she becomes cold and uncaring. She announces to both her parents that it is pointless to say that this monster is her brother and refuses to use Gregor’s name in addressing the creature. Furthermore, the reader sees that Gregor does nothing but work and when he has a few days off, he spends them at home. He has few friends and no one special that he would like to marry. Therefore, when he is transformed, or if we can look at the metamorphosis as an illness, his family begins to care for him but do not wish to see him. They realise the calamity that their sole provider is indisposed and will not be there to assist them or put food on their table. Only then does each family member consider finding a job to support one another. For me, this is selfishness on part of the family. One man, and not the father, works his entire life in a job that he does not like to support a family of four. His father has not worked in five years, since the collapse of the business, the mother is often depicted as too weak to do anything, but nonetheless exerts huge efforts to sew and do a few things around the house, and finally the seventeen-year-old sister who is seen crying for no reason whatsoever at the beginning of the novella, when Gregor would not open the door, takes the lead in giving the transformed Gregor food, cleaning his room and finally in neglecting him. Only when the family members realise that there will be no remedy for Gregor, does each of them find a job to cope with life and to meet their daily needs.

For me, the metamorphosis occurs on several levels, primarily the physical transformation of Gregor; then, there is Grete, who is viewed by her family, particularly her parents, as a child. In the three chapters of the novella, we see Grete’s metamorphosis from a crying child into a young woman who can juggle working as a salesgirl, studying a foreign language to improve her career and taking care of both her parents, at the same time. At the end of the novella, the whole family seems to have grown up to take responsibility of taking care and supporting one another.

The novella ends on a fairly positive note. The family goes out, the first time they had done in months, and are happy to see what a beautiful young woman Grete has become.

Works cited:

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. New York: Bantam Classics. 2004. Pages 3 and 61.

Wrath

Black

Is not my colour.
It is red;
Blood red…

Black is nice,

Calm and understanding
But always,
Misunderstood.

No.

I'm not like that.
I do not care for you
As sweet Black does.

No!

I do not like the dark;
It is far too quiet for me.

No!

I yearn to be heard.
I like to pierce the silence.

Zeus' thunderbolt,

Poseidon's trident,
Hades' staff,
Should be my toys of destruction.

I indulge in pain,

In red-and-orange flame.

The sight of blood

Soothes me,
Caresses me,
Intoxicates me…

I am a prey to pain,

To snares and demonic games.

Yes!
Bury your thoughts,
Hide them in your little shell,
Hide and lock them away,
Till I come for them.

Then,

My hell-hounds will howl,
Break free and roam loose!
No wall or weapon
Can keep them at bay.

People,

They will tear to pieces.
Aye,
And your soul too.

Rage and roar

My wrathful friend,
Rage,
And let nothing hold you back!

Phantom

 

His hooves fall to the ground, the land shakes beneath them, bending to his steady gallops. His silky mane, tail and muscular body are darker than coal. On the earth’s vast meadows he roams wild and free; his neighs pierce the sky, yet mingle with the majestic music of the forest. His unsurpassed speed gives him his name: Phantom.

The Team and Me

‘You’re an important part of the team,’ they said, and yet a simple ‘Thank you’ I rarely get. It’s hard to feel appreciated when you’re waging in a sea of your own. They are a team; they have been for a while now. I know that at some point they were all mere strangers, but the barriers melted away with time; I don’t see my barriers budging anywhere anytime soon.

I’m different. What I do is different. I only feel part of ‘the team’ when there’s a crisis or when I’m needed, otherwise I feel like I’m just occupying space.

I try to talk and hang out with x, y and z, but they’re all so busy, or just busy, or just conversing with others, so I feel like a load and I hate feeling or being that, so I just silently occupy the space at my desk.

It’s been some seven months since I started working here and to be honest, with myself, I had expectations that were all obliterated. I admit: I want more. I don’t mean financially, coz I honestly and currently don’t care less, but I want more work, more life, more vigour, more fun.

I do not regret leaving my old and first work place for I must try something different and I am sure I have learnt many things here that I would never have learnt or encountered there. But still, there needs to be more to life than just trudging to work or just trudging out of bed every morning.

The status quo (to use a Latinism for a change) in Egypt is far from heart-warming and is certainly affecting everyone everywhere, no matter what they do or how they try to hide it.

It could be that; I’m sure ‘the team’ plays a role in my cold anger at the world and myself. Everything just seems so messed up and for an ambitious perfectionist, that’s just bad!

Where do I go from here? I haven’t a clue, but I most certainly need to find inspiration to get back in my ‘groove’ so I can begin my journey to being ‘Me’ again.

Good luck to me – and everyone else.

Spiritual Union

Thousands gather under a golden ornate roof

To pray to the one and only Allah.

I see masses of men and women

From all walks of life,

From all lands of this earth,

From all races, from all colours,

Dressed in beige, orange and blue,

In shades of every hue;

Different languages, different faces,

All under one roof,

All praying to Allah,

All seeking his forgiveness for their sins,

Seeking a place in his promised Paradise.

Some sit under the mosque's golden roof,

Others underneath the golden sun;

Tens of thousands paying homage to Allah.

Written 1^st of February 2013.

This piece was inspired by the Prophet's Mosque (Al-Masjid Al-Nabawy) in Al-Madinah, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But it can also be applied to Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Makkah, though I was inspired to write this before going to Makkah.

Sea Encounter (Untitled)

The wind caresses the blossoming flowers and leaves,

The waves flow softly to the rhythm of the breeze;

While he watches her from afar;

She is more beautiful than the brightest star.

Silently,

He glides amongst the rocks in the sea.

Slowly,

He moves closer to better, her, see.

The air plays with her hair,

Gently and with a lot of care.

Oblivious, she reads a book,

Unaware that she’ll be caught in a hook.

‘Hello’, he says, piercing the silence.

Startled, she falls off the rock.

Looking at him, her eyes sparkle like diamonds.

She gazes silently for she is in shock.

Before her, a handsome young man, from the water sprung,

The words in her mouth there just hung;

Bare at the chest he was and with a fish-tail at the end,

Fantasy and reality, for her, seemed to blend.

‘Closer, I cannot come,’ he said,

‘For I am a man of the sea.’

To the shore, he motioned his head.

Closer, she ventured to, the Merman, see.

A foot in the water, then the other;

It was crystal cold, but she did not bother.

His face, she touched, and his hair;

He was real, not illusion, not air.

Soon the clouds between them cleared,

And on and on they talked

Till the moon and stars appeared

Then, ‘Farewell’, they bid, and away she walked,

Always turning her head to see

If the Merman was still visible in the sea.

Tomorrow, a new day will come,

Their friendship has only just begun.

(My attempt to reverse The Little Mermaid. I don't know if the rhyme may be slightly forced, but I hope you like it)