The First Newspapers

Description

“In the beginning, the sea was all-encompassing, desolate, and alone. Not only was the sea all-encompassing, desolate, and alone, but it was also troubled, melancholy, and suffering from an unknown longing. This desolation persisted for ages immeasurable except by the logic of eternity. The sea was accustomed to spending its eons of solitude in contemplation. It gazed at the stars high above at night and looked to the sun by day, until sorrow overflowed within it, and longing reached its peak, and it murmured to sing. It would summon the wind with a hidden call, and the wind would always rush to its aid. It would rise from its unknown depths to help it beat its drums and dance its body, swaying in the waters, and it would sing. It would sing and sway with ecstasy until it lay on its back from the excess of celebration. It would lie down to weep. The sea weeps with tears it made with its own hands. It made them with the vapor of its breath. The vapor of breath rises to the heights to fall into its depths as tears. A flood, a testament of sorrows. And the wretched, desolate sea trembles.” Alone, he trembles, trembles for a long, long time before gazing at the wonder of the sun by day, and… he contemplates, contemplates, and contemplates, but contemplation does not unravel the enigma, nor does it find a key to the riddle, nor does it grasp the secret of his solitude. So he resumes his lament at times, and at others, he seeks solace in song, until the moment comes.

Ibrahim al-Koni is a blend of imaginations, feelings, and meanings, flowing in the formations of letters and the torrents of phrases. One cannot help but contemplate deeply the creativity of this writer, who transcends the familiar in what is read, understood, and woven into the world of short stories and novels. In his early pages, the writer transports us to a world of ideas that leap gracefully through his magnificent phrases and transparent meanings, to occupy our inner selves, to spread within the soul a gentle literary ecstasy, and to enrich the mind with ideas that reach the level of exquisite strangeness.