An Attempt at Magic

Adeeb Kamal Ad-Deen

(1)

In a July noon,

I sat under the sun’s tooth.

The heat crushed me until

My clothes, heart, and fingers got wet.

And two tears dropped from my eyes.

By providential power,

They turned into two magicians.

Then, another two tears dropped.

The magicians became four.

They encircled me quietly

And asked in deep voices:

“Why are you crying?”

I said:

(The sun tired me.

And the sight of beauty agonized my heart.

I am a damned deprived man tortured by hunger.

Here the bread is soaked in blood.

The Euphrates River made me heavy with repentance.(

The first magician said:

“I come from India .

I can dress you with gold clothes”.

The second said:

“I come from nowhere .

I can make you fly from a cloud to a cloud.”

The third said:

“I come from Aad and Thamuud .

I can give you the secret of lust.”

The fourth said :

“I come from China .

I can make the dream a portal to certainty.”

I said:

( Hurry up,hurry up .

Deprivation has buried me

Like an earthquake buried an army

Of one thousand knights .(

(2)

On the next day

I sat dressed in gold clothes.

Under my foot was a little cloud,

And a woman sweeter than honey

With fingers that could make a dream

-Any dream - a portal to certainty.

(3)

But when the sun

Got to the middle of the sky,

The threads of gold melted

So my clothes looked shabby.

And the little cloud melted

So my foot looked ugly.

And the honey woman melted

So my lips tasted as bitter as poison.

The palm of the  dream melted

And changed into skeleton’s fingers

So I cried :

(My tears, my brothers,

And my friends,

Where are you ?

Where are your secrets and signals(?

(4)

The four magicians hushed.

But the fourth one pitied my heart,

Broken like a blind man’s mirror, and said:

“Do you want stability rather than instability"?

(Yes)  I said.

He said:

“There would be no way to reach this state,

Unless you touch something of our souls”.

The three magicians nodded.

Then, the first one rose stark naked

And said “Tormented man!

We would give you our letters.

Deprived man!We would teach you our dots,

But we would be afraid

If you learned them,

You would mock at gold

And gold clothes,

You would mock at the countries,

At the breasts and legs,

At the dreams.

Then, you would become like us

Empty,

Emotionless,

Aimless,

And naked forever.”

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