THE LEAP
By Naguib Mahfouz, date uncertain; 2001?
I watched the cart carrying the enchantress of Crimson Lane coming, and drawing it was a winged stallion. I got in and sat at the rear. The steed responded by spreading its wings, and the cart began to fly until we were higher than the rooftops and minarets--and in seconds we arrived at the Great Pyramid's pinnacle. We started to pass over it, just an arm's height above it.
And then I rashly leapt down onto the pyramid's summit, my eyes never parting from the seductive girl as she soared upward and upward--and the nightfall descended, the darkness ever deepening, until she was fixed in the heavens as a luminous star.
EDITOR'S NOTES
ON THE DREAMER
Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988. In 1994, an Islamist stabbed him; during his convalescence, he was unable to write anything long. He published a series of ultrashort stories, called Ahlam Fatrat al-Naqaha meaning "Dreams of the Recovery Period," published in English as The Dreams in 2004, translated by Raymond Stock. It's a collection of 104 dream-stories, undated and untitled. Steeped in longing, eerie with dislocation, haunted by dead friends (Mahfouz was pushing 90 at the time) and authorities worthy of Kafka, his dreams are universal in feeling yet echo both his and Egypt's troubles. The style is elusive; I'm unsure if that's the writer or the translator.
I have excerpted three dreams to encourage you to read the other hundred. Mahfouz simply numbers them (this is dream 83); I've titled them here for convenience. The sketch is mine as well.
--Chris Wayan
World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites