AN ANTHOLOGY OF
MOROCCAN NEW SHORT STORY, VOLUME 2
A Loverِ
From Far-away Times Of Love
-Short
Story-
Written by Hicham Ben Chaoui
Translated by Mohamed Saïd Raïhani
“Love is sadness. No matter how broad preliminary smiles can be,
teardrops will definitely end the show,”
Hicham Ben Chaoui
Moroccan
short-story writer
author of:
"A House With Ever-closed Windows"
(Short Stories), 2007
"Rotana
Cinema & Other Hallucinations"
(Short Stories),
2008
How wonderful to be the focus of a beautiful
woman!
How magical!
I dive down deep in the
sea of her eyes to read the prettiest poems ever composed and feel love nightingales singing in my chest, angels
of joy dancing around me and my heart promising me that you are the princess of
all my dreams…
Where have you been
hiding, my sun?
I know neither how nor
why I pursued you as you went out of the nightclub that autumnal evening, all
alone. Perhaps that was just to respond to the loud call of passion within me
when I slipped that piece of paper in your tender-skinned hand. I remember you
hid it eagerly in your jeans pocket, thanking me with a sad smile and promising
me of endless joys… which made me write the first word in our love story.
* * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
At the cafe on the
beach, I waited
for you all day long. I waited for your sunrise to dissipate the darkness of
the days I have lived without you. I had been used to play for you that lovely
melody every evening as you sat all alone in that darkish corner in the
cafe.
From the very first
sight, your love slipped into my heart forcibly giving new taste to my joy and
sadness. My God, is this love that I am feeling?
* * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
I was sitting all alone
abstracted when a friend of mine tapped on my shoulder, smiling:
- What can make our
artist so sad?
- …
- A love story or a
mere artist’s fancy?
- I don’t play with
other people’s feelings the way you do.
- You’d rather throw
your heart to the nearest bin.
- Can’t you think with
your heart only once in a lifetime?
He would leave my
question unanswered and passed by to give a lady his arm before going out
together.
My gloom disappear in
the coming day as I see her coming along joyfully to shake hands with me and I
murmur; “Life without you is hell.”
She smiles.
Soon after the end of
my musical séance, I step proudly towards her table to taste for the first time
kisses from the lips of a loving woman.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
One miserable day, I
saw her arm clasped to my friend’s as I was wandering around the streets. I
wished I had a revolver to shoot myself dead at her feet. I felt a poisonous
dagger tearing my heart out.
Can she find no other
man in this world but my friend?
I did not try to call
her and interfere in her private life…
Broken, I threw myself on
my bed without lighting the lamp only to drown myself in a sea of tears.
I secluded myself from
people for a week.
At home while playing
the violin, I thought that I have heard a knock on the door. I did not believe
my eyes on opening the door. Why did she came in that winter day?
Has that "pocket
lover" left her and she came to look for a "heart lover"?
Or is she looking for
another bed?
She took off her shirt
and wrap my neck with her arms but I severely pushed her away:
-Who was the man you were with, that day?
She laughed and kissed
me on my lips, leaving me bewitched between her hands:
-You are the only man
to have gained my heart and I still love you more than ever before…
-What about that man?
-Are you jealous of my
husband?
-Are you married? Why
didn’t you tell me?
Unconsciously, I
slapped her fully on the face.
She put on her shirt,
dried up her tears and left.
I punched the wall
violently and shrunk back in my seat to drink my glass in one gulp and throw it
to the wall.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Now, I see her with her
husband, both in the usual corner.
She greets me with a
shining smile.
I hug my violin to rub
such lovely melodies out of its cords that stony hearts shake and girls
exchange low whispers as they search for hand-kerchiefs while my heart bleed
out of my eyes
Tears
Tears
Tears
**********
*
The writer, Hicham Ben Chaoui, is
a Moroccan short-story writer, author of: "A House With
Ever-closed Windows" (Short Stories) in 2007 & "Rotana
Cinema & Other Hallucinations" (Short Stories) in 2008.
*The translator, Mohamed Saïd Raïhani, is a Moroccan
translator, scholar & short-story writer, born on December 23rd 1968
in Ksar El Kébir. He published in Arabic "The Singularity Will" (A Semiotic Study on First-names) 2001, "Waiting For the Morning" (Short stories) 2003,"Thus Spoke Santa Lugar-Verde" (Short stories) 2005, "The Season Of Migration to Anywhere" (Short stories) 2006, "The Three Keys: Freedom, Dream & Love" (An anthology of Moroccan New Short Story in Three
Volumes) 2006-2007-2008, "The History of Manipulating Professional Contests in
Morocco" (Syndical manifestos in Two Volumes) 2009-2011, "Death of the Author" 2010…
He is getting ready for printing:"Beyond Writing & Reading» (testimonies), "Kais & Juliet" ( Novel) and ""When Photo
Talks" (Photo-Autobiography).
* "A Lover From Far-away Times Of Love" is the fourteenth
narrative text in the "The
Anthology Of Love", An Anthology of Moroccan New
Short Story, Volume 2, directed
by Mohamed Saïd Raïhani.
***********
This Short Story Is Re-published On the
Following Links:
|
AFRNAN |
PEARL TREE |
WIKIPEDIA |
|
|
ALADABIA |
|
**********
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