“I am hurling my deepest secrets at the magic stone…” by Atiq Rahimi
Posted by: adonis49 on: September 8, 2009
“I am hurling my deepest secrets at the magic stone…” (September 7, 2009)
The husband is in a coma and the wife has been hurling at him all her deepest secrets and miseries. Her Man has but to listen to her this time around; the wife is convinced by now that he must be hearing her and meditating on her stories.
“You forbade me to see my aunt. You are all in the wrong. You know nothing of my beautiful and loving aunt. She was married at the age of 12 to a dirty old man. My aunt could not give him offspring and she was sent as slave to her in-laws.
Since she was sterile her father-in-law sexually abused of her, day and night, for years. One day she broke her father-in-law’s skull with an axe. My aunt left a short letter that she committed suicide and disappeared. I was 14 of age when I never saw her again. I found her three years after my marriage; she is taking care of my two young daughters when all your coward brothers refused to aid me in my predicaments.”
“You see, my adolescent boy of a lover is a quick learner. I am teaching him properly. You never wanted to learn. You considered me as mere flesh; you would say “Hide your flesh woman”. If I had tried to initiate you to the proper love making you would have broken my face. You were and still are so naïve and stupid on the matter of the flesh. You would say “It is my soul that gives me honor; it is my honor that protects my soul”. Well, your soul is now overhanging in that pocket of perfusion administering serum to your lousy body. Now it is your body judging your soul.”
“You see, this eldest militia man who spit on my face because I lied to him when I said that I am a whore to avoid being raped, well he is a bastard. My adolescent of a lover is being used as his sex slave; in the evening he shackles my lover’s feet with little bells to dance for him; this bastard is burning my lover’s body which is covered by bruises all over”
The fighting ceased for two days.
The dogs are howling: They are hungry.
There are no cadavers on the streets
My father-in-law told me a Hadith. He said “The Prophet Muhammad, before he started disseminating his message, was convinced that he is going mad. He told his first and rich wife Khadija that he was hearing voices coming out of stones and that a giant with head reaching to the sky was appearing to him. Khadija asked him to warn her when the giant re-appears. One night at home Muhammad screamed; the giant was standing in front of him. Khadija approached Muhamad to her bosom and said “Is the giant still standing?” Muhammad said “yes”. Khadija removed her shawl and let her long hair drop to her shoulders and said “Is the giant still around?” Muhammad said “No, he left”. Khadija then said “Don’t worry. This is no demon. He is an angel. If he were a demon (Shaitan) he would have not respected my nakedness. My father-in-law resumed “It is Khadija that was the true prophet; she revealed to Muhammad the sense of his prophesy, cured his bewitching visions, and saved him from the satanic sham”
“I have been hurling my deepest secrets on the magic stone, my husband in coma. My aunt forbade me to divulge my secrets to the spiritual Hakim (the Wiseman) or the mullah because I am pretty much normal; my talking is dictated to me from Above. The black stone of patience is disintegrating. I am not possessed by a demon. The voices that come out of me have been silenced for thousands of years. I am another prophet who has been revealed many secrets. The All Powerful Al Jabbar, it is I. The All Merciful Al Rahim, it is I.”
Note: This story, with minor alterations, is taken from “Stone of Patience” (Syngue sabour) by the Iranian Atiq Rahimi.
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