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ibrahim al-koni
the way desert people honor
travelers, till morning drew
nigh and light threatened to
assail the wasteland just as
drowsiness was assailing their
hosts. Then the guests slipped
away andmelted into the open
countryside, leaving their
descendants some treasures
stuffed into a knapsack.
In the tenebrous depths’
void, other night creatures
mater ial ized, but they
deliberately chose their
former bodies to terrorize
their relatives. They emerged
to frighten and harm their
former enemies.
In these dark recesses
Wantahet awoke to devise the
project of the eternal ruse.
He, however, unlike all the
dark recesses’ other denizens,
waited till day to accost the
tribes—the better to deceive
them.
In the desert gloom, creatures
were generated in people’s
souls—creatures those people
did not recognize. Then
with all the impetuousness
of ecstatics, they liberated
themselves from their souls,
which they pawned to other
people in order to gull them
of their souls and to downplay
their own disgrace, referring
to this sacrificial offering as
“passion.”
In the gloom of the barren
continent, inanimate objects
exchanged roles and beings
migrated to the bodies of
other creatures. Then the
desert itself migrated from
the desert’s patch of ground.
On nights when no moon was
visible and lights were slow
to appear, cunning strategists
were cautious at crossroads,
because they knew from
experience that talking to
strangers after dusk is a