Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

ibrahim al-koni

but did hear her voice. “I never expected to see the token of the disease still around the eyes of the hero of heroes after the prophecy.” “How futile!” “I am not disappointed about losing any hope of receiving a payment for the prophecy, because the wealth of diviners is not a gift from the physical world but a prophecy from the Spirit World. What has shaken me is a husband’s disillusionment with his wife’s chastity.” He moaned expansively, and his fingers trembled violently. Slender fingers, which no longer resembled those that had earned him the title of hero, extended and slipped through the fuzz of the leather mat’s thick hair in an attempt to stifle his emotion and to mask the trembling of his

fingers. He spoke with the nobility of the last of the nobles. “Had it not been for my longstanding confidence in it, I would have doubted the truth of prophecy.” “Is it right for a champion of the intellect to doubt the Spirit World and instead believe a woman’s word?” “I admit, my lady, that this would be inappropriate. I acknowledge to my lady that this would be sheer stupidity. But what does a man have left when he is deceived by a wife whose nobility has been discussed by the tribes and whose chastity has been celebrated in extremely beautiful verses by poets?” “The ultimate wisdom is not to believe a woman. The ultimate wisdom is never to trust a woman.”

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