I have decided to embark on a journey of exploration this morning, therefore I am announcing that I am presently looking for a job in the fields of writing, editing, or translation in Arabic, English or Italian.

Should you be interested in hiring me, or if you know another who might be interested, my email address is tutunai@gmail.com, or you can just fill up The Contact form present in the sidebar.

Arranged according to the chronological order of their time of purchase, the waiting list of titles to be understood grows, expands in one direction with each visit to a bookshop.

- Enrico IV - Luigi Pirandello
- War And Peace - Leo Tolstoy
- A Passage to India - E. M. Forster
- Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
- Krondor Fear of The Gods - Fiest
- Orientalism - Edward Said
- The Republic - Plato
- Mansfield Park - Jane Austen

The past few months have been quite hazy and disorderly for my book reading fashion. Rules were broken, time was not properly managed to best benefit the books and my head, and I paid several visits to bookshops. In those months I managed to take in a poetry collection for Nizar Qabbani, the complete works of Al Tayyeb Saleh, The Three Theban Plays of Sophocles, Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges, a Heart of Darkness for Conrad, “Awlad Haretna” for Najib Mahfuz, a story for Taha Hussein, some plays for Wilde in my spare minutes at work, and some random internet readings.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.
- Oscar Wilde

There was one book only that I shunned: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

Forse il gran segreto della vita è che non c’ è, veramente, un “gran” segreto della vita! Forse noi tutti, e tanti altri prima di noi, stiamo cercando qualcosa che non esiste, qualcosa che la nostra immaginazione ha inventato ma che non ha nessuna relazione con la realtà.

Sarebbe interessante, molto interessante ma anche triste al tempo stesso, scoprire un giorno che questa idea è vera. Che tempo buttato via! Tutta l’umanità provata in una specie d’immensa delusione. Ma che filosofia!

Ma se questo è proprio un gran segreto oscuro che nessuno deve, o può, scorprire e divulgare, come mai l’ho scoperto io? Eccola la filosofia…

L’ermetismo è stato uno dei più importanti movimenti letterari del ‘900, ma per la sua stessa natura non produsse né capi, né ideologie. Il nome “ermetico” fu applicato al movimento, nel saggio di un critico avverso, Francesco Flora (La poesia ermetica, 1936), per indicare una poesia caratterizzata da una voluta oscurità dovuta ad un procedimento analogico esasperato. Il termine affermatosi finì col denotare una poesia che rifiuta il grande pubblico, è destinata a pochi eletti ed è concepita come rivelazione. L’ermetismo esordì negli anni Venti e si sviluppò negli anni tra il 1935 ed il 1940.

Più che una scuola, fu un modo di intendere la letteratura. Con “ermetico” si indicò un modo apparentemente oscuro di far poesia e quegli scrittori che si mostravano non impegnati e privi di riferimenti alla realtà. Il legame tra gli ermetici è costituito dalla ricerca di una nuova poesia, gli ermetici restarono estranei alla cultura genericamente idealista del tempo e furono accusati di non essere impegnati, e di essere astratti. Si è distinto un ermetismo spirituale e uno intellettuale: il primo ebbe un atteggiamento religioso, il secondo un atteggiamento indifferente. Proprio per queste sue caratteristiche l’ermetismo assunse l’idea di una letteratura intesa come invenzione perpetua.

Da Wikipedia.

Absolutely self-centered. Do not proceed if April 27th in the life of Tololy does not interest you.

I am munching on my lunch which is composed of three pieces of pastry and a slim can of coke, the other one is sprite but it can wait, no veggies today.

The long, long week at the office has finally come to an end. We had a gigantic meeting featuring all sorts of important people, local and imported, doing all sorts of important things and composing bibles while they’re at it. I am thrilled it is over, and quite surprised it was not as wholesome as I had expected it to be.

But the 9cm heels did not allow me my sip of victory. I am fully consumed, I walked and walked and walked for what seemed like eternity from this place to that and with each step I regretted not having my tennis shoes on. But that was out of the question really, they don’t go with my posh formal wear. Alas!

Just when I was heading to get lunch from a nearby bakery, my legs were unable to carry on. I walked funny, a bit too much to the left this step, and another too much to the right. I noticed this because people noticed it too, they stared at me, and that was not comfortable. I keep telling myself I should get rid of the little black pair but I never do. I will do that when summer is officially in town.

Then one of my left hand nails chipped, and I hate it when that happens. It’s fantastic but I wanted to paint them all week long and never managed to recycle my time enough to indulge in that precious pleasure, now one of my nails chipped, and I peeled it out. The remaining nine will have to go as well.

And I have been taking care not to bite the middle finger of my right hand, it had gotten severely damaged because of the sharpness of my teeth and the thing I have for even skin. You see, I do not like uneven skin when passed on my lips so I peel it off. Uh, the gruesome details! Well, my finger looks horrible now. I must’ve been pretty stressed out to have skinned it like this, and I feel bad about that. I am on the look for a band-aid and I assure you all that my finger will be fixed very soon.

And you think you have your long weekend planned and that nothing can ruin it, but you discover that in your official inbox there is an email message relaying a fat chunck of work to be wrapped up particularly in this time. But you sigh, and you know you will squeeze it in. (key: you = me).

You know, it’s amusing what I felt today and what I always feel when in such official gatherings. I feel I am willingly indulging myself in a role tailored to fit someone, I don’t know, older, perhaps? Someone who looks like “it”, someone who does not bite the middle finger of her right hand when she’s stressed, someone who does not think she has lost the keys to the office and freaks out then finds them in another bag in the closet, someone who is not fanatic about even skin, or say, someone who can walk and talk like everything is well after a long hard day in 9cm heels. Have you ever had this feeling? That you want to believe that you are actually in the position you are in, and that it’s really you who’s doing what you’re doing?

I got in this taxi yesterday with two other people who do not speak Arabic and the driver felt it a must to make small talk to me. I generally never appreciate small talk in cars with strangers but it would not have been decent not to respond to this man’s inquisition. Then he went a bit astray and thought me a member of his family, he went on to telling me, for no obvious reason that I can possibly think of, how he successfully reunited a cousin of his with her husband after 40 years of divorce. Why would I ever be interested in knowing that about a stranger woman, from a stranger man, I cannot tell. He told me that all the same, and I felt most uncomfortable so all my smiles were fake.

I hated it when the dearest Italian professor to my heart told me last week that I am beginning to look like a “career woman”. Oh, it was terrible. I dismissed it instantly, I told him I hated it and that I pray I never look like that. He said the nice colors are gone, but I confessed it was only for a couple of days each week. His opinions in my private fashion matter to me greatly, as any other champion of true taste in life should deserve his opinions to count.

The pastries were not that good, they’d been baked in the morning and were wrinkley when I had them. But I was hungry enough to appreciate them and I wondered where Tsuki-San was. He must’ve been out to play, or sleeping as usual. He’s a lazy cat.

A breath-taking spectacle, especially at dawn. You sit there and dangle your feet and you become divine.

Life is strong…

… and sometimes perplexing…

When you climb up to one of those holes,here zoomed in,

This is what you see:

And this,

If this is not beauty, I am lost as to what is.

??? ???? ????? ????? “????” ?? ??? ??????, ?? ? ???? ?????? ?????? ????? ???? � ??????? ???????- ??? ???? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ?????? ???????.

????? ??? ?? ????? ??????, ?? ???? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ???????? ? ????????, ??? ???? ?????? ????????. ???? ??? “???????” ????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ?????????. ??? ?????? ????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??????? ???????, ??? ???????? ???? ??????? ???????? ???? � ??????- ???? ?? ?? ???????.

?? ????? ????? ??????? ???? ?? ????, ? ??? ??????.

? ???? ???? ????? ?????. ???? ???????? ??????? ??????? ? ???? ???????? ? ???? ????????, ???? ? ?????? ??? ???? ????? “????? ??????” ?? ????? ????? ? ????? ?? ???? ?????, ?????? ??? ?? ????? “???????” ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ???? “?????! ????? ??????? ?????!”.

? ?? ??? ??? ????????? ???? ???. ?????? ?? ????? ? ????? ?? ?? ? ?? ?? ??????? ? ??????? ? ????? ??????? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ???????? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???????, ? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ? ?????? ?????? ????? ?? ???? ????: ???? ???? ?????. ??? ???? ????? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ?? ???? ??????? ? ??? ?????, ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????? ??? ??????, ? ??? ????? ?? ????????, ???????.

?? ?? ??? ????? ??????? ??????????? ?? ???? ?????? ????????. ?? ??? ?? ???? ???????? ? ?? ??? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ??????????? ??? ??? ????? ( ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ???????? ??????? ??????) ?? ????? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ??????? ? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ??????, ??? ??????? ??????? ? ??? ?????.

????? ?? ???? ??????? ????? ??????? ???? ??? ?? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ??????, ??? ??????? ? ?????? ? ????? ? ????? ?????? ? ?????, ?? ????? ???? ??????? � ? ?? ?? ????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ?? ??????- ? ??? ?????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? ??????? ? ??????. ????? ?? ????? ???? ?????? ??????????? ?? ???? ???????, ? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?????, ??? ??? ?????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ???????, ?????.

? ????? ??? ???, ??? ???? ?????? ???????.

I’m sorry, I just can’t stop laughing at this thought. Are you, dear readers, afraid of going to jail? Is that why only one person dared to answer the question about Arab Unity in that first Salon entry? Mmm? Or is this question a bit “off”? Rotten and boring?

Ah. Like I said before, the possibilities are endless. But this makes me laugh, just as I was starting to debate doing politics - the irony of it all!

Among the messages I received last week following the “Say it as it is” post, I found one (From Peter S.) to be particularly in harmony with notions I had had previously but never got to enact. So I am devising a new section through which I hope more reader-to-reader interaction can be attained.

In this section, I only ask a question. You answer it, debate other answers, or look up some additional information. In short, it’s all about you and what you think. The possibilities are endless and I think it should be interesting to observe how conversations grow to promote better understanding.

What do you think happened to that dream we were brought up believing would come true one day : Arab Unity?