Arab Americans -- Fiction; Immigrants -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
And we must not forget to mention that, besides the divine voice of
Nature and native soil, he long since has heard and still hears the
still sweet voice of one who might be dearer to him than all. For
Khalid, after his return from Bohemia, continued to curse the huris in
his dreams. And he little did taste of the blessings of "sore labour's
bath, balm of hurt minds." Ay, when he was not racked and harrowed by
nightmares, he was either disturbed by the angels of his visions or
the succubi of his dreams. And so, he determines to go to Syria for a
night's sleep, at least, of the innocent and just. His cousin Najma is
there, and that is enough. Once he sees her, the huris are no more.
Now Shakib, who is more faithful in his narration than we first
thought--who speaks of Khalid as he is, extenuating nothing--gives us
access to a letter which he received from the Bronx a month before
their departure from New York. In these Letters of Khalid, which our
Scribe happily preserved, we feel somewhat relieved of the dogmatism,
fantastic, mystical, severe, which we often meet with in the K. L.
MS. In his Letters, our Syrian peddler and seer is a plain blunt man
unbosoming himself to his friend. Read this, for instance.
"My loving Brother:
"It is raining so hard to-night that I must sleep, or in fact
keep, within doors. Would you believe it, I am no more
accustomed to the luxuries of a soft spring-bed, and I can not
even sleep on the floor, where I have moved my mattress. I am
sore, broken in mind and spirit. Even the hemlock grove and the
melancholy stillness of the river, are beginning to annoy me.
Oh, I am tired of everything here, tired even of the cocktails,
tired of the push-cart, tired of earning as much as five dollars
a day. Next Sunday is inauguration day for my stationary fruit
stand; but I don't think it's going to stand there long enough
to deserve to be baptized with champagne. If you come up,
therefore, we'll have a couple of steins at the Hermitage and
call it square.--O, I would square myself with the doctors by
thrusting a poker down my windpipe: I might be able to breathe
better then. I pause to curse my fate.--Curse it, Juhannam-born,
curse it!--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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