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The birds
by Mahmoud Al-Bayaty
( The curtain opens and a flock of birds fly out . We see a living room that somehat resembles a therapist’s surgery . In the foreground there is a large swivelling chair with its back to the audience. There is also an ashtray with a metal stand in which a lit cigarette has been placed . A young man with an unkempt appearance is holding a vodka glass . He begins to talk in a tense manner : - Pleasc doc , give me medication . I want something as effective as this drink but without the negative effects it has on the nervous system . I need something to make me hallucinate strength and hope . I feel tired . I can’t follow events anymore. I stopped listening to the radio and watching the TV. I stopped reading the newspapers and entering into discussion with others on the subject of the war ( He finishes the drink ) I no longer understand a thing . Try and listen to me this time , doc. ( He picks up an apple from a bowl ) Our opposition leaders , mostly living in exile , ( takes several bites from the apple and resumes talking with a mouthful ) are asking for the economic sanctions to be tightened so that the people may be forced to revolt. Their old comrade , Lenin , refused the idea of guiding the masses to heaven with a stick , and they want to drive them straight into hell ( sneezes and wiped his nose with a handkerchief ) I realise that such talk is in insignificant . I am confused . I sympathise with all the arguments put forward and at the same time find myself quarrelling with them. I undestand all sides and condemn all sides. To whom should I ofeer my allegiance ? To those who call for the country to be defended at all cost , or to those who wish to see the dictatorial regime removed with the aid of foreign powers ? Doc, what do you think , am I turning schizophrenic here or what ? Is there no third position to take that would preserve the country and remove its regime ? ( He rests against the back of the chair ) Everything is suspect . The right ( He raises his left arm ) has become more conscervative . The left ( he raises his right arm ) serves the strategy of the right and supports those asking for poisoned justice . They believe the killers of Abdul karem , Sukarno , Lumumba , Allende not forgetting the beautiful and boisterous : Chi Givara . Besides , we all agree that Saddam is a mangy wolf and is worse than the west but was it really necessery to hunt him down with a thousand ton worth of bombs and missiles all of which hit their targets and missed ? ( He remains silent for a while as if he is afraid to reveal a secret ) Let me confess . This is just between you and me . Personally , I detested the invasion of Kuwait . Some rejoiced and revelled in it for chauvinistic reasons or .... yet others were pleased by it although they denounced the invasion in public . How can I explain ? The invasion embodied a kind of runaway sence of masculine vigour . It was like witnessing the rape of a gorgeous woman who infatuatec the desire of men. Their feeling fluctuated from guilt to pleasure to shame ( he picks up the cigarette from the ashtray ) execuse me for smoking . ( he lights up the cigarette , takes a puff and begins to caough . His voice becomes husky ) My wife , Hutham , thinks I’ve given up . She dosen’t know I called for you ( he clears his throat and resumes talking ) You see , she’s from Basra . She told me , not so long ago , that there are 30 million palm trees in Basra producing 110 different kinds of date. I said , that when we go back I shall climb them all and pick a date for her from every branch . Two days later , I saw the planes of the alliec on CNN dropping their load over the orchards. They dropped 88 thousand tones worth of bombs on Baghdad alone . It was Hiroshima all over again . O , my beloved Baghdad , how you suffer ( he blows out smoke rings resembling the mushroom clouds of a nuclear explosion ) Can anyone tell me how many palms escaped the bombing ? Someone shoud count the palm tree causality . After all , how different is a palms tree from us ? It feeds and breathes . However , unlike us , it is incapable of running to the shelters ( He imitates the sound of air raid sirens , the asks : ) Do you know why I called you ? ( He pours a glass of vodka and resumes : ) Of course you don’t . Well listen then . I was here , in your place . I mean sitting on that very same chair , five days ago . I had decided to celebrate my thirtieth birthday . I said : no one else need join me . I prefer my own company ; I will send Hutham to her friend’s house ; I will not answer the telephone ; I will cook some rice and gril a baby chickeng . I started to listen to old songs ( he closes his eyes and sings softly then he resumes talking ) OK ? Then after I drank a vodka bottle and five pints of bear , I went out into the garden to watch the sunrise before going to bed . The sky was as clean as the sky of Badhdad branded in my memory. I was conternplating sleeping under this serene canopy when a man , resembling me to a frightening degree , emerged from behind the trunk of a dwarfish tree outside the house . He clapped his hands and a flock of birds emerged out of my head . I am telling you a flock of birds came out from this very same head ! Can you believe it ? It wasn’t dream. I counted them : one , two , three ... thirty . Wings like two palms joined at the wrists . Like this ( he puts out the cigarette and demonstrates ) murmuring , rising , falling , circling like a cloud of altering shape . They tried descending several times but I ... I frightened them with a sharp shrick : kssh , kssh , wa , kssh , wa , kssh . The birds resumed their flight path : rising , falling , circling . The man , who frankly doc. could be my twin , handed me a palm branch with a cloth the colour of black cat tied to its end . I swayed the branch and resumed my shricking : kssh , kssh , wa , kssh . then I asked him : where did you get this branch from ? There are no palm trees in prague . They don’t just grow anywhere . He gloomily handed me a second branch with a white cloth dangling from its end to recall the birds and invite them to descend . Some of them perched on my shoulders , some on the fenec . I followed one as it descended and landed on my head . Yes this very head ! I stood motionless like a statue and counted : two , three , four ... twenty nine . I dicovered that one was missing . How to explanin this ? I thought surely he lost the way . ( His wife creeps up . She is wearing a night gown. She looks with apprehension at the chair then she shifts her gaze to her husband who is still talking incessantly ) What is strange , doc , is that I’ve been dreaming since that incident , that those birds have metamorphosed into war planes firing rockets on Baghdad , Basra , Arbeel , Al-Najef , without being remotely affected by my constant shrieking : Kssh , Kssh , Wa , Wa Kssh ... - Shaut up ! ( He turns to his wife , who asks in alarm : ) - Who you’re talking to ? ( He makes gestures to calm her ) - Don’t be afraid . Really ... don’t be afraid . I am practising how I should talk to the doctor . I said thirty birds beating their wings . Look ( gently he spreads his arms and beings to imitate the beating of a birds’ wings )Then that they attack Baghdad suddenly : Boom , Boom , Boom . Blowing the hanging bridge ; blowing the republic bridge , blowing all the bridges to smithereens . Boom , Boom , Boom , Boom ( He kneels and begins pounding the floor with his fists (Boom , Boom , Boom , Boom , Boom ... ( The wife collapses on the chuir , which swivels to face the audience . She weeps and laught simultaneously . Her voice is mingled with the sound of bombing mingles with a faint yet audible Bedouin dirge ( the tune and words are in harmony with the text ) . The birds return as the curtain deseends slowly ) . Translated by Dr. Hassan Razak
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