LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

jeff shalanhad looked upon with disdain there is revealed here as, in fact, the ‘pure heart’of the nation, suggesting the thought which then comes immediately toMuhsin’s mind: ‘Possibly life in the town and in the capital had corrupted hisheart’ (171), corrupted no doubt by those ‘desires and passions and selfish,egotistical feelings’ which breed division. If the towns and cities of Egypt are tounite in the name of a single nation, then, they must seek to reclaim that ‘pureheart’, the ancient Egyptian spirit of solidarity that resides here with thepeasantry. Furthermore, as the site of Muhsin’s epiphany, this scene providesthe young artist with the new inspirational source for a voice that longs to speakon behalf of the national source whose mythical and historical dimensions giveit the power to overcome as it displaces his previous source of inspiration, whosedisruptive effects are manifest in those same desires and passions. And, finally,by revealing its ‘mysterious’ meaning to Muhsin alone, a meaning not entirelyaccessible through the ‘language of logic and intellect’, this scene legitimates hisown claim (as well as al-Hakim’s, and that of a national culture in general) tospeak for the ‘heart’ of the nation. For if even the peasants themselves lack theself-conscious awareness of their own privileged position as the living locus ofthis mystical knowledge, then who but the artist can reawaken that still purebut slumbering heart?Informed now by the revelation of this scene, Muhsin proceeds to find, in thescenes that follow it, the confirmation of his vision and the essence of nationalunity. He first encounters a group of peasants mourning the death of a waterbuffalo; and apparently unaware of the animal’s importance to the peasanteconomy, he cannot understand the tremendous outpouring of grief. But whenthe carcass is skinned and butchered, and each mourner steps forth to buy apiece of the meat, the event acquires a new-found significance for Muhsin:Everyone came forward to buy without any haggling or hesitation. They seemed tothink they had a duty to provide more than spoken consolation. They had to lightenthe burden on its owner by getting its price together and giving that to him incompensation for its loss. One of the farm workers told Muhsin that this was thenormal practice, the custom followed whenever one of them suffered a loss from hislivestock. They were not, like the people of the district capital, a people who stoppedat talk. They shared the grief in a way that was more than phrases to be repeated. Itwas an actual sharing to lessen the burden. Each of them sacrificed part of his wealthfor the sake of the other. Muhsin was silent in astonishment. That luminoushappiness, the essence of which was beyond his ken, returned to him. It came back tohim this time from sorrow, like life coming from death. What an amazing nation theywere … these Egyptian farmers … Was there still left in this world solidarity asbeautiful as this and a feeling of unity like this? (171)When he then wanders into a neighbouring field where other peasants areharvesting the crop, he is struck by this same sense of communal sacrifice:— 152 —www.taq.ir