FOREWORD

In 1994, a group of scholars from different countries gathered in Washington DC, USA, to participate in an American Studies Programme, which included seminars in a variety of universities and educational institutions, meetings with American scholars and professors, and visits to a number of cities perceived to be representative of different aspects of American culture. Among them was an Egyptian “poet”, whose silence was his only “refuge” from the burdens of this encounter with a highly sophisticated world, although the same silence was deemed by others as a sign of shyness, unsociability, or lack of interest.

When the journey came to its inevitable end, the silent poet decided to break his silence and to put in words some of the scenes, impressions, fears, and dreams, which were invading his mind all the time.  Troubled by the approaching moment of departure, which would scatter his soul over cities and continents, he wrote epigrammatic pieces for each of the participants, and a longer one for himself. He first thought that these texts, written on papyrus, would be merely souvenirs for those he would never see again. However, those kind people began to refer to the texts as “poems”, and each was keen to have copies of them all.

Nine years after composing these texts, I’m still in two minds about their nature. Perhaps you could judge them better. If you find them “unworthy”, do not hesitate to throw them away and forget the whole matter.

Muhammad Hesham

Cairo, 16 April 2003