\n
Precious books and rare copies went with the last flood<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hunting books from the waters of the valley, dripping with mud and water\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot even one book survived\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became a lump wearing brown and nothing more\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost friends and civilizations and countries\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs what happened to the novel \u201cImmortality\u201d the same as the immortality that Kundera meant?!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly books borrowed by friends survived the cyclone\u201d<\/p>\n
Rajaa, Salem, Abeer, Nouf and Aisha, woke up on the 3rd of October to find their libraries buried in the mud, and their books swimming in the flooded areas. Those and others we did not meet, were catching their books from the brown water and leaving them on the windows, watching them dry, looking for a way to keep them and revive the buried spirit that combines a person with their books.<\/p>\n
\n
Moment of Drowning<\/strong><\/p>\n Describing what happened at the time of the drowning, Salem Al-Hosani says: A flood came and flooded the neighborhood with everyone and what was in it, dug the ground and pulled out the bodies! How can it not snatch my \u201cbeloved things\u201d! An unforgettable night, I did not save anything. My books drowned, drowning with them the souls that lived in them.<\/p>\n Abeer Al-Hosani, who left her house before that, describes saying: I remember that the novel \u201cImmortality\u201d which I was about to finish was on the bed, and when it started to rain, I remembered it and went back from my sister\u2019s house near ours to put it in the closet so that it would be as safe as I thought.<\/p>\n Aisha Al-Saeediya says: I did not see what happened, but I felt it with the rise of the water level throughout the house. The books and the library immediately came to my mind, but it was difficult to reach them at that moment, because of the rapid and sudden rise in the water level, and even if I reached, what can I do?! Nothing.<\/p>\n \n After the Cyclone<\/strong><\/p>\n \nRaja Al-Saeediya, who lost more than 250 books, says: I owned 461 books, of which 27 were new books I had not read yet, and some of my books were gifted to me by friends and colleagues, all of them are gone. Forty Two books are all that remain. The scene was painful, and I couldn’t see a part of my life go without warning. My brothers were telling me your books are gone, you can\u2019t read them anymore, they are mixed with mud and water. My brothers saved the few that were in the top shelf of the library, but the ones in the trunk of the car were torn and decompose just as they pulled them out.<\/p>\n Salem expresses the scene by saying: If you will, I have lost all my tickets. Books made me travel repeatedly, I crossed the streets of Damascus surrounded by jasmine, I stopped in Spain a lot, and at the entrance of Al Hamra, I always met with poetry!<\/p>\n I visited Vienna and heard the most beautiful pieces the streets played there. Now as the library drowned, I became a refugee in my memories! Today, I carry with me a very heavy burden..<\/p>\n I found the library like me, the storm passed over it while it passed through me, not a single book survives! They all sounded an inaudible distress call, I took them and left them to dry on the window, becoming nothing more than a brown lump.<\/p>\n Nouf al-Makhmaria said: It was something that I could never describe, feelings of oppression, fear and anxiety were all very overwhelming. My books, my plans for reading, my schedules, everything went while I was folded, I could do nothing but save myself from the water that floods my house.<\/p>\n She continued, “After the storm calmed down, I went to check on the conditions of the house, especially my world, that is my library. I was shocked when I saw papers here and covers there, a book here and the other there, and some even disappeared like they never existed.”<\/p>\n As for Abeer Al-Hosani, who lost about 40 books, said: \u201cWhen the storm subsided and the water level decreased, I went straight to the books. They were filled with mud and water, some papers were torn, others were under the rubble and smashed furniture.\u201d<\/p>\n Aisha lost about ten copies of the Qur\u2019an, some of which are relics in their lines, writings, and the quality of their paper, in addition to about 100 books and an uncountable number of various magazines whether scientific, cultural and periodical. Also, about 50 children\u2019s stories in both Arabic and English, and an uncountable number of personal study notes. Aish also lost nearly twenty volumes of Omani documentary publications in many fields, rich in colorful and rare pictures. She says: \u201cI found the library sunk in the waters of the valley filled with mud, and whenever I carried a book, it would drip water and mud, it was an indescribable scene, and it did not occur to me that I would ever live this day.\u201d<\/p>\n What it means to lose the library<\/strong><\/p>\n I asked Salem, Raja and the others what it means to lose the library? Salem said: To have a library, is to grow up carrying a poem in your chest, the library was not just papers, but was my warm poem that I carried in my chest before the shelves carried books. I spent my winters on the window, cushioning a book and riding a pen in the field. Reading tamed all my senses, it made me know how to become a poet and a writer when I had no intentions to. The library was a shining womb that gave birth to me, I shook hands with many souls there, they lived with me and shared the same roof with me.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWith the library sinking, a part of the alphabet sank from me, how do I write what happened while the papers of my soul are wet! It’s like the flood passes and forgets you, the memory remains the last consolation, I turn in its pages the memory of the first book I bought. I remember very well that it was a book by my dear writer \u201cNizar Qabbani\u201d. The name \u201cShaheen\u201d will remain stamped on my fingers, because every time I try to write to forget, I will remember.<\/p>\n Nouf al-Makhmaria summarized it by saying: \u201cI lost nine friends, civilizations, countries, cultures, stories, reality, minds. Or nine books. The meaning is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0Raja says: Losing my books made me feel like I had lost something great in my life, a disruption so painful that I can’t even believe my books are gone.<\/p>\n Abeer says: Losing my books to me is like losing a precious treasure, no less than what others already consider valuable. I started collecting books from bookstores or ordering online, hoping that one day the library would be crowded with my favorite books, and that’s when I got attached to paperbacks not long ago, as I used to mostly read digital books on PDF format. I admit that I felt a deep depression inside me when I saw them like that. She continued, “I stared for a long time at the Quartet of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books by Carlos Zafon before I pulled it out of the mud, and I felt sorry for it because the Labyrinth of Souls was torn apart before I read it. I took parts of torn books and found that they belonged to Dostoevsky, so I returned them to the novel The Brothers Karamazov, and other parts of George Orwell\u2019s Homeless in Paris and London. Then I was surprised by the great damage inflicted on the novel \u201cImmortality\u201d, despite me taking great care of it. Then my eyes fell on the remains of an A3 sketchbook, and I immediately remembered the painters, for the artist’s loss of his paintings is no less miserable than the reader’s loss of his library.\u201d<\/p>\n \n New books<\/strong><\/p>\n In talking about new books, the question was: Is compensation with new books what readers are hoping for now? Will this really make them happy? Salem said: \u201cNo book replaces another book, even if you were given the same edition; there are books that were from loved ones, books I saved my best to get! The matter is not limited to compensation, but to the moral value.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Raja, who confirmed that this would make her happy, she also said: It will not bring me back the feeling of the first title, of the book that was once my savior, my strength and my vision. Feeling fresh, I’ll find the stories for every book that comes back. Every book had a story, and a beautiful feeling that will differ from the new version that will be placed in the library, but again I will try to renew the feeling, I will find the stories for each book that comes again.\u201d<\/p>\n Abeer said: \u201cI think that obtaining new books with the same titles of the reader\u2019s lost books will certainly make them happy, but I do not think that this is all he wants. Each book holds a special memory. For example, the pleasure of picking a book from the shelves of bookstores for selling books is not the same as buying from online bookstores.<\/p>\n As for Nouf, because the books she lost are very close to her heart, she said that she would feel a bit of joy if she sees them on her bookshelves again.<\/p>\n Aisha adds: \u201cOf course, I will be very happy, but it is not that simple. Some of these books were from my father\u2019s library (may God have mercy on him), and some of them bear my name and have my writings, and some came to me as a gift from my teachers, family and friends, and others were books I studies in my school days. It is a bit complicated, and it\u2019s difficult to replace that easily.\u201d<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Precious books and rare copies went with the last flood \u201cI was hunting books from the waters of the valley, dripping with mud and water\u201d \u201cNot even one book survived\u201d \u201cIt became a lump wearing brown and nothing more\u201d \u201cI lost friends and civilizations and countries\u201d \u201cIs what happened to the novel \u201cImmortality\u201d the same 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