A message from Ukraine

Dr..

Kamal Abdul Malik

November 11, 2022

My Egyptian friend who lives in Dubai opened the envelope and read the last letter from Mariuslava, his beautiful Ukrainian wife who had recently gone to visit her family in Kyiv and did not return:

“I remember my love, our life in Dubai;

We did not think about the past because we always found ourselves enjoying the brilliance of the present moment. Do you remember when we used to close our eyes while contemplating the red twilight in the Jumeirah sky?

Jamal Our friends used to say that he cleanses the liver of grudges, and when seeing it, hearts are purified and hearts are reassured by him.

I remember, my love, the amazing moments that manifested in our embrace during the rain that people in the Emirates see as a mercy from the Creator and a blessing from his many blessings.. You will be surprised when I tell you that at that time I had a strange feeling that this moment of beauty will soon disappear.

A moment that I saw was about to fade and that I now had to prepare for the worst: the moment the rain would disappear, the cry of fear would rise, and the sobbing of mourning would overwhelm the passing of the present moment into the realm of memory.

It is raining now in Kyiv, and a line of migratory birds passes on the horizon.

I am sitting on my sofa with the first episode of a novel by a local writer from the besieged city of Kherson. It is a love story between a Russian man and a Ukrainian woman.. Both are linked to another partner and know deep in the heart that their love relationship is doomed to fail from the start, but they become involved and continue to do so. Slipping on the path of life, not caring about the consequences.

I enjoy this budding writer's sad narration and jot down a few notes in the margins of the pages, while my cat, Stepan, slips out from under the cover to pet my little animal's feet.

I know there will come a time when I will have to say goodbye to the family here, but I don't want it to be goodbye forever.. I will keep all my promises to be with them again.. and when I return to Dubai take me to the shores of warm waters.. this winter has long in Kyiv I wish I were a bird flying in space, roaming the horizons and landing on our balcony..

My sadness is heavy this evening, as the poet Salah Abdel-Sabour, whose poetry we read together, says.

I will never forget this year that I spent with you, my husband and my lover.. You are the most important person in my life.

I will always think of you, hoping to push all your beautiful talents to the limit.

You have promising potentials, but you are not as versed in discipline sciences as you used to say about yourself.

The sun rises, at last.

It's hard to write in my diary in broad daylight.

Something about sunlight interferes with creativity;

It is better to write in the dark of the evening when the moonlight showers me.

You once told me that you feel the same way about sunshine and moonlight and that you think your original Egyptian culture is a lunar-river culture, and that you write better after sunset and when you are within sight of the Nile.

I still remember that you told me about the existence of solar and lunar letters in the Arabic language.

The beautiful thoughts you talked about make me think of our Ukrainian culture.. I have a feeling we are a solar culture but I don't know why.. All I know now is that it's hard to keep writing with the sun shining in my eyes and my face.. So I'll wait another day to write these memories After sunset and before the power is cut off because of the shells our enemies rain on us.. and until we meet soon.. Mariuslava.”

“I know there will come a time when I will have to say goodbye to the family here, but I don’t want it to be goodbye forever.”

Visiting Scholar at Harvard University

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