Tayeb Salih > Quotes

“ياللسخرية .. الإنسان لمجرد أنه خلق عند خط الاستواء ،بعض المجانين يعتبرونه عبداً وبعضهم يعتبره إلهاً .أين الاعتدال؟! أين الاستواء
؟!”
― الطيب صالح, موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال

“نحن بمقاييس العالم الصناعي الأوروبي فلاحون فقراء لكني حين أعانق جدي احس بالغنى كأنني نغمة من دقات الكون نفسه”
― الطيب صالح

“إنك يا سيد مصطفى سعيد رغم تفوقك العلمي رجل غبي، إن في تكوينك الروحي بقعة مظلمة، لقد بددت أعظم طاقة يمنحها الله للناس : طاقة الحب”
― الطيب صالح, Season of Migration to the North

“I want to take my rightful share of life by force, I want to give lavishly, I want love to flow from my heart, to ripen and bear fruit. There are many horizons that must be visited, fruit that must be plucked, books read, and white pages in the scrolls of life to be inscribed with vivid sentences in a bold hand.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“Everyone who is educated today wants to sit at a comfortable desk under a fan and live in an air-conditioned house surrounded by a garden, coming and going in an American car as wide as the street. If we do not tear out this disease by the roots we shall have with us a bourgeoisie that is in no way connected with the reality of our life...”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“ها أنتم الآن تؤمنون بخرافات من نوع جديد : خرافة التصنيع ،خرافة التأميم ، خرافة الوحدة العربية ،خرافة الوحدة الإفريقية . إنكم كالأطفال تؤمنون أن في جوف الأرض كنزاً ستحصلون عليه بمعجزة ، وستحلون جميع مشاكلكم ، وتقيمون فردوساً . أوهام . أحلام يقظة . عن طريق الحقائق والأرقام والإحصائيات ، يمكن أن تقبلوا واقعكم وتتعايشوا معه وتحاولوا التغيير في حدود طاقاتكم . وقد كان بوسع رجل مثل مصطفى سعيد أن يلعب دورا لا بأس به في هذا السبيل ، لو أنه لم يتحوّل إلى مهرّج بين يدي حفنة من الإنكليز المعتوهين”
― الطيب صالح, موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال

“كان المكان صامتا .. لا كما تنعدم الضجة .. ولكن كأن النطق لم يخلق بعد”
― الطيب صالح

“Now I'm making a decision. I choose life. I shall live because there are few people I want to stay with for the longest possible time and because I have duties to discharge. It is not my concern whether or not life has meaning. If I am unable to forgive, then I shall try to forget. I shall live by force and cunning."­”
― Tayeb Saleh, Season of Migration to the North

“التجاعيد الدقيقة على جبهتها وعلى اركان فمها لا تقول انها شاخت , بل تقول انها نضجت .”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“الناس في بلدنا لرتابة الحياة عندهم يجعلون من أي حدث سعيد مهما صغر عذرا لإقامة حفل كحفل العرس”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“لا توجد سحابه واحده تبشر بالأمل في هذه السماء الحاره ، كأنها غطاء الجحيم . اليوم هنا شئ لا قيمة له ، مجرد عذاب يتعذبه الكائن الحي في إنتظار الليل . الليل هو الخلاص”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“نحن بمقاييس العالم الصناعي الأوربي ، فلاحون فقراء ، ولكنني حين أعانق جدي أحس بالغني ، كأنني نغمه من دقات قلب الكون نفسه . إنه ليس شجرة سنديان شامخه وارفة الفروع في أرض منت عليها الطبيعه بالماء والخصب ، ولكنه كشجيرات السيال في صحاري السودان ، سميكة اللحي حادة الأشواك ، تقهر الموت لأنها لا تسرف في الحياه . وهذا وجه العجب”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“أشباح الليل تتبخر مع الفجر ، وحمى النهار تبرد مع نسيم الليل”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“إلا أنني منذ صغري كنت أحس بأنني… أنني مختلف، أقصد أنني لست كبقية الأطفال في سني، لا أتأثر بشيء، لا أبكي إذا ضربت، لا أفرح إذا أثنى علي المدرس في الفصل، لا أتألم لما يتألم له الباقون. كنت مثل شيء مكور من المطاط، تلقيه في الماء فلا يبتل، ترميه على الأرض فيقفز”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“كل أحد يبدأ من أول الطريق والعالم طفولة لا تنتهي”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“I am no Othello, Othello was a lie.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“And when the sea swallowed up the shore and the waves heaved under the ship and the blue horizon encircled us, I immediately felt an overwhelming intimacy with the sea. I knew this green, infinite giant, as though it were roving back and forth within my ribs. The whole of the journey I savored that feeling of being nowhere, alone, before and behind me either eternity or nothingness.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“By the standards of the European industrial world we are poor peasants, but when I embrace my grandfather I experience a sense of richness as though I am a note in the heartbeats of the very universe.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“شفق المغيب ليس دما ولكنه حناء في قدم المرأة , والنسيم الذي يلاحقنا من وادي النيل يحمل عطرا لن ينضب في خيالي ما دمت حيا”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“الظلام كثيف وعميق وأساسي وليس حالة ينعدم فيها الضوء , الظلام الآن ثابت كأن الضوء لم يوجد أصلا , ونجوم السماء مجرد فتوق في ثوب مهلهل”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“أي شيء حببــني فيك. أنت شقراء زرقاء العينين ممتلئة الجسم تحبين السباحة ولعب التنس، وأنا طول عمري أحن إلى فتاة سمراء، واسعة العينين، سوداء الشعر،شرقية السمات، هادئة الحركة. أي شيء حبَّبك فيَّ، أنا الضــائع الغريب، أحمل هموم جيل بأســـره؟أنا المغرور القلق المتقلب المزاج”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“As best I could I had answered their many questions. They were surprised when I told them that Europeans were, with minor differences, exactly like them, marrying and bringing up their children in accordance with principles and traditions, that they had good morals and were in general good people.

"Are there any farmers among them?" Mahjoub asked me.

"Yes, there are some farmers among them. They’ve got everything—workers and doctors and farmers and teachers, just like us." I preferred not to say the rest that had come to my mind: that just like us they are born and die, and in the journey from the  cradle to the grave they dream dreams some of which come true and some of which are frustrated; that they fear the unknown, search for love and seek contentment in wife and child; that some are strong and some are weak; that some have been given more than they deserve by life, while others have been deprived by it, but that the differences are narrowing and most of the weak are no longer weak. I did not say this to Mahjoub, though I wish I had done so, for he was intelligent; in my conceit I was afraid he would not understand.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“I entered the water as naked as when my mother bore me. When I first touched the cold water I felt a shudder go through me, then the shudder was transformed into a sensation of wakefulness.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“The important thing is that I returned with a great yearning for my people in that small village at the bend of the Nile. For seven years I had longed for them, had dreamed of them, and it was an extraordinary moment when I at last found myself standing amongst them. They rejoiced at having me back and made a great fuss, and it was not long before I felt as though a piece of ice were melting inside of me, as though I were some frozen substance on which the sun had shone - that life warmth of the tribe which I had lost for a time in a land 'whose fishes die of the cold'.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“I heard Mansour say to Richard, ‘You transmitted to us the disease of your capitalist economy. What did you give us except for a handful of capitalist companies that drew off our blood — and still do?’ Richard said to him, ‘All this shows that you cannot manage to live without us. You used to complain about colonialism and when we left you created the legend of neo-colonialism. It seems that our presence, in an open or undercover form, is as indispensable to you as air and water.’

They were not angry: they said such things to each other as they laughed, a stone’s throw from the Equator, with a bottomless historical chasm separating the two of them.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“رائحة الأرض الان تملأ انفك,فتذكرك برائحة النخيل حين يتهيأ للقاح,الأرض ساكنه مبتلة,ولكنك تحس ان بطنها ينطوي علي سر عظيم,كأنها إمراه عارمة الشهوه تستعد لملاقاة بعلها.الأرض ساكنه ولكن احشاءها تضج بماء دافق,هو ماء الحياه والخصب.الأرض مبتله متوثبه,تتهيا للعطاء.ويطعن شئ حاد أحشاء الأرض.لحظة نشوه وألم وعطاء.وفي المكان الذي طعن في أحشاء الأرض.تتدفق البذور.وكما يضم رحم الانثي الجنين في حنان ودفء وحب,كذلك ينطوي باطن الأرض علي حب القمح والذره واللوبيا.وتتشقق الأرض عن نبات وثمر.”
― Tayeb Salih, عرس الزين

“You are entitled to wonder and to doubt - you're free.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“By the standards of the European industrial world we are poor peasants, but when I embrace my grandfather I experience a sense of richness as though I am a note in the heartbeats of the very universe. He is no towering oak tree with luxurious branches growing in a land on which Nature has bestowed water and fertility, rather he is like the sayal bushes in the deserts of the Sudan, thick of bark and sharp of thorn, defeating death because they ask so little of life.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“The day here is a something without value, a mere torment suffered by living creatures as they await the night. Night is deliverance.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“The fact that they came to our land, I know not why, does that mean we should poison our present and our future? Sooner or later they will leave our country, just as many people throughout history left many countries. The railways, ships, hospitals, factories and schools will be ours and we'll speak their language without either a sense of guilt or a sense of gratitude. Once again we shall be as we were - ordinary people - and if we are lies we shall be lies of our own making.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North