The Journey

About this book

Behind every closed door in our tired dialogues there is a journey not yet told, and poems written in the ink of the soul before ink. This collection is not merely a compilation of verses composed in Egyptian colloquial; it is an intensely personal human prescription in which Hamza Kamal El-Din opens his heart to tell of a generation born in the quiet of serenity then suddenly found itself running in a racetrack of life that never stops its clamor. The journey begins from the I of the poet, that soul refusing to declare its catastrophes and contenting itself with a laugh hiding behind it pyres of pain, moving us to the streets of Aswan where the Nile washes the worries of the weary, to the stories of people we meet in the crowd of roads: from Tito searching for survival amid the wreckage of the past, to Uncle Rabie distributing joy with his cracked hand. In this work, obscurity mingles with inspiration; while the poet dives into the darkness of loss and longing, he breathes into us a bout of warmth that repairs what the days ruined. The Journey invites you to contemplate the struggles of mind and heart, and that distance separating occupation from freedom, and silence from screaming. It is an invitation to reconcile with yourself, to know that pain is fate, but standing up again is your personal choice in a battle whose swords never end.