number 7

On the bottom of page 77 and top of 78 says…

“Her perfume and the silence were lost and nothing existed in the whole world except the lamentation of a woman for a husband she did not know, for a man who, spreading his sails, had voyaged off on the ocean in pursuit of a foreign mirage.”

This sentence tells me a story of someone going through a state of depression from losing an object he/she is passionate towards. His/her life has changed dramatically, both physically and mentally. People do not realize what they have until it has disappeared and detached themselves.

This story opposes the story of every fairytale love story that is crammed down our throats in many movies and books. These books and stories never end showing the depression and feelings that go into such relationships. Her entire world is lost in this statement, a man she loved has just left her and “spread his sails” to explore the unknown. He is in pursuit of something that is not necessarily sure to be in existence.

It functions in a way to counter this story by using the phrase, “husband she did now know.” This woman was married to a man and did not really know him and realize what she even had until it was too late. I think the last few words also make it effective. Her husband is leaving in “pursuit of a foreign mirage.” He is leaving his relationship to explore the unknown and search for something that is just an image/illusion of something he can not even touch or feel. It leaves me thinking there is no hope of him coming back. In many fairytale love stories the spectator may have a feeling in the middle of the movie like this quote but always knows that the couple will eventually reunite and be together again. Metaphorically Taleb Salih is using sailing into the ocean to show that chances of him returning are slim. When I think of someone voyaging off into the ocean I imagine the sailor will come across trouble, like a storm, and taking a big risk of never returning.