"I opened my mouth and abruptly all was color just as in the pictures of Our Prophet's Miraj journey, during which he visited Heaven. Everything was flooded in exquisite brightness as if generously painted with gold wash. Painful tears flowed from my eyes. A strained exhalation passed from my lungs through my mouth. All was subsumed in wondrous silence.
I could see now that my soul had left my body and that I was cupped in Azrael's hand. My soul, the size of a bee, was bathed in light, and it shuddered as it left my body and continued to tremble like mercury in Azrael's palm. My thoughts were not of this, however, but of the unfamiliar new world I'd just been born into.
After so much suffering, a calm overcame me. Death did not cause me the pain I'd feared; on the contrary, I relaxed, quickly realizing that my present situation was a permanent one, whereas the constraints I'd felt in life were only temporary. This was how it would be from now on, for century upon century, until the end of the universe."
An excerpt from "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk.
For my Granduncle and Jessica's father.
1 comment:
thanks for the tribute for my dad and your granduncle. how beautiful, and what an honorable memory of them that you shared. thanks tabby. i love you. love, jess
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