Sunset Whispers

Mikhail Naimy

"Mikhail Naimy was eighty-four years old when "Sunset Whispers" was published, and he believed it would be his last work before his departure. Thus, this book came in a strange form; it was neither prose, as we are accustomed to prose writing, nor poetry, as poetry is understood. Rather, from beginning to end, it is a single prayer that took the form of a one-sided dialogue between the worshipper and his Lord, who always remains present, listening without answering. Thus, Naimy is able to offer his Lord, with ultimate humility, fervent expression, and profound spontaneity, the essence of a lifetime of intellectual toil, spiritual struggle, emotional sensitivity, and penetrating as far as possible into the world of space from the temporal to the world beyond. Perhaps the best embodiment of the nature of this prayer-dialogue, in form and content, is his saying: I am your child, my Lord, and this beautiful, generous, tender earth, which placed me in its embrace, is merely the cradle from which I ascend to you. Dr. Nadeem Naimy
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