Flashes

Mikhail Naimy

This collection of proverbs, sayings, and wisdom, published in Naimy's late eighties, served as the culmination of all his works before he put down his pen and, until his demise at ninety-nine, turned his attention to what lies beyond the phenomena of life and death—things no pen can reach or words can encompass. Even this collection itself is not a compositional work in the conventional sense, as if the writer sat at his desk with a specific literary work in mind to produce. Rather, as its name perfectly suggests, it consists of flashes or glimmers that appear in the mind like lightning, suddenly and unexpectedly. No sooner do they flash than they vanish, and their owner, who might be far from a pen or paper at that moment, does not know how or why they came. Often, a single flash, laden with nine decades of experience, as is the case with Naimy here, can encompass what an entire book might address; much like its counterpart, lightning, which no sooner flashes and disappears than it causes a torrent of rain. • Your enemy is a friend disguised as an enemy. • The jailer is a prisoner of his prisoner. • How can one who carries filth within himself be arrogant or tyrannical? Dr. Nadim Naimy