Small impressions about a big accident

Author's name: Ibrahim Aslan

In his book “Small Impressions on a Major Incident,” Ibrahim Aslan, as usual, was able to capture what seems ordinary and passing through our daily lives, selecting areas from which he highlights, placing the reader in a state of poetry par excellence, through a delicate sensitivity in capturing the most humane scene from the heart of major or minor events. While a revolution erupted in Tunisia, with the world following its events, Aslan captured its focal point in the scene of Mohamed Bouazizi sleeping, wrapped in gauze, with the president standing next to him, taking pictures in front of the press and media cameras. Between this shot and the verses of Abu al-Qasim al-Shabi about the will of the people, the writer wanders through memories and conditions, then the chapters follow, moving on to what happened in Egypt on January 25, roaming with his eyes in the side streets of what was happening, and the conditions near or far from Tahrir Square, while the stories revolve around the idea that Egypt did not change suddenly, but rather regained what it was worthy of. Thus, the revolution was not born of the moment, and thus this writing was not, in fact, born of the moment.