The Carmel River

Author: Majd Kayyal

But before I tell the story of the river, I must set the record straight for those who refuse to have this man's story written and want him forgotten. Especially those who argue that I have no right to record it. For these people claim that my pages contain a blatant violation of the dignity of the poor master and a grave insult to the kind people of the city. They claim that I seek nothing but my narrow gains with these lines, that I spit in the dishes of the city that fed me, and that I follow nothing but the ugliest paths of ugliness and ruin. Therefore, it may be necessary to present an account of our strange, impending story to Haifa, with all its nobility and debauchery, and to clarify once and for all what led me to the orbit of the old master, how the river's currents carried me on its palms, and how it poured me deep into the sea to see the city. There, from this turbulent, painful distance