No longer my city ~ لم تَعُد بمدينتي

Article and Image

London at night from the sky, ©Isabel del Rio

Synopsis

Here and everywhere, we have lost our cities and ourselves to an invisible enemy.  But it is not the worst enemy that we have to confront.

هنا وفي كلّ مكان، أضعنا مدننا وأنفسنا لعدوٍّ غير مرئيّ بيد أنّه ليس بالعدوّ الاسوا الذي علينا مواجهته. هذا ما تفصح عنه إيزابيل دَلّ ريو في مقالتها التالية

This is no longer my city; no more my street.  No longer my life, nor my thoughts.  What I knew, I unlearnt; and what I did, became undone.   

It may now be a wilderness invaded by a fathom stranger.  But before all this, it was nothing but a stage for sham performers, a fallacy, a misrepresentation, a trail of unhappy souls.  Was it not?

Call everything by its name: a war against war; a tragedy to live without having a life; a folly to follow in the footsteps of those who say they know better.  You never questioned a thing, did you?  

Only then can you fight the enemy that you know, not the lawless foe that, embellished as it was until now, you cannot recognise and even call your friend.  

And if how you used to live made you feel so forlorn, why would you wish to return.  A return to what?   Almost the same?  The same?  The very same? 

Leave behind the slave and the fool that you used to be.  Slay the past, bring it down, do away with the useless and the futile.  Under the guise of adversity, here is your only chance.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Material should not be published in another periodical before at least one year has elapsed since publication in Whispering Dialogue. *أن لا يكون النص قد تم نشره في أي صحيفة أو موقع أليكتروني على الأقل (لمدة سنة) من تاريخ النشر. *All content © 2021 Whispering Dialogue or respective authors and publishers, and may not be used elsewhere without written permission. جميع الحقوق محفوظة للناشر الرسمي لدورية (هَمْس الحِوار) Whispering Dialogue ولا يجوز إعادة النشر في أيّة دورية أخرى دون أخذ الإذن من الناشر مع الشكر الجزيل

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