A Brief Conclusion
By: Ghasan Kanfani
Translated into English by: Jabr Al-burai
Philosophy was his love. For him, life is a theory. He started to philosophize when he was a child. He particularly remembers how he created a question occupied his thought for a whole week. A question that, he thought, was worth pondering: why do humans wear hats on their heads and shoes on their feet? Why can’t they wear shoes on their heads and hats on their feet?
He even went further; why can’t humans walk on four like some animals do? Wouldn’t that be more comfortable?
His philosophy level, therefore, developed by time. He finally reached to a brief conclusion, “since humans are brought into this life without being consulted, why can’t they choose the end the way they want?”From that conclusion, he reached to a briefer one; “Death is the essence of life.”
So he reached to a conclusion he called “end of the journey” and started to wait for the moment he could start to choose an honorable way of death.
So who claims that Abdeljabbar was forced to participate in a revolution, doesn’t know the truth at all. He chose going to the voluntary center by himself. And he stood in front of the officer’s table, who hasn’t found an appropriate militarily suit yet and said in a firm voice, “I need a rifle to participate in the revolution.” Soon enough he found out that getting a rifle was not an easy matter at all and he had to get a rifle the way I want, only then he can participate in the revolution.
“But I might die before I get a rifle.” shockingly he said.
Soon the silence overcame him while he was hearing a strange but almost a right answer:
Did you come here to enjoy a nice summer and get back home?
Here, he realized that his philosophy needed a simple change. He may die before he gets a rifle. It didn’t take long before he reached to a new brief conclusion, “It is not important if a man dies or achieves his noble idea, but it is important he discovers a noble idea before he dies.”
So Abdeljabbar could get a new rifle. It didn’t cost him much hard like he thought. He was going around out the”…” after a battle took place in the morning; he found a dead soldier body. “The dead don’t need a rifle” said to himself while searching the body for a French rifle with a peaked muzzle.
Abdeljabbar was known as a philosopher among his bulwark companions. The strugglers found a good logic in his philosophy to explain actions that were happening. Most of the revolutionists were young men, so he was happy to be a little older than them. Therefore, he could meet them after every battle to teach his new brief conclusion about death.
The philosophy was being changed and developed after every fallen. In a dark night, an ignorant peasant died. Before he fell over the bulwark, he cursed “…….” And men of “……” … Abdeljabbar thought of an appropriate word to be as a eulogy for the martyr, but this very word became his new brief conclusion:
“The noble idea doesn’t often need to be understood. Yet it needs to be felt!”
After one night, a young man died when he was out of the bulwark. He attacked the soldier, who was creeping near to the bulwark wall, by a knife. The young man was shot while getting back to his bulwark.
“Loyalty is measured by Bravery.” said Abdeljabbar. And he in particular was brave. The officer, who had finally found an appropriate military suit, asked him to go to the port to see what’s going on there. Then he told him that his calm, sad face didn’t arouse suspicion in the hearts of cowards.
Abdeljabbar walked on the streets without any weapon. He arrived at the port and wandered around as much as he liked. Then he went back to his bulwark.
But winds blow counter to what ships desire. One of the men involved in the assault earlier, recognized and arrested him. And he was driven by an afraid officer who slapped him and said:
- You are a revolutionist.
- Yes…
- Curse upon you…
- No!
Under merciless torture, Abdeljabbar didn’t forget to set a new brief conclusion:
“Torturing a prisoner is an arrogant expression out of fear.” He felt comfortable after that conclusion. But things went in a different way; the officer had a clever idea as he thought between him and his loyal companions. Yet, Abdeljabbar saw it as another self-important action caused usually by fear.
The officer said to him:
- You go in front of us to your damn bulwark and you will tell your crazy comrades that you’ve brought a new number of revolutionists… then let my soldiers continue the rest…
- What about me?
- You will live honored and dignified or you will die like a dirty dog if you tried to betray us…
Abdeljabbar said in his mind, “Treason itself is a miserable death.”
Abdeljabbar walked proudly in front of two rows of soldiers with the peak of the machine gun aimed and pressed to his back.
Shortly before getting back to the bulwark, he heard the husky voice of the officer hissing in the darkness:
- Move on…
Abdeljabbar wasn’t afraid; his bulwark companions said that his voice was firm and strong when they heard him shouting:
I have brought you fifty soldiers.
Abdeljabbar hadn’t died yet when the soldiers came to see him thrown among soldiers bodies. With great difficulty, one of them heard him dictating his last brief conclusion:
“It is not important if one of us dies but it is important that you continue.”
Then he died.
ترجمة قصة "قرار موجز" لغسان كنفاني إلى الإنجليزية
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