Threshold of pain

Author's name: Hassan Sami Youssef Publication year: 2022 Brief about the novel: It was a moonlit night, and the lights mingled from the sky and the earth, creating an impressionistic scene overwhelming in its delicacy, and around us, the scents of jasmine and lemon mingled with the fragrant blossoms of orange blossoms from the courtyards of spacious Damascene houses, adding happiness to the universe that sent shivers through the hearts exhausted from searching for lost happiness. Movement in the streets had almost ceased. A majestic silence prevailed over creation, and from somewhere, a painfully sweet voice drifted among the tender spring breezes around us in all directions: Why do you deceive me while you are the light of my eye... Om Kalthoum... Surely, the night has passed its midpoint; I didn't look at the clock around my wrist. I didn't bother to check, for it would cut short the pleasure of gazing at this beauty that resembled a young woman overwhelmed by both sorrow and joy. What torment dwells in this girl? What suffering does she live through? Perhaps it is the torment of longing. She seemed delicate, as if a breeze of spring could shatter her into two. I kept gazing at her, asking myself: Is she shy or remorseful after being caught, entangled in the crime of love she didn't openly admit? I should have helped her escape the depths of sorrow she had drowned in, but I didn't know what to say. I thought: it doesn't matter what you say, just say any words: Listen to the complainant and have mercy on the crying one, who spent his whole life with his heart loving you.