yulee nishimura's book report of ハイファに戻って・太陽の男たち by ghassan kanafani Translated by kuroda toshio, nobuaki metahara
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The book consists of seven short stories, in this essay I will reflect on three of them.
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* MEN OF THE SUN *I read a translation of an article called the “Poetry of Resistance in Occupied Palestine,” which moved me immensely in the winter of 2023. Various Palestinian poets are prefaced by an introduction of Palestinian Literature, written by Ghassan Kanafani. There he describes the forms and techniques of Palestinian resistance poetry that emerged throughout the 60s, in the context of a people facing brutal persecution and restriction of cultural production. He says, “(writings about)Love: The love for woman is completely integrated with the love of the homeland. Woman and Earth are completely assimilated in one great love and transformed into the great cause of liberation.”
I thought of this when I read the first page of the book, when the story begins with a man named Abu Kais remarking on how he thinks he feels the heartbeat of the earth as he lays his chest on the hot sand. He says the land he left years ago, carries the warm smell of his wife.
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* THE LAND OF THE SAD ORANGES *This story was written through the perspective of a child, less than 10 years old. The afternotes say it reflects the experience of Kanafani himself when he became a refugee during the ’48 Nakba. This one broke me especially because I think about the generations of Palestinians who have lived the occupation. The children in the story are now the elders who watch their grandchildren endure the atrocities of the present. He writes about not understanding, and suddenly understanding his childhood was over. He writes about his father, who was never the same and in that moment ran like a child to send off the Arab army fighting against the enemies who took their land. And the distinct memory of oranges and his mother’s tears, because even the sweet scent of oranges were taken away from them.
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* RETURN TO HAIFA *This was the last one in the novel, and maybe one of his more famous ones because the story was familiar to me and I think made into multiple plays. It follows a couple who returns to Haifa after 20 years to visit their home. It it written in a way that jumps back and forth between the past and the present, as they drive through their old neighborhood and recount the day the Israeli army impeded onto their village. The story is told by the objects left behind, how the pictures on the walls and the spaces they called home no longer resemble the same thing.
Said recounts a story of his neighbor who’s brother was martyred fighting for the resistance. His portrait still hangs in the house 20 years later as a reminder that resistance is the only option.
The couple meets their son, who was left behind in Haifa at 5 monthes the day of the invasion. Their son, who now lives by a different name given by his adopted Israeli mother, grows up to see them as “others”.
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I think there’s a lot to be said about his choice to write fiction. In my head, the decision to remove himself from the narrative(despite it being based on his own experiences) gives him more power. Maybe it is the power to imagine a different world.
So much love for Kanafani! So well written and complex. Complex in the way that accurately reflects the effects of war on a human being, but articulated in a beautiful and sad way. I hope I can read more of his work.
- yn, 10/1/24
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(big thank you to yulee for sending in these words and reflections!)