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Note  I was hospitalised for fifteen days at the AHEPA, Thessaloniki's General Teaching Hospital. The diagnosis: pneumonia and empyema; that is, pus-filled lungs.  The treatment: surgery.  The gaze: eighteen pictures.  In medical terminology, Personal Anamnesis denotes a patient's medical history. For a photographer, it means the itinerary of his gaze through the domain of darkness. And when you look at darkness straight on, it's somewhat tamed.  Paris Petridis       Published by Agra and University Studio Press, 2017

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"The Unseen" by Bilal Tarabey I wake up late today, near noon.  A ray of sun shines through the narrow space between my curtains, leaving my bedroom otherwise in darkness. These days, I either sleep too much or too little. But no amount of sleep seems to matter; I never feel well-rested the following day.  I sigh and rub my face, massaging my eyes and forehead, and I get out of bed. Nothing cures the headache that often comes. Sluggishly, my feet carry me forward. Moving them feels like lifting blocks of cement. After I brush my teeth and wash

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"I've Got the Love Handles, But I Can't Handle Love" by Tanja Van Deer some dayscaught between clamping down onprocessed food or not eatingat all; ferociously demanding rightsor considering the futility of change in front of this pageI am a sell-outashamed of my falteringwords, the aftermath of a burnt out mind I am a sell-outthese are not the wordsI meant to write, but i can'tstop themfrom escaping their confines I cannot halt this exodus some days I recklessly spew things outor repeatsayings from other giants but at times my words are emptyblurted out in hasteor by means

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"Magic in Bones" by Rafik El Hariri We made great neighboursyou and I. Like the time   I lobbed string frommy window to yours, forging a zip-line,a tight rope-bridge  stretched wall-to-wall.We held on, feeling the tug of each other's hands. Puzzled,you mouthed me a question I answered in mime, and in no timeyou were in on the scam. On my side. Soon we were synchronous:licking frayed ends,  lacing them through the basesof pierced tin cups. Our fingers ringed with twined fibres, we bothtied knots on top of knots until the cups held, as obviousyet genius as a bathroom

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Photograph by Tania Traboulsi Words without Music The only belonging I actually lost on August 4 was my lyrics notebook. Although our little apartment suffered heavy damage, nothing was completely lost. Doors and windows had flown out of their frames, a table's legs broke, plants fell out of pots, our newly bought TV split in half, a bookshelf shattered into millions of pieces. Some things could be fixed, others had to be thrown out. But nothing disappeared. Nothing except my lyrics notebook.  I left our Mar Mikhael apartment that night and asked my friends who went back the next day to look

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Still from "In Mansoura You Left Us" A film review of In Mansourah, You Separated Us An old man is standing. Behind him, large rocks are followed by a horizon with mountains covered in brown, ochre, and dark green. He wears a gray hat and a jacket that seems too large for his nervous body. On the jacket, we see military insignia, green and golden. He's standing straight almost as if he were taking an official shot. The camera does not move. Suddenly, we hear the director's voice, as she asks in French, "How come he survived and seventy-three others died?"

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"Absence" by Omid Shekari When I think of Humphrey Davies, I think of Uncle Humph. I call him uncle not out of a juvenile sense of biological attachment, but as belonging to that branch of the lineage of translators which I endeavor to be a part of. I write of Uncle Humph's passing and find myself unwilling to acknowledge it. Unwilling and resentful. How could he suddenly up and leave us like this with no warning, when we needed him so much? When I agreed to Rana Issa's offer to co-translate Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq's travelogue three years ago,

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* كُتبَ هذا المقال بعد أشهرٍ من انفجار مرفأ بيروت في 4 آب 2020، قبل الانهيار الكبير.   تمّوز 2019، على ما أعتقد. كانت تلك المرّة الأولى التي اتّفقنا فيها، صديقتي وأنا، أن نخرج سويّاً بصيغة "المُواعدة". بطبيعة الحال، قصدنا الحمرا، فُقاعتنا. احتسينا كؤوساً قليلةً، ترامَينا أحاديثَ كثيرة، ثم قرّرنا، قبل انتصاف الليل بقليل، أن نتمشّى في الشارع الرئيسيّ. أذكر أنّنا مشينا بسرعة، وضحكنا بسرعة، ثمّ تسلّلنا شطرَ زاروبةٍ فيها واجهة زجاجيةٍ تلمع. شارعٌ مظلمٌ وضوءٌ مسلّطٌ عليها، وفي داخلها مجسّمات لطيورٍ صغيرة معلّقة بحبالٍ شفّافة. "هول عصافير سمعان"، وتبادلنا قبلتنا الأولى، صديقتي وأنا، وعصافير سمعان تحدّق بنا.     هو سمعان خوّام، فنّان تشكيلي

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Rusty metal tubing sprouts up, out of the rubble, above the waste haphazardly pushed into piles along the sidewalk, and into a radial array of welded steel members. Where roots should dig into soil, metal frames are anchored into asphalt. Branches of synthetic, evergreen fibers twist their way up towards tree toppers - stars, a pair of doves, a fallen firefighter's helmet. Bells and baubles still decorate the trees this Christmas, but so too are the names and notes nestled gently into the ribbon and tinsel. Furiously lettered scraps of paper are pushed into the branches in apology - victims not

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قبوٌ في رأسياجلس أنا في رأسي، الظلمة حالكة. وحدي. لا أحد سواي. يتكشّفُ قبوٌ مظلم أم أفتحه أنا. لا أدري. يخرج الكثير من الذبابُ اللزجُ من داخلي، مني، أنا الكلب الميت. تلتصق بوجهي الذبابات فأهشُّها. أهشُّ الواحدة تلو الأخرى. أقول للذباب: اليوم لن تلتهميني. اليوم لن تلتهميني. يزعجني ملمس الذباب الزلق على وجهي. ويزعجني أنني لا استطيع أن أرى الذباب جيداً في الظلمة. تلتصق إحداها بوجهي دون أن أشعر… تغمرني الريبة، دون أن أعرف السبب. وبعد ساعات، بلا قصد، أحرّك عضلة ما بوجهي، فتطير الذبابة. أصيح بها: أما آن لك أن تختاري جيفة بدلاً مني؟     الأنبوبة والغرقأراهُ كلّ يوم من نافذتي.

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