In your most novel, The Alchemist, you mentioned several places in Egypt, such as Cairo, Oasis, Pyramids, Desert, Coptic monasteries and the Nile River. What do you see so special in these places, as a person rather than a world top writer?
I think that anyone that comes face to face with the past of the pyramids, the silence of the desert and the tranquil shadows of an oasis, is transfigured. The desert talks deeply to my soul.
PS: After nurturing their souls with light of truth, they returned to cities where social life flowed in its own way. Then they lived among people with the watchword: “In folk, with Lord.”
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“a friend is someone that sings the song when the other person has forgotten the words.”
Thank you.
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Egypt is a place which I would like to visit in the near future because of its history and the magic aura that brings in our dreams…those pyramids,statues,myths or reality stories and so beautiful pictures…its exciting…
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Ich bitte Verzeihung, fuer die Fehler in der hervorgehenden Post. Leider ist mein Deutsch ziemlich schwach. Dazu glaubte ich gar nicht, das diese Post wie geschrieben hier erscheinen wuerde, sonst haette ich mich mehr beim ueberpruefen.bemueht.
Jetzt bin ich aber noch mehr als zuvor erstaunt, dass nichts als Englisch hier sonst erschienen ist. Oder habe vielleicht einfach nicht weit genug gelesen?
Jedenfalls denke ich, es waer doch viel mehr interessant hier, wenn jeder der hier eintrifft in seiner Muttersprache oder Lieblingssprache antworten koennte, und dann auf dieser Sprache oder auf Englisch nach Geschmack zu lesen sein.
My apologies for the preceding post, both for the many mistakes in German and for the fact that few readers will be able to make sense of it.
I didn’t really expect it to appear here as written, or I would have taken much more care to check my weak German spelling and grammar. And I probably would have kept it much shorter.
But learning that the Blog accepts posts in other languages than English does make me wonder at not having encountered any other non-English posts. Is it just that I didn’t look hard enough?
Many people can comprehend a written language without being able to express themselves clearly in it.
It seems to me that the blog would be more interesting if everyone could post in the language of their choice, provided that Google Translate or a similar program were available to translate non-English posts into English.
Other pages of this website, for instance the Russian, Chinese, and Portuguese pages, DO work with Google Translate. But when I try to invoke Google Translate on this page, it aborts with the message:
“…cannot translate English to English…”
And this despite the fact that there is non-English text on the page.
Evidently Google Translate doesn’t analyse the page to find out what language it’s in, but simply reads some sort of flag set by the webmaster.
If this is the case, wouldn’t it be possible to let posters indicate the language of their post, have the website automatically move them to a page flagged appropriately for Google Translate, then let the poster edit Google’s English translation and post it back to the blog?
Leaving the original on the translation page with a link on the main blog page would have the additional advantage of giving bilingual readers the opportunity to read the poster’s native text.
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I have been one month ago in Egypt, in Hurgadha and Cairo.
My first words when seeing the deserts were:”Man, it’s like walking on the Moon”. Therefore the feeling is simmilar to being on a different planet, in a different dimension.
And that emptiness,that poor landscape,with nothing green in,was transmitting the message:”Now turn your attention to the real word, which is reacher,more colourful and more dynamic: the inner world of your soul where all secrets wait to be discovered and where you forget them, because you were too bussy admiring the outsider word”.
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Es faellt mir auf, dass Google Translate auf diesen Blogseiten nicht wirkt. Es antworted auf den Versuch - “Error 404, page not found”
Diese Erfahrung leitet weiter an eine zweite Frage - was passiert, wenn man eine andere Sprache benutzt, so wie ich es eben tue, um ein Kommentar hier zu abzugeben. Wird es einfach weggeschmissen, oder wird es automatisch of Englisch uebersetzt?
Wenn das zweite der Fall ist, waer es doch sehr hiflich, wenn man solche Posten in der originellen Sprache auch lesen koennte.
Nicht nur wuerde dass zu besseren Verstaendniss leiten, sondern auch die Sprachlehre promovieren.
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MY QUESTION TO YOU:
“Dear Paulo Coelho. There is an ancient phrase in Greek philosophy like “Know yourself!” What do you understand from this phrase? From your point of view, how can we know ourselves?”
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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=shPET-znvnk&feature=related
The story of Kemal. A beautiful song by Manos Hatzidakis and lyrics by Nicos Gatsos.
Love,
Thelma
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“The universe has an order and a purpose that goes beyond the power of reason. The voice of our soul is the thread linking us to that greater scheme.”
Yes dear Savita Vega, accepting the mystery… you have such a beautiful way with words…
I have spent much time in the desert, although it’s been a while since, and I can promise you, although some find it very hard to believe, it has so much to offer… so many answers to questions
Perhaps this better explains the significance of empty spaces…
Love, till we meet at the oasis… perhaps… Paul
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PS: After nurturing their souls with light of truth, they returned to cities where social life flowed in its own way. Then they lived among people with the watchword: “In folk, with Lord.”
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In the ancient times, the dervishes who wanted to purify their heart from all things except God, went to the desert and lived there alone.
Loneliness, silence and the insignificance of human being besides the largeness of desert … helped those searchers to find the greatest One.
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I would like to visit those places,so magic.I was always amazed by the history of that great people.
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I went to Egypt when I was eleven years old, with my parents. I do not remember much.. I should visit it again,Egypt is so near to Cyprus, but in the last few years it does not seem to be a safe place.., although it seems that there is no ’safe’ place in the World, any more. The books of Naguib Mahfouz have made me think of a different culture and way of thinking.
I was fascinated with the whole scenery in the desert, in ‘the Alchemist’ and I wonder if your will be in … the neighbourhood, dear Paulo Coelho, now that the film is in process.?
LOVE,
Thelma
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My daughter and I have this ongoing joke about how I must have been a goat herder in a past life. (A joke that is no joke.) I adore the scent of goats - for me it is the smell of “home,” a scent that makes me feel happy and comfortable and free - a scent that, nonetheless, turns most people’s stomaches. And camels, the motion of a moving camel - that particular sway, that unique rhythm. Its like a music that my soul knows, though my intellect cannot explain. Funny, the things that can dwell in a person’s soul, and for no apparent external reason.
I did not grow up in the desert. I grew up in a sub-tropical semi-rainforest, a place where the air is as much water as oxygen, where the color green prevails above all, even in winter. And yet the desert calls to me. I’ve never ridden a camel (yet), never seen an oasis, but I can hear in my heart the whisper of the wind as it passes over the dunes, and I can taste in my soul the sweetness of water drawn from the springs of an oasis.
These are the sorts of callings I think we should always follow, even if they make no sense to anyone but us, and no sense in “rational” terms at all. The universe has an order and a purpose that goes beyond the power of reason. The voice of our soul is the thread linking us to that greater scheme.
Love,
Savita
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