Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Six November-December 2024.
Arab Poets & Writers
Secret Profession, story by Mohamed Baraka.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Secret Profession
– Señor Alaa?
– Yes.
– I am an Italian tourist currently in Cairo, and tomorrow I will arrive in Sharm. I need your services for the remaining days I have in Egypt.
– With pleasure.
– I’m not sure if you understood me well; I want you to be completely available for me.
– How many days is that?
– Five.
– Let me check my schedule, then I’ll get back to you.
– Ciao.
– Ciao.
August brings everyone heat and peace.
The season hasn’t started yet.
The place is quiet at this time of year, but I responded to the client in a way that meets the requirements of professional “prestige.”
– I’m sorry, but I can’t wait any longer; I need to know your response now.
The Italian, a girl of the streets with fiery blood, gets it; a being not easily fooled. She returned to rush me after three hours, the maximum time when she pretends to believe she has bought your story full of bullet holes.
– Okay, I will be waiting for you.
She was in her twenties, not belonging to the usual pattern of clients who often play in the middle age range between thirty and fifty. A name that suits her with the purity of her skin and the glow of pearls in her green eyes. And what about that thick hair, as if she had stolen half the girls’ hair in Milan? Embracing waves of soft strands where brown dances with red to give that unique shade. She removed her clothes except for one piece underneath and whispered:
– Surprise me!
Every profession has its principles, and one of the principles of my profession is not to ask the client about her private life or to convey anything that could be interpreted as her visit involving a strange act or suggesting suspicious behavior. I must embody the modern version of the “Sphinx,” a being stripped of curiosity, devoid of the weight of astonishment, and unaffected by the clause of wonder. I dug deep into a narrow hot well without my goal being an oil explosion. Digging is a sacred pursuit in itself—something akin to what the “poet of resistance and beauty” once claimed: “the way home is more beautiful than home.” I savor lips that taste of pleasure, but the message reaching my mind indicates a confrontation with a plate of “old cheese” played by some worms.
What led a young beauty, a violinist in a global orchestra, to seek my services? No one has broken her heart, nor does her body language in bed show any signs of revenge against a man or even a woman. So why did she choose to seek a paid climax?
I lit a cigarette for her, enhanced with a type, as her appetite opened while she took the first puff:
– Sleeping with a professional was the last item on my list of the craziest things I dream of achieving before I die.
I asked cautiously:
– How many items are on that list?
– Twenty.
I wondered again, concealing my astonishment:
– You managed to complete the entire list at such a young age? You must be starting to create a new list?
She was struck by a sudden cough as she laughed, so I hurried to bring a bottle of mineral water from the “mini bar.” She drank, then returned to laughter as she said:
– I tackle the items on the list from the bottom to the top.
© Mohamed Baraka
Mohamed Baraka (1972) is An Egyptian novelist, storyteller and journalist. Critics classify him as one of the voices of renewal and modernity in modern Arabic literature. His works raise controversy on the literary and social levels, and his writings receive remarkable attention. His novels include “The Lady’s Pub,” “Ghosts of Brussels,” and “Ice Heart in the Other World.” His short story collections include “My Grandfather’s Mistress” and “Sadness is a Sleeping Child.”
Salwa Gouda is an Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic at the English Language and Literature Department at Ain-Shams University. She holds a PhD in English literature and criticism. She received her education at Ain-Shams University and California State University in San Bernardino. Furthermore, she has published several academic books, including Lectures in English Poetry and introduction to Modern Literary Criticism, and others. She has also contributed to the translation of “The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers,” which includes poets, philosophers, historians, and men of letters, under the supervision of UNESCO. Also, her translated poetry anthology, entitled Dogs Pass Through My Fingers, was published recently through Alien Buddha Press in Arizona, USA. Additionally, her literary translations have been published in various international magazines.