'Amal

In days of old a fertile field, today a dead land

Eroding the slopes, tearing apart the rich soil

The streaming water has devastated this country in less than one lifetime

It has left little but gaping chasms everywhere.

Here, day in, day out, the cattle forage, seeking their meager nourishment.

Death of the earth,

death of the vegetation,

death of the animals...

And men?

In the name of the forgiving and merciful God, praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds;

merciful benefactor, Sovereign of the Day of Judgment

And there, in this dying land,

the people live all day, every day in an unending wait.

... "Lead us in the straight path,

the path of those to whom You have given Your favors

and not in that of the lost and unknowing."

And, near the cemetery, a pile of rocks which people take to make a meager tomb when a death occurs.

Rocks are gathered each day,

and added to the pile so that it is always ready.

Only the children have not yet learned to wait.

They are still living in the discovery of the world,

and always find one way or another to enjoy themselves.

This little boy is called Amal.

His father would have preferred that he be called Abdel-Khader, Ibrahim or Gadour

but his mother refused,

for it was "Amal" which she liked

and that is how the child was named...

Amal's parents had had four children before him

and when Amal was old enough to go outside the hamlet

they were all dead and Amal scarcely remembered them.

All that remained were a young brother

and a little sister still in her mother's arms.

And for Amal life was full of wonders...

And the most astonishing of those were the stories his grandfather told him...

And each story took place on the other side of the mountain,

where the sun set, where the clouds came from.

"The mountain over there?" asked Amal.

"Yes, yes, that one or another."

A seabird flew over their heads.

"That too, grandfather?" asked Amal.

"Oh, yes, that too comes from the other side of the mountain.”

And Amal wondered what it could be,

this other side of the mountain.

Previously, before the birth of Amal,

the hills surrounding the hamlet were fertile enough to supply the simple needs of the people.

They worked their land as their ancestors had.

From top to bottom, from top to bottom, always...

And each year they became aware of one thing:

that the land yielded less, and lost its rich color -

that each rainfall dug into this land crevices so deep

that they uncovered rocks.

And people carried them one by one to the cemetery.

Because, with the impoverishment of their land,

people themselves were dying more and more often

...Especially the children.

Amal often accompanied his father to the fields.

He admired him, and wished one day to be like him.

And when his father examined the earth, Amal did likewise.

And then, he would run to the bottom of the hill

where large areas of smooth earth were to be found, having been carried there by the rain.

And there, Amal liked to sketch all that he had seen in his world of the hamlet...

Sheep tearing at the grass...