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Season of Migration to the North and The Wedding of Zein
Season of Migration to the 'An Arabian Nights in reverse, enclosing a pithy moral about international misconceptions and delusions. The brilliant student of an earlier generation returns to his Sudanese village; obsession with the mysterious West and a desire to bite the hand that has half-fed him, has led him to London and the beds of women with similar obsessions about the mysterious East...' The Wedding of '...both charming and original, making of the marriage of a village buffoon and a sought-after girl in a Sudanese village on the banks of the Nile, an abundant symbol of a world that lies by change yet can only be interpreted by reference to tradition.' --Robert Nye, Guardian
272 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1980
About the author
Tayeb Salih
31 books959 followersThe Sudanese writer al-Tayyib Salih (Arabic: الطيب صالح)has been described as the "genius of the modern Arabic novel." He has lived abroad for most of his life, yet his fiction is firmly rooted in the village in which he spent his early years. His most well-known work is the modern classic Mawsim al-hijra ila’l-shamal (1967; Season of Migration to the North), which received great critical attention and brought new vitality to the Arab novel.
Salih has not been a prolific writer; his early work, including Season of Migration to the North, remains the best of his oeuvre. He has received critical acclaim in both the west and the east. In Sudan he is without rival, and his writing has played a considerable part in drawing attention to Sudanese literature. Arabic literature has been dominated by social criticism, social realism, and committed literature depicting the bitter realities of life; Salih managed to break with this trend and return to the roots of his culture, capturing the mystery, magic, humor, sorrows, and celebrations of rural life and popular religion.
الطيب صالح أديب عربي من السودان ولد عام (1348هـ - 1929م ) في إقليم مروي شمالي السودان بقرية كَرْمَكوْل بالقرب من قرية دبة الفقراء وهي إحدى قرى قبيلة الركابية التي ينتسب إليها. عاش مطلع حياته وطفولته في ذلك الإقليم, وفي شبابه انتقل إلى الخرطوم لإكمال دراسته فحصل من جامعتها على درجة البكالوريوس في العلوم. سافر إلى إنجلترا حيث واصل دراسته, وغيّر تخصصه إلى دراسة الشؤون الدولية.
تنقل الطيب صالح بين عدة مواقع مهنية فعدا عن خبرة قصيرة في إدارة مدرسة، عمل الطيب صالح لسنوات طويلة من حياته في القسم العربي لهيئة الإذاعة البريطانية, وترقى بها حتى وصل إلى منصب مدير قسم الدراما, وبعد استقالته من البي بي سي عاد إلى السودان وعمل لفترة في الإذاعة السودانية, ثم هاجر إلى دولة قطر وعمل في وزارة إعلامها وكيلاً ومشرفاً على أجهزتها. عمل بعد ذلك مديراً إقليمياً بمنظمة اليونيسكو في باريس, وعمل ممثلاً لهذه المنظمة في الخليج العربي. ويمكن القول أن حالة الترحال والتنقل بين الشرق والغرب والشمال والجنوب أكسبته خبرة واسعة بأحوال الحياة والعالم وأهم من ذلك أحوال أمته وقضاياها وهو ما وظفه في كتاباته وأعماله الروائية وخاصة روايته العالمية "موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال".
كتب العديد من الروايات التي ترجمت إلى أكثر من ثلاثين لغة وهي « موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال» و«عرس الزين» و«مريود» و«ضو البيت» و«دومة ود حامد» و«منسى».. تعتبر روايته "موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال" واحدة من أفضل مائة رواية في العالم .. وقد حصلت على العديد من الجوائز .. وقد نشرت لأول مرة في اواخر الستينات من القرن ال-20 في بيروت وتم تتويجه ك"عبقري الادب العربي". في عام 2001 تم الاعتراف بكتابه على يد الاكاديميا العربية في دمشق على انه "الرواية العربية الأفضل في القرن ال-20.) أصدر الطيب صالح ثلاث روايات وعدة مجموعات قصصية قصير
Salih has not been a prolific writer; his early work, including Season of Migration to the North, remains the best of his oeuvre. He has received critical acclaim in both the west and the east. In Sudan he is without rival, and his writing has played a considerable part in drawing attention to Sudanese literature. Arabic literature has been dominated by social criticism, social realism, and committed literature depicting the bitter realities of life; Salih managed to break with this trend and return to the roots of his culture, capturing the mystery, magic, humor, sorrows, and celebrations of rural life and popular religion.
الطيب صالح أديب عربي من السودان ولد عام (1348هـ - 1929م ) في إقليم مروي شمالي السودان بقرية كَرْمَكوْل بالقرب من قرية دبة الفقراء وهي إحدى قرى قبيلة الركابية التي ينتسب إليها. عاش مطلع حياته وطفولته في ذلك الإقليم, وفي شبابه انتقل إلى الخرطوم لإكمال دراسته فحصل من جامعتها على درجة البكالوريوس في العلوم. سافر إلى إنجلترا حيث واصل دراسته, وغيّر تخصصه إلى دراسة الشؤون الدولية.
تنقل الطيب صالح بين عدة مواقع مهنية فعدا عن خبرة قصيرة في إدارة مدرسة، عمل الطيب صالح لسنوات طويلة من حياته في القسم العربي لهيئة الإذاعة البريطانية, وترقى بها حتى وصل إلى منصب مدير قسم الدراما, وبعد استقالته من البي بي سي عاد إلى السودان وعمل لفترة في الإذاعة السودانية, ثم هاجر إلى دولة قطر وعمل في وزارة إعلامها وكيلاً ومشرفاً على أجهزتها. عمل بعد ذلك مديراً إقليمياً بمنظمة اليونيسكو في باريس, وعمل ممثلاً لهذه المنظمة في الخليج العربي. ويمكن القول أن حالة الترحال والتنقل بين الشرق والغرب والشمال والجنوب أكسبته خبرة واسعة بأحوال الحياة والعالم وأهم من ذلك أحوال أمته وقضاياها وهو ما وظفه في كتاباته وأعماله الروائية وخاصة روايته العالمية "موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال".
كتب العديد من الروايات التي ترجمت إلى أكثر من ثلاثين لغة وهي « موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال» و«عرس الزين» و«مريود» و«ضو البيت» و«دومة ود حامد» و«منسى».. تعتبر روايته "موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال" واحدة من أفضل مائة رواية في العالم .. وقد حصلت على العديد من الجوائز .. وقد نشرت لأول مرة في اواخر الستينات من القرن ال-20 في بيروت وتم تتويجه ك"عبقري الادب العربي". في عام 2001 تم الاعتراف بكتابه على يد الاكاديميا العربية في دمشق على انه "الرواية العربية الأفضل في القرن ال-20.) أصدر الطيب صالح ثلاث روايات وعدة مجموعات قصصية قصير
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 15, 2019
A book that anyone interested in the sexual politics of colonialism should read.
May 15, 2015
It sometimes is a very poetic book, of a special kind of poetry mixed in very mundane North Sudanese village life and shocking revelations by a novel's narrator acquiantance.
The slow pace in the beginning gives way to many difficult themes and questions. Of course the narrator's interlocutor - Mustafa Sa'eed, is a metaphor. A not very believable metaphor too, but who does not have a darker side? A something which oozes out, at times and makes one wonder about his or her choices?
The above may well sound like this book is full of strange mystical events, but no. The book is not mystical, and id does have a bright side. And it is worth reading till the very end.
Speaking about the content, on a simpler level, I was surprised by the honesty and openness with which the authort describes drinking of alcohol by the devout villagers, and their candind approach to female circumcision. Saleh makes his critical attitude to the female cirumcision known through the words of one of the Sudanese women, who, when understood literally praises it, in the usual hypocritical way of a poor person, trying to make others poorer..
Some quotes
“I preferred not to say the rest that had come to my mind: that just like us [the Europeans] are born and die, and in the journey from the cradle to the grave they dream dreams some of which come true and some of which are frustrated; that they fear the unknown, search for love and seek contentment in wife and child; that some are strong and some are weak; that some have been given more than they deserve by life, while others have been deprived by it, but that the differences are narrowing and most of the weak are no longer weak.”
- This works both ways actually. It is a truth often mentioned, but seldom taken to heart by anyone.
“I want to take my rightful share of life by force, I want to give lavishly, I want love to flow from my heart, to ripen and bear fruit. There are many horizons that must be visited, fruit that must be plucked, books read, and white pages in the scrolls of life to be inscribed with vivid sentences in a bold hand.”
“And the river, the river but for which there would have been no beginning and no end, flows northwards, pays heed to nothing; a mountain may stand in its way so it turns eastwards; it may happen upon a deep depression so it turns westwards, but sooner or later it settles down in its irrevocable journey towards the sea in the north.”
"She was my destiny and in her lay my destruction, yet for me the whole world was not worth a mustard seed in comparison. I was the invader who had come from the South, and this was the icy battlefield from which I would not make a safe return.”
The slow pace in the beginning gives way to many difficult themes and questions. Of course the narrator's interlocutor - Mustafa Sa'eed, is a metaphor. A not very believable metaphor too, but who does not have a darker side? A something which oozes out, at times and makes one wonder about his or her choices?
The above may well sound like this book is full of strange mystical events, but no. The book is not mystical, and id does have a bright side. And it is worth reading till the very end.
Speaking about the content, on a simpler level, I was surprised by the honesty and openness with which the authort describes drinking of alcohol by the devout villagers, and their candind approach to female circumcision. Saleh makes his critical attitude to the female cirumcision known through the words of one of the Sudanese women, who, when understood literally praises it, in the usual hypocritical way of a poor person, trying to make others poorer..
Some quotes
“I preferred not to say the rest that had come to my mind: that just like us [the Europeans] are born and die, and in the journey from the cradle to the grave they dream dreams some of which come true and some of which are frustrated; that they fear the unknown, search for love and seek contentment in wife and child; that some are strong and some are weak; that some have been given more than they deserve by life, while others have been deprived by it, but that the differences are narrowing and most of the weak are no longer weak.”
- This works both ways actually. It is a truth often mentioned, but seldom taken to heart by anyone.
“I want to take my rightful share of life by force, I want to give lavishly, I want love to flow from my heart, to ripen and bear fruit. There are many horizons that must be visited, fruit that must be plucked, books read, and white pages in the scrolls of life to be inscribed with vivid sentences in a bold hand.”
“And the river, the river but for which there would have been no beginning and no end, flows northwards, pays heed to nothing; a mountain may stand in its way so it turns eastwards; it may happen upon a deep depression so it turns westwards, but sooner or later it settles down in its irrevocable journey towards the sea in the north.”
"She was my destiny and in her lay my destruction, yet for me the whole world was not worth a mustard seed in comparison. I was the invader who had come from the South, and this was the icy battlefield from which I would not make a safe return.”
June 28, 2023
Books on migration and identity often disappoint me, so I did not pick up this book with high expectations. I am glad to say that was pleasantly surprised. This is probably the most impressive book on such topics I have read so far. Salih does not shy away from facing disillusionment and ugliness. I appreciated how he acknowledged the complex and uncomfortable effect of colonization on the human psyche with much tact and astute observation.
May 13, 2015
After years of study in Europe the narrator returns to the Sudan thinking he might help the country enter the modern world. He meets a stranger who tells him disturbing secrets about his life and makes him the guardian of his wife and two children. The rest is all tragedy about the lack of choice Sudanese women have, and the regrets of the narrator.
February 20, 2013
Wow, a hard book to read. writren like poetry, to make a very confusing narrative. i got the allegory and metaphor for colonialism but did not like it still!
May 3, 2015
good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews