Codex of Light

Infra-Noir #4

by Karim Ghahwagi

By the precepts passed down by the village Elders, the story was never to be consecrated in the absence of candlelight. Upon the advent of its telling, the wicks of candles were therefore always kindled by bedsides at night, along the windowsills in classrooms, and upon the mantelpieces of every home. A single beeswax candle always burned in the heart of the Great Hall. Tall as a man and thick as a tree-trunk, the candle was rooted in an ornamented brass candelabra, its yellowed beeswax surface richly carved in commemoration of the story it embodied. For generations the flame had never darkened, and the Elders had sustained its light from month to month, from season to season, always marking each transition to a new candle with solemn ceremony.

20 pages, Chapbook

Published May 1, 2020

About the author

Karim Ghahwagi is an award winning music video director, editor, photographer and author. Since 2003 he has created visual works for such artists as Efterklang (2003-2006), Trentemøller (2007), Søren Kragh-Jakobsen (2008) and Kúra (2012). His live visual shows have toured globally and have been featured at such venues as Roskilde Festival, Glastonbury, Supersonic and the Berlin International Film Festival. The Danish Association of Music Critics voted his live show for Anders Trentemøller’s world tour as the year’s best. He has received the Maya Deren Award for film from Bard College where he has earned degrees in Film, Electronic Media and English Literature. His short fiction has appeared in homage anthologies to Mikhail Bulgakov and Bruno Schulz. He divides his time between Copenhagen and Los Angeles. He can be reached at sotjensen@gmail.com