And the Sun Rises on Libya

This morning, in Libyan poet Ghazi Gheblawi’s Twitter feed, I found this:

flyingbirdies أكرم
after 15 minutes, first sunrise of freedom in Tripoli. I am going to take that picture

And, at right, you can see the photo.

Libyan novelist Hisham Matar is currently in the United States fore the U.S. launch of his second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance. He is now awake and on Twitter. As of just before 1 p.m. Cairo time:

We got rid of Qaddafi. I never thought I would be able to write that sentence. #Libya

Tweets from Matar yesterday were also hopeful:

hishamjmatar Hisham Matar, Author:
@kamilashamsie on #Libya: “It’s been the beginning of the end long enough. Time for the end of the end. Followed by a beginning…”

hishamjmatar Hisham Matar, Author
A rebel: “After yrs of not knowing what 2 do, now we know precisely what we must do.” Purpose is sweet; victory sweeter. #Libya

From short story author and novelist Mohamed Mesrati, joy this morning:

MohamedMesrati Mohamed Mesrati
My childhood friends.. REST IN PEACE.. #Libya is free

Mesrati also told @sharon_lynch “there is book coming out soon includes my essay in Libya rev (Eng) and Novel some chapters will be published in English soon.”

And from our unsleeping poet-blogger friend Ghazi Gheblawi:

Gheblawi Ghazi Gheblawi: As we are celebrating liberation of #Tripoli #Libya tonight our hearts and minds are with our people in #Syria as they fight for freedom

Gheblawi Ghazi Gheblawi 
@SudaneseThinker Thanks my friend. Today we celebrate and tomorrow we start the long hard task to rebuild our nation

Gheblawi Ghazi Gheblawi
next step is for me to change my gloomy profile picture (Avatar) 🙂

And, one more time, Khaled Mattawa’s “Now That We Have Tasted Hope”:

Now that we have come out of hiding,
Why would we live again in the tombs we’d made out of our souls?
And the sundered bodies that we’ve reassembled with prayers and consolations,
What would their torn parts be other than flesh?

Now that we have tasted hope
And dressed each other’s wounds with the legends of our oneness
Would we not prefer to close our mouths forever shut on the wine
That swilled inside them?

Having dreamed the same dream,
Having found the water that gushed behind a thousand mirages,
Why would we hide from the sun again
Or fear the night sky after we’ve reached the ends of darkness,
Live in death again after all the life our dead have given us?

Listen to me Zow’ya, Beida, Ajdabya, Tobruk, Nalut, Derna, Musrata, Benghazi, Zintan,
Listen to me houses, alleys, courtyards, and streets that throng my veins,
Some day soon
In your freed light and in the shade of your proud trees,
Your excavated heroes will return to their thrones in your martyrs’ squares,
Lovers will hold each other’s hands.

I need not look far to imagine the nerves dying rejecting the life that blood sends them.
I need not look deep into my past to seek a thousand hopeless vistas.
But now that I have tasted hope
I have fallen into the embrace of my own rugged innocence.

How long were my ancient days?
I no longer care to count.
How high were the mountains in my ocean’s fathoms?
I no longer care to measure.
How bitter was the bread of bitterness?
I no longer care to recall.

Now that we have tasted hope,
Now that we have lived on this hard-earned crust,
We would sooner die than seek any other taste to life,
Any other way of being human.- Khaled Mattawa

Congratulations to all who put their hearts and lives on the line for this.