Akhenaten (16 page)

Queen Nefertiti was quiet, her sweet voice stilled. I bade her farewell, dreading the path that took me away from her. My heart was infused with her beauty.

When I returned to Sais, my father greeted me happily. He asked me about my journey, and I answered him. For days we talked and I recounted the details of my travels. I told my father everything I had learned, except for two things—my growing fondness for the hymns of the One God, and my profound love for the beautiful Nefertiti.

AN ANCHOR ORIGINAL, MARCH 2000

English translation copyright © 1998 by The American University in Cairo Press

Originally published in Arabic as
al-‘A’ish fi-l-haqiqa
. Copyright © 1985 by Naguib Mahfouz.

Anchor Books and the Anchor colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Mahfuz, Najib, 1911–
[‘A’ish fi al-haqiqah. English]
Akhenaten, dweller in truth / Naguib Mahfouz;
translated by Tagreid Abu-Hassabo.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-48126-9
I. Akhenaton, King of Egypt—Fiction. I. Abu-Hassabo, Tagreid. II. Title.
PJ7846.A46A7613 2000
892.7′36—dc21     99-056659

www.anchorbooks.com

v3.0