I have long promised my beloved to read her The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. In English, as well. The first volume of my favorite edition of this masterpiece of world literature has long been waiting for the first reading in her apartment in Zagreb. And last night I started. It was an amazing event, though. Just as I was reading the title of the very first story, I got choked by tears. And so it went for quite a while. Every now and then I had to stop for fear of another outburst. My eyes glued together by tears, I could hardly read even when I was in the best of shapes. But it was a wonderful beginning, anyway. Each time I open my favorite book, I enter another world. My world. The world I understand without any remainder. Last night I let my beloved into it for the first time. Whence the tears, of course. But The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night is our world now. From now on, we will enter it together. We will walk through it hand in hand. And we will leave it together. Thus I feel blessed by my welcoming tears. At long last, our world will be one and the same. No remainder, either.

Addendum I (March 23, 2012)

I am proceeding at a leisurely pace, but we are already past the ninth night. Although I am choked by tears from time to time, I am getting better and better at reading my favorite book aloud. And my beloved seems to be enchanted with our project. It will take us a few years to plough through all the volumes, which only adds to our delight. Returning to my own performance, my beloved says that I sound quite different when I render the voice of Dunyazad, Shahrazad’s younger sister. She cannot put her finger on it, but she insists that my voice is entirely different whenever she comes up in the reading. God knows how many voices I will develop over the years. Reading aloud is quite an experience, too. By and by, I am becoming a storyteller. As well as each and every character in the tangled story itself.

Addendum II (March 29, 2012)

We are past the nineteenth night by now, but I am still choked by tears every now and then. Last night I had to stop reading for a while. Tears trickled down my cheeks as I sobbed. Shaking my head, I eventually returned to the task. At any rate, it is a real joy to read to my beloved. She is a good listener, too. It will take us a while to get through all the volumes, but we are likely to continue with the habit in the years to come. Who knows, we might even return to The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night in a couple of years. But chances are that tears would choke me over and over again. No matter how many times I read my favorite book, it remains entirely new to me. As do my strong emotions.