Ashnar

Cyprus and the Sunrise

The ship anchored at Cyprus harbor. The picture featured sailing boats; sailors busy mooring ships and handling goods, people on the go, some arriving, and some departing.

As soon as they left the ship, Ashnar and Kalobay were drawn by the sight of the sun rising from behind the sea horizon which spread its blue color to the sky edge. Kalobay said:

- Ashnar! Look! The sun rises from the west here! How strange! It is a miracle that the sun raises from the sea! In Byblos, the sun rises from behind the mountains; from the real east, while it sets into the sea, the real west.

The sight astounded Ashnar. The sight of the sun changing colors and plunging into the sea; he thought: “This is quite a phenomenon! This is the first time I see the sun in a different position! How strange this world is! Why and how? Isn’t this another mystery?”

“If the sun is right in rising from the east and setting at the west in Byblos, isn’t the sun in Cyprus changing its course?!”

Ashnar did not stop at simply wondering about this fact. As usual, his inquisitiveness was beyond Kalobay’s description: “The sun rises from the west”. He wondered again if this universe was not an enigma indeed.

He thought: “Why is it that are we always fascinated by the unknown, while we take what we know for granted? Why do we feel danger in associating ourselves with the unknown?”

“What is real in Byblos is inversed in Cyprus!”

“I wish I could achieve miracles! I would make a day become many days, and my lifetime multiple ones; I would then live all future times, and reveal the unknown.”

Kalobay must have guessed what was going on in his friend’s mind. He intruded into Ashnar’s dreams and said:

- How the sun rises and sets in Byblos is more truthful and beautiful than it is here. It rises from where it is supposed to rise: from the east. The sun in Byblos is native of the mountains. Once the day and its chores end, it sets in the sea. Here in Cyprus, the sun rises from the sea and returns to it. Isn’t this a lack of imagination of the existence? Doesn’t this reduce part of its beauty?

Ashnar was happy to hear this from his friend – so traditional – who usually settles for what he is familiar with. He was enchanted to see Kalobay enjoy the beauty and value of imagination. He said:

- We are similar Kalobay. I too used to enjoy the beautiful sandy beaches of Byblos, the waves breaking over them and sending its white foam onto the shore. Byblos is a dreamer my friend! It chants poems about the endless embrace between its shores and the sea, and the eternal whispering between its mountains and the horizon.

- Just like you Ashnar, I am accustomed to the mountains hugging Byblos, feeding the city from their own power and from their own strength; mountains crowned with beautiful clouds, spreading the most sensual smell of trees and all sorts of fruits that grow on them. The sky of Byblos visited by the four seasons, guided by the stellar force is memorable to me. Like you, I am taken by the clouds, their shapes always revealing inspirational tales. It amazes me to watch these clouds transform into fragments of haze that turn into beautiful white drapes.

Ashnar added:

- In Byblos I learned the times; From Babel and its beliefs, we inhaled the purity of its wisdom. Its public squares held gatherings where people spent all aspects of their life, from love to occupation and pleasure and grieves. Yet I always wondered if all this beauty and goodness was not like a charming cage where my soul was imprisoned?! I was eager to pursue what I did not know, which is this world that subsists behind the sea. I was looking for the whole beauty, the maximal embrace, the majestic love, the tears and romance of real sorrow, the clouds and their celestial glide drawing a maze on the sand and on the earth.

I longed for the quest and for the agony of the outcome. I choke on what I knew and inhaled the air of everything new. But, Kalobay my friend, what I never expected was seeing the sun rising from another place!

Here, the sun is a playful little girl in the early morning waters. It settles to the wide arms of the sea at night. Here it lives between waters. How is this possible and why? I do not know!

Suddenly Ashnar saw a ship with sailors whose skin reflected the sun; a Phoenician ship transporting merchandise from Byblos: beautiful fabrics, dyes and woods. He was watching the ship as it floated in harmony when Kalobay asked:

- Where do you want us to go?

He answered:

- To the land of the Greeks! We are heading to Athens and Olympia. Cyprus is just a halt on the way. Our presence here is temporary but can be useful. Here at least we already encountered a nature that is different from the one we know. In Athens - our aspiration – the universe will open up to us. There, we will learn more and we will talk more; we shall discover some of the unknown, and might find so much in this fertile land that could satisfy our endless thirst.

Kalobay joked:

- I understand! Nothing has changed! Always the same words: The universe, the creation, the sky, the travels, the wisdom, and always seeking what is ahead! I have heard these words from you so often! These words are the spirit that keeps you alive. You take so much pleasure in repeating them! You are always after the illusions, trying to find the real existence! Believe me my friend, you will not find what surpasses what we already found and known in Byblos.

Ashnar, seeking clarification, asked his friend:

- Are you going to abandon me here? Didn’t we make a deal to participate together at the races in Olympia? You must keep your promise.

- At your orders, Kalobay said. I will not abandon you. I am even more eager to continue with our adventure, because I want to prove to you that we better remain attached to what we know and benefit from it. Whereas my friend, you make use of it in an extensive way. You read, but you don’t rest! You want more. You don’t enjoy what you know because you aspire to always run after what you don’t know regardless of whether it exists or not.

What exists in reality my friend is what you can see, feel, touch, smell and hear. I therefore invite you again to enjoy knowledge each moment you can, just as you if you were slowly sipping good aged wine. The everlasting facts are similar to aged wine: the more aged, the better the taste. These are the facts that become eternal.

As soon as Ashnar heard the word “eternal”, he grabbed his friend’s arm and pulled him to walk along the wharf decks and inquire about Greece and a ship to sail the earliest with them on board.