Enes Halilovic was born in 1977 in Novi Pazar. His works were translated into English, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Slovenian and Macedonian language.
Poetry: Srednje slovo, Bludni parip, Listovi na vodi (four), Prose: Potomci odbijenih prosaca, Kapilarne pojave, Plays: In vivo.
KEMET
Act I
First Appearance
Semi-darkness in Father’s room.
A torch on the wall.
Father is lying on the mat and his sons are sitting next to his legs.
FATHER: Children, it’s time for me to die… Children! Do you hear me, my children?
OLDER SON: We hear you.
FATHER: Do you both hear me?
YOUNGER SON: Yes, yes… we hear you…
FATHER: Listen now what I’m going to tell you. Since I’m not a priest, since I was not a priest to have, to eat and drink as much as I wanted, since I was not a priest and since you’re not priests in the temple… I want to tell you… for you to have, and your children to have as the priests have and as their children have and as they advise their children to stay priests and their children to be priest, to have, to have more and more…
OLDER SON: We are not priests, father; you know that we can’t be them.
FATHER: I know. That’s why I called for you, to hear me so that you and your children possess. I want to leave you something… and I want you to do something… and there will be no guilt on your part. When you do that, eat and drink carefully, and don’t feel remorse. I don’t want you to be just washers of pharaoh’s undergarments, that’s the job that will never make your belly full like his. I’m sorry when they send you to drum, to announce pharaoh’s decrees. In the sun you walk and speak to people, you beat those drums, you shake your empty bellies. And I don’t want you to roam this earth, to go cut the pines and that to be your bread. I want to feed you, you and your children, but you should carefully eat what I left you. And not to feel remorse, beat your breast because there’s no guilt there as there’s no justice in the temple or mercy under the pharaoh’s feet…
YOUNGER SON: Tell us father!
FATHER: But hear me and remember, and let me speak with you as with men. Your mother mustn’t know this because she will plead you not to do it and me, she will curse me even dead. Your wives too mustn’t know about this, because they will too plead you not to do that, and me, dead they will curse me three times – they’ll pray not to visit you not even in a dream. And this you’ll do, that will be easy for you to do.
OLDER SON: Father, tell us! We’ll do it right away!
YOUNGER SON: For your honour, I’ll behead someone if I should.
FATHER: This is not for my honour, but for you. I asked myself all the time when will the time come to tell you all this, because I was afraid you could hasten or be late, or that from immaturity your tongues could tell what’s not for talking. I now wait for my death and to you I leave one stone in Pharaoh’s treasury. That stone is waiting for you. Behind it whatever you find yours should be!
YOUNGER SON: About which stone you are talking?
OLDER SON: About our stone.
FATHER: About your stone I am talking about. That is your stone, for you and for your children was left that what behind the stone awaits you.
YOUNGER SON: Don’t leave us, father, so that you could enjoy the treasure with us.
FATHER: I enjoy now, while waiting for you to do that and I’ve enjoyed the time when I was preparing steps for your victory. And you, after my death don’t wait… and now, remember well: when I put my hands to rest, when I close my eyes, when I return to dust… remember well… remember well what you should do.
YOUNGER SON: We’ll remember father!
OLDER SON: We’ll remember.
FATHER: You could predict how much treasure the Pharaoh has.
YOUNGER SON: We can father, we can.
OLDER SON: We can’t.
FATHER: You can’t, my children, predict how much treasure the Pharaoh has, because neither I can, I who built his treasury behind the temple, neither I even I know all the rooms of that treasury, all the rooms both the lower ones and the upper ones, and all the rooms in the depth. Because I saw empty rooms, I didn’t see them full. In the rooms of that treasury which you know only from outside, the treasure was loaded, treasure that came from the ships, inherited treasure, treasure seized in the land of Kush, treasure brought in from the far away land of Punt and its scents, copper toys from the island Keftiu, earrings from the ancient Uruk, copper sickle from Babylon, golden swans from Lagash, hundreds of sundials made of gold and ivory, bronze ware with marvelous ornaments from Mitanni, Babylonian magical needles, ornamental turquoise from the mount toward Retenu, the riches of the town Tjame and town Gebtu, bekhen stone from Wadi Rohanu, miracles from Hatnub, valuables from the Great Green Sea and valuables from Keben and Kadesh and all the things that the Pharaoh takes from a man from his mouth and from a bird’s beak and all that was plundered from Masriq to Maghrib. All that is now in the treasury.
OLDER SON: We can’t, father, even apprehend the riches in there.
YOUNGER SON: We can take it, father, we can…
FATHER: You can, my children, you can, because I have left one plate on a side where the Sun goes down, in the middle. All the plates are ornamented with military campaigns, and on that plate, which was left for you, I ordered the Pharaoh to be chiseled holding two pitchers in his hands. It was me who left that sign for you, to refresh you when the thirst starts to torment you after my death. When you miss me, sneak at night to the treasury, move that plate and take the riches from the treasury. There’s a crown on Pharaoh’s head, protruding like a horn – and he was happy about that saying that that is the image of his strength – and you, on your way out, pull that head for a stone to close the entrance. All that waits for you, my children, for you…
OLDER SON: Will we be able to move the plate, father? Will we have strength in our hands?
FATHER: Oh, my children, I’ve traveled all over and learnt my craft. You will move the plate easily, because it is well smoothed from the sides and nobody before you won’t push it. Who ever thought to push the plate of the pyramid, or a temple, or Pharaoh’s treasury? Empty his treasury when the nights are black, and if some soldier intersects you while you are taking your loot, give him some of the treasure, and if he starts to hesitate…
YOUNGER SON: We will take his head, because dead head does not talk.
OLDER SON: His head, his head!
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