THE SHORT STORIES OF ZAKARIA TAMER

other teeth, because then lamb soup will become popular. You won’t succeed because the hungry person needs something that fills his stomach and not arguments addressed to his mind.”

The young sheep did not pay much attention to what the aged sheep had said and mocked him, considering his words nothing more than the babble of old age. He did not give up his attitude towards the old ones, even when he was nothing more than meat hanging from a hook in the butcher’s shop.

3

The sheep poet composed a poem in proper metre and rhyme in which he urged the nation of sheep to put aside their differences and unite in a single flock with orderly ranks. The butchers welcomed this poem and distributed it widely because catching sheep that huddled together in this way was easier than catching them when they scattered in all directions.

4 A well-fed lamb believed in the idea of peace between lambs and wolves and devoted all his energies to preaching and advocating it. The wolves fell upon him and gave him the highest honour by cooking his tender, firm flesh in the most innovative ways.

5

The sheep used to live far away from people in a land that was full of grass and trees and water. One day they noticed that one of the little sheep was different from the rest. He was not satisfied just to eat and sleep but was always talking about what he would do when he grew up.

He would swim in the water like a fish and fly in the air like an eagle, or a hawk, or a crow; he would sing in the trees like a nightingale and he would scare the animals even more than the tigers scared them.

He would compose poetry and write stories, novels, and plays, and he would play the most important roles in films and television series.

He would become a scientist who discovers how to bring an end

70 BANIPAL 53 – SUMMER 2015