The reason for our [sc. Egypt’s] writers’ preoccupation with theatre and their neglect of narrative prose lies in the fact that theatre better guarantees them material profit and prestige in the literary scene1
and that the paper crisis brought about by the war2
put an end to almost all printing activity and prevented the writers from composing [prose] stories.
But there are also other factors, as, e.g., the Egyptian writer’s inclination [p. ii] and psychological disposition, both of which make him abstain from risking to put too much hope into the advancement/ the progress of this genre in our country as quickly as he would desire [i.e., he does not grow this hope];
Moreover, restrictive eastern traditions [gender segregation!] prohibit nearly [any] meeting/encounter among the sexes and [in this way] contribute to intensifying his [sc. the Egyptian writer’s] severe psychological dilemmas.
On the one hand, he cannot know these conflicts and the moral implications triggered by them in the human psyche, and as a consequence it is only natural that he is unable to depict it in his heroes.
On the other hand, he is not yet trained in [the technique of] observation and psychologicalanalysis, which are two skills that only grow with long experience.
So, when he tries to write a novel he usually does not have the skill to endow his characters with an individual personality, and they appear to be soulless phantoms for us.
When he, for instance, wants to describe a young man who whispers “the eternal song of youth” into his beloved’s ear, you see him making use of fantasy, guessing and mannerism; he lets the lover address his beloved with expressions that are devoid of individuality,4
إذ يجعل المحبّ يخاطب حبيبته بعبارات لا خصوصية فيها كتصويره لها جمال الطبيعة وتغريد العصافير ، ونشيد اليمام وخرير المياه وغير ذلك من السخافات الصبيانية والإحساسات المريضة الضئيلة
as, for example, when he describes to her the beauty of nature and the twittering of the birds, the song of the doves and the murmuring of the water, and similar silly pubertal stuff and weak, morbid sentiments;