He thought of shouting, but immediately realized what a stupid idea that was [….] He thought that his head would explode. All the exhaustion which he felt suddenly rose to his head and began to hum in it, and so he put his head in his hands and began to pull his hair to expel the thought. But it was still there, huge and resounding, unshakable and inescapable […] All at once he could no longer keep it within his head, and he dropped his hands to his sides and stared into the darkness with his eyes wide open.The thought slipped from his mind and ran on to his tongue: `Why didn’t they knock on the sides of the tank?’ He turned right around once, but he was afraid he would fall, so he climbed into his seat and leant his head on the wheel.
`Why didn’t you knock on the sides of the tank? Why didn’t you say anything? Why?
The desert suddenly began to send back the echo:
`Why didn’t you knock on the sides of the tank? Why didn’t you bang the sides of the
tank? Why? Why? Why
MEN IN THE SUN
Novel by Ghassan Kanafani
















