«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

m 162 n Mikhail Suvorov stories written in those years we find characters, who don’t care about their personal well-being, who know what to do to make their nation happier, who can even sacrifice themselves for this noble goal. Such are, for example, heroes in Ahmad Mahfuz Omar’s short stories “The torn ultimatum”, “Umm Saluh” and “The happy home” 1 , in Ibrahim al-Kaf’s “The present” and “The narrow path” 2 , in Muhammad Abd al-Wali’s “The northerner” and “The last lesson” 3 , in Ali Badhib’s “Hajj Saif”, “One of them” and “Our city will not forget him” 4 , in Abdullah Bawazir’s “The saboteurs” 5 . The main hope that Yemeni authors expressed in those years was the following expected course of events: the republicans defeat the monarchists in the North, the nationalists defeat the British in the South, the two parts of the country unite into one republican state that takes the course of social modernization and democracy. Since all this was to be done by Yemenis themselves, there appeared an idea, that thousands of Yemenis who had long been in emigration must return back home (and many of them returned indeed), and emigration was generally condemned by the authors. For the first time this idea was literary expressed, as it seems, in Muhammad Abd al-Wali’s short stories and in his novel “They die strangers” (Yamutun ghuraba’, 1971). Subsequently the idea was developed by other Yemeni writers, for example in Muhammad Hunaibar’s novel “The Al-Batul village” (Qaryat al-Batul, 1979) and in Muhammad Muthanna’s novel “Spring in the mountains” (Rabi‘ al-jabal, 1983). The main character in the latter novel is an old emigrant, who returns to Yemen and joins republican guard to fight monarchists — hand in hand with young republicans, who are symbolized by the word “spring” in the title, which is the hope for a better future of Yemen. After the foundation of two Yemeni independent states: YAR and PDRY, the first of which took traditionalist course, and the second — radical leftist, it became clear that many previous hopes hadn’t come true. The unification of the country had not been achieved; real social modernization and democracy didn’t take place in both parts of the country. Nevertheless, there still remained some hope for a better future, inspired in the North by rapidly growing prosperity of the population due to money-transfers from emigrants working in Saudi Arabia, and in the South — by official Marxist propaganda, which was promising the citizens creation of a society of a new type. If we look at Yemeni prose written in the 1970–1980s both in South and North Yemen, we can find there — alongside with a lot of social and little political criticism — clear signs of hope for a better future, represented in a positive hero, or the narrator 1 In his collection “The torn ultimatum” (al-Indhar al-mumazzaq, 1960). 2 In his collection “The explosion” (al-Infijar, 1984). 3 In his collection “What about the land, Salma?” (al-Ard ya Salma, 1966). 4 In his collection “No entry” (Mamnu‘ al-dukhul, 1968). 5 In his collection “The golden sands” (al-Rimal al-dhahabiya, 1965).