Title: The People of the Cave

Author: Tawfiq al-Hakim (Egyptian)

Translator: Zhang Jingbo

Publisher: Huawen Publishing House

Edition: First Edition, January 2018

Printing: Third Printing, August 2022

Format: 16 - mo, Hardcover

Printed Sheets: 7

Word Count: 50,000 words

ISBN: 9787507547771

Price: 38.00 CNY

The People in the Cave is based on the story of the Seven Sleepers. "Some will say, 'They were three, the fourth being their dog.'" (18:22) In the play, three people, to escape the persecution of the cruel King Decius, took refuge in a pitch - black cave on Mount Raghm. They slept there for three hundred years. Suddenly, one day, they woke up from their slumber. Each of them thought they had only slept for one night and felt extremely hungry. So, one of them was sent out to the village to buy food. When people saw that he was holding ancient coins from three hundred years ago and wearing strange - looking clothes, they were greatly astonished. After inquiry, the shepherd learned that three hundred years had passed. Now, the times had changed, and everything was different. The king who had persecuted them had long since died, and all their family members were gone.

When "the people in the cave" returned to society to start a new life, each of them experienced a conflict between man and time. Eventually, they all returned to the cave and died there - because they were people of the past era. They could only live in that specific time and environment, and they were incompatible with the new real life. As the play reveals, "Simply living is worthless. An absolute life without a past, without any connections, and without any reasons is nothing."

Tawfiq al - Hakim is a renowned Egyptian novelist and playwright. He served as a full - time member of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Literature and Arts. Later, he was elected as the president of the Egyptian Writers' Association and a member of the Arabic Language Academy. He received the Egyptian National Literature Honor Award and the title of "The Best Thinker and Writer in Mediterranean Countries". His autobiographical novel The Return of the Spirit is his famous work and an important realist work in the history of modern Egyptian literature. It has been translated into English, Russian, German, Italian, French, etc., and has been highly praised by Western writers and literary critics. In addition, he also wrote works such as Diary of a Country Prosecutor, A Sparrow from the East, The New Woman, The People of the Cave, Shahrazad, The Social Stage, The Sultan's Dilemma, The Deal, In a Flash, etc.

Zhang Jingbo was born in 1936. He graduated from the Arabic Department of the Oriental Languages Department of Peking University in 1961. He is an associate professor at the Arabic Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University. He has long been engaged in Arabic teaching and the study of Arab civilization history. His main works include Extensive Reading in Arabic and The Characteristics and Origins of Arabic Grammar.