Tayeb Salih’s 88th Birthday

“There are many horizons that must be visited, fruit that must be plucked, books read, and white pages in the scrolls of life to be inscribed with vivid sentences in a bold hand,” claims the narrator of Tayeb Salih’s most critically acclaimed novel, Seasons of Migration to the North.

First published in Arabic in 1967, Seasons of Migration to the North was an international hit and is considered a national treasure of Sudan. It was eventually translated into 20 languages, and in 2011 it was deemed the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century by the Arab Literary Academy.

Before his literary successes, Salih was born to a poor family in a village in northern Sudan in 1929. He studied in the capital, Khartoum, before moving to England four years before his country gained its independence in 1956. After leaving Sudan, Salih spent much of his life living in various cities across Europe and the Arab world, but his work always found a firm foundation in his homeland -- mostly the fictional village of Wad Hamid.

Today’s doodle honors his sense of a setting, incorporating recurring elements from some of Salih’s most popular stories, like Seasons, The Wedding of Al Zein (1962), and A Handful of Dates (1964). Through Salih’s window we can see a boy and his beloved grandfather, the shade of a palm tree, and the river Nile.

Happy 88th birthday, Salih!

Check out Doodler Tracey Laguerre’s early concepts and notes for our Doodle honoring Salih:

Concept A: Tayeb is sitting under a palm tree and a young village boy is looking over his shoulder. Behind them, the sun is setting over the village.  

Concept B: Tayeb sits at a typewriter in deep thought. In the window is the village from his writing, with villagers harvesting, cooking, and helping the elderly

Concept C: As Tayeb types, the words jump off the page and come to life; we see an older man and his grandson walking their cows back home.