A Short but Full-Lived Life -- The Nomad

After reading The Nomad: the Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt (Interlinks; 2003) edited by Elizabeth Kershaw, I could not help but be drawn to the intimacy that oozed from Isabelle Eberhardt's diaries covering her three years' life as a nomad, from 1900 to 1903. Never content with the genteel city life, she set her mind on the Algerian Desert to seek both adventures and peace, which took real courage and inspiration. She started with a need to flee inertia and stagnation, but ended with the realization that "The fact of the matter is that constant, genuine attention to things outside ourselves that bring us no material gain will mellow and uplift the soul and raise it above trivial mundane concerns (page 162)." Not surprisingly she did manage to find her true destiny in the sun-drenched El Qued.

I started to read Isabelle Eberhardt in the early 1990s through the recommendation of our Australian friend Daisy, and her own global trekking. What I love most about Eberhardt's writings is their timelessness. There is no time limit on themes or characters in books like the Oblivion Seekers and In the Shadow of Islam published more than a hundred years ago. Today, we may still observe similar day laborers waiting for work in front of San Lorenzo Lumber on River Street. Ethnicity and physical locations may change, but the same nomad life style lingers.

Eberhardt's short, 27-year life was fraught with poverty, uncertainty, disaster and even an assassination attempt on her life. She did live a full life, however, with her increasing domestic bliss with her husband Slimane Ehnni. She never seemed to feel satisfied with her learning and literary endeavors. Just a few months before her death, she was planning to write one article per week for La Dépêche du Midi. After collecting enough stories to make a book, she was hoping that she and her husband would be more serene (page 187) and stable.