Abu Qais rested on the damp ground, and the earth began to throb under him with tired heartbeats, which trembled through the grains of mud and penetrated the cells of his body.
Every time he threw himself down with his chest to the ground he sensed that throbbing, as though the heart of the earth had been pushing its difficult way towards the light from the utmost depths of hell, ever since the first time he had lain there.
Once when he said that to his neighbor, with whom he shared the field in the land he left ten years ago, the man answered mockingly:
"Its the sound of your own heart. You can hear it when you lay your chest close to the ground." - P21