the zahir

PAULO COELHO
The Zahir
A NOVEL OF OBSESSION
Translated from the Portuguese
by Margaret Jull Costa
O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who turn to you. Amen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Brazil, PAULO COELHO is one of the most beloved writers of our time,
renowned for his international bestseller The Alchemist. His books have been translated
into 59 languages and published in 150 countries. He is also the recipient of numerous
prestigious international awards, among them the Crystal Award by the World Economic
Forum, France�s Chevalier de l�Ordre National de la L�gion d�Honneur, and Germany�s
Bambi 2001 Award. He was inducted into the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 2002. Mr.
Coelho writes a weekly column syndicated throughout the world.
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ALSO BY PAULO COELHO
The Alchemist
The Pilgrimage
The Valkyries
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
The Fifth Mountain
Veronika Decides to Die
Warrior of the Light: A Manual
Eleven Minutes
CREDITS
Photograph of mountains � Romilly Lockyer / Getty Images
Photograph of woman � Superstock
Copyright
THE ZAHIR: A NOVEL OF OBSESSION. Copyright � 2005 by Paulo Coelho. English
translation copyright � 2005 Margaret Jull Costa. All rights reserved under International
and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have
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Mobipocket Reader August 2005 ISBN 0-06-088376-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coelho, Paulo.
[Zahir. English]
The Zahir: a novel of obsession / Paulo Coelho ; translated from the Portuguese by
Margaret Jull Costa.�Ist US ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 10: 0-06-082521-9 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN 13: 978-0-06-082521-8
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the
ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
LUKE 15:4
ITHACA
When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon�do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your heart does not set them up before you.
Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.
Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.
Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.
CONSTANTINE CAVAFY (1863�1933)
translated by Rae Dalven
DEDICATION
In the car, I mentioned that I had finished the first draft of my book. Later, as we set out
together to climb a mountain in the Pyrenees which we both consider to be sacred and
where we have already shared some extraordinary moments, I asked if she wanted to
know the main theme of the book or its title; she would love to, she said, but, out of
respect for my work, she had, until then, asked nothing, she had simply felt glad�very
glad.
So I told her the title and the main theme. We continued walking in silence and, on the
way back, we heard a noise; the wind was getting up, passing above the leafless trees and
coming down toward us, causing the mountain once more to reveal its magic and its
power.
Suddenly the snow began to fall. I stopped and stood contemplating that moment: the
snowflakes falling, the gray sky, the forest, the woman by my side. The woman who has
always been by my side.
I felt like telling her then, but decided to let her find out when she read these pages for the
first time. This book is dedicated to you, Christina, my wife.
According to the writer Jorge Luis Borges, the idea of the Zahir comes from Islamic
tradition and is thought to have arisen at some point in the eighteenth century. Zahir, in
Arabic, means visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone or something
which, once