But it's our country, Ustaz Yaqoub! We were born and raised there. Have you…

بس دي بلدنا يا أستاذ يعقوب! اتولدنا وكبرنا فيها، عمرك سمعت عن شجرة عجوزة قلعوها من مكانها ونفعت لما زرعوها في أرض تانية!

But it's our country, Ustaz Yaqoub! We were born and raised there. Have you ever heard of an old tree being pulled up by the roots and thriving when they planted it in other soil?

Aus dem Roman Tage in der Diaspora · Kapitel 12 · an elderly Egyptian Jew at Ustaz Yaqoub's monthly Saturday gathering (unnamed)

Die Worte eines Erzählers oder einer Figur gehören zur Welt des Romans, nicht zu den persönlichen Ansichten des Autors.

Verwandt

Tage in der Diaspora

لعلك لا تدري يا جلال أن أهل حيفا بعد أن نزحوا من بيوتهم، اقتحمها اليهود فوجدوا الشاي والقهوة لا تزال مصبوبة في الأقداح.
Perhaps you don't know, Galal, that when the people of Haifa fled their homes, the Jews who broke in found the tea and coffee still poured in the cups.

Tage in der Diaspora

جدي مقعده فارغ، فراشه فارغ، وقلبي أنا الآخر فارغ.. ويا ليتني صرت وحيدًا وانتهى الأمر، فالوحدة إذا كانت مجرد وحدة أمر مقدور عليه، إنما استبدت بي الوحشة، وأهلكني الفقد..
My grandfather's chair is empty, his bed is empty, and my heart too is empty. If only I had simply become alone and that were the end of it, for loneliness, if it is only loneliness, can be borne; but desolation took hold of me, and loss destroyed me.

Tage in der Diaspora

فيبدو أن كُلاَّ منا، ودون أن يدري، كان يصنع الآخر على هواه. أراها مسلمه، وتراني يهوديًا..
It seems each of us, without knowing it, had been shaping the other to our own liking. I see her as a Muslim, and she sees me as a Jew.

Tage in der Diaspora