هنا ولدت وكبرت.. ولعبت وأحببت، ورحلت وأُبْتُ..
Here I was born and grew up, played and loved, left and came back.
From the novel Menorahs and Minarets · Chapter 2
Words of a narrator or a character belong to the novel's world, not to the author's personal views.
Menorahs and Minarets
Menorahs and Minaretsفلم أتمسك بها لمجرد الشهامة ورد الجميل، وإنما على أنها أم صنعتها واصطفيتها لنفسي عوضًا عن كل ما أفتقده في أمي التي أخرجتني من أحشائها.
I did not hold on to her out of mere gallantry or gratitude, but as a mother I had made and chosen for myself, in place of everything I miss in the mother who bore me.
Menorahs and Minaretsفهكذا حالي مع أمي، في البعد تنازعني نفسي كلما جُرْت عليها، وإذا التقينا يلوك القلب فيما لا يقال..
Such is my state with my mother: at a distance my conscience torments me whenever I've been unjust to her, and when we meet the heart chews on what cannot be said.
Menorahs and Minaretsوالشارع الذي أعرفه قل عليه: يا رحمن يا رحيم، وكأن شياطينَ لا بشرًا استباحوه!
And the street I knew—God have mercy on it—looked as if devils, not people, had overrun it.