فما هذا الذي يرونه؟ الميت يهودي والعزاء عزاء مسلمين!
So what was this they were seeing? The dead man a Jew, and the wake a Muslim wake!
From the novel Menorahs and Minarets · Chapter 42
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 Minaretsتجاعيد الوجه لوحة ربانية تقصم ظهر أي رسام، وإن حاكاها ولو حرص تخونه الفرشاة.
The wrinkles of her face are a divine painting that would break any painter's back; however carefully he tried to copy them, the brush would betray him.
Menorahs and Minaretsوتستغرقني الذكريات حتى أبدو أمام نفسي وكأني أعيش الماضي وليس الحاضر، صحيح أن الخيال يجلب المتعة وفي الذكرى شجن لذيذ، لكن ما الجدوى! أصبح حالي حال من يشتمُّ الزهور فتطربه رائحتها، دون أن تملأ له جوفًا أو تدفعه خطوة إلى الأمام.
Memories engulf me until I seem to myself to be living in the past rather than the present. True, imagination brings pleasure and there is a delicious melancholy in remembrance—but what's the use? I've become like one who smells flowers and delights in their scent, without their filling his belly or moving him a step forward.
Menorahs and Minaretsقلت له عما أجهله ليس رغبة في ألاَّ أخيب ظنه في اهتمامي بما يقول، وإنما كي أجاريه ولا أقتل ما هو حيُّ في قلبه، ويريده باقيًا ليعود إليه زائرًا ذات يوم ويراه.
I told him about things I knew nothing of—not so as not to disappoint his faith in my interest, but to go along with him and not kill what was alive in his heart, what he wanted kept so that he could return to it one day as a visitor and see it.