أخال نادية.. ولحظات زمن عشناها من قبل، أعيشها مرة ثانية..
I imagine Nadia—and moments of a time we lived before, I live once more.
From the novel Menorahs and Minarets · Chapter 43
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 Minaretsالأرض دي يا ابن أخويا مش أردب قمح وللا قنطار قطن تبيع وتشتري فيه، دي زي النَّفسَ الواحد يفضل متبِّت فيه لحد ما روحه تطلع، اتولدنا وكبرنا عليها وعلى خيرها
This land, nephew, isn't a bushel of wheat or a bale of cotton you buy and sell; it's like the breath a man clings to until his soul leaves him. We were born and raised on it and on its bounty.
Menorahs and Minaretsينظر وأنا الآخر أنظر.. يسأل وأنا الآخر أسأل، غير أن كلًّا منا لا يملك للآخر جوابًا..
It looks, and I look back; it asks, and I ask too; yet neither of us has an answer for the other.
Menorahs and Minaretsفلا يعرف اليتم إلا من جربه.. إحساس بالخواء، كأنك قطرة ماء تسربت فتشربتها الرمال
Only one who has tasted it knows orphanhood: a feeling of emptiness, as if you were a drop of water that seeped away and was drunk by the sand.