“Galal? Who’s Galal? What is he worth without Umm Galal? Do you want Hagg…

- جلال! جلال مين ده! وهو يسوَى إيه من غير أم جلال. إنتي عايزة الحاج محمود يزعل. ثم تُربِّتُ على أمي بحنُوّ: - ربنا ما يقطعها عادة.

“Galal? Who’s Galal? What is he worth without Umm Galal? Do you want Hagg Mahmoud to be upset?” Then she patted my mother tenderly: “May God never let this custom end.”

From the novel Diary of a Jewish Muslim · Chapter 22 · Umm Hasan, the Muslim neighbor (character's view)

Words of a narrator or a character belong to the novel's world, not to the author's personal views.

Diary of a Jewish Muslim

إنها هي التي أحبت أبي قبل أن يحبها هو. أحبته أكثر مما يحبها. ولو عادت بها الدنيا إلى الوراء ما اختارت غيره رغم ما تعرَّضت له من عذابٍ وفراقٍ للأهل والأحباب.
She was the one who loved my father before he loved her; she loved him more than he loved her, and if life were to turn back she would choose no one else, despite all the pain and the separation from family and loved ones it cost her.

Diary of a Jewish Muslim

بعد سفر جدِّي مات البيت. وفقدَتْ أمي نضارتها..
After my grandfather left, the house died, and my mother lost her bloom.

Diary of a Jewish Muslim

فشقَّتُنا ليست كأي شقة في العمارة وإنما كان لها دائمًا وضعُها الخاص. وأول ما يقترب منها الأولاد. الصغار منهم بالذات. كانت تنتابهم الرهبة وكأنهم مُقْدمُون على عالم سري محفوف بالغموض؛ لكنه وعلى أيَّة حال غموض جذاب يشوقهم لمعرفتنا على حقيقتنا!
Our flat was not like any other in the building; it always had its special standing. When the children came near, especially the little ones, a kind of awe seized them, as if they were entering a secret world wrapped in mystery, a mystery that nevertheless drew them to find out who we really were.

Diary of a Jewish Muslim