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?

From the novel Days in the Diaspora · Chapter 12 · an elderly Egyptian Jew at Ustaz Yaqoub's monthly Saturday gathering (unnamed)

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

Days in the 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.

Days in the Diaspora

كنت أحب باريس وهي صماء لا تشعر بي، وعندما أتيت إليها أخذت مني نادية وأعطتني راشيل! ولم تكتف!! رشحتني لوظيفة خادم، فالصبي في حانوت ما هو إلا خادم أو يكاد..
I loved Paris while she was deaf and did not feel me; and when I came to her she took Nadia from me and gave me Rachel! Nor was that enough: she put me forward for the job of a servant, for a shop boy is a servant, or nearly so.

Days in the Diaspora

أقصد اللهجة المصرية! فهي خفيفة الظل، ملساء، تنساب من الفم برشاقة ولها وقع السحر على الأذن.
I mean the Egyptian dialect! It's light and charming, smooth; it flows from the mouth with grace and falls on the ear like magic.

Days in the Diaspora