لعلك لا تدري يا جلال أن أهل حيفا بعد أن نزحوا من بيوتهم، اقتحمها اليهود فوجدوا الشاي والقهوة لا تزال مصبوبة في الأقداح.
Perhaps you don't know, Galal, that when the people of Haifa fled their homes, the Jews who broke in found the tea and coffee still poured in the cups.
From the novel Days in the Diaspora · Chapter 17 · Sheikh Ikrima of Nablus, guest at Sheikh Menji's table
Words of a narrator or a character belong to the novel's world, not to the author's personal views.
Days in the Diaspora
Days in the Diasporaلم أر وجهه من قبل، فصنعته بنفسي.. العينان والحاجب والجبهة وشعر أسود غزير. لم أعرف له قامة أو هيكلًا أو نبرة في الحديث فأنشأهم قلبي إنشاءً، حتى إن عقلي الذي في الباطن صدق أن هذا الذي يلوح أمامي هو أبي
I had never seen his face, so I made it myself: the eyes, the brow, the forehead, thick black hair. I knew neither his height nor his build nor the tone of his voice, so my heart invented them, until my inner mind believed that this figure looming before me was my father.
Days in the Diasporaلم يعد لهم إلا هي.. هي السلوى والحنين، وخزة الألم وطيف الأمل، هي الشمس التي غربت، ولا دفء عادوا يشعرون به.. تأتي إليهم عندما يكونون فرادى في بيوتهم، تكلمهم ويكلمونها، تغويهم فيصدقونها، تشير إليهم وإذا هي سراب!
They had nothing left but her. She was their solace and their longing, the stab of pain and the ghost of hope; she was the sun that had set, and they felt no warmth any more. She comes to them when they are alone in their homes; she speaks to them and they speak to her; she tempts them and they believe her; she beckons, and she is a mirage.
Days in the Diasporaفيبدو 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.