We knew his coughs by heart. Each cough had its own musical mode: one…

كنا نحفظ سعلاته عن ظهر قلب.. كل سعلة لها المقام الموسيقي الذي يخصها، سعلة تقول لنا: إنه قادم من بعيد وعلينا الانتباه، وأخرى يستهل بها الحديث، وسعلة تحذير إذا شعر بأي تجاوز للحدود

We knew his coughs by heart. Each cough had its own musical mode: one told us he was coming from afar and we should pay attention, another opened his speech, and a cough of warning came whenever he sensed a line had been crossed.

From the novel Unforgettable Days · Chapter 2

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

Unforgettable Days

هو ليس أبي، جدي هو أبي.
He is not my father. My grandfather is my father.

Unforgettable Days

كنت ببساطة مسحورًا به، مسحور لدرجة مؤذية، وكانت المشاعر تأخذني لبعيد وأتمنى لو كان هو أبي!
I was simply bewitched by him, bewitched to a harmful degree; my feelings carried me far away and I wished he were my father.

Unforgettable Days

كما للحاضر أناسه الذين نراهم ويروننا نكلمهم ويكلموننا، الماضي هو الآخر له أناسه ويعيشون فينا بقدر ما نعيش، فلهم حضورهم ولهم وجود وإن شئنا رأيناهم وكلمونا وكلمناهم..
Just as the present has its people, whom we see and who see us, whom we speak to and who speak to us, the past too has its people; they live in us as much as we live, they have presence and existence, and if we wish we see them, they speak to us and we speak to them.

Unforgettable Days