حقَّك عليَّه يا باشا، بس دي بورسعيد أمِّي وأبويا وشرفي.
Forgive me, Pasha, but this is Port Said: my mother, my father and my honour.
From the novel Port Said 68 · Chapter 24 · character: Khalil the market broker (السمسار), after defending the hidden missile
Words of a narrator or a character belong to the novel's world, not to the author's personal views.
Port Said 68
Port Said 68إحنا رجَّالة يا سيادة النقيب، وعمرنا ما نسبب أذى للي وقع في عرضنا ولو حزُّوا رقبتنا بالسيف.
We are men, Captain, and we never bring harm to one who has thrown himself on our protection, even if they cut our throats with the sword.
Port Said 68لَحِقتْ به، قتلها الهَمّ، لم تذرف دمعةً واحدة، تعطل الدمع وليته ما تعطل! فبعد أسبوع انكفأت على وجهها وأشهُر وغادرتنا، أبي الضاحك البَشُوش المقبل على الحياة عاش بعدها سنينَ طويلة، لكن من هذا الذي عاش وبقي معنا؟! واحد آخر ليس فيه شيءٌ من أبي، صامت مُتجهِّم مكروش النّفسِ..
She followed him; grief killed her. She did not shed a single tear, the tears failed, and would that they had not! A week later she collapsed on her face, and within months she left us. My laughing, cheerful father, so fond of life, lived long years after that, but who was it that lived and stayed with us? Someone else, with nothing of my father in him: silent, sullen, his spirit crushed.
Port Said 68وعجوز تقف طوال النهار أمام مدخل القهوة وأمامها طاولة فوقها جوارب ومناديل ومستلزمات تُباع للنسوة، عَرَّتْ رأسها دون أن تقصد أو حتى تشعر ورنَّت زغرودةً جلجلت في السماء، وما نشعر إلَّا وكلنا نصفق لها، لم أقُلْ لكفَّيَّ صفقا، فعلتا ذلك دون أن أحس..
And an old woman who stands all day at the café entrance behind a table of socks, handkerchiefs and women's wares bared her head without meaning to, without even noticing, and let out a trill of joy that rang through the sky; before we knew it we were all clapping for her. I did not tell my hands to clap; they did it without my feeling.