ولد رأسه يصل إلى منتصف صدرك بالكاد وبقدمه صندلٌ لا يزيدُ ثمنُه على ثلاثة جنيهات، ومع هذا كنت ضئيلًا أمامه.. غلبك..
A boy whose head barely reached the middle of your chest, with a sandal on his foot worth no more than three pounds, and yet before him you were small. He beat you.
From the novel Port Said 68 · Chapter 27
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 68انحنيتُ ولثمتُ يده عدة مرات، لم أفعلها من قبل إلا مع أبي.. كان أبي في هذه اللحظات.. هذه آخر مرة رأيتُه فيها، فبعد أيام دخل عليه عسكري المراسلة بفنجان القهوة الذي طلبه قبل دقائق، وجده كالنائم في المقعد، نظَّارة القراءة سقطت في حِجْر البنطال ورأسهُ مائلٌ على صدره.. مات..
I bent and kissed his hand several times; I had never done that before except with my father. He was my father in those moments. That was the last time I saw him: a few days later the orderly came in with the coffee he had ordered minutes before and found him as if asleep in his chair, his reading glasses fallen into his lap, his head tilted onto his chest. He had died.
Port Said 68البحر بطُولِه وعرضِه والعمق كوكبٌ هو الآخر.. لا تفيه كلمة ولا عبارة أو كتاب كله شرح.. واعرٌ، مالحٌ، غويط، وقلبُه كقطعة الحديد لا رحمة يعرفها ولا رفق، وإن خُضتَ فيه وهو معتلُّ المِزاج يفتك بك، فلا أمان له حتى وهو مبتسم لطيف أو وهو ناعس مغمض العينين..
The sea, in its length and breadth and depth, is a planet of its own. No word, no phrase, no book of pure explanation can do it justice. Rugged, salt, deep, its heart a lump of iron that knows neither mercy nor gentleness; wade into it when its mood is bad and it will tear you apart, and there is no trusting it even when it smiles kindly or dozes with its eyes shut.