- دا عَيِّل يتيم، طَبْ يستحمى فين؟ وللا يغسل هدومه إزاي؟ يا ترى بقى يقعد جنب النسوان اللي بتغسل هدومها على حرف الترعة!
He's an orphan boy; where is he to bathe, and how is he to wash his clothes? Is he to squat beside the women washing theirs on the edge of the canal?
From the novel Habashi’s Café · Chapter 16 · character: Umm al-Khair (Habashi's wife)
Words of a narrator or a character belong to the novel's world, not to the author's personal views.
Habashi’s Café
Habashi’s Caféضاقت عليك الدنيا يا حبشي، سَمُّ الخِياطِ صار أوسَع منها..
The world has closed in on you, Habashi; the eye of a needle has become wider than it.
Habashi’s Caféمشهٌد بسيط، لا حولَ له ولا قوة، بنت بضفائر ومريلة ورنَّة صوتها كالثَّغْثَغَة، لكنه أقوى منه، أقوى بمراحل، قوته في قدرته على قتل لحظة الشر عندما تشتد عليه..
A simple scene, helpless and powerless: a girl with plaits and a school pinafore and a voice that rings like a child's lisp; yet it is stronger than he is, stronger by far, its strength lying in its power to kill the moment of evil whenever it bears down on him.
Habashi’s Caféفالجدران مثلما بُنيت أول مرة، طوب نيِّئ ملطوس بالطينِ والقَشِّ، والسقف على ستة جذوع من النخيل، وكله ومن أوله لآخره مُعرَّش بفروع كافور وأعواد حطب ناشف على عِرْقين أو ثلاثة من الخشب.
The walls were as they were first built, raw brick plastered with mud and straw, the roof resting on six palm trunks, and all of it, end to end, trellised with eucalyptus branches and dry firewood over two or three wooden beams.