وليس القصدُ الفُرْجةَ على الأكتع ولا قهوته، كانوا يسرحون بخيالهم فيما كان هنا من قبل.
It was not to gaze at the one-armed man or his café; they were drifting in their imaginations through what had been here before.
From the novel Habashi’s Café · Chapter 25
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 Caféوتتمتم في سِرِّها: أحوال! واللي يعيش ياما يشوف..
And she mutters to herself: What a state of things! Whoever lives long enough sees so much.
Habashi’s Café- 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?
Habashi’s Caféمضت ثلاثون سنةً على هذه الأحداث ولا يزالُ هذا اللَّقَبُ حيًّا إلى اليوم، يراهُ في أعينِ الناس مع بعض الابتسامات، ويكادون ينطقون به عندما يَحتكُّ بهم أو يدخل معهم في شجار.
Thirty years have passed since those events and the nickname is still alive today; he sees it in people's eyes along with a few smiles, and they all but say it aloud whenever he rubs up against them or picks a quarrel.