فرغم رذالتهم عليه أحيانًا وما يسبِّبُونه له من إحراجات مع المعلم حبشي، فإنهم يملأون حياته، ويشغلونه عن السَّرَحان في الدنيا القديمة التي عاشها قبل أن يجيء إلينا.

For all their meanness to him at times and the embarrassments they caused him with Master Habashi, they filled his life and kept him from drifting back into the old world he had lived in before he came to us.

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.

مشهٌد 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.