تويت
_MD_RE: قصص عربية مترجمة إلى الإنكليزية بهدف النشر
This story is written by Abdl Hafeez AL Hafez
Translated by: Rami Ibrahim
The Weaver
Half of Saddoeh was hidden inside a hole made particularly to give some more space for his wooden loom, whereas the remaining part was visible to us. You can mark clearly a bend in his back owing to a long-term bond with a loom, and a white cap never be taken off. He lived there and never left his workshop, except two times a year_ in the mornings of the Lesser and the Greater Bairam _ that he takes two bundles of myrtle to lay above his parent's graves.
That is what people in our city talk about Saddoeh and they go on:
" He was our city's sage from whom we got answers to our numerous questions. We don’t remember when our going and coming from his black-stone workshop began. Some of us overlooked the scene of women repeatedly passing in front of his shop, and stealing looks at him; and it was said that some of them dared to stop and talk to him."
One of our sheiks in the city narrated that he saw a lady standing at the door of his shop: " she saluted him, unveiled herself, and shyly presented herself:
I am one of Om Lutfi's girls.
Then saddoeh said: my lady: our city is a ' stone stew ' there is no good in us all; and had we been good a little, we would have been loyal to our wives first. How could we in this case be loyal to a whore?!
We feel uneasy because we want our partner to love us the way we like and not the way in which love should be_ free and boundless and drives us with its power assuring our being together since driven together in its current. Set your future free_ your future detains it!
Look at our city and see how it devours its ghota Look at our city and how it replaces the black-stone ornament with dreary blocks. Our city has lost its features, is not it a stone stew?!
Another man said:
" Yes we lost our city's features, but maintained one of them_ that is Saddoeh the weaver.
We used to spend some time in silence at his door before we unveiled our questions and enquiries about different matters: marriage, divorce, legacy, travel, trade and building etc…
Although our questions were varied, Saddoeh used to deluge us with the same range of questions:
Is Abu Saleem still working in the Civil Registration ?
We answered " yes "
Does he still demand two stamps for each application ? One to stick to the application after licking it with his snake's tongue, and the other to be thrown for some cause in his drawer.
We answered shamefully with " yes "
The one who asks gets irritated here and says:
" What's the matter with you Saddoeh?! I can not see any link between the civil servant " Abu Saleem " and the case I ask you about.
Saddoeh here revels in much more anger and says " Your case is a stone stew! "
That is how our puzzled city lived about the middle of the last century, and that is Saddoeh " its sage " who never left the city, nor we stopped going to his workshop with lots of our enquiries.
A third man said:
Military coups followed each others those times and each time we heard the No.1 announcement from the radio, we hurried to Saddoeh's workshop. After a period of silent standing at his door, one of our boldest asks him:
Have you heard the No.1 announcement?
_ A stone stew
But the higher officer said that army will go back to its barracks.
_ A stone stew
He undertook to form another government and said that the country will live in prosperity.
Here Saddoeh used to shout at us:
_Is Abu Saleem still working in the Civil Registration ?
" yes "
_Does he still demand two stamps for each application ? One to stick to the application after licking it with his snake's tongue, and the other to be thrown for some cause in his drawer.
" yes "
_A stone stew
Then Saddoeh comes back to his loom and plays with both hands and legs moving them simultaneously till the shuttle moves forwards and backwards in the loom jaws, and all of that makes sad and dull music.
But in 1958 we were extremely surprised: that Saddoeh came out of his hole putting on a new gown, he placed a Fairousian stiletto at his waist and left his workshop to the city square in order to take part in Abdl Nasser's reception.
We could not believe our eyes when we saw Saddoeh held on the shoulders, waving his stiletto, yelling, cheering, and acclaiming both the union and Abdl Nasser. First we starred at his sweaty face, but soon we rushed after him cheering and repeating what he said and threw our fists in punctuation with our cheers.
We paid a visit to the Canal
Safe we found
It is Abdl Nasser
Who brought the Czech weapons
And spread them all around
Suddenly, Saddoeh got down, withdrew from the square bending his back and went back to his workshop with a melancholic face.
Another man said:
After coming back, we hurried back to Saddoeh's workshop for asking him: " why did you leave the square suddenly?! "
He said with two tears sliding on his cheeks: " I saw the civil servant
" Abu Saleem " cheering among the crowd. Then he sighed and wept.
It was the first time we see Saddoeh weeping, but after along period of silence Saddoeh spoke again: " It is a stone stew, " he said.
Years passed after that, and Saddoeh died. His workshop was demolished and a school was built in its place, but all of his contemporaries say on the formation of each government and when any chief becomes in charge of any thing: " God save his soal, he was a sage_ it is really a stone stew "
This story is written by Abdl Hafeez AL Hafez
Translated by: Rami Ibrahim
The Weaver
Half of Saddoeh was hidden inside a hole made particularly to give some more space for his wooden loom, whereas the remaining part was visible to us. You can mark clearly a bend in his back owing to a long-term bond with a loom, and a white cap never be taken off. He lived there and never left his workshop, except two times a year_ in the mornings of the Lesser and the Greater Bairam _ that he takes two bundles of myrtle to lay above his parent's graves.
That is what people in our city talk about Saddoeh and they go on:
" He was our city's sage from whom we got answers to our numerous questions. We don’t remember when our going and coming from his black-stone workshop began. Some of us overlooked the scene of women repeatedly passing in front of his shop, and stealing looks at him; and it was said that some of them dared to stop and talk to him."
One of our sheiks in the city narrated that he saw a lady standing at the door of his shop: " she saluted him, unveiled herself, and shyly presented herself:
I am one of Om Lutfi's girls.
Then saddoeh said: my lady: our city is a ' stone stew ' there is no good in us all; and had we been good a little, we would have been loyal to our wives first. How could we in this case be loyal to a whore?!
We feel uneasy because we want our partner to love us the way we like and not the way in which love should be_ free and boundless and drives us with its power assuring our being together since driven together in its current. Set your future free_ your future detains it!
Look at our city and see how it devours its ghota Look at our city and how it replaces the black-stone ornament with dreary blocks. Our city has lost its features, is not it a stone stew?!
Another man said:
" Yes we lost our city's features, but maintained one of them_ that is Saddoeh the weaver.
We used to spend some time in silence at his door before we unveiled our questions and enquiries about different matters: marriage, divorce, legacy, travel, trade and building etc…
Although our questions were varied, Saddoeh used to deluge us with the same range of questions:
Is Abu Saleem still working in the Civil Registration ?
We answered " yes "
Does he still demand two stamps for each application ? One to stick to the application after licking it with his snake's tongue, and the other to be thrown for some cause in his drawer.
We answered shamefully with " yes "
The one who asks gets irritated here and says:
" What's the matter with you Saddoeh?! I can not see any link between the civil servant " Abu Saleem " and the case I ask you about.
Saddoeh here revels in much more anger and says " Your case is a stone stew! "
That is how our puzzled city lived about the middle of the last century, and that is Saddoeh " its sage " who never left the city, nor we stopped going to his workshop with lots of our enquiries.
A third man said:
Military coups followed each others those times and each time we heard the No.1 announcement from the radio, we hurried to Saddoeh's workshop. After a period of silent standing at his door, one of our boldest asks him:
Have you heard the No.1 announcement?
_ A stone stew
But the higher officer said that army will go back to its barracks.
_ A stone stew
He undertook to form another government and said that the country will live in prosperity.
Here Saddoeh used to shout at us:
_Is Abu Saleem still working in the Civil Registration ?
" yes "
_Does he still demand two stamps for each application ? One to stick to the application after licking it with his snake's tongue, and the other to be thrown for some cause in his drawer.
" yes "
_A stone stew
Then Saddoeh comes back to his loom and plays with both hands and legs moving them simultaneously till the shuttle moves forwards and backwards in the loom jaws, and all of that makes sad and dull music.
But in 1958 we were extremely surprised: that Saddoeh came out of his hole putting on a new gown, he placed a Fairousian stiletto at his waist and left his workshop to the city square in order to take part in Abdl Nasser's reception.
We could not believe our eyes when we saw Saddoeh held on the shoulders, waving his stiletto, yelling, cheering, and acclaiming both the union and Abdl Nasser. First we starred at his sweaty face, but soon we rushed after him cheering and repeating what he said and threw our fists in punctuation with our cheers.
We paid a visit to the Canal
Safe we found
It is Abdl Nasser
Who brought the Czech weapons
And spread them all around
Suddenly, Saddoeh got down, withdrew from the square bending his back and went back to his workshop with a melancholic face.
Another man said:
After coming back, we hurried back to Saddoeh's workshop for asking him: " why did you leave the square suddenly?! "
He said with two tears sliding on his cheeks: " I saw the civil servant
" Abu Saleem " cheering among the crowd. Then he sighed and wept.
It was the first time we see Saddoeh weeping, but after along period of silence Saddoeh spoke again: " It is a stone stew, " he said.
Years passed after that, and Saddoeh died. His workshop was demolished and a school was built in its place, but all of his contemporaries say on the formation of each government and when any chief becomes in charge of any thing: " God save his soal, he was a sage_ it is really a stone stew "
تعليق