Passage
“You were a true human being then, Raouf, and you were my teacher too.
Alone with you, Raouf had said quietly, “Don’t you worry. The fact is, I consider this theft perfectly justified. Only you’ll find the police watching out for you, and the judge won’t be lenient with you,” he’d added ominously with bitter sarcasm, “however convincing your motives, because he, too, will be protecting himself. Isn’t it justice,” he’d shouted, “that what is taken by theft should be retrieved by theft? Here I am studying, away from home and family, suffering daily from hunger and deprivation!”
Where have all your principles gone now, Raouf? Dead, no doubt, like my father and my mother, and like my wife’s fidelity.
You had no alternative but to leave the students’ hostel and seek a living somewhere else.
So you waited under the lone palm tree at the end of the green plot until Nabawiyya came and you sprang towards her, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I must speak to you. I’m leaving to get a better job. I love you. Don’t ever forget me. I love you and always will. And I’ll prove I can make you happy and give you a respectable home.” Yes, those had been times when sorrows could be forgotten, wounds could be healed, and hope could bring forth fruit from adversity.
All you graves out there, immersed in the gloom, don’t jeer at my memories!”
Excerpt From: Naguib Mahfouz. “The Thief & the Dogs.” Chapter 11, page 104.
Analysis
“You were a true human being then, Raouf, and you were my teacher too.
Alone with you, Raouf had said quietly, “Don’t you worry. The fact is, I consider this theft perfectly justified. Only you’ll find the police watching out for you, and the judge won’t be lenient with you,” he’d added ominously with bitter sarcasm, “however convincing your motives, because he, too, will be protecting himself. Isn’t it justice,” he’d shouted, “that what is taken by theft should be retrieved by theft? Here I am studying, away from home and family, suffering daily from hunger and deprivation!”
Where have all your principles gone now, Raouf? Dead, no doubt, like my father and my mother, and like my wife’s fidelity.
You had no alternative but to leave the students’ hostel and seek a living somewhere else.
So you waited under the lone palm tree at the end of the green plot until Nabawiyya came and you sprang towards her, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I must speak to you. I’m leaving to get a better job. I love you. Don’t ever forget me. I love you and always will. And I’ll prove I can make you happy and give you a respectable home.” Yes, those had been times when sorrows could be forgotten, wounds could be healed, and hope could bring forth fruit from adversity.
All you graves out there, immersed in the gloom, don’t jeer at my memories!”
Excerpt From: Naguib Mahfouz. “The Thief & the Dogs.” Chapter 11, page 104.
Analysis
No comments:
Post a Comment