Naguib Mahfouz - Midaq Alley (Chapter 14) lyrics

It was Hussein Kersha who had talked Abbas el-Helw into work­ ing for the British army, but when the young man left for Tell el-Kebir and not a trace of him was left (even his shop had been rented by an aged barber), Hussein became frantic and experienced a violent reaction against the alley and its inhabitants. True, he had long proclaimed his hatred of it and them and looked forward to a better life but until el-Helw's departure he'd been unable to see a way forward and had failed to summon up the resolve needed to realize his dreams. Overcome by that frantic dismay, however, he seemed to find it too much that el-Helw should obtain a new lease on life and leave the miserable alley and determined to do the same, at any cost. One day, when his resolve had become too pressing for him to contain any longer, he told his mother with his usual bluntness, "Listen. I've made up my mind. This life's unbearable, and there's no reason whatever for me to put up with it against my will." The woman was used to his bad temper and to listening to his diatribes against the alley and its people and she regarded him, like his father, as a fool to whose ravings she should pay no attention. She didn't argue, therefore, merely muttering to herself, "God grant me relief from this life!" Hussein, however, his small eyes flashing and his swarthy face glowering, repeated, "This life is intolerable and I refuse to put up with it for one more day." Since it was not in her nature to stay silent for long in the face of another's anger, her fragile patience failed her and she cried in a voice that betrayed itself as the origin of his own, "What's wrong with you? VVhat's -wrong with you? You're as bad as your miserable father!" The young man replied contemptuously, "I have to get out of this alley." "Have you gone mad, like your crazy father?" she scolded him, staring at him in exasperation. "On the contrary," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "I've come to my senses after being crazy too long. Pay close attention. I'm not just saying it, I mean it. I've got my clothes ready in a bundle and all that's left is to say goodbye. Filthy house, rotten alley, animals!" She looked at him searchingly, seeking to read his eyes, and the inten­ sity of his resolve confounded her. "What are you saying?" she cried. Once more he said, as though talking to himself, "Filthy house, rotten alley, animals!" Shaking her head mockingly, she said, "Good luck to you, you scion of noble lineage, you son of Kersha Pasha!" "Kersha the sh**! Kersha the notorious! Ugh! Don't you realize the stench of our disgrace is in everyone's nostrils? Wherever I go, they wink when they see _me and say, 'His sister ran off with one man, and his father's going to run off with another!"' Stamping his foot so hard that the gla** rattled in the window, he shouted furiously, "What's to keep me here? I'm going to get my clothes and leave and never come back." ***** The man launched himself at him but the despairing woman threw herself between them and took his punches on her own chest and face till the man had had enough and yelled, "Get your black face out of my sight and don't ever come back! From now on you're dead and gone to Hell as far as I'm concerned." The boy ran to his room, picked up his bundle, descended the stairs in leaps, and walked the length of the alley looking neither right nor left. Before turning onto Boxmakers Street, he spat on the ground of the alley and shouted in a voice shaking with hatred, "Go to hell! Out of my sight! God curse you and your people!"