評論
打印
Before the telephone came to Magdaluna, Im Kaleem's house was bustling at just about any time of day, especially at night, when the loud voices of the men talking, laughing, and arguing could be heard in the street below—a reassuring, homey sound. Her house was an island of comfort, an oasis for the weary village men, exhausted from having so little to do.
馬格達路納安裝電話之前，伊姆·卡里姆家一天到晚都是熱熱鬧鬧的，尤其是晚上，男人們的談話聲、笑聲以及爭論聲在樓下的街道上都可以聽得見，這是一種令心情放松的、使人感到在家里一般無拘無束的聲音。對于村里那些因無所事事而筋疲力盡的男人們來說,卡里姆的家是個舒適的小島，沙漠里的綠洲。
But it wasn't long before many of those men—the younger ones especially—started spending more of their days and evenings at Abu Raja's dikkan. There, they would eat and drink and talk and play checkers and backgammon, and then lean their chairs back against the wall—the signal that they were ready to toss back and forth, like a ball, the latest rumors going around the village. And they were always looking up from their games and drinks and talk to glance at the phone in the corner, as if expecting it to ring any minute and bring news that would change their lives and deliver them from their aimless existence. In the meantime, they smoked cheap, hand-rolled cigarettes, dug dirt out from under their fingernails with big pocketknives, and drank lukewarm sodas that they called Kacula, Seffen-Ub, and Bebsi.
但沒有過多久，男人們，尤其是年輕的，開始整日整夜地呆在阿布·拉賈的店里。在那里，他們吃喝、談論、玩西洋棋和十五子棋，然后把椅子往后一仰，靠在墻上，這表明他們要向傳接球一樣，熱烈討論村子里的最新傳聞。他們總是在玩游戲、喝酒、談論的時候抬頭瞥一眼角落里的電話，好像在期盼電話隨時響起，為他們帶來好消息，來改變他們的無聊生活，把他們從毫無目標的生活狀態中解脫出來。與此同時，他們吸著廉價的手卷煙，用隨身攜帶的小折刀摳著指甲里的泥，喝著不冷不熱被他們稱為可酷樂、七啟和伯事可樂的蘇打水。
