Translating Nouzha Fassi Fihri's La Baroudeuse: A Case Study in ...

They were cousins, born and raised in the same household that had been in
those years as populous as a village. In addition to their two families, there had
been their three uncles with their wives, children, slaves and maids, and several
family members whose misfortunes had forced them to come live off the charity
of the patriarch, the grandfather who had since died. Day and night the large
house had been alive with various sounds: shouts, laughter, babies crying,
whispers, conversations in loud or quiet voices. There had also been frequent
quarrels involving masters, servants, and children. Alliances were woven and
unraveled, friendships developed and hatreds, too, interrupted by competitions
and rivalries. On the whole, this family displayed all the genial and base emotions
a human community brings to life, wherever it takes root.
Since time before memory, Moulay Ali had preferred Lalla Kenza to all
the others, resolute little girl that she was. Authoritative like the head of a family,
she imposed her rule on a crew of children of all ages. She had always stood out
from the others because of her clear thinking, her disdain for the social
conventions that kept the other girls under strict control, forbidding any free
action or spontaneous speech. She would put her small fist on her hip and defy the
accusing stares of a multitude of aunts, blood relation or not, fierce guardians of
the traditions. In this way, she had grown up, and her personality had developed
over the years, to the delight of her father who always said, "Oh, if only you were
a boy!" However, she was not a boy, and Moulay Ali was quick to have his father
ask for Kenza's hand in marriage, before she could be married to an outsider. He
was her cousin, and he had the right to ask for her hand before any other suitor.
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