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

drowned in the gurgle of the wall fountain in the haunted kitchen? What bodies
merged and equal in the same fear of being discovered? Everyone in the
household was sleeping then, but she was sure her mistress lay awake after having
sent her husband out of the room once more, and in her insane stubbornness
continued an incomprehensible communion with her distant cousin.
"Your husband," the messenger continued, "was everywhere at once. He
used his blood-stained knife and did his job as though he were enjoying himself.
He never lost his smile, even as he fell, shot in the chest. I was a few steps away
from him. He pulled my sleeve. I leaned over and tried to open his shirt to check
his wound. He motioned me to stop and said, 'It doesn't matter. I won't survive
this. Promise me, my son, if you get out of this alive, promise me you'll find my
wife and tell her . . .'
"He was losing a lot of blood, so I tore a strip off my turban to make a
compress for his chest. He took a deep breath and spoke more quickly to gain
time, 'Tell her this is the other side of the coin. Until now, she could only see one
side. I hope to God she's satisfied now. She is so demanding. Tell her that even
though I never understood life, I faced death squarely, and I was not afraid. Tell
her, though in half a century I never fully adapted to this city, now I am one of her
sons, because I die for her. Tell her I loved her, so much!'
"He stopped talking. He motioned for me to turn him on his right side and
move away. Caught up in the heat of the battle, I didn't come back to him for a
quarter of an hour. He wasn't breathing any more. The fighting stopped at
nightfall. We didn't waste any time. Our martyrs were immediately taken to the
176