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

women more beautiful and more virtuous than that witch. But a mother, you will
only ever have one . . ."
The sons obeyed, thus putting themselves in the hands of a mother whom
no daughter-in-law would ever satisfy because she would never agree to share her
child with another woman. How many fathers--patriarchs or hardheaded fools--
break up the life of a couple under false pretenses to strengthen their tyranny. Our
society is organized in such a way that the individual is firmly tied to the whole,
and because of this, there is no individuality.
Marjana went with Kenza to the tomb of Sidi Bushashia, known for his
power to reunite lovers. She took her behind the ramparts of the city in a secret
outing to visit the tomb of Lalla H'mama, the princess transformed into a dove
who continued to be the messenger of lovers. For Kenza, she called on the good
jinn of her childhood, the afreets whose wings could stretch to cover the North,
South, East, and West at the same time, asking them to bring back the absent one.
promises.
They made use of witchcraft, spending all their savings on illusive
They even went to the Jewish quarter where, they had been told, a world-
famous fortuneteller had come to live out his life after having gained supreme
wisdom. Disguised as poor women in ragged wraps, they entered the area
reserved for the Jewish community where great poverty and ostentatious wealth
lived side by side, where the reminders of a past marked by the rigidity of
religious precepts mixed with a lame adaptation to modern life.
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