If the Crazy Talked
l-Hmq ila
nTq
by
Sa`id
[Si Mohamed Benayad]
translation and commentary by
Mohamed Najmi and Douglas Davis1
The script begins with the narrator, l-rawi
Gentlemen: today, gentlemen, we'll stay late (have a soiree), there'll be no noise, there'll be no sleep, there'll be no empty speech, there'll be no full speech. We, as you know, having a good time is dear to us. We like to be in a joyful state, and joke, and sing. And we don't let ourselves cry. You'll travel with me to the world of laughter. But alas, our laughter is incomplete. Laugh, and open your mouth wide, if you can. But stop your laughter enroute, maybe you'll get the point. Or you'll drown.
To say no more about this, today's story is an old one. Because we see it in every place and time. [It's] the story of the crazy ones. Open your ears and listen well. Don't let the words get ahead of you. Because it is the problem with the crazy one when he speaks. Because his speech shakes you up, like thunder and lightening.
The crazy ones appear on the stage, singing.
We're the crazy ones, we are we are
We're crazy, we are we are.
The sultan's house is high,
there's a peach tree in it loaded with fruit
There's a pipe made of copper
It pours out water abundantly
And leaves us sleepless
Crazy #1: I swear to God, our jackal never climbed the hill. Even if we pluck out a hair. And our dawn will never rise. And our sun will never shine. Because the earth of this world doesn't give. It only swallows.
Crazy #2: What's this talk I hear? To swallow, or to pull? It swallowed it up. And our corral's emptied of sheep. And we never heard it complain about being tired.
Crazy #3: I'm a spinning saucer. I'm the owner of the motorcyle. I'll keep on turning, and turn, and turn.
Crazy #4: And how long are you going to keep turning? Life is all turning. Turn here, turn there. Turn from here, turn from there. Until they label us "Turner". What did the compass accomplish? Since its birth it was turning. What did it do? It made a circle. It enclosed itself in it. It lived out its life in the center of it.
Crazy #5: Let go my ball. My ball, my little eye! Come to me, I'm your friend. So you betrayed me. Come hug your brother. Kiss me. You're the one who made me crazy.
Crazy #6 [talking to a shovel and pick]: O, shovel, my mommy! Give me that head so I can kiss it! O father pick: why are you mad? Ah, I just understood. Because for so long you've been hanging up. Soon you'll work, and permanently. If you take away the poison from the fang of the cobra. O father, o mother, don't curse me. Didn't I do what I could for you? It's certain that if you don't split the sea, the axe will surely dig and the shovel will fill in the grave. All we have to do is be patient.
Crazy #7 [female]: My God, what destiny is this? I travelled everywhere, and I didn't find anything but hyenas in the guise of people. Neither brother nor neighbor has any value. In my case, everyone wants to be a broker. I asked them to save me. And to help me. But, they were after my livelihood and then they threw me away. They told me, you're just a woman. Leave trouble to the men. They think manhood's in wearing a sword and pants.
Crazy #8 [female]: Men? Where are the men? Where are the men? There are only hypocracy3 and lies. What's left only lets you live with him in dreams and takes you up to the top and waits for you to slide down and he sells you like an animal in the market. Manhood is not just barking and making noise. And flying and flapping. Manhood's not a false smile like you do. Manhood is [keeping] the word. Keeping the word. And he who can't keep his word, let him not make promises. So you deceived me, you made me promises, and you betrayed me. And I swear to God that I won't forgive you. I'll take you to one who doesn't betray the word. To One who doesn't betray the word.
#1: What do you want to smoke?
#2: I'll smoke sun on the casbah.
#1: And you?
#3: I'll smoke anger and depression.
#1: And you? What'll you smoke?
#4: Smoke? What'll I smoke? Come on, people are smoked, and their smoke is wasted in the sky.
#1: And you? What'll you smoke?
#5: I don't want smoke or to be smoked. I don't want the stars, nor the sky. Let me just struggle with living.
#1: And you? What'll you eat?
#6: I'll eat the sweat of people flowing in rivers, without any mercy for orphans, without any mercy for children. The sweat of people is salty, and its saltiness watered farms and gardens. And villas and apartments are built with it.
#1: And you [f.]? What'll you eat?
#7 [f.]: I'll eat patience. I'll eat promises and rendezvous that produce no decisions. Just noise and troubles. I'll eat treachery and betrayal. Every one tears off a piece of my flesh. Everyone pulls at it. And I can no longer tell the enemy from the friend. I don't know which way to head. Where are my loved ones and my folk?
#1: And you? What'll you eat and what'll you drink?
#8 [f.]: I'll eat the swords and daggers whose wounds are still showing on my back. I'll drink dirt and eat germs. And I'll abstain from wars. And I'll think about people who are lost in the streets.
The doctor and the psychological researcher enter.
Dr.: Listen, O you crazy ones. Today we have a guest. This guest is a researcher in the field of the crazy and the possessed. And he can help you solve your problems, if you tell him truly the reasons which brought you to us in this hospital.
Researcher: First of all, I want you to forget the treatment you have received in this hospital. I want you to count me as one of you. Don't be afraid of me from now on. We're going to turn a new page. I've already dealt with crazy ones from all groups. And I've written a lot of books in this field.
#1: O, Mr. researcher, you won't be able to write a single book about us. Because we have a lot of problems. To deal with it, you will need an ocean of ink, because each day new crazy ones are added.
Researcher: Just relax. I'm going to live and identify with your lives, because this is my work. This is my work and I'm used to it.
Crazies together: You'll live our dilemma? By God, no one could live with it. If chickens carried our worries they'd lose their feathers.
R: Judged by my experience, I will surely be able to be with you and to share your feelings.
Crazies together: It's doubtful. Only the one who's hit with it knows what's in the bag.
R: In order to make use of the time, let's begin our work. First question: what are your favorite colors?
#1: The color that's dear to me is red. The color of blood. The blood of innocents who are killed each day, without anyone knowing of it.
#8: My color is white. The color of safety and peace, which they have changed into a sign of fear and submission.
#7: My color is black. The color of darkness and sleep and dreams, as long as we are immersed in dispute and talk.
#2: My color's green. The color of nature, the color of henna. A look at it will give you the sense of comfort and flourishing. But it's too bad, our green paradise withered into yellow. It's just rocks and jujube.
The researcher directs his speech to crazy ones 3, 4, 5, and 6: And you: what's your color?
#3,4,5,6: It's not a question of appearance. It's not a question of colors. It's a question of reform and serving the country seriously. Without forgetting. It's a question of thinking of the state of the poor one and of the state of the hungry one.
R: Now we'll go on to another question dealing with art. What is the music that you like dance to?
Crazies together: We have no art. We have no music. We have filth. We have just what puts you to sleep, brings on asthma. So whatever comes will herd us and take us away. And it will dump us in a boundless sea.
R: Since you have no taste [for art], I suggest to you Western music, and you'll dance to it.
Music begins, and the crazies start dancing.
R (stopping the music): After this musical break, which I always use in my work, since it helps me work actively, let's begin with God's blessing. Come on, you crazy one (to #3).
#3: Correct your terminology, and pay attention to what you're saying. I'm not crazy. I'm a victim of society. I preferred craziness to staying sane. What have you done, you who are so sane?
R: Tell me your problem. Maybe I'll be able to find the key to your locker.
#3: Write, sir, and record it without elaboration or hypocracy, the dilemma of a derelict and outcast man. No matter what corner I set my foot in, I found myself pursued.
R: Explain to me quickly, for I don't have time for empty words.
#3: Oh, we've just begun worrying about the time, when it's too late! Now, when the world is threatened at every moment with death.
R: Give me a break, or I'll go on to someone else.
#3: My story is like a fairy tale. It will be told by old women to children. I used to be a peddlar. They did me in. I sit here, and they burst out in front of me. I'm confused and sore. You know what would be good for you? With talking, we aren't going to get anywhere. Let's get to practice. Now, you'll see that my tale is like one of those films that they show on TV.
The crazies all leave together and come on stage to act out the scene of crazy #3.
R (speaking in order to break the silence): OK, we'll listen to this man and maybe he has something that will be of benefit to all of us.
#3: The Peddlar
Crazy #3 comes on stage carrying a plastic bag in which there's a bunch of
used stuff: Come on over here. Socks,
brassieres, underwear, very cheap.
Come and see the American things. Everything's
American! Come on, you friends of
Crazy #2 comes on stage carrying a plastic bag of used stuff and passing quickly in front of crazy #3: Come on, little brother, gather your rags together. The cops are coming!
#3: Ah, they just won't leave us alone. We're tired of greasing their palms. They're not satisfied any more with the usual pay-off. They only want the cream of the cream. Gosh, we're always getting away from them. All we need is some pistols and we could make a Mafia film with them.
#3 collects his things, and #5 and #6 come on the stage acting the role of two cops.
Cop 1: Oh, you cursed of your parents, I'm tired of telling you not to put your stuff here.
#3: So, brothers, why can't I be here?
Cop 2: Well, this is [supposed to be] a thoroughfare. Don't you see you're messing it up? We're responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of the city.
#3: Cleanliness? Well, there are some hearts that better get cleaned up first, before you worry about the cleanliness of the pavement, you paved heart!
Cop 1: What? You're insulting the government? Come on: tonight you're going to get beaten like the drum on the eve of the 27th [of Ramadan].
Cop 2: Grab your rags and come with us!
#3: I won't come. Go ahead and kill me. Skin me. You won't uproot me from here.
They carry #3 and leave, with him shouting.
#3: Come here! Help! Help!
Crazy #3 climbs on stage carrying a forked pole with sweets on it, addressing the researcher.
#3: Sir, I found that for that occupation you need an official authorization to put things on the ground. I realized that I have no choice, so I said, "Let's sell sweets." Come on over here. Get some sweets! Mille fauille -- everything hot, everything crunchy (addressing the public). Would you like some sweets? And you: some mille fauille? And you? Jaban? No, brother, I don't have jaban. I left my wife just making it.
Crazy #2 and #4 climb on the stage, acting the roles of cops.
#4: What's this disease you're selling to the people? Let me see these sweets. You've had these sweets a week.
#3: And where did you learn this science of sweets, so to speak?
#2: No wonder the hospital is full of school kids these days. And their parents are coming to complain to us about the sellers of jaban and sunflower seeds. Come on, get it out, hurry up.
#3: What am I going to get out? I'm tired of getting it out.
#4: Just get it out and don't be funny with us.
#3: So understand me. Shall I hit you in the head with a rock?
#2: Now, get out those papers, you loser. Or you're going to get beaten.
#3: So, even to sell sweets we need papers?
#4: Come on, get out the papier.
#3: What's this papier business?
#4: No, no, it seems this guy doesn't understand. This one will only understand the club.
#2: OK, c'mon with us.
#3: Let's go, there's nothing I can do about it.
What won't go won't go. I'll go
with you all the way to the
Everyone leaves the stage. After a moment of silence he climbs on again carrying a basket with sunflower seeds, peanuts, and cigarettes. Addressing the researcher:
Well, sir, since they didn't let me sell in the street and chased me away from in front of the schools, I said to myself, "OK, let's go to the train."
Scene in the train.
Cigarettes, sunflower seeds, peanuts! Cigarettes, sunflower seeds, peanuts! What a train this is! All we need is the Indians, and we could make a Western film. Oh, how sore these seats make you! And the people on this train are strange. Lying down and taking two seats. And if you say to him, "Slide over so I can sit next to you," he'll say, "I'm sick. I'm tired." And the train filled up with sick people. All it needs is a doctor and nurses and it'll become Suissi!. It's not a train anymore. It became a moussem. Someone's bringing a 50 ton load and occupying the whole car by himself. If you want to sneak by the conductor, the way is blocked. Cigarettes, peanuts, sunflower seeds. Cigarettes, one by one. Cigarettes!
Addressing the [female] crazy #7, who is acting the role of a tourist in the train: Madame, some cigarettes?
#7: No, no, merci.
#3: Ah, you smoke from your own package. It's just Arabs that buy cigarettes one by one. And they themselves are still singles. They still don't want to become a whole package. Have some sunflower seeds, ma'am.
#7: Je ne veux pas zaria!
#3: I don't care. Take it or throw it away.
He throws the paper cone of sunflower seeds into her hand.
#7: Mais je ne mange pas
#3: I don't care. Eat it or toss it. We eat your food, don't we? Us, whatever you send to us, we eat it. We've never said, ìNo.î Take it, ma'am. Don't refuse nëama. [She throws the packet at the basket, and he returns it to her.] There's no other way, madame. You have to buy it from me.
#7: Tu es fau au pas? Je t'e ai dis je ne veux pas!
#3: What's wrong? Don't you like peanuts? Take some seeds. Look, it's really good. Look at the package: make a key-holder out of it. Take it as a souvenir.
#1 and #2 climb on the stage, acting the parts of the conducters.
Cond.: Come on, O cursed of your parents. Haven't we warned you not to sell on the train?
His assistant: You're playing hide and seek with us? You're trapped, you rat!
#3: May God have mercy on your parents! Have pity, brothers. I have 15 children! They're all unemployed.
Cond.: You're complaining to us? Are you expecting us to pay them?
Asst.: OK, kid, hand over 300 rials p.v.
#3: Do you have any brains, or not? Sell me and and my goods and you won't get 300 rials.
Cond.: So you don't want to pay the fine? Hand over that basket. [He throws the basket from the stage to the audience.]
#3 [starts to cry and shout]: Oh God. O mother, my fortune's gone!
Asst.: Your fortune? Well, follow it then!
They push him off the stage. The crazies climb back on the stage and #3 addresses the researcher.
#3: This is my whole story, from beginning to end. Well, what did you get from it?
R.: Your problem is beautiful! It ought to be made into a film. I'm going to refer your problem to a producer friend of mine so he can help you make a film of it. Thats enough, sir, thanks. Go back to your place until I call you.
He addresses #4: Come over here, you fool. Do you know how to sing?
#4: Yes, sir. I'm a great artist. I'm just not recognized.
R.: Sing me a little bit.
#4: Right away.
O crazy, O dear one, what do you think of this mind
The impoverished mind
is like a sheep without wine
R.: Good. Now tell me your story from beginning to end.
#4: OK, sir. But my story has no ending. Here, you'll see for yourself.
He leaves the stage, and the lights go out.
#2: The Enemies
The scene: #4 is sleeping between two chairs. Standing on them are #5 and #6. Each is carrying a knife, and they make the sound of a sword-fight. The noise wakes up #4.
#4: For God's sake, why can't you let me sleep? There's always noise. Always a battle. Why me, brothers? Why am I the one getting this beating? Don't I have trouble enough? You're living in apartements, and I'm just in a hut. What do you want with me?
#5: I don't want anything from you. I just don't like him. You are dear to me, God knows.
#6: All I want from you is goodness and kindness. As for me, there is my enemy.
#4: Since you are each other's enemy, why don't you make peace?
#5: It's impossible. The wound which is between us won't heal.
#6: We've decided to stay forever in dispute and at war.
#4: Well, brothers, you are fighting but I'm getting the blows. You're shooting at him from your apartment, and he's shooting at you from his, and the bullets are falling at my place. And I'm the one who's getting it. You aren't touched by it all.
#5: Well, that's what we want. You want us to get it?
#6: We'll never be hurt. You're the ones who will continue getting the blows, until God gets back the earth and what's on it.
#4: Come, I have a solution for you.
#5 and #6, with one voice: What is it?
#4: You said you aren't going to stop your war. Why don't you cut your losses? Bring boxing gloves and have a fight in front of me. And whoever loses, I'll take his place in his apartment. Is it my destiny to be always living in a hut?
#5: That's a beautiful solution, but there's one problem.
#4: And what's that, again?
#6: We still need a referee for the fight.
#4: Well, sir, I'll be your referee.
#5: But you don't understand the game. You won't play the referee.
#4: So what will I play?
#5: You'll be the ball.
They get down from the chairs and everyone starts to push #4. They laugh until they leave the stage.
#4 comes back on stage and addresses the researcher: This is my story, and as I told you it has no ending.
R.: Well, what made you keep on worrying, and to carry the burden of the whole world? Why don't you let it be and mind your own business? One hand will never clap.
#4: But one hand can clap.
R.: Go deal with your situation and worries.
#4: Well, if you are overwhelmed by worries, you'll keep thinking about the big worry, and you'll leave alone the little ones.
R. [interrupting]: That's enough, thanks. Go back to your place until I call you. Come on you crazy one [f.]. Tell me your story.
#7: Me? You're talking to me?
R.: Yes, you.
#7: I thought you were talking to the wall.
R.: Yeah, I'm talking to you. You want to drive me crazy?
#7: O Sir, I was made crazy by love and passion.
R.: Well, how did that happen to you?
#7: Wait a little. Here, you'll see my story and judge it.
#7: The Jilted Girl
Darkness. She climbs back on stage in front of #1, who acts the role of a lover with her.
#7: You just don't want to understand.
#1: What should I understand?
#7: What you promised me.
#1: What did I promise you? I pray to God I won't be falsely accused.
#7: Enough of this joking. You promised me marriage.
#1: Leave me alone now, God have mercy on your grandfather.
#7: How do you want me to do that, when my parents know you promised to marry me?
#1: Leave me alone. Get out of my way.
#7: That's it? You've shaken me off? When I trusted you?
#1: And where is there any trust left in these times?
#7: And where is the word of men?
#1: What word? Are you reminding us of the time of Abu Hurayra? Ask those people if there's any word left in these times (pointing to the audience).
#7: No, no. It seems to me you're just joking. It's impossible you could change that easily.
#1: Say, lady, am I the only one you can see? (sings) "Find someone else, there are a lot of single ones available."
#7: I want you.
#1: Did you lose your mind? Or did you go crazy? Tell me, by God, with what you want me to marry you? Here you see me, without any work at all. With what would we live? Will we go out begging? Or will we eat roaches?
#7: I care about neither house or work. It's enough for me that you be next to me, even if we live in a slum and eat stale bread.
#1: What's this talk? Are you also influenced by Egyptian movies? Me, girl, I don't want any stale bread. I don't want to sleep on a sheep skin. By God, I won't marry anyone except to have a good and elegant life. God, we've suffered and grown up in poverty. You want our kids too to be overwhelmed by hardship and to grow up inpoverished and depressed? I swear to God, if there's no work -- none of these youth today will marry. And you girls will be putting yourselves on sale cheap to get someone to marry you, and you too will be jobless.
#7: So that's your last word?
#1: This is the back-word, not the last word.
#7: There's no trust left nowadays. There's no trust. (She leaves the stage.)
The young man lets her go and climbs back on stage.
#7 (addressing the researcher): That's what made a fool of me and left me living with the crazies.
R.: This problem of yours has been superceded. We are in the other world. It's just you folks who are still hung up about love. Your thinking is still backwards. It's not necessary that all love relations end in marriage.
#7: There is the difference between us and you people. (She leaves the stage.)
The researcher calls on #8 [f.]: Come here, you crazy. Tell me your dilemma.
#8: Well, as for me, my case is complicated; and I'm hanging from a rope, and we're waiting for the rope to be cut so our sun will rise and shine again. Open your ears and wait a bit so you'll see how my story began and how it still hasn't finished.
Darkness
#8: The Nameless
Scene: a group of men sitting and drinking wine, with Um Kulthoum music playing. There's a person far from the group, and he seems to be sad, and he looks as if he's thinking about a very important matter.
#1: Pour, and fill another round so we can forget our worries.
#2: What worries? As for us, our existence is counted among the worries.
#8 enters shouting: O people, my name is lost! Who has seen it?
#4: Go away, lady, and come another time.
#8: My name's lost, and I'm living without a name.
#5: You didn't find any other time to look for your name but now, in this gathering where we're having a good time?
#8: O people, guide me, and help me seek my name.
#6: O, what a hassler. She's always disturbing us.
The person sitting far from the group speaks.
#3: I helped you before, but you betrayed and deceived me.
#8: But I appologized to you, and forgiveness is an act of generosity.
God is full of forgiveness and mercy, and God is truthfull. So how could mankind not forgive?
#3: That's enough lady. Stop this lecturing on religion. That's enough: I have forgiven you, because my heart is pure. And that's my problem. Lots of people look down on me, and they think of me as weak. I'm an oven, and I can bake for the whole neighborhood. And I can take it, without any conditions.
#8: Why are you folks still spread out like the grain for alms-giving? Get together, and help me find my name, so I can hang it up in my corral.
#1: Her name? This is a chance for me to be something. Why don't I add a name to a another name and fill out a Family Record.
#2: Go away, you crazy one. Forget your name. Come and pass the night with us. Whoever wants to profit has the whole year ahead of him.
#8: You've put my name in your pockets and locked it up. Take it out! Give me my name!
#6: Go away. What name do we have? We ourselves don't have any names left.
The group leaves the stage, repeating, "What names do we have left?" As for the person by himself, he leaves the stage from the other door.
Darkness.
#8 climbs the stage and addresses the researcher: That's my story. It has neither head nor base.
R.: Your problem is with yourself. Don't count on someone else if you want to stay on your feet.
#8: So, if your brothers deny you, will your enemies recognize you?
She leaves the stage, repeating these words.
R.: Come here, you crazy. These people I've examined have problems that would make stones weep. Tell me your problem, briefly, I don't have time left--I want to catch the train and return to where I came from.
#5: Plant yourself here with us. What's this going away business? Is going into the hammam like coming out? Stay and live with us and see strange and amazing things.
R.: Come on, here's my ear. Let me hear it.
#5: I, sir, am a ball-player. I've scored so many goals. But at the end of the round, they scored on me and kicked me out the door. Because I tried to disagree with them. And here my story will begin, and you judge it.
Darkness.
#5: The Ball-Player
#5 appears wearing the uniform of a soccer player, and next to him is #3, who acts the role of the coach.
#3: Come here. Do you know what you're going to play in this match?
#5: What am I going to play? Are you planning to put me on the bench?
#3: No, you're going to play at the rear.
#5: Well, we've always played at the rear. And we still are. We will always be at the rear.
#3: Shut up. I told you you're going to play defense. That's it, defense.
#5: I don't agree with you, Mr. Coach. In this particular game, we have to play offense. Are we always going to be in a defensive position? Even if we lose, it's not important. At least they'll say that we played on the offensive.
#3: Are you opposing the coach's plan? Go away, get your mug out of here! Come on, scram! From now on you're stopped from playing.
#5: But if you've stopped me, give me my papers.
#3: Damn your father, what papers are you talking about, you with the face of a bus? Go until you change your plans, then come back to me.
#5: Give me my papers, sir, so I can go abroad.
#3: What are you going to do for us over there?
#5: I'll become a professional player. They'll value me and take care of me. Because you people don't care about us. That year I had a fracture you forgot about me. You only care about us when we're healthy.
#3: Look at the face that wants to be a pro. His knees are like a grasshopper's, and he wants to play international ball.
#5: It's not health and the uniform that are important. What counts is technique. How to dribble and score.
#3: And what have our professionals done. With their own teams, they play like camels; and with the national team, whoever gets the ball, falls. It's like they'd eaten cat's guts. Maybe our turf sticks them like thorns.
#5: Now, are you going to give me my papers, or not?
#3: No! Beat it. Go mind your sheep. What does a guy like you know about [foot]ball?
#5: So now I don't know football? In the beginning, you'd send a pickup to bring me from the countryside and take me to the stadium. And now it's not my bag.
#3: Go, kid. Goodbye. And don't forget to give my regards to your white cow.
Darkness.
He appears in his first costume.
#5 (addressing the researcher): That's my problem. You have any solution to it?
R.: Your problem's very easy. It just needs a little ball-handling. You're the cause of a lot of the failures of sports players. You know why?
#5: Why?
R.: Because you don't have a players' union to defend you and the rights of sportsmen and women. They just tell you, "Whoever breaks a limb, there're the carts." Go on, son, and rest until the union is established, then come and take your compensation.
Hey you, who aren't all there. I'm talking to you. Come over here near me.
#2: You're the one who's going to listen to me. You're the one who's not all there. These crazy people you've seen are all in their right minds. They are just pretending that they're crazy, because they've found that craziness gets them somewhere. Don't you know the proverb that says, "He who finds comfort in being crazy, what does he need with good sense?"
R.: Tell me your story of how you got crazy. Excuse me: how did you come to pretend to be crazy?
#2: I'm a human being, and I want to remain a human being. Why do some people consider me an animal?
R.: Explain why and how.
#2: Because my color is black. And they didn't allow me to live with them.
They saw me wrapped in blackness and they thought that I'm useless.
And I am like a book: there are many benefits in me.
They are right. This is the time of appearances and colors. And of decoration and hypocracy, and of stroking and sucking-up.
R.: Come on, spare me. Enough of this empty talk.
#2: Just wait a bit. You'll understand everything.
Darkness.
#2: The Black
He appears on the stage and goes toward #1 and #7, who act the roles of father and mother. #8 acts the role of the daughter. It's a tea party.
#2 (comes in): As-salamu `aleikum.
#7: Dammit! This black-skin is always after us.
#1: Come on, son. Have a little glass of tea.
#2: No, no. Just drink your tea in health, uncle. I just had a cup of coffee.
#1: Well, just have this little sip. Is the coffee going to fight with tea?
#2: Ah, uncle, where did you ever see the white that liked the dark?
#1: Get to the point, and stop beating around the bush.
#2: Well, you know why I came. I came to be engaged to my lady, your daughter. (addressing #8): How are you, my little eye, O sunflower? God preserve you for me! I swear to God the Great, I can't sleep for thinking about you, O my gazelle! When are we going to be united and have a wedding everyone will talk about?
#7: You won't live to see it. Look at the beauty of my daughter. And you're black like charcoal! You -- only an eggplant will match you. The eggplant's like you -- you'll understand each other.
#1: Be quiet, woman! You don't have any shame in front of the man? I've already given him my word.
#7: You shut up. What do you know? When women talk men better shut up and sew up their snouts.
#2: Be merciful to me, O people, and let me live like other folks. I too want to have a beautiful woman and kids to be a company to me at home.
#7: Go and mind your own business. Is our daughter worthless to us, that we'd let her go off with a dirty fellow like you?
#1: Shut up, woman, may God guide you. I already gave him my word.
#7: OK, sir, since you gave him your word, I'll leave you this house to live in. OK, my little daughter, let's go to my father's house, before your father sells you to whoever comes along.
#1: May God put you on the right path, O woman. Did you take me seriously? Here, you do what you like, just stay.
#2: Is that it, uncle? You gave up the little keys? So we became a laughingstock to women, and they do whatever they want to us?
#7: That's enough, kid. Go away, before I chase you away. You can't dream of having my daughter.
#2: Why do you people judge me by my color? Did I want to be this way? The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "There is no difference between a Muslim and his brother except in piety."
#7: Go, may God twist your mouth. Take your ugly face away from here. You frighten me in my sleep.
#2: O people, pity me. Pity me, O High One.
Leaves. He climbs back on stage.
#2: This is my story. They deprived me of my beloved and left me wandering in the streets. And I'm calling out to my loved one whom I lost. And they want to give her to someone else.
R.: Just relax. If it's written for you, she'll come on foot and find you.
#2: I won't relax until my beloved returns to me. (repeats)
He backs away.
R.: And you, O wielder of the shovel and pick. What happened to you, so you can't part from them?
#6: My story with them is a long one. I've worked with them for so long, in rain and cold, and hail. And I've dug so many wells with them. In the heat, and in the burning sun. These are my people, who didn't abandon me, the way people abandon their brothers.
R.: Go ahead and tell us your story.
#6: Wait, and you will see the strange things that happen to a man who sacrificed and lost with the shovel and pick.
Darkness.
#6: The Pick-Owner
#6 appears wearing the outfit of a mason. He's mixing mortar.
#6: I'm determined today to find a solution to the problem with this foreman. My God, twenty years I've been working with him, and I'm 50 now. Today I'm going to ask him to give me my retirement [taqaud].
#3 (as the master mason) comes in.
#6: Excuse me, sir, I'd like to speak to you.
#3: What do you want? What do you need, dammit? You don't want to have another christening, do you?
#6: No, no, this time it's my christening, if there's no problem and it's OK with you.
#3: I don't understand how you're going to get christened.
#6: I mean, I want to retire.
#3: So retire, do I have you tied up? Whoever wants to go away, the door is wider than his shoulder.
#6: But I want a pension paid for me.
#3: Paid for?! Are you a babe of ten months? Go on, if you want to stop work, without giving me a headache about it. If you want to continue working, welcome. I'll forget what you've said, even though you pissed me off.
#6: How am I going to continue working with you? Look, folks, I'm 50 years old and he wants me to keep working. You want me to continue until my threads are all stripped and my head will drop to my knee, before I stop working?
#3: Well, do I have you on a leash, that you have to keep working with me? You're the one who wants to, and you're the one who did it yourself.
#6: O people, don't Nasara get a retirement at the age of 50? And they come travel around among us lying back in automobiles and enjoy themselves. And us: they won't let you go until they strip your threads, and you become like a wheelbarrow without a wheel.
#3: Put that shovel down and beat it. Go to those who pay the retirement.
#6: So you have no pity for me? Look at my feet. Look how cracked they are from the cement. Scorpions aand spiders are nesting in my foot. And you're stuffing money [in bags]. And you just order us around: ìmix,î ìspread the mortar,î ìtake up the sand.î You go up yourself. It's not just talk and education that matter.
#3: I told you to put down the shovel and pick and beat it.
#6: The shovel and pick I will never abandon. They're my dear ones. They're my brothers. They're my friends.
Darkness.
He climbs on stage and addresses the researcher: That's my story. I thank God that I came out of this with my health. By God, I'd rather strip the threads of my mind than the threads of my body.
R.: You're right. Nowadays the mind is of no benefit. Who has a little health, praise God for that. That's enough, thank you. Go wait outside so I can show you what to do.
The researcher addresses the audience: These people caused me to lose my appetite. Everyone tells me about crying and mourning. But I won't have a snack until I'm finished with the crazy who's left. Come on, you. Tell me your story, and look: I'm overwhelmed with your problems. If you have somelike like theirs', just let me go my way without finishing.
#1: Well, I told you that you wouldn't be able to bear our worry. And you won't find any conclusion to your book here.
R.: Well, let me hear your story.
#1: I, sir am sick in the heart. I went to get medicine, and they gave me a shot in the brain.
R.: I don't undstand the meaning of this shot.
#1: Well, it seems that you also had a shot in your brain, without knowing. At this time, whoever doesn't have a thorn, has a peg.
R.: Your talking is like riddles. And the word "peg" is only understood by the blacksmith.
#1: There's nothing the blacksmith can understand. The blacksmith understands how to hit hot metal, but when it's cold he can't do anything with it.
R.: Well, enlighten me and give me the end of the thread. I can't follow you anymore.
#1: You want to see my story? Well, wait. And you'll keep on waiting. (toward the audience): Do you also want to know my story? Wait. And you'll keep on waiting.
He goes down to the back stage.
Darkness.
Conclusion
Light. No one has climbed on. Music without words. A moment of silence on the stage.
R.: Well I see this guy its late. Is he planning to tell us his story? But we don't know what happened to him. Let's wait a little more.
No one climbs on. Finally the narrator appears.
Narrator [f.]: You're still waiting for the scene of this crazy man? How he got into the world of the crazy ones? Well, the scene of this person is difficult to act, because we ourselves don't know his problem. His problem might be the waiting, and we are waiting with him until he climbs up and acts his problem for us. You too are required to think with us about the situation of this crazy one, and his problem. try to ask yourselves, and you'll find many answers. This, O people, is the story of the crazy one, when he speaks up. The crazy one is wise, and the wise one is isolated and deserted.
She leaves, repeating the last line.
The end
The Moroccan
Arabic term used, Hbil, can also refer to possession by spirits
(jnun).
nifaq, a
term with strong religious as well as colloqual
implications.
"asthma": Probably a reference to hashish as
well as tobacco.
Used
clothing given to relief organizations in the
On the night of the 27th of the lunar month of Ramadan, laylat l-qadr, the spirits (jnun) imprisoned for the rest of the month are released.
Special musical performances, incence, and prayer
serve to discourage them from resettling in one's home.
mille fuille, lit.
"thousand sheets," is a popular French
pastry. Jaban is a traditional Moroccan sweet.
Suissi, a neighborhood in
Fr. detail: Cigarettes are commonly sold singly by street
vendors. The double-entendre here is a reference to lack of Arab
political unity.
Nasara: from Nazarene, i.e., Chrstians,
Europeans.
l-baHit
nfsani. The "Psychological Researcher" may derive
from the ethnographer.
sahb l-Hal
creme Nivea
mxznia
jbd: i.e., give me a bribe.
moussem: a festival for a local saint, i.e., a
farce.
Fr: "I don't want any
Fr: "Are you crazy or what? I don't want it!"
Fr. kash-kash
m-chomiyin, from Fr. chomeur
mn tuk-tuk l-salam u ëaleikum, lit. from "knock-knock" to "asalaam
w-`aleikum"
`aql
Abu Hurayra: A
Companion of the Prophet Mohamed, i.e., in olden times.
brraka:
i.e., a bidonville, a shanty-town.
hada l-qarara m-axr mashi
l-axhir
alam l-axhr
Um
Kulthoum: The most important female Arab
vocalist of this century.
mía nifsik
hammam: the public bath, fournd
in every traditional Moroccan neighborhood.
u daba wllet ma-fi yidish:
lit., "and now it's not in my hand."
as-salamu
ëaleikum: May peace be on you. The
formal greeting among Muslims.
lella bintkum
l-Hmq fiha Hakim
"Derwish"
ana SaHnu dwwar
ana mul moteur
a-nbqa ndur, w-ndur, w-ndur
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