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Quote by Wajdi Mouawad

“Cuando te pasas la vida cuidando a tus hijos, lo que quieres es poder caminar algún día junto a los adultos que llegarán a ser. Apoyarte en ellos. Sentirte orgullosa.”

Quote by Wajdi Mouawad

Book:Mère

Work

Mère

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Author

Wajdi Mouawad
Wajdi Mouawad

Wajdi Mouawad is a Lebanese writer known for his unique literary style and profound social criticism. His works often explore the history, culture, and political conflicts of Lebanon, as well as universal themes of human existence. more

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“Margherita was not allowed to play in the 'portego,' for one never knew when a customer would come, and the room must always be clean and tidy and respectable. It was only ever used by the family on special occasions, and so Margherita's eyes widened when she saw that her mother had spread the table with a spotless white cloth and the best pewter bowls and mugs. A small bunch of 'margherita' daisies was in a fat blue jug, and three sweet oranges sat in an earthenware bowl. Coarse brown bread stood ready on a wooden board, next to a bowl of soft white cheese floating in golden oil and thyme sprigs. Soup made with fish and clams and fennel and scattered with sprigs of fresh parsley steamed in a big clay pot.”

“As your perspective of the world increases not only is the pain it inflicts on you less but also its meaning. Understanding the world requires you to take a certain distance from it. Things that are too small to see with the naked eye, such as molecules and atoms, we magnify. Things that are too large, such as cloud formations, river deltas, constellations, we reduce. At length we bring it within the scope of our senses and we stabilize it with fixer. When it has been fixed we call it knowledge. Throughout our childhood and teenage years, we strive to attain the correct distance to objects and phenomena. We read, we learn, we experience, we make adjustments. Then one day we reach the point where all the necessary distances have been set, all the necessary systems have been put in place. That is when time begins to pick up speed. It no longer meets any obstacles, everything is set, time races through our lives, the days pass by in a flash and before we know that is happening we are forty, fifty, sixty... Meaning requires content, content requires time, time requires resistance. Knowledge is distance, knowledge is stasis and the enemy of meaning. My picture of my father on that evening in 1976 is, in other words, twofold: on the one hand I see him as I saw him at that time, through the eyes of an eight-year-old: unpredictable and frightening; on the other hand, I see him as a peer through whose life time is blowing and unremittingly sweeping large chunks of meaning along with it.”

“La politique de l'enseignement tenait une bonne place dans ce programme de réformes. Elle était en effet devenue un enjeu capital dans la course engagée entre les nationalistes et l'administration. Le programme de l'Istiqlâl s'était en effet prononcé pour la reconstruction du pays « dans le respect des meilleures traditions nationales », en ayant « pour fondement l'attachement à l'islam, à la langue arabe et la fidélité au Trône ». L'enjeu de la langue était posé. À Tunis même, le remplacement du cheikh Ta'albi par l'actif Fadhel Ben Achour, professeur à la Zitouna, à la tête du Vieux Destour remettait au premier plan la question de la langue arabe. C'est que, dans l'esprit des autorités coloniales, seuls les tenants de l'arabisation étaient susceptibles de détruire « l'œuvre de la France ». (p98)”

“La conception de Bourguiba devait pendant longtemps marquer le paysage éducatif tunisien ; elle explique sûrement ce paradoxe qui vit le lycée Carnot, énorme bâtiment sis au cœur de Tunis, perdurer sous sa forme strictement française jusqu'en 1983. Le collège Sadiki, en revanche, dont le modèle d'enseignement fut étendu aux autres établissements de la Tunisie, fut étouffé sous les fleurs. Il sombra en effet dans un quasi-anonymat, lui qui avait tant contribué à la formation de la nouvelle « élite » tunisienne. Et lorsqu'en 1983, il s'agit de créer un lycée pilote destiné à recruter les meilleurs élèves du pays, ce fut l'ancien lycée Carnot, abandonné par la France, qui fut choisi, et rebaptisé lycée Bourguiba.”