Mirrors Quotes

“نحن غبار وعدم..
كل ما نفعله ليس سوى قبض ريح.”
― إدواردو غاليانو, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“تقسيم العمل عهد الي الاناث بكل جميع المهام تقريبا ,كي يتمكن الذكور من تكريس انفسهم بالكامل للابادة المتبادلة”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“تأسيس الكتابة ‏


عندما لم يكن العراق قد صار العراق بعد، ولدتْ هناك أول الكلمات المكتوبة.

إنها تبدو مثل آثار طيور. رسمتها أيدٍ بارعة، بقصبات مدببة، على الطين.

النار التي شوت الطين، حفظتها.. النار التي تقتل وتنقذ، تقتل وتمنح الحياة: مثل الآلهة، مثلنا. بفضل النار مازالت ألواح الطين تروي لنا، الآن، ما رُوي قبل آلاف السنين في تلك الأراضي التي بين نهرين.

في أزمنتنا أطلق جورج دبليو بوش بصفاقة سعيدة، ربما لقناعته بأن الكتابة قد اختُرعت في تكساس، حرب إبادة ضد العراق. فكان هناك آلاف وآلاف الضحايا، ولم يكن الضحايا أناساً من لحم وعظم فقط. بل جرى اغتيال الكثير من الذاكرة أيضاً.

الكثير من ألواح الطين، التاريخ الحي، سُرقت أو دُمرت في أعمال القصف. ‏
وكان أحد تلك الألواح يقول: ‏
نحن غبار وعدم. ‏
كل ما نفعله ليس سوى قبض ريح. ‏ ص15”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“كانت الحياة بلا اسم،بلا ذاكرة. كانت لها يدان، ولكن لا وجود لمن تلمسه. وكان لها فم، ولكن هناك من تكلمه. كانت الحياة واحدة. ولأنها واحدة كانت لا أحد...”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“من أفريقيا بدأت الرحلة البشرية في العالم. ومن هناك بدأ أبوانا في غزو الكوكب. مختلف الدروب أسست لمختلف المصائر، وتولت الشمس توزيع الألوان.
ونحن النساء والرجال، قوس قزح الأرض، صارت لنا الآن ألوان أكثر من ألوان قوس قزح السماء؛ ولكننا جميعنا أفارقة مهاجرون. حتى البيض ناصعو البياض يتحدرون من أفريقيا. ربما نرفض الاعتراف بأصلنا المشترك لأن العنصرية تنتج فقدان ذاكرة، أو لأنه يبدو مستحيلا لنا أن نصدق أن العالم كله في تلك الأزمنة البعيدة كان مملكتنا، خريطة شاسعة بلا حدود، وكانت أرجلنا هي جواز السفر الوحيد المطلوب”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“أبتاه..
ارسم لي العالم على جسدي..!”
― إدواردو غاليانو, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“الهرم الآخر ‏


كان يمكن لبناء بعض الأهرامات أن يتأخر أكثر من قرن. آلاف وآلاف الرجال كانوا يرفعون، كتلة بعد كتلة، ويوماً بعد يوم، المنزل الذي سيعيش فيه الفرعون حياته الأبدية، ومعه كنوز جهازه المأتمي. ‏


المجتمع المصري الذي كان يبني الأهرامات، كان هرماً.
في القاعدة، كان الفلاح الذي بلا أرض. وخلال فيضانات النيل، كان هو من يبني معابد، ويقيم سدوداً، ويشق قنوات. وعندما تعود مياه النهر إلى مسارها، يعمل في أراضي الآخرين. ‏
منذ حوالي أربعة آلاف عام، وصفه النساخ كما يلي: ‏

المزارع يحمل النير. ‏
كتفاه ينوءان تحت النير. ‏
على رقبته قرحة متقيحة. ‏
في الصباح، يسقي بقولاً. ‏
في المساء، يسقي خياراً. ‏
في الظهيرة، يسقي نخيلاً. ‏
وأحياناً ينهار ويموت. ‏


لم تكن هناك نُصب مأتمية له. عارياً عاش، وفي الموت تكون الأرض بيته. يرقد في دروب الصحراء. ومعه الحصير الذي كان ينام عليه وكأس الطين الذي كان يشرب به.
وفي قبضته يضعون بضع حبات من القمح، فقد يخطر له أن يأكل. ‏ ص24”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“تأسيس تقسيم العمل


يقال إن الملك مانو هو من منح سمعة إلهية للطبقات في الهند.

من فمه انبثق الكهنة، ومن ذراعيه الملوك والمحاربون. ومن فخذيه خرج التجار. ومن قدميه الخدم والصناع.

ومنذ ذلك الحين شيد الهرم الاجتماعي الذي يتألف في الهند من أكثر من ثلاثة آلاف طابق.

كل فرد يولد حيث ينبغي له أن يولد، كي يفعل ما ينبغي له أن يفعله. في مهدك يكمن قبرك. أصلك هو قدرك ومصيرك: حياتك هي المكافأة أو العقاب الذي تستحقه على حيواتك السابقة، والوراثة هي التي تحدد مكانتك ووظيفتك.

وكان الملك مانو ينصح بتصويب سوء السلوك: إذا استمع شخص من طبقة دنيا إلى أشعار الكتب المقدسة، يسكب رصاص مذاب في أذنيه. وإذا رتل تلك الأشعار، يقطع لسانه. هذه التعاليم التربوية لم تعد تطبق، ولكن مازال من يخرج من مكانه، سواء في الحب أو العمل أو أي أمر آخر، يجازف بالتعرض لعقوبات عامة يمكن لها أن تقتله أو تخلفه أقرب إلى الموت منه إلى الحياة.

من هم بلا طبقة، يشكلون واحدا من كل خمسة هنود، وهم أسفل من أشد السافلين، يسمونهم من لا يلمسون، لأنهم ينقلون العدوى: إنهم ملعونون بين الملعونين، لا يمكنهم التكلم إلى الآخرين، ولا السير على دروبهم، ولا لمس أكوابهم أو أطباقهم. القانون يحميهم، والواقع ينبذهم. فالرجال منهم، يمكن لأي كان أن يهينهم. والنساء، يمكن لأي كان أن يغتصبهن، وفي هذه الحالة بالإمكان لمس من لا يلمسون.

في أواخر العام 2004، عندما ضرب التسونامي شواطئ الهند، تولى من لا ُيلمسون مهمة جمع القمامة والجثث.

مثلما هي العادة دائما. ص14”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“Hunting Jews has always been a European sport.
Now the Palestinians, who never played it, are paying the bill.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“The voyages of the great Chinese fleet were missions of exploration and commerce. They were not enterprises of conquest. No yearning for domination obliged Zheng to scorn or condemn what he found. What was not admirable was at least worthy of curiosity. And from trip to trip, the imperial library in Beijing continued growing until it held four thousand books that collected the wisdom of the world.

At the time, the king of Portugal had six books.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“The nature of the parts of the body cannot be understood without grasping the nature of the organism as a whole. Symptoms”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“THE ART OF DRAWING YOU

In a bed by the Gulf of Corinth, a woman contemplates by firelight the profile of her sleeping lover.
On the wall, his shadow flickers.
The lover, who lies by her side, will leave. At dawn he will leave to war, to death. And his shadow, his traveling companion, will leave with him and with him will die.
It is still dark. The woman takes coal out of the embers and draws on the wall the outline of his shadow.
Those lines will not leave.
They will not embrace her, and she knows it. But they will not leave.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“The family has no borders, explains Soboufu Somé of the Dagara people: “Our children have many mothers and many fathers. As many as they wish.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“ALEXANDRA To be natural and clean, like the water we drink, love must be free and mutual. But men demand obedience and deny pleasure. Without a new morality, without a radical shift in daily life, there will be no real emancipation. If the revolution is not to be a lie, it must abolish in law and in custom men’s right of property over women and the rigid social norms that are the enemies of diversity. Give or take a word, this is what Alexandra Kollontai, the only woman in Lenin’s cabinet, demanded. Thanks to her, homosexuality and abortion were no longer crimes, marriage was no longer a life sentence, women had the right to vote and to equal pay, and there were free child care centers, communal dining halls, and collective laundries. Years”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“Susan Abdallah, a Palestinian, knows the recipe for making a terrorist:
Deprive him of food and water.
Surround his home with the machinery of war.
Attack him with all means at all times, especially at night.
Demolish is home, uproot his farmland, kill his loved ones.
Congratulations: you have created an army of suicide bombers.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“Why are some walls so loud and others mute?”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“بوذا وعظ بالرواقية و التخلي عن العاطفة و انكار الشهوات و لكنه مات من النهم بلحم الخنزير”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“Grandparents
For many peoples of black Africa, ancestors are the spirits that live in the tree beside your house
or in the cow grazing in the field. The great-grandfather of your great-great-grandfather is now that stream snaking down the mountainside. Your ancestor could also be any spirit that decides to accompany you on your voyage through the world, even if he or she was never a relative or an acquaintance.
The family has no borders, explains Soboufu Somé of the Dagara people: “Our children have many mothers and many fathers. As many as they wish.”
And the ancestral spirits, the ones that help you make your way, are the many grandparents that each of you has. As many as you wish.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“WALLS The Berlin Wall made the news every day. From morning till night we read, saw, heard: the Wall of Shame, the Wall of Infamy, the Iron Curtain . . . In the end, a wall which deserved to fall fell. But other walls sprouted and continue sprouting across the world. Though they are much larger than the one in Berlin, we rarely hear of them. Little is said about the wall the United States is building along the Mexican border, and less is said about the barbed-wire barriers surrounding the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the African coast. Practically nothing is said about the West Bank Wall, which perpetuates the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and will be fifteen times longer than the Berlin Wall. And nothing, nothing at all, is said about the Morocco Wall, which perpetuates the seizure of the Saharan homeland by the kingdom of Morocco, and is sixty times the length of the Berlin Wall. Why are some walls so loud and others mute?”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“BLACK WINGS At the same Olympics, staged by Hitler to consecrate the superiority of his race, the star that shone brightest was black, a grandson of slaves, born in Alabama. Hitler had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill, four of them actually: the four gold medals that Jesse Owens won in sprinting and long jump. The entire world celebrated those victories of democracy over racism. When the champion returned home, he received no congratulations from the president, nor was he invited to the White House. He returned to the usual: he boarded buses by the back door, ate in restaurants for Negroes, used bathrooms for Negroes, stayed in hotels for Negroes. For years, he earned a living running for money. Before the start of baseball games he would entertain the crowd by racing against horses, dogs, cars, or motorcycles. Later on, when his legs were no longer what they had been, Owens took to the lecture circuit. He did pretty well there, praising the virtues of religion, family, and country.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“RESURRECTION OF DJANGO He was born in a gypsy caravan and spent his early years on the road in Belgium, playing the banjo for a dancing bear and a goat. He was eighteen when his wagon caught fire and he was left for dead. He lost a leg, a hand. Goodbye road, goodbye music. But as they were about to amputate, he regained the use of his leg. And from his lost hand he managed to save two fingers and become one of the best jazz guitarists in history. There was a secret pact between Django Reinhardt and his guitar. If he would play her, she would lend him the fingers he lacked.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“MARK TWAIN Some months after invading Iraq, President George W. Bush said he had taken the war to liberate the Philippines as his model. Both wars were inspired from heaven. Bush disclosed that God had ordered him to act as he did. And a century beforehand, President William McKinley also heard the voice from the Great Beyond: “God told me that we could not leave the Filipinos to themselves. They were unfit for self-government. There was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate them, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them.” Thus the Philippines were liberated from the Filipino threat, and along the way the United States also saved Cuba, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Colombia, Panama, Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa . . . At the time, writer Ambrose Bierce revealed: “War is God’s way of teaching us geography.” And his colleague Mark Twain, leader of the Anti-Imperialist League, designed a new flag for the nation, featuring little skulls in place of stars. General Frederick Funston suggested Twain ought to be hanged for treason. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn defended their father.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“On popular education: To make students recite by rote what they do not understand is like training parrots. Teach children to be curious so they learn to obey their own minds rather than obeying authorities the way the narrow-minded do, or obeying custom the way the stupid do. He who knows nothing, anyone can fool. He who has nothing, anyone can buy.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“And when his final days were drawing near, he let it be known that just as the sun determined the route of plants, the seas obeyed the moon. “Senile dementia,” his colleagues diagnosed.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“FORBIDDEN TO BE CURIOUS Knowledge is sin. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that tree and look what happened to them. Some time later, Nicolaus Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, and Galileo Galilei were punished for having shown that the earth moves around the sun. Copernicus”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“The Church demands of its priests exclusive dedication, a 24/7 routine that protects the peace of their souls from conjugal strife and babies’ shrieks. Perhaps, who knows, the Church also wished to preserve its earthly goods, and thus placed them safely beyond the reach of women’s and children’s claims to inheritance. A trifling detail, but nevertheless it is worth recalling that at the beginning of the twelfth century the Church owned one-third of all the lands of Europe.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“MOHAMMED’S BIOGRAPHER He was an evangelical pastor, but not for long. Religious orthodoxy was not for him. An open-minded man, a passionate polemicist, he traded the church for the university. He studied at Princeton, taught in New York. He was a professor of Oriental languages and author of the first biography of Mohammed published in the United States. He wrote that Mohammed was an extraordinary man, a visionary blessed with irresistible magnetism, and also an impostor, a charlatan, a purveyor of illusions. But he thought no better of Christianity, which he considered “disastrous” in the epoch when Islam was founded. That was his first book. Later on, he wrote others. In the field of Middle Eastern affairs, few academics could compare. He lived indoors surrounded by towers of strange books. When he wasn’t writing, he read. He died in New York in 1859. His”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“WORD SMUGGLERS Yang Huanyi, whose feet were crippled in infancy, stumbled through life until the autumn of the year 2004, when she died just shy of her hundredth birthday. She was the last to know Nushu, the secret language of Chinese women. This female code dated from ancient times. Barred from male language, which they could not write, women founded a clandestine one, out of men’s reach. Fated to be illiterate, they invented an alphabet of symbols that masqueraded as decorations and was indecipherable to the eyes of their masters. Women sketched their words on garments and fans. The hands that embroidered were not free. The symbols were.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“الحشري

كان هناك فصل بين السماء والأرض، بين الخير والشر، بين الميلاد والموت. ولم يكن النهار والليل يختلطان، وكانت المرأة امرأة وكان الرجل رجلا.

لكن «إكسو» الشقي الجوال، كان يلهو، وما زال يلهو، بتركيب خلطات محرمة.

شيطناته تمحو الحدود وتجمع ما فرقته الآلهة. بعمله وظرفه تصير الشمس سوداء والليل متوقدا، ومن مسامات الرجال تنبثق نساء، وتتعرق النساء رجالا. من يموت يولد، ومن يولد يموت، وفي كل ما هو مخلوق أو سيخلق يختلط الخلف والأمام، إلى أن لم يعد يعرف من هو الآمر ومن هو المأمور، ولا أين هو الأعلى وأين هو الأسفل.

عاجلا أو آجلا سيقر النظام الإلهي مراتبه وجغرافيته، يضع كل شيء في موضعه وكل واحد في مكانه؛ ولكن الجنون يعود، عاجلا وليس آجلا، إلى الظهور.

عندئذ تتحسر الآلهة لأن العالم يصعب حكمه”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

“Presidents of the United States tend to speak in God's name, although none of them has let on if He communicates by letter, fax, telephone, or telepathy. With or without His approval, in 2006 God was proclaimed chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.

That said, the All Powerful, who is even on the dollar bill, was a shining absence at the time of independence. The constitution did not mention Him. At the Constitutional Convention, when a prayer was suggested, Alexander Hamilton responded: 'We don't need foreign aid.'

On his deathbed, George Washington wanted no prayers or priest or minister or anything.

Benjamin Franklin said divine revelation was nothing but poppy-cock.

'My mind is my own church,' affirmed Thomas Paine, and President John Adams believed that 'this world be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it.'

According to Thomas Jefferson, Catholic priests and Protestant minsters were 'soothsayers and necromancers' who divided humanity, making 'one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.”
― Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone