Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

حرس حرس حرس ليه، احنا في سجن ولا ايه
(Guards, guards, guards, why? Is this a jail or an open sky?)

العسكري مظلوم في الجيش .... ياكل عدس و يلبس خيش
(A soldier gets a lousy deal/rotten clothes, one lousy meal)

يا سوزان قوللي للبيه: طبق الفول باتنين جنيه
(Hey Suzanne tell the lord: even beans we can't afford)

يا مباحث أمن الدولة، فين الأمن؟ و فين الدولة؟
(Hey State Security, investigate: Where's our security? Where's our state?)

ياللي بعتوا الغيط و المصنع .... مهما عملتوا مش راح نركع
(Fields and factories sold for a token/Do your worst; we won't be broken)

Amazing eh? Ahdaf Soueif translated some slogans used in kefaya and co protests, instead of trying to explain the slogans, the cultural context and the play on words she creatively transformed them into english slogans that convey the same message even though they might use different expressions. I love how she retained the rythm of it all, sounds very natural.

this is ripped out of a longish article she wrote for the guardian about the democracy movement, elections and that kind of thing.