Khawāja nimra wāhid, Kuwayyis, Kuwayyis, Kuwayyis. Khawāja nimra itnayn, Kuwayyis, Kuwayyis, Kuwayyis.
-Mas’ūd Abu Dūd, on the Darb, February 1984
Poor Mas’ūd, for he never got our names straight in all those forty days. I was always Foreigner Number One and David was always Foreigner Number Two, and we were both Kuwayyis, Good, Good, Good. But then again, I didn’t get his name right either, thinking that Dūd meant what was given in my Modern Standard Arabic dictionary, Worm, and I told this to David and we laughed unkindly at Mas’ūd, but in Sudanese Arabic, Dūd means Lion, and they have given it this meaning because the Boll Weevil destroys their cotton crop as if it were a Lion destroying their lives.
©David Melody