ذكريات مؤلمة
Sad memories
pijnlijke herinneringen
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.
May God’s peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.
اول شي بدي اعرفكن على حالي؛ انا اسمي رامي درويش انا مذيع بإذاعة بلدنا.
First of all, I want to introduce myself. My name is Rami Darweish and I am a newscaster at Baladna Radio.
بدي احكيلكن قصة صارت من كم سنة بحمص؛
I would like to give you an account of what happened in Homs a few years ago.
طبعا كلياتكن بتعرفوا حمص وما في حدا مو سامعين بها المدينة الحلوة الهادية الرايقة.
Of course, all of you know Homs; there isn’t anyone who hasn’t heard of this beautiful and quiet city.
يلي صار بهداك اليوم انو العالم كانت طالعة لحتى تدفن شهداء ماتوا برصاصؤ ماتوا بالقنص.
On that day, people had gone out in order to bury the martyrs who had died from gunshot wounds – who had died at the hands of snipers.
فبعد ما طعنا لحتى ندفن هدول الشهداء بنتفاجأ انو الأمن هاجم علينا وبدو يقوصناؤ
After we went out to bury these martyrs, we were surprised to see the security forces attacking us and ready to shoot us.
لقينا حالنا شوي شوي عم نقول يا جماعة الإجتماع عند الساعة.
We found ourselves slowly saying to one another, “Hey everyone, let's gather at the Clock Tower Square.”
اجتمعت هالعالم والناس وبلشوا شوي شوي يكتروا وشوي شوي تيجي هالناس؛
The people gathered. Little by little, it increased, and little by little, more people came.
شوي شوي تيجي هالنساوين وشوي شوي تيجي هالأولاد، ما لقينا حالنا غير صرنا حوالي الخمستلاف شخص
Little by little, women and children came. Before we knew it, we were about 5000 people.
وين؟ عند الساعة؛ وساحة الساعة زغيرة مانا كبيرة كتير.
Where? At the clock tower. The Clock Tower Square is small – it’s not big at all.
هلأ في عالم كانت جاي تتفرج؛
Some people came just to watch.
ليش؟ لأنو هاي شغلة جديدة، انو عالم تعتصم وتقعد قال ويجيبوا فرشات ويمدولهن اياها عالارض.
Why? Because it was a new thing for people to stage a sit-in, sit down, and bring mattresses that they place on the floor.
فبعد ما كترت العالم.
After there were a lot of people
مشان ما يصير اختلاط ويصير غلط وقفنا النساوين على جنب؛ وقفنا نحن الشباب والرجال على جنب
In order to prevent intermingling -- which causes wrong things to happen -- we had the women stand on one side and the male youth and men on the other side.
طبعا حطينا حاجز بيناتنا هو حاجز عبارة عن قماشة يعني او لافتة.
Of course, we placed a divider between us -- a divider made up of fabric or a sign.
والنساوين واقفة وعم تهتف والرجال واقفة عم تهتف.
Both the men and women were standing and chanting.
المهم اجا هالامن وحاصرنا وبلشوا يبعتولنا اخبار انو فضوا الساحة وعيب عليكن وهادا الشي اللي عم تعملو غلط.
To make a long story short, the security forces came and surrounded us.
وبلشوا يبعتولنا اخبار انو فضوا الساحة وعيب عليكن وهادا الشي اللي عم تعملو غلط.
They started sending us these messages, “Clear out of the square. Shame on you. What you’re doing is wrong.”
بس نحن ما كنا خايفين نحن ما كنا خايفين.
But we were not afraid. We were not afraid.
بعد شوي بنلاقي بلش طرق رصاص بس عالخفيف؛
After a while, they started shooting, but only intermittently
هون وقت لقينا القصة انو صارت خطرة حكينا للنسوان والاولاد انو انتو روحوا عابيوتكن.
At this point, we realized that it had become dangerous, so we told the women and children, “Go home to your houses.”
بعد ما راحت النسوان بلشت الرجال تتحجج انو كمان نحن بدنا نروح.؛
After the women left, the men started to come up with excuses, saying, “We also want to go home.”
"يا جماعة يا اخواتي يا حبايبي خليكن هادا اسمو اعتصام هادا مانو لعبة"؛ لأ بدن يروحوا؛
We told them, “Everyone, my brothers, stay here. This is a sit-in, not a game.” But no, they wanted to go.
هاد اللي يقولك والله انا بدي روح غير تيابي وراجع.
One of them would say, “I just want to go, change my clothes and come back.”
التاني يقولك والله انا بدي روح اتعشى وراجع.
” The other would say, “I just want to go, have dinner, and come back.”
التالت يقولك والله انا بدي روح نم لي ساعتين وراجع
Still another would say, “I just want to go, nap for two hours, and then come back.”
وبعد ما بلشت العالم تقل وبعد ما راحواء ابقينا تقريبا شي تلاتمية واحد؛ نحن هدول التلاتمية
After the size of the crowd shrank and after they left, almost 300 of us remained.
واحد بهديك الليلة قررنا انو نحن قاعدين لحتى النظام يحقق مطالبنا.
After the size of the crowd shrank and after they left, almost 300 of us remained.
بلش الرشء هلا هو الرش لأول ثواني كان الرش بالهوا؛
They started shooting. For the first few seconds, they were shooting in the air.
بعدين نزلوا عالعالم اللي واقفة بالساحة.
Then they came down on the people that were standing at the square.
هلا انا شوف عيني شفت العالم شلون عم بتهر عالارض شفت العالم شلون عم توقع شلون عم يوكلوا رصاص ويموتواء
This is what I saw with my own eyes: I saw people dropping on the ground, I saw people falling, I saw people being hit by bullets and dying.
منظر ما كان طبيعي؛ صرنا نهرب؛ صرنا نحاول ننقذ بعض.
It was an unnatural sight. We started to flee. We tried to rescue one other.
يلي ماتوا بهداك اليوم شوفت عيني كانوا قريب المية واحد.
I witnessed nearly 100 people die that day.
الله يرحم شهداء مجزرة الساعة؛ وانا بأكدلكن انو باعتصام الساعة ما كان في اي قطعة سلاح مع اي انسان كان موجود.
God have mercy on the martyrs of the Clock Tower Square massacre. I assure you that at the Clock Tower sit-in, not a single person had a weapon.
والشهداء اللي نزلوا كلن كانوا عزل؛ وكان من الممكن جدا اني كون واحد منن لكن رب العالمين ما اراد اني انا كون بين هالشهداء.
The martyrs were all unarmed. There was a huge possibility I would have been one of them but God didn’t want me to be one of the martyrs.
