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Shadia was engaged to Fareed Fareed was a package that came with the 7UP franchise, the paper factory, the big house he was building, his sisters and widowed mother. Shadia was going to marry them all. She was going to be happy and make her mother happy. Her mother deserved happiness after the misfortunes of her life. A husband who left her for another woman. Six girls to bring up. People felt sorry for her mother. Six girls to educate and marry off. But your Lord is generous: Each of the girls, it was often said, was lovelier than the other. They were clever too: dentist, pharmacist, architect, and all with the best of manners.
莎迪雅和法瑞德订婚了。法瑞德拥有七喜饮料的经销权，纸厂，他为他的姐姐和寡妇妈妈建了一所大房子。莎迪雅要和他们所有人结婚。她会很快乐，也要让她妈妈很快乐。她的妈妈在经历了人生的不幸以后，值得拥有幸福。她的丈夫离开了她，和另一个女人在一起了。妈妈让六个女儿受教育，结婚。但是主是慷慨的，人们常说，她的女儿一个赛一个的可爱。她们都很聪明，牙医、药剂师、建筑师，并且都很有礼貌。
We are just back from looking at the house. Fareed's turn again to talk. "It's coming along fine, they're putting the tiles down…"
“我们刚刚看完房子回来。”法瑞德又接回了电话“房子进展得很顺利，他们正在贴瓷砖。”
That's good, that's good, "her voice strange from not talking to anyone all day.
“那好，那好。”因为一整天没有和任何人说话，她的声音听起来怪怪的。
The bathroom suites. If I get them all the same colour for us and the girls and Mama, I could get them on a discount. Blue, the girls are in favour of blue, "his voice echoed from one continent to another. Miles and miles.
我们的卫浴套装。如果我给我们俩，还有妈妈和姐姐们都买相同的颜色，我就能够获得折扣。并且都很有礼貌。蓝色的，姐姐们喜欢蓝色的，”他声音的回音从遥远的另一个大陆传了过来。
Blue is niceyes, better get them all the same colour,
“蓝色很好，可以的，都买相同的颜色吧。”
He was building a block of flats, not a house. The ground-floor flat for his mother and the girls until they married, the first floor for him and Shadia. When Shadia had first got engaged to Fareed, he was the son of rich man. A man with the franchise for 7UP and the paper factory which had a monopoly in ladies 'sanitary towels. But Fareed's father died of a heart attack soon after ngagement party (five hundred guests at the Hilton). Now Shadia was going to marry the rich man himself.
他正在建造一座公寓楼，不是一所房子。第一层给他的妈妈，还有那些没结婚的姐妹们准备的，第二层是他和莎迪雅住的。当莎迪雅刚和法瑞德订婚时，他还是一个有钱人的儿子。他的父亲拥有七喜饮料的经销权，纸厂专门生产女性卫生巾。但是法瑞德的父亲在订婚典礼之后，死于突发性心脏病（当时有500多名宾客在希尔顿酒店）。现在，莎迪雅要和自己变成有钱人的男人结婚了。
There was no time to talk about her course on the telephone, no space for her anxieties. Fareed was not interested in her studies. He had said, "I'm very broad-minded to allow you to study abroad. Other men would not have put up with this…" It was her mother who was keen for her to study, to get a postgraduate degree from Britain and then have a career after she got married. "This way, "her mother had said, "you will have your in-laws'respect. They have money but you will have a degree. Don't end up like me. I left my education to marry your father and now…
在电话里，法瑞德没有时间询问她的课程，也没有时间了解她的焦虑。法瑞德对她的学习一点都不感兴趣。他曾经说：“我能够让你去国外读书是非常开明的。其他的男人是不会允许的。”莎迪雅的妈妈对她的学习十分上心，希望她在英国获得研究生学历，并且婚后仍旧拥有她自己的事业。她妈妈说：“这样，你就会得到夫家人的尊重，他们有钱但你有学历。不要像我这样，没有念完书就和你爸爸结婚了，而现在……”
