To The Marriage of True Minds
ENGLISH DIALOGUE LIST
CONTAINER SCENE
FALAH - (Arabic)
“If this be error and upon me proved. I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”
HAYDER - (Arabic)
By you?
FALAH
William Shakespeare.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
He’s good. Say it again.
FALAH - (Arabic)
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love that alters
when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove.”
IMMIGRATION OFFICE SCENE
IMMIGRATION OFFICER
And how long were you in the container?
INTERPRETER - (Arabic)
How long you were in the container?
HAYDER - (Arabic)
First Turkey. Land. Then the sea. Six days or seven.
INTERPRETER
Six or seven days. From Turkey
HAYDER - (Arabic)
There was a hole above. Tiny, Falah said it was a star. A guide. We knew if it was day or
night.
INTERPRETER
Nothing. Something about a hole in the container.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
But then there was a storm and there was no star for a long time.
INTERPRETER
They counted the days by the light through a hole in the container. But there was a storm
and he doesn’t know how long… how long it was.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
Falah was ill.
INTERPRETER
Falah was ill.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER
Falah?
INTERPRETER
His friend. The one he has been asking about.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
I couldn’t stop him.
INTERPRETER
He is talking about his friend.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
He is a great writer.
INTERPRETER
A writer.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
A poet. But he mocked the clerics.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER
His friend is political?
HAYDER - (Arabic)
I couldn’t stop him. He wanted to live honestly. He says we must be free.
INTERPRETER
He was outspoken. Political, yes.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
I argued with him. But then more and more...
INTERPRETER
They argued. He and Falah.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER
Ok, let’s not worry about Falah. Do you want to seek political asylum?
INTERPRETER - (Arabic)
Let’s not worry about Falah. Do you want to seek political asylum?
HAYDER - (Arabic)
I want to know where Falah is. Tell me where is Falah? He wanted to come. We couldn’t
stay because it is dangerous for us. Do you know what they would to do him? To us?
Because of what he wrote. The clerics knew about him. About us. I tried to stop him.
INTERPRETER - (Simultaneously)
He wants to know where Falah is. They were in danger there. Do you know what happens
to them? His friend wrote against the clerics. About freedom I think.
(To Hayder in Arabic) We think it is calm now in Baghdad. No reason to leave.
HAYDER - (Arabic)
When did you leave Iraq? When did you leave Iraq? When did you leave Iraq?
IMMIGRATION OFFICER - Hayder. Why did you leave Baghdad? Why did you come to
England?
OUTSIDE BOOSHOP - FLASHBACK
FALAH - (Arabic)
“O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
BY LAKE
IMMIGRATION OFFICER - Why did you leave Baghdad? Why did you come to England?
EPILOGUE
FALAH - (Arabic)
“If this be error and upon me proved. I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”