Of course,
the concrete pillars are not lacking in delicacy,
and the columns of old houses have a nostalgia all their own.
He added that he marks the weak point
and distributes its weight among the relatively stronger ones,
and that the beams and supports are made only by love
then they are tenderly positioned against the tilt in the columns.
He also assured me that restoration is a purely sexual matter.

My schoolmate who became an engineer
at the Department of Antiquities
panicked for a moment
because I still have a schoolgirl's hands.
Then, walking in the other direction, he told me
that it wasn't because of me that he specialized in
foundational collapse.

Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa