Souhaib Ayoub

Oct 30, 2023 | wordswithoutborders.org | Souhaib Ayoub |Alex Aguayo |Patryk Pufelski

May 20, 2015They’ve taken me on at the Kraków Zoo. I can still barely believe my eyes—I’ve pinched myself like thirty times, but it keeps being true!(Walking to my interview with the Director of Breeding, I saw some pygmy hippos just as they were going to bed. And later, I lied that I’m not afraid of heights.)May 25, 2015On the first day of my new job, I discovered that:—I work in the Hoofed Animal Section, which is further divided into smaller units, called allotments (that’s zoo jargon for you).

Sep 5, 2023 | wordswithoutborders.org | Souad Labbize |Jintu Gitarth |Souhaib Ayoub |Victor Heringer

A Second of Stillness Under a boundless sky stretching across the horizon, enveloped in a silence spanning miles, Diganta sat beside his favorite person. Translated from Assamese by Harsita Hiya

Jul 19, 2023 | wordswithoutborders.org | Souhaib Ayoub |Jintu Gitarth |Tobias Carroll |Wesley Lewis

I watched Mustafa Abu Khadra from inside Alia’s shop. He smoked long cigarettes nonstop, inhaling them between his fat lips and spitting out the tobacco that had stuck to his tongue. He stole glances at me from behind his fingers while I hung up dresses on a clothes rack inside. I dropped them, distracted. I started working with Alia after the sawmill owners, the vegetable sellers, and the butchers in Souq Al-Qamih had all refused to hire me. They told my father I was too scrawny.

Feb 23, 2023 | raseef22.net | Souhaib Ayoub

My mother passed on to me the skill of cooking and many other habits that made me realize I was just like her. There are many ways I've copied her in my life: wiping the tiles with chlorine and a "squeeze of lemon", washing the dishes with hot water before using cold water, washing clothes with a peel of locally-made soap and then soaking them for hours, or how to prepare coffee "by the smell" and set the dining table.