Arabic Language Blog

      Arabic proverbs reflect the beauty of the Arabic Language and the wisdom of the Arabs and their culture. In Egypt, these proverbs are part of everyone’s daily routine. There is no one single situation that would not have the perfect proverb tailored for it. Just for the sake of fun, I am going to share some of these famous proverbs. If you are living in Egypt, you will probably recognize them right away, but if you live outside Egypt, most likely you will have a smile on your face. These proverbs are in the Egyptian dialect.

اللــِّــى فــَــات قــديــمــُــه تــَــاه

/ El’li faat qadimoh taah /

Literal Translation: Lost is the person who forgets his/her past.

Hidden meaning: Remember what you were before bragging about what you are.

Applicability: Criticizing those who want to be disassociated from their roots.

الـــقــِــرد فــى عــِــيــن أمــُّــه غــَــزال

/ El-’ird fi ein ommoh ghazal /

Literal Translation: The monkey’s mother sees him as beautiful and graceful as a deer.

Hidden meaning: To the biased eye, the ugliest can look beautiful.

Applicability: To criticize people with clearly biased opinions.

طــَــبــَّــاخ الــســِّــم دَواقــُــــه

/ Tabbakh el-sim dawa’uh /

Literal Translation: He who cooks poison, will taste it.

Hidden Meaning:  One gets the results of one’s own actions.

Applicability: To comment on somebody who suffers from his/her wrong actions. 

عــَــقــلــه فى راســـُــه يــعــرف خــَــلاصــُــه

 / Akluh fi rasuh ye’raf khalasuh /

Literal Translation: He has his own mind, so he can solve his own problems.

Hidden Meaning:  Don’t get into others’ own business.   

Applicability: To advise somebody not to intervene in somebody else’s business.

جــَــه يــكــحــلــهــا , عــَــمــاهـــا

/ Gah yekah’alha amaha /

Literal Translation: In trying to put make-up around the eye, he blinded it.

Hidden Meaning:  Instead of fixing it, he messed it up even more! 

Applicability: Said when somebody, trying to fix a situation, causes more harm.

الــعــَــيــْــن بــَــصــيـــرة و الإيــْــد قــَــصــيـــرة

/ El-ein baseerah wi el-eid aseerah /

Literal Translation: The eye can see but the hand is too short.

Hidden Meaning:  The will does exist but the actions are missing. 

Applicability: When under life’s pressures, one can not do the obvious!

يــَــا مــِــآمــنــه لــلــرِّجــَــال , يــَــا مــِــآمــنــه لــِــلــمــَــيــَّــه فــى الــغــُــربــَــال 

/ Ya me’amna lil-regaal ya me’amna lil-mayiah fil-ghurbal /

Literal translation: Trusting men is like trusting that a strainer can keep water.

Hidden meaning: Men are not to be trusted.

Applicability: Advice to women whose husbands might be cheating on them!

الــلــّــى بــيــتــُــه مــن قــِــزاز مــا يــحــدفــش الــنــَّــاس بــالــطــُــوب

/ Elli beituh min izaz, ma yehadefsh el-nass bel toob /

Literal translation: If you live in a glasshouse, don’t throw stones.

Hidden meaning: What you do to others, will be done to you.

Applicability: Everyone is vulnerable.

مــَــا يــعجــبــوش الــعــَــجــب و لا الــصــِّــيــَــام فــى رجــب

/ Ma ye’giboosh el ‘agab, wala el’siyaam fi ragab / 

Literal translation: Wonders don’t please him, nor does fasting in the month of Ragab.

Hidden meaning: Criticism  of  someone who’s impossible to please.

Applicability: Comments  on someone  who puts  down everything or everyone.

ضــِــل راجــِــل و لا ضــِــل حــيــطــة

/ Dill ragel wala dill heeta /

Literal translation: The shade of a man is better than that of a wall.

Hidden meaning: It is better to have a man than not to.

Applicability: When a woman is about to marry a not so good man.

******

Egyptian Proverbs (1)                      Egyptian Proverbs (2)

Egyptian Proverbs (3)                      Egyptian Proverbs (4) 

******

To listen to these proverbs in Egyptian Arabic, visit our Youtube Arabic Channel at

http://www.youtube.com/user/ArabicTransparent 

******

Check us back soon

Peace  سلام /Salam/

       Yes, our blog today is about these sad feelings; expatrriation and nostalgia, experienced by the great and famous Prince of Poets أمــيـــرُ الــشــُــعــــراء in the Modern Arabic Literature. Ahmad Shawqi أحــمـــد شـــوقــــي wrote this patriotic poem قــصــيــدة وطــنــيـــة  in his exile الــمــنــفــى in Andalusia الأنــدلــُــس ; (now Southern Spain) during the First World War. In exile, Shawqi felt as if he has lost his freedom and was deprived from his homeland and people.

      I will present ovly a part from a long poem called the “Seeniyah الــســيــنــيـــــة “. Each line in the poem ends in the sound / letter س /siin/ that is why it is called ‘Seeniyah’. The poem is similar to another poem of an earlier great Arab Poet; Al-Buh’tory الــبــُــحــْـــتـــُـــريّ .

       The part that we will read today deals with three main ideas:

• Remembering and longing to the beloved home country and the happy times the poet had spent back there when he was young.
• Complaining and speaking to the ship as it was the usual means of transport that could take him (the poet) home.
• Stating and confirming his (the poet’s) eternal love to his country wherever he goes; even in heaven. 

     Now let’s read the part and hope that my humble translation will help you get the images, ideas and feelings of the poet. Remember that in Classical Arabic (Fus’ha) poetry, the line consists of two halves. At the beginning of the poem, the poet is speaking to some two imaginary friends in the dual number.

 Expatriation and Nostagia  غــــُــــربــــَـــــةٌ و حـــَــــنــيــــــن

 اِخــْــتــِــلافُ الــنــَّــهــَــارِ و الـلـيــْــل يــُــنــْــســِــى            اِذكــُــرَا لــِـىَ الــصــِّــبــَــا و أيــَّــامَ أُنــْــســِــي

Day and night make one forget               So, tell me about my early days

وَ صـــِــفـــَــا لـِــى مــُــلاوَةً مــــِــن شــَــــبــَــاب                 صـــُــــوّرَت مـِــن تــَــصــَــــوّرَاتٍ  و  مـــَـــسِ

And describe that period of my youth           that was shaped by imagination

عــَــصــَــفــَــت كـالــصـَّــبــَــا الـلّــعــُــوب و مــَــرّت             ســِــــنـــَــــة حــُــلــْــوَة و لـــَـــذَّةَ خــِـــلـــْــــس

Blew like the playful Saba (wind) and gone   

Like a sweet drowse and a quick pleasure

و ســَــلا مــِــصـْــرَ هــَــلْ ســَــلا الــقــَــلــبُ عـنــهــا          أو أســَـى جــُـــرْحـَـــهُ الــزَّمـــَــانُ الــمــُــؤَســِّـــي

And thou (dual) shalt ask Egypt; Has the heart forgotten Her?    

Or has Time cured its (the heart’s) wound?

كــُــلــّــمــَــا مــَــرَّت الـلــيــَــالــِــى عــَـــلـيـْــهِ              رقَّ , و الــعــَــهــْـــدُ فـى الـلـيــَـــالــِــى تــُــقــَــســِّــي

Whenever nights pass, it gets delicate          Though nights make the heart cruel

مــُـــســْــتــطــارٌ إذا الـْـبــَــوَاخــِــرُ رنـــَّـــت             أوّلَ الـلــيــْــلِ أوْ عــَــوَت بـَــعــْــدَ جــَـــــــــرس

Turning mad if the ships honked        At the early night or howled after the bell

رَاهــِــبٌ فـِـى الـضـُّــلــُـوعِ لـِـلــسـُــفــْــنِِ فــَــطــْــنٌ             كــُــلــّــمــَــا ثـــُــرنَ , شــَـــاعــَـهــُــنّ بــِــنــَــقــْــس

Like a priest in the chest, well-aware of the ships   

When they (ships) move, it (the heart) saw them off with beating

 يــَــا ابـْــنــَــةَ الــيــَــــمِّ مــَــا أبــُــوكِ بــَــخــِــيـــلٌ          مــَــالــَــهُ مــُــولــِــعــَـــاً بــِــمــَــنــْــعٍ و حــَــبــس

O, daughter of the sea, Your father is not tight

Why then is he fond of prevention and imprisonment?

أحــَــــرَامً عــَــلــى بــَــلابــِــــلــِــــــهِ الــــدَّوحُ              حــَــلالٌ لــِـلــطــَّــيــْـــرِ مــِــن كــُــلّ جــِــنــْــسِ

Is it forbidden for its birds to sing     While it is allowed to all other species ?

كــُـــــــلُّ دَارٍ أحــــَــــــقُّ بـــالأهــــْـــــــــلِِ إلا              فــِــى خــَــبــيــثٍ مــِــن الـْــمــَــذَاهــِــــبِ رجــْـــــس

Every home is a right for its people      Except in bad and mean ideology

نـــَــفــَــســِــي مــِــرجــَــلٌ و قــَــلــْــبــِـــى شــِــراعٌ            بــِـــهـــمــَـــا فــِــى الــدُّمــُــوعِ ســِـــيــرى و أرســِـــي

My breath is fuel, my heart is a sail       

With them (both) you sail in tears and come to shore

و اِجــْـعــَـــلــِــى وَجــْــهـَـــكِ الــفــَــنــَــــارَ و مــَـجـــراك        يـــَـــدَ الــثـــَّــغـــْـــر بـَــيــْــنَ رَمــْــــلٍ وَ مــَــكــْــس

 And make the Fanar (Lighthouse of Alexandria) your destination

And the Thaghr (port) between Raml (suburb) and Max (suburb) your stream

وَطـَــنـِــي لــَـوْ شــُـغــِـلــتُ بــِـالــخــُــلــْـــدِ عــَــنــْـــهُ         نــَــازَعــَــتــْــنــِــي إلــيـْـهِ فـِـى الــخــُــلــْــدِ نــَــفـْــســِــي

O, my country, if I were to be kept busy by eternity   

My soul would long for it in heaven 

شــَـهــِــدَ الـلــَّــهُ لــَــمْ يـَــغـــِـــبْ عـَــن جــُـــفــُــونــِــى          شـَــخـْــصــُــهُ سـَــاعــَــةً و لـَــمْ يــَــخــْــلُ حــِــسـِّــي

Allah is a witness; it (my country) is never away from my eyes

 And it is never out of my heart.

Listen to the Poem in Arabic on our Arabic Transparent Youtube Channel

*****

Check us back soon

Peace  سلام /Salam/

     Google celebrated the 121^st birthday of Mamoud Mukhtar مـحـــمـــــود مــخــتــــــار last Thursday.  Mukhtar was one of the few leading Egyptian sculptors نــَــحــَّــاتــيـــن . He is the maker of the famous Nahdit Misr Statue تــِــمــثــــال نــهــضــــة مِـصـــر (Egypt’s Renaissance Sculpture) and has a museum named after him in Cairo that exhibits his numerous works. His museum مــُــتــحــَــف is a very important destination to all students of arts and sculptures. The museum is also a witness شــَــاهــِــــدto a very important political and historical period ofEgypt’s history. Mukhtar is regarded as the father of the Modern Egyptian Sculpture. His works are distinguished for their realism as they reflect the everyday life or ordinary people in the countryside where he

Nahdat Misr Sculpture

grew up. 

      Mukhtar was born on May 10^th 1891 in a small village in Mahalla, Egypt. His father was the Mayor of the village. Mukhtar lived with his grandmother and used to spend most of his time by the canal playing with mud and clay, shaping and making sculptures تــمــاثــيـــــل of the environment around him. Mukhtar moved to live in Cairo in 1902. When he was seventeen, he joined the newly-opened School of Fine Arts مــَــدرســَـــة الــفــُـــنــُـــون الــجــمــيــــلــة . The foreign teachers discovered and admired his talent مــَــوْهــِـــبــَـــــة , so they set a special place for him to practise his art of sculpturing. The patron راعــِــــىof the school;

Al-Khamasin Winds

Prince Youssef Kamal sent Mukhtar on a scholarship toParis to finish his studies.

      Mukhtar lived a life full of success and struggle to put the sculpture craft in a high position in a society that looks at sculptures as an extension اِمــْـــتــِـــــدَاد of paganism الــوَثـــَـــنـــِـــيـــَّـــــة and idolatry عــِـــبـــَــــادَة الأصـــنـــْــــــام . Mukhtar dedicated his talent to serve the patriotic movement in his country at the time. His works reflected the political and social stage when he lived; the renaissance stage, especially at the time of the 1919 Revolution. His art got all the praise ثــنـــَـــاء and

Farmer Women carrying water home

respect إِحـــتـــِـــرَام of the French artists and critics. He also got an enthusiastic support تـــأيــيـــــد from the Egyptian people.

     Mukhtar was the first Egyptian to exhibit an artistic work in an international exhibition مــَــعــْـــرَض دَولــِـــى in Paris. He was the first Egyptian artist to win an award جــَـــائـــِــــزَة from a Parisian Salon when he got the gold medal from the French Artists Annual Exihibiton that is set in the Grand Palais for a small model of the sculpture of Nahdit Misr. A bigger copy was made and set in the biggest square of Cairo. He got another award from the Parisian Salon Exihibition in 1925 for a sculpture of Om Kolthoum أم كلثوم. He was also the first Arab artist to have a sculpture exihibition of his own in Paris in 1930. He was also the

Ibn Al-Balad

 first Arab artist to be welcomed by demonstrations in Alexandria after his return from Europe. His sculpture of the Egyptian leader زعــِــيـــــم ; Saad Zaghloul is still a landmark عــَــلامــَـــة بــَـــارِزة of Alexandria.

      Mukhtar died on March 27, 1934 and in spite of his short life, he left a great and distinguished collection of sculptures. He managed to express his culture ثـــَــــقــــَــــافــــَـــــة and background خـــَـــلْــــفـــِـــيـــّــــة by his special style. He revived the Egyptian artistic traditions تــَــقـــَـــالــِـــيـــد  in all ages and did not forget the modern art experiences. He was and still an honrable figure in the history of the modern Egyptian art. That is why the government built a museum for him and his works and did great efforts to restore his works from France.

The Cheese Seller

The Farmer

 

Farmer Woman

Sadness

*****

Check us back soon

Peace  ســَـــلام /Salam/