@ClassyArabic

Arabic poetry translations by Nathaniel Miller PhD Arabic Lit ex-Cambridge University, ex-NYU

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Joined December 2021
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Now you can save 💰 AND read my "pioneering, thoroughly impressive book," The Emergence of Arabic Poetry, which Nicolai Sinai says provides "an unrivaled picture of pre-Islamic poetry" — use discount code PENN-NAMILLER30 at pennpress.org — a hardcover now $45 from $65
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Parting words in Classical Arabic أَسْتَوْدِعُكَ اللَّهَ astawdiʿuka llāh "I entrust you to God" فِي أَمَانِ اللَّهِ fī amāni llāh "In the security of God" رَافَقَتْكَ السَّلاَمَةُ rāfaqatka s-salāmah "May safety accompany you" 1/3
Liam@LegoRacers2Aug 12
Parting words by European language English: God be with ye Spanish: To God French: To God German: Until we meet again Russian: Until next time Irish: Be safe Italian: I am Croatian
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صَحِبَتْكَ السَّلاَمَةُ ṣaḥibatka s-salāmah "May safety keep you company" فِي حِفْظِ اللَّهِ وَسِتْرِهِ fī ḥifẓi llāh wa-sitrih "In God's preservation and protection" إِلَى اللِّقَاءِ ilā l-liqāʾ "Until we meet again" 2/3
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مَعَ السَّلاَمَةِ maʿa s-salāmah "With safety" وَدَاعاً wadāʿan "Farewell" دُمْتَ بِخَيْرٍ dumta bi-khayr "May you remain in goodness"
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Classy Arabic Poetry retweeted
Sam Ottewill-Soulsby@sottewillsoulsbJun 24
I’m extremely excited that my copies of The Carolingian South have arrived! Published by @ManchesterUP, I had great fun editing it with @Graemey_Ward, turning the empire of Charlemagne upside down with a wonderful set of contributors! #medieval
Picture of a box in which copies of The Carolingian South lounge alluringly in their gorgeous covers featuring an eagle-headed St John from the Sacramentary of Gellone.

ALT Picture of a box in which copies of The Carolingian South lounge alluringly in their gorgeous covers featuring an eagle-headed St John from the Sacramentary of Gellone.

Photo of a grinning editor (who may or may not need a trip to the barber) holding before him a copy of the aforesaid The Carolingian South.

ALT Photo of a grinning editor (who may or may not need a trip to the barber) holding before him a copy of the aforesaid The Carolingian South.

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Classical Arabic idiom of the day: "I'll do such-and-such a thing as much as a dick pisses." wa-llāhi la-afʿalanna kadhā ʿadada kulli ayrin bāla
والله لأفعلنَّ كذا عَدَدَ كُلِّ أَيرِ بالَ.

ALT والله لأفعلنَّ كذا عَدَدَ كُلِّ أَيرِ بالَ.

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No one is stingier than Fate, but I asked for four things anyway: having sex but staying hard, drinking wine but staying sharp, spending money but staying rich, and getting old with my hair still dark. — Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Khwārazmī (d. 993)
تمنيت خلات على الدهر أربعاً ... ولم أر مسؤولاً أشح من الدهر جماعاً بلا ضعف، وشرباً بلا سكر، ... وعمراً بلا شيب، وبذلاً بلا فقر

ALT تمنيت خلات على الدهر أربعاً ... ولم أر مسؤولاً أشح من الدهر جماعاً بلا ضعف، وشرباً بلا سكر، ... وعمراً بلا شيب، وبذلاً بلا فقر

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مصدر: اليتيمة
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📚 Books are like guests: they deserve to be greeted and read hospitably.
مجموعة المخطوطات الإسلامية Manuscripts 🇦🇪
@almaktutatMay 5
وما الكتب إلا كالضيوف فحقها ..... بأن تتلقا بالقبول وأن تقرأ ________ طرة مخطوط (148) الظاهرية t.me/konashaadel/602
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—I loved a donkey-driver— 🫏 I loved a donkey-driver; he drove away sleep from my eye! He's like a full moon: untiring as he drives through the night. al-Sunbulī (Syria, d. 1294)
هَوِيتُهُ مُكارِياً شَرَّدَ عَنْ عَيْنِي الكَرَى كَأَنَّهُ البَدْرُ فَمَا يَمَلُّ مِنْ طُولِ السُّـرَى

ALT هَوِيتُهُ مُكارِياً شَرَّدَ عَنْ عَيْنِي الكَرَى كَأَنَّهُ البَدْرُ فَمَا يَمَلُّ مِنْ طُولِ السُّـرَى

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The central pun is mukārin (a hirer of any beast of burden) and al-karā (sleep) have the same root. I tried to translate this with the driver/drove repetition. Also it's conventional in Arabic poetry to compare a beautiful face to the full moon.
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فوات الوفيات، تحقيق إحسان عباس, ج 1, ص 71
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Rizz means something quite different in classical Arabic
AL-RIZZ is used of sounds that come from an unseen source, two in particular. One is thunder, whether loud or soft. The other is a rumble of the gut, specifically “the noise that accompanies the need to defecate” (Lisān art. \sqrt{rzz}). By ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661) it was decreed that the worshipper who experiences abdominal rizz during prayer should go back and re-perform the ritual ablutions, even if no actual defecation has taken place. The droning buzz of locusts is called al-razz.

ALT AL-RIZZ is used of sounds that come from an unseen source, two in particular. One is thunder, whether loud or soft. The other is a rumble of the gut, specifically “the noise that accompanies the need to defecate” (Lisān art. \sqrt{rzz}). By ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661) it was decreed that the worshipper who experiences abdominal rizz during prayer should go back and re-perform the ritual ablutions, even if no actual defecation has taken place. The droning buzz of locusts is called al-razz.

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Little footnote from David Larsen's translation of Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī's Kitāb al-Maṭar, which is referring to the thunder rumble sense of the word
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—No Monkeys— 🐒 For the sake of worldly gain we bowed before wealthy monkeys in prostration. But our fingers grasped nothing we sought — we grasped humiliation. — Jaḥẓa al-Barmakī (d. 936)
سَجَدْنا للقُرودِ رَجاءَ دُنْيا حَوَتْها دُونَنا أَيْدي القُرودِ فَما ظَفِرَتْ أَنامِلُنا بِشَيءٍ رَجَوْناهُ سِوى ذُلِّ السُّجودِ

ALT سَجَدْنا للقُرودِ رَجاءَ دُنْيا حَوَتْها دُونَنا أَيْدي القُرودِ فَما ظَفِرَتْ أَنامِلُنا بِشَيءٍ رَجَوْناهُ سِوى ذُلِّ السُّجودِ

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الأمثال المولدة ص ٣٢٧
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الأمثال المولدة ص ٣٢٧
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🥈🏅 If your speech, oh my soul, is silver, then silence surely is gold.
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Recent Proverbs, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Khwārazmī (d. 993). الأمثال المولدة لمحمد بن العباس الخوارزمي، تحقيق محمد حسين الأعرجي
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—When Luck's sitting down— 🎲 She said run and seek wealth; when luck's sitting down how can you stand? It's true the good times don't last but neither, then again, do the bad. — Sibṭ ibn al-Taʿāwīdhī (Iraq, d. 1187)
قال سِبْطُ ابْنُ التعاويذي في الشِدَّةِ والرخاء : ​وقائلةٍ : قُمْ واسْعَ في طَلَبِ الغِنَىٰ ! — وكيفَ يقومُ المَرْءُ والحَظُّ قاعدُ ؟ اذا لم يَكُنْ وقتُ الرَّخاء بـدائمٍ ، — فأحْرِ بِـها ألاّ تـدومَ الشـدائدُ !

ALT قال سِبْطُ ابْنُ التعاويذي في الشِدَّةِ والرخاء : ​وقائلةٍ : قُمْ واسْعَ في طَلَبِ الغِنَىٰ ! — وكيفَ يقومُ المَرْءُ والحَظُّ قاعدُ ؟ اذا لم يَكُنْ وقتُ الرَّخاء بـدائمٍ ، — فأحْرِ بِـها ألاّ تـدومَ الشـدائدُ !

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The poet had an interesting background — his father was a Turkish convert and a maternal grandfather was an amulet (taʿāwīdh)-writer, whence the name al-Taʿāwīdhī.
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