The Exclamation of Lament

أَسَف

root: ء-س-ف / noun / definition: grief

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We’re all familiar with the vocative particle (حَرف نِداء) that is يا, which we use to call on someone. (And you can find another use of يا explained in the comments under Wehr Wednesdays #174…)

But how many of us have heard of the particle وا, which is used as an exclamation of lament?

وا is often translated as “oh”, or “oh what…”, and (perhaps to double up on that breathy, lamenting cry sound) the noun following it has to end in ـاه.

Here are some of the examples the Hans Wehr provides us with in various places:

!وا أَسَفاه

oh grief! alas! what a pity!

!وا حَرَّ قَلباه

oh what pain! what burning of the heart!

(in this example, وا is followed by an إضافة phrase. Notice that the first word in the construct phrase, حرّ, is منصوب—just like the word following the vocative يا is also in the accusative case)

!وا حَرَباه

alas! goodness no! oh my!

We might also come across:

!وا حَسرَتاه

oh what grief! oh what distress!

!وا مُصيبَتاه

what a calamity!

!وا لَهفاه

oh what grief! oh pity!

(the noun لَهفة, similar to لَهف here, occurs in the example sentence in Wehr Wednesdays #202)

I don’t want to end the post on these sorrowful exclamations, so let’s look at another—much more positive—example that we find in the Hans Wehr:

!وا فَرحَتاه

oh what joy!

Slightly off-topic to end this post, but I had some of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab’s poetry stuck in my head this morning, from back in the days of my BA dissertation. Maybe we’ll explore some of his poetry again (like we did here) in a future literature translation post…

!إلى اللقاء

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