Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #14

دِفْء

root: د-ف-ء / noun / definition: warmth

December has brazenly blustered in with its frost and chill and here I am, sitting at my desk with my right foot pressed against the radiator beside me, hoping for a semblance of warmth to spread to the rest of my body.

I may as well type to keep my fingers from dropping too far below body temperature—so who fancies reading another step-by-step literature translation?

Let’s take a look at a short extract from the novel ورقات من دفتر الخوف (Sheets from the Journal of Fear) by the Tunisian writer أبو بكر العيادي:

والخوف يدفع بي قدما مثل ريح عاتية، وبحثت عن ملاذ فإذا البنايات قد غلّقت أبوابها، وإذا بي في طريق لا يحد نهايتها بصر، والأفق أمامي يتراجع كلّما عدوت

As we usually do, we’ll start with the word-by-word translation of each phrase:

والخوف يدفع بي قدما مثل ريح عاتية

والخوف

components: و + الـ + خَوف

root: خ-و-ف

noun

خَوف = “fear”

و = a conjugation, sometimes translated as “and” or something similar, and sometimes left untranslated

الـ = the definite prefix

الخوف is the subject of the following verb and is therefore مرفوع (in nominative case)—as it’s مرفوع and definite, its case ending would be a damma (الخوفُ)

يدفع

root: د-ف-ع

form I present tense verb, third person, masculine, singular

دَفَعَ / يَدفَعُ = commonly “to push”, but when followed by the preposition بـ as it is here, it can also mean “to compel or force (someone)”

the subject of this verb is الخوف, hence the masculine singular conjugation

بي

components: بِـ + ـي

preposition

as mentioned, the preposition بِـ here is linked to the preceding verb—with the object of the verb attached to بِـ

ـي = the first person singular pronoun suffix, “me”

so الخوف يدفع بي = “fear compels me”

قدما

root: ق-د-م

adverb

قُدُماً = “forward” or “straight ahead”

it’s in منصوب case, as adverbs usually are, hence the اً

مثل

root: م-ث-ل

preposition

مِثلَ = “like”, “just as”, “similar to”, etc.

(check out Comparing the Grammar of Arabic Comparison Particles for six more Arabic terms that can be used for comparison)

ريح

root: ر-و-ح

noun

ريح = “wind”

although it doesn’t appear so, this word is actually feminine

it’s also مجرور here (in genitive case) because it directly follows a preposition and it’s indefinite, so it’d be ريحٍ

(ريح is actually really interesting linguistically, I’ve actually written a post about it: The Wind, and a Wandering Mind)

عاتية

root: ع-ت-و

adjective

عاتٍ = “fierce, strong” in this context

this adjective is from a defective root (i.e. its last root letter is weak), which is why the masculine form ends in kasratayn when مرفوع or مجرور (it’s عاتياً when منصوب, by the way)—dictionaries present these words in the “default” مرفوع

but anyway, the adjective is feminine in this context, to match the noun it describes, ريح

it also matches the noun in case and definiteness: ريحٍ عاتيَةٍ

So far, we have:

والخوف يدفع بي قدما مثل ريح عاتية

(and) fear compels me forward like a strong wind

(Remember, we make things sound nicer at the very end!)

Next part:

وبحثت عن ملاذ فإذا البنايات قد غلّقت أبوابها

وبحثت

components: وَ + بَحَثتُ

root: ب-ح-ث

form I past tense verb, first person, singular

و = “and”

بَحَثَ / يَبحَثُ when followed by عن = “to search for”

so بحثتُ = “I searched”

عن

preposition

عن creates meaning in conjunction with the preceding verb, here, it would be translated as “for”

ملاذ

root: ل-و-ذ

noun of place

مَلاذ = “refuge, shelter”

this noun is مجرور as it directly follows a preposition, it’s also indefinite so its case ending would be kasratayn: ملاذٍ

فإذا

components: فَـ + إذا

فـ = a conjunction, usually translated as “so” or “then”—but like وَ, it’s often left untranslated

إذا, when followed by a nominal clause (جملة اسمية) as it is here, means “all of a sudden” or “and then”

البنايات

components: الـ + بِنايات

root: ب-ن-ي

plural noun

بِناية = “building”

its plural, بنايات, is formed using the sound feminine plural ending

الـ = the definite prefix

this plural noun is the subject of the following verb غلّقت, so it’s مرفوع

so we have البناياتُ

قد

قَد is a particle used to emphasise the past tense

(but when followed by a present tense verb, it forms a different meaning!)

غلّقت

root: غ-ل-ق

form II past tense verb, third person, feminine, singular

غَلَّقَ / يُغَلِّقُ = “to shut, lock (something)”

this verb is conjugated in the feminine singular because its subject is البنايات—remember that non-human plurals, like البنايات, are always treated grammatically as the feminine singular

أبوابها

components: أَبواب + ـها

root: ب-و-ب

plural noun

أَبواب = “doors”, it’s the plural of باب

ـها = possessive pronoun suffix, referring back to البنايات

أبواب is منصوب (in accusative case) here as it’s the object of the preceding verb

أبوابَها = “their (the buildings’) doors”

Together:

وبحثت عن ملاذ فإذا البنايات قد غلّقت أبوابها

and I searched for a refuge and all of a sudden the buildings shut their doors

Onto the third part:

وإذا بي في طريق لا يحد نهايتها بصر

وإذا

components: وَ + إذا

this is essentially the same as the فإذا that we just saw, meaning “all of a sudden” or “and then”

بي

components: بِـ + ـي

now, this instance of إذا is different in the sense that it’s followed by بِـ

the بِـ is optional, and it just introduces the subject of the following nominal clause—there’s no real difference between إذا and إذا بـ

but the بـ is useful here because we can attach a pronoun suffix to it…

ـي = the singular first person pronoun suffix, “I”

so وإذا بي = “and all of a sudden I”

في

preposition

في = “in” or “on”

it might look odd that we have وإذا بي followed immediately by في, but remember that a verb for “to be” isn’t often used in Arabic

وإذا بي في = “and all of a sudden I am in/on”

طريق

root: ط-ر-ق

noun

طَريق = “road, way”

طريق can either be masculine or feminine—it’s feminine here, as we’ll see a little further down

طريق is مجرور as it directly follows a preposition: طريقٍ

لا

present tense verbal negation

this word marks the beginning of a relative clause, giving us more information about the noun طريق

note that there’s no relative pronoun (الذي/التي) introducing the relative clause because the noun before it (طريق) is indefinite—we only use relative pronouns following definite nouns

in the English translation though, there’d be a relative pronoun like “that” or “which” or “whose”

لا negates the following present tense verb

يحد

root: ح-د-د

form I present tense verb, third person, masculine, singular

حَدَّ / يَحُدُّ = “to set bounds to, or delineate something” or “to limit, confine”

the subject of this verb is بصر, which we’ll come to

نهايتها

components: نِهاية + ـها

noun

نِهاية = “end”

ـها refers back to the feminine طريق—but why?

well, if the subject of the verb in the relative clause (بصر, which is the subject of يحدّ) doesn’t match the noun that the clause is giving us more information about (طريق), then we need a pronoun suffix referring back to that noun

hence, the pronoun suffix ـها is needed to refer back to طريق, and it does so here as a possessive suffix: نهايتها = “its end”

بصر

root: ب-ص-ر

noun

بَصَر = “sight”

as mentioned, بصر is the subject of the verb يحد and is therefore مرفوع, so it’d be: بصرٌ

Together:

وإذا بي في طريق لا يحد نهايتها بصر

and all of a sudden I am on a road whose end sight does not delineate

Last part before we can get to a nice-sounding translation:

والأفق أمامي يتراجع كلّما عدوت

والأفق

components: وَ + الـ + أُفُق

root: ء-ف-ق

noun

أُفُق = “horizon” or “range of vision” (this reminds me of the Turkmen gözýetim, which I mentioned here)

وَ = conjunction

الـ = definite prefix

الأُفُق is the subject of the verb يتراجع, which we’re coming to, and it’s therefore مرفوع, so: الأفقُ

أمامي

components: أَمامَ + ـي

أمام = a preposition meaning “in front of”

ـي = pronoun suffix for “me”

أمامي = “in front of me”

يتراجع

root: ر-ج-ع

form VI present tense verb, third person, masculine, singular

تَراجَعَ / يَتَراجَعُ = “to retreat”, “to gradually move away”

the subject of this verb is الأفق, hence the conjugation

كلّما

كُلَّما is a particle meaning “the more…” or “whenever”

it’s followed by a past tense verb

عدوت

root: ع-د-و

form I past tense verb, first person, singular

عَدا / يَعدو = “to run”

عَدَوتُ = “I ran” or, in this context, “I run”

That gives us:

والأفق أمامي يتراجع كلّما عدوت

(and) the horizon in front of me retreats the more I run

Time to look at all of our word-by-word translations together:

(and) fear compels me forward like a strong wind, and I searched for a refuge and all of a sudden the buildings shut their doors, and all of a sudden I am on a road whose end sight does not delineate, (and) the horizon in front of me retreats the more I run

Let’s make that sound better, shall we?

Fear compels me forward like a strong gale, I search around for shelter but all of a sudden the buildings shut their doors, and there I am, on a seemingly never-ending road, with the horizon in front of me retreating the more I race ahead

Translation notes:

the tense in the Arabic text goes back and forth between past and present—I decided to change all of the verbs in the translation to the present tense for a better flow and also to evoke the sense of urgency that fear brings about
it’s common in Arabic to have وَ scattered everywhere for a flowing text, but I omitted or substituted most of the ands
we had “all of a sudden” twice in the initial translation, so I substituted the latter occurrence (“all of a sudden I am”) for “and there I am”
“a road whose end sight does not delineate” > “a seemingly never-ending road”—this (obviously) sounds more natural
other than that, there are just a few substitutions like “wind” > “gale” and “run” > “race ahead”

Speaking of substitutions, take a look at last week’s post Three Ways to Say “There is” in Arabic if you fancy substituting هناك for something a bit more interesting.

I wrap up this post now from under my duvet, where my feet are feeling notably warmer. Maybe even warm enough to walk down the stairs and make something else out of clay (a recently picked-up-again hobby).

See you on my next post, مع السلامة!