Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #15

قَيْلولة

root: ق-ي-ل / noun / definition: nap

It must be this autumnal weather that’s breezed into mid-summer like an uninvited guest that has me seeking out daytime naps all of a sudden. Maybe I’m squirrelling away energy so I can cope with the gloom.

But I’ll claw myself away from another micro-hibernation long enough to write this latest addition to the step-by-step literature translation series. Just for you.

Today, it’s an excerpt from the novel ترانيم الغواية (Hymns of Temptation) by the Palestinian-Jordanian writer ليلى الأطرش (Laila al-Atrash) that we’re looking at:

وعلى حافة النهاية تسطع قصص البداية، نوادر جهالة ومرح براءة.. ويقاوم الكبر زحف النسيان باجترار ماضيه، فيغرق بها شطآن الحاضر بلا ملل

First things first, we’re going to break down each phrase in the extract to analyse it word-by-word:

وعلى حافة النهاية تسطع قصص البداية

وعلى

components: وَ + عَلى

وَ = a conjunction, sometimes translated as “and” or “so”, sometimes left untranslated

عَلى = a preposition meaning “on”

حافة

root: ح-و-ف

noun

حافة = “verge” or “brink”

(we’ve encountered this noun in Four Arabic Roots to Express the Phrase “on the Verge of”, Miscellaneous Advanced Phrases for Arabic Essays, and Wehr Wednesdays #211)

حافة comes directly after a preposition (على) so it must be مجرور (in genitive case)

حافة is the first word of a definite two-word إضافة (possessive construction), meaning that it cannot take tanween—i.e. its case ending must be حافةِ and not حافةٍ

remember that non-final words in an إضافة cannot have the الـ prefix nor tanween!

النهاية

components: الـ + نِهاية

root: ن-ه-ي

noun

نِهاية = “end(ing)”

الـ = the definite prefix

this is the second and final word of the إضافة—as it’s the non-initial word of the إضافة, it must be مجرور

together, وعلى حافةِ النهايةِ means “and on the verge of the ending”

تسطع

root: س-ط-ع

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

سَطَعَ / يَسطَعُ = “to shine” or “become clear”

the subject of this verb is the following noun, قصص, which is a non-human plural—remember that non-human plurals are treated grammatically as the feminine singular, hence the feminine, singular conjugation of تسطع

قصص

root: ق-ص-ص

plural noun

قِصَص is the plural form of قِصّة (“story”)

it’s the subject of the verb, so it must be مرفوع (in nominative case)

قصص is in an إضافة with the following noun, so it can’t take tanween

so the case ending on the word is a damma: قصصُ

البداية

components: الـ + بِداية

root: ب-د-ء

noun

بِداية = “beginning” or “start”

البداية = “the beginning”

seeing as البداية is in an إضافة construction with the previous word, it must be مجرور

تسطع قصصُ البدايةِ = the stories of the beginning shine/become clear

So far, we have:

وعلى حافة النهاية تسطع قصص البداية

and on the verge of the ending, the stories of the beginning shine/become clear

(We’ll do our edits to make this sound better at the end!)

Onto the next part:

نوادر جهالة ومرح براءة

نوادر

root: ن-د-ر

plural noun

the singular form of this noun, نادِرة, has a few meanings: “rarity”, “incident”, “funny story”, “anecdote”, etc.

we’ll take نَوادِر to mean “anecdotes” for now, as it’s one of the neutral meanings

نوادر is a diptote (ممنوع من الصرف), meaning that:

it doesn’t take tanween
when مرفوع, it takes a damma
when منصوب or مجرور, it takes a fatha

…except when it’s the non-final word in an إضافة or has the definite الـ prefix—the former is true here so… we can ignore those rules in this instance

نوادر is in a two-word إضافة with the following noun

its role in the sentence is equal to قصص, as it’s an expansion on that idea—so it would be مرفوع too

جهالة

root: ج-ه-ل

noun

جَهالة = “ignorance” or “foolishness”

it’s the final word of the إضافة (making it مجرور) and indefinite, so its case ending is kasratayn: نوادرُ جهالةٍ

ومرح

components: وَ + مَرَح

root: م-ر-ح

noun

مَرَح = “joy”

وَ = “and”

the وَ conjunction lets us know that this head noun takes the same role as the previous one (نوادر), so it’s also مرفوع

and it’s also in a two-word إضافة with the following word

براءة

root: ب-ر-ء

noun

بَراءة = “innocence”

as the final word of the إضافة and being indefinite, this word ends in kasratayn: براءةٍ

ومرحُ براءةٍ = “and the joy of innocence”

Together:

نوادر جهالة ومرح براءة

anecdotes of ignorance and the joy of innocence

Moving on:

ويقاوم الكبر زحف النسيان باجترار ماضيه

ويقاوم

components: وَ + يُقاوِمُ

root: ق-و-م

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

قاوَمَ / يُقاوِمُ = “to resist”

وَ = “and”

the subject of the verb is the following noun—remember, the verb usually comes before the subject in Arabic!

الكبر

components: الـ + كِبر

root: ك-ب-ر

noun

كبر can be read in a few ways

كِبْر can mean “pride” and “arrogance”
كُبْر takes on meanings of “prestige” and “glory”
and كِبَر means “old age” or “eminence”

…with a lot of overlap in their secondary meanings

based on the wider context, I’m guessing the final form, كِبَر, is the one that’s intended here—so we’ll translate it as “old age”

الـ = the definite prefix

الكبر is the subject of the verb يقاوم, so it’s مرفوع and takes a damma: الكبرُ

زحف

root: ز-ح-ف

form I verbal noun

زَحْف = “crawling”, “marching”, or “advancing”

زحف is in an إضافة with the following noun, so can’t take tanween

as it’s the object of the verb يقاوم, it’s منصوب (in accusative case): زحفَ

النسيان

components: الـ + نِسْيان

root: ن-س-ي

form I verbal noun

نِسْيان = “forgetting” or (as a regular noun:) “forgetfulness”

الـ = for definiteness—remember that this prefix is not always translated into English as “the”; when attached to abstract nouns like النسيان, it’s translated as zero article, i.e. not “the forgetfulness” but simply “forgetfulness”

النسيان is مجرور as it’s the final word of the إضافة

together, زحفَ النسيانِ = “the advancing of forgetfulness”

باجترار

components: بِـ + اِجتِرار

بِـ = a preposition meaning “by” or “with”

اِجتِرار is a form VIII verbal noun from the geminate root ج-ر-ر—the associated verb is اِجتَرَّ / يَجتَرُّ

اِجْتِرار = “rumination” or “mulling over”

اجترار is مجرور because it directly follows a preposition (بـ), and it’s also in an إضافة with the following word

ماضيه

components: ماضي + ـه

root: م-ض-ي

form I active participle, noun

ماضٍ = “past”

ماضٍ acts as a noun here but is technically an active participle

because it’s from a defective root, this active participle either ends in kasratayn or ي depending on the context—we discussed the topic in full here

in this context, we see the ي because it has a possessive pronoun suffix attached

ـهُ = “its”—here, it’s referring back to the masculine, singular noun الكبر

this possessive suffix here is actually pronounced ـهِ rather than ـهُ seeing as it follows a ي

بِاجترارِ ماضيهِ = “by mulling over its past”

Together:

ويقاوم الكبر زحف النسيان باجترار ماضيه

and old age resists the advancing of forgetfulness by mulling over its past

Last section now!

فيغرق بها شطآن الحاضر بلا ملل

فيغرق

components: فَـ + يغرق

فَـ = a conjunction that often denotes the continuation, expansion, or explanation of the previous idea

the form II verb غَرَّقَ /يُغَرِّقُ and the form IV أَغرَقَ / يُغرِقُ both mean “to flood (something)” or “drown (something/someone)”

without vowel markings, we could read the present tense, masculine, singular verb يغرق as either the form II يُغَرِّقُ or the form IV يُغرِقُ—either one is fine as the meaning will remain the same

the subject of the verb is الكبر from the previous clause

بها

components: بِـ + ـها

بِـ = “by” or “with”

ـها = the feminine singular object pronoun—I’m pretty sure here it’s referring back to the non-human plural قصص but I’m not sure… we’ll go with that for now

بها = “with them”

شطآن

root: ش-ط-ء

plural noun

شُطْآن is the plural of شاطِئ meaning “shore”

شطآن is the object of the verb يغرق and therefore منصوب

it’s also in an إضافة with the following noun

الحاضر

components: الـ + حاضِر

root: ح-ض-ر

form I active participle, noun

الحاضِر = “the present”

as the second word of the إضافة, it’s مجرور

شطآنَ الحاضرِ = “the shores of the present”

بلا

components: بِـ + لا

بِلا = “without”

ملل

root: م-ل-ل

noun

مَلَل = “tiredness” or “boredom”

بلا مَلَل can be translated as “tirelessly”

That gives us:

فيغرق بها شطآن الحاضر بلا ملل

flooding with them the shores of the present tirelessly

Putting all the word-by-word translations together, we get:

and on the verge of the ending, the stories of the beginning shine/become clear, anecdotes of ignorance and the joy of innocence… and old age resists the advancing of forgetfulness by mulling over its past, flooding with them the shores of the present tirelessly

Let’s tidy things up:

on the brink of the end, the stories of the beginning glisten, tales of inexperience and the joy of innocence… old age resists forgetfulness creeping in by mulling over its past, relentlessly flooding the shores of the present with them

Translation notes:

the main changes I made from the initial translation were word choices, like “verge” > “brink” and “ignorance” > “inexperience
I swapped “advancing” for “creeping in” as a translation of زحف to reflect the connotations of the Arabic verb
in the final two clauses, I played around with the word order a bit to help the flow of the text
I deleted two instances of “and”—they help the flow in the Arabic text, but I didn’t feel they had the same effect in the English translation

What do you think? How would you translate the passage differently? Let me know!

!مع السلامة