Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #16

حَصاد

root: ح-ص-د / form I verbal noun / definition: to harvest

Last week left me exhausted. So I spent the weekend wearily harvesting whatever grains of energy I’d managed to sow, and trying hard to herd unwieldy guilt into the back of my mind.

I’ve noticed I tend to write step-by-step literature translation posts in times like this. I’m not sure of the reason, but we’ll save our analytical skills for the literary extract instead.

As you may know, the PhD chapter that I’m currently working on centres around the novel لا سكاكين في مطابخ هذه المدينة (English: No Knives in the Kitchens of this City) by Khaled Khalifa (خالد خليفة).

I’ve come across, in my multiple readings of it, many quotes that made me pause, ponder, gasp, or tear up. And today we’re going step-by-step through one of them:

تساءلت إن كان حبّ رجلٍ لصمتِ امرأة معناه أنّه يحبّها

Unlike previous literature translations we’ve done, this is such a short quote that we won’t need to divide it up into parts. Let’s get straight into the word-by-word breakdown:

تساءلت

root: س-ء-ل

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

تَساءَلَ / يَتَساءَلُ = “to wonder”

so تَساءَلَتْ = “she wondered”

إن

conjunction

إنْ = “if” or “whether”

we looked at the particle إنْ in The Three Types of “If” in Arabic, where we learnt that this conditional particle is usually followed by a clause starting with a past tense verb

note that, even though إن is followed by the past tense, the meaning of the clause can be present or future!

let’s see how it pans out in this context

كان

root: ك-و-ن

form I past tense hollow verb, third person, masculine, singular

كانَ / يَكون = “to be”

this is the past tense verb we were expecting to see after إنْ

the subject of this verb is the following noun, hence its masculine conjugation

حبّ

root: ح-ب-ب

noun

حُبّ = “love”

this noun is the first in a two-word indefinite إضافة (possessive construction)

non-final words in an إضافة cannot have tanween, so its case ending with either be a damma, fatha, or kasra

as this noun is the subject of the verb in this clause (كان), it will be مرفوع (in nominative case), thus it’ll end with a damma: حُبُّ

رجلٍ

root: ر-ج-ل

noun

رَجُل = “a man”

any non-initial words in an إضافة are مجرور (in genitive case), and final words in the construction can take tanween when indefinite

so, the case ending is kasratayn: رجلٍ

together, حبُّ رجلٍ = “the love of a man”

لصمتِ

components: لِـ + صَمْت

as for لِـ, it’s a prefixed preposition meaning “for” or “of”

and as for صمت…

root: ص-م-ت

noun

صَمْت = “silence”

here, صمت is مجرور as it immediately follows a preposition (لِـ)

but صمت is also in a two-word indefinite إضافة with the following noun

as it’s مجرور and the first word of the إضافة, it’ll take a kasra: لصمتِ

امرأة

root: م-ر-ء

noun

اِمْرَأَة = “a woman”

this is the second and final word of the indefinite إضافة, so it’ll end with kasratayn: امرأةٍ

صمت امرأة = “the silence of a woman”

معناه

components: مَعنى + ـهُ

root: ع-ن-ي

noun

مَعْنى = “meaning”

ـهُ = a possessive pronoun suffix (“its”), referring back to حبّ رجلٍ

so معناهُ = “its meaning (is)”

(note how the alif maqsoora (ى) at the end of the noun transforms into a regular alif (ا) when a suffix is added!)

أنّه

components: أَنَّ + ـهُ

أَنَّ = “that”, it introduces the next clause

ـهُ = an attached pronoun, “he”, referring back to رجل

يحبّها

components: يُحِبُّ + ـها

root: ح-ب-ب

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

أَحَبَّ / يُحِبُّ = “to love”

the subject of the verb is ـهُ, which itself refers to رجل

ـها = “her”, an object pronoun referring back to امرأة

so يحبّها = “he loves her”

If we put all those word-by-word translations together, we get something quite awkward grammatically:

تساءلت إن كان حبّ رجلٍ لصمتِ امرأة معناه أنّه يحبّها

she wondered whether the love of a man for the silence of a woman its meaning is that he loves her

Now let’s make it sound better:

تساءلت إن كان حبّ رجلٍ لصمتِ امرأة معناه أنّه يحبّها

she wondered whether a man’s love for a woman’s silence means that he loves her

Translation notes:

the main change was “its meaning is” > “means”, for the sake of grammar

I also made two swaps: “the love of a man” > “a man’s love”, and “the silence of a woman” > “a woman’s silence”—I personally felt it flowed better this way

Would you make any changes to the translation? And how do you interpret this quote? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

!إلى اللقاء