Four Weeks, and Three Arabic Phrases

العَوْم

root: ع-و-م / form I verbal noun / definition: floating

I returned to London yesterday with my glasses broken, heart full, and mind a mess.

Those four weeks in Majorca, in my childhood home and bedroom with the sea-blue curtains I’ve had for the past twenty years, felt like too little time to honour the nostalgia.

On my last day, I sat on the balcony and wrote about my fear of my feet touching the ground. Something within me wants to keep running into unknowns or floating decisively between states, and my brain and words race each other in circles.

When I can’t find the words—where else to turn but to the dictionary?

I came across three interesting phrases in my sleepy dictionary browsing today. I wonder what it means, if anything at all, that they caught my eye.

تَحَيَّرَتْ في مَآقيهِ الدُّموع

page: 258

meaning: his eyes were brimming with tears

note: مأق/مأقًى (singular of مآقٍ) refers to the inner corner of the eye

الأَمرُ واضِحٌ وُضوحَ الشَّمسِ في رابِعَةِ النَّهار

page: 1261

meaning: the matter is as clear as daylight

note: I’ve been meaning to write about structures like “واضح وضوحَ النهار” for quite some time—shall we have a post about them soon?

كانَت مِنَ البَراءَةِ بِحَيثُ لا تَرى

page: 257

meaning: she was so naive that she couldn’t see

note: حيث is one of those super useful particles that can also combine with various prepositions to form new meanings—it features more than once in the essay phrasebook I’m putting together!

I’m tempted to launch into a psycholinguistic self-analysis based on these phrases that jumped out at me—

am I emotionally frazzled and seeking clarity whilst basking in naivety?

—but I’ll spare you the headache, and instead invite you to my workshop so you can learn how to psycholinguistically analyse yourself. It’ll be more fun, promise.

Plus, I need to get my glasses fixed before I look too deeply into my own mind.

!مع السلامة