Seven Arabic Terms for “Twilight”

غائِب

root: غ-ي-ب / form I active participle / definition: absent, third person (gramm.)

Writing about yourself in the third person always feels strange. And when I think of “third person”, I always think of Attila İlhan’s poem and then I feel even stranger.

But I had to set that strangeness aside and rewrite my translator bio which, from last summer, had already become outdated… as though I myself had become a stranger—

Okay, I’ll stop now. Let’s get on with the post. And we’re back with the synonyms series.

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Opportunity: Online Literary Translation Summer School

أَدَبيّ

root: ء-د-ب / nisba adjective / definition: literary

I don’t know where the time’s gone, but it’s been about a month since I started my work placement with an Arabic literary magazine, and I’ve just written tomorrow’s piece for their poetry-in-translation newsletter (subscribe to emails here!).

And speaking of literature and translation… someone reached out yesterday to let me know about an online literary translation summer school running for five days this July—and I couldn’t resist sharing with you all what looks like an amazing opportunity.

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Arabic Observations: The Cross-Linguistic-ness of “Eating” a Beating

الضَّرْب

root: ض-ر-ب / form I verbal noun / definition: beating, hitting

I left the house this morning, planning to attend the 10:30am sit-down-and-write session at my university. But after window-(and actual)-shopping in Regent Street, I bought myself a matcha oat latte (why does everything have oats in nowadays?) and decided to work from a café instead.

I was actually very productive at the café, so I don’t regret the change of plans. Nor did I dislike the sociological observation—watching people like me, working independently on their laptops, and some brave eyes trying to make contact with others glued to screens, waiting for the right time to start up a conversation.

Thankfully for my introversion and productivity, no one tried to chat to me. And before I even finished my drink, I’d ticked off the main thing I needed to get done today.

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New Hats, and More Wednesday Writings

Image courtesy of my mum, taken in Tunisia

دَوْر

root: د-و-ر / noun / plural: أَدْوار / definition: role

What’s new? Well, quite a lot.

I’ve found myself, as we tick through month one of twenty-twenty-six, switching between several roles—with my work placement, consultation sessions, study, and new endeavours. (I also keep meaning to set a date for my workshop; let me know if you’d like to join!)

And maybe switching isn’t the right word, because everything—in my head at least—is happening all at once. I occasionally flick open the tab of flights on my browser, tempted by the idea of a weekend of long walks on the beach somewhere warm(er), just to mellow my thoughts.

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Exploring Time in the Arabic Dictionary: “Autumn”

ضَباب

root: ض-ب-ب / noun / definition: fog, mist

It’s never great to have brain fog. It’s even worse if someone else suggests you have it. And more so if your brain doesn’t feel particularly foggy and you start to question what “symptoms” the other person noticed…

And then, all of a sudden (the same way I notice the lenses of my glasses are covered in smudges and fingerprints at the end of the day), my brain feels very foggy and I count the remaining days of winter, anticipating the fresh breezes of spring to demist the mind.

But before we think about spring—and even before we move past winter—I wanted to head back to autumn, الخَريف, for our Exploring Time series.

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Reading Arabic Literature: Back to ذا

خُبْز

root: خ-ب-ز / collective noun / definition: bread

After much anticipation, I’ve finally started my work placement with an Arabic literary magazine. I spent the day with head tucked into laptop, pausing now and then to graze on the delicious flour-free muffins I’d made at 7am and—now—I remind myself that I said I’d start sharing my recipes.

(Note: these muffins follow a mightily successful bread recipe that produced a magnificently Instagrammable result.)

Anyway, head-tucked-in-laptop, reading poetry and poetry translations, my mind lingered on a word on my screen and it brought me back to a post I wrote in 2021…

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A Word from the Saudi Dialect: بزران

مَزْرَعَة

root: ز-ر-ع / noun / plural: مَزارِع / definition: farm, plantation

In Medina, the week before last, we’d wandered off-path and through-open-gate into someone’s land. Unknowing trespassers, our eyes took in the palm trees, running water, greenery.

And then—oops—the someone whose land it was walked over and asked how we got in.

It was fine; he kindly let us stay, wander, and video, but asked us to close the gate behind us when we left so that the بزران don’t enter.

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What’s the Difference between Form II and Form IV Verbs?

سَبَبِيّة

root: س-ب-ب / abstract noun / definition: causality

You probably already know that different Arabic verb forms point to different general meanings. For example, form X verbs refer to seeking something, and form VII indicates that the verb meaning is passive.

But have you noticed that form II (فَعَّلَ / يُفَعِّلُ) and form IV (أَفْعَلَ / يُفْعِلُ) verb patterns both indicate a causative meaning? So, what’s the difference (if any) between them?

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An Eastern Dialect, a Return to the Peninsula

شَرقِيّ

root: ش-ر-ق / nisba adjective / definition: eastern

It’s funny. In the summer, I was preparing to spend my winter studying in Jeddah, but ended up cancelling my plans for one reason and the other. And now we’re nearing the end of December, I’m here in Jeddah—on completely different terms.

I’m on a four-city trip in the country and the stays so far—in Riyadh and Makkah—have unsurprisingly drained the social battery of this easily-overwhelmed introvert. I’ve been sat in many a room being fed, watered, and chatted to in an eastern Arabic dialect that my ears are still getting used to.

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Three Arabic Words for “Sleeplessness”

سَهْران

root: س-ه-ر / adjective / definition: sleepless

Here I sit, nearby suitcase half-packed with un-ironed clothes, and I remember that it’s been a while since our last post in the synonyms series.

In fact, it was over two months ago—so, before my move—that I wrote Seventeen Arabic Words for Peace and my thesaurus-inclined mind craves another.

Seeing as I’ve been starting my days from 5:30am for the past two months, my brain drifted to sleep’s antonym as the topic for this post, so here we are with three Arabic nouns meaning “sleeplessness” or “insomnia“:

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