لا سكاكين في مطابخ هذه المدينة

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 postsContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #16”

Reading Arabic Literature: يالنجي and يبرق

طَبَق root: ط-ب-ق / noun / plural: أَطباق / definition: dish Hearing about the sudden passing of the Syrian novelist Khaled Khalifa a few weeks ago, I was overcome by an unexpected grief. I was still, at the time, partway through reading his novel, لا سكاكين في مطابخ هذه المدينة. I guess you feel aContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: يالنجي and يبرق”

Reading Arabic Literature: Vocabulary That Caught My Eye

إطْلاق root: ط-ل-ق / form IV verbal noun / definition: launch I quietly launched The Arabic Pages shop a few days ago, with the first designs inspired by the uncommon Arabic word for “moonlessness” that we explored in Wehr Wednesdays #175. (You might say it’s slightly ironic, then, that the design features an undeniably-present illustrationContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: Vocabulary That Caught My Eye”

Reading Arabic Literature: An Interesting (?) Structure

تَرْكيب root: ر-ك-ب / verbal noun of form II / plural: تَراكيب / definition: (grammatical) construction If it seems like the last post in the Reading Arabic Literature series was almost a year ago… that’s because it was, unfortunately. (January, apparently?!) And this doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading any Arabic literature—because as you mightContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: An Interesting (?) Structure”

Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #11

مُواصَلة root: و-ص-ل / verbal noun of form III / definition: continuation This week we’re continuing on from last week’s literature translation where we went through the first part of our extract:

Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #10

سِكّين root: س-ك-ك / noun / plural: سَكاكين / definition: knife As September swept in, I made a resolution to read more in both English and Arabic. Novels, specifically, because I miss getting lost in them as I used to. And I’ve now, for various reasons, found myself in a situation where I have multipleContinue reading “Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #10”