Thursday, August 03, 2006

Let's learn some Arabic words...

From Asharq Alawsat:

Bush's Use of Four-Letter Word Confuses Arab Media

However, confusion set in once the Arab media's ears caught the term used by the American president to describe Hezbollah's actions.

This resulted in numerous interpretations of President Bush' colorful language, with many Arab media outlets decide on the word "Qazara" or "Qazoorat" (rubbish) others choose the word "Hoora'a" (non-sense), while others translated it as "Qaraf" (disgust).

However, Dr. Jamal Abdul-Nasser, a professor of English Literature at Cairo University, argues that while the actual translation would be "Bouraz" (feces)… the best way of translating this term, in this particular situation, would have been "Aa'mal Qazerah" (dirty acts).


Okay. Repeat after me:

Qazara :: rubbish

Hoora'a :: nonsense

Qaraf :: disgust

Bouraz :: feces

Aa'mal Qazerah :: dirty acts


There'll be a quiz tomorrow. :)

3 comments:

brylun said...

Syl, Can you show me those in Arabic?

Charlie Martin said...

What's all the hoora'a about?

Ed onWestSlope said...

I look at the list and find that none is quite as expressive or ... shall we say pungent, as how I use the word. The economy of leeters in English makes me proud.

I understand that much is always lost in translation AND I find myself of an older school of thought. To think I first heard my peers say' don't trust anyone over 30" and now I am of an older school. I am quickly reaching a good age, as my Father said, 'I can say what I really feel, in the way I want and the only thing most people can do to me is to shake their head and mutter "that silly old man"'. The point being that I will be to say what most others only dare to mutter.