Arabic Proverbs And Wise Sayings

"This book presents a selection of more than 700 proverbs and wise sayings from the Arabic world. The dialectal forms are changed and presented in Modern Standard Arabic. The Arabic expressions are paralleled with transliterations, translations into English, and often explanations and English equivalents" --Pref.

This is the first detailed study that critically compares and contrasts the wisdom sentences of the Book of Proverbs with classical and post-classical Arabic proverbs; reference is also made to current Arabic proverbs. The wisdom tradition of Solomon is examined and is compared to that of the Arab sage Luqmân. The book deals with three main themes that are of special significance both in the Book of Proverbs and in Arabic proverbial works: royalty, speech and silence, wealth and poverty. The book concludes with a study of some form-critical and traditio-historical aspects of the treated proverbs. Hundreds of classical Arabic proverbs and wisdom sayings of Prophet Muḥammad appear for the first time in English.

The wise sayings and proverbs of ancient and modern times (...) They are intended to be maxims of life, or rules of conduct, chiefly for the young, but may be read with pleasure and profit by both young and old.

This handbook is a collection of English proverbs and idioms with Arabic translations. The author ventures to translate these English proverbs and idioms with Equivalents from Arabic culture, formal and popular. The aim is to help Arab students of English comprehend an English idiomatic expression and properly render it into Arabic. Another aim behind writing this handbook is to help translator students make use of these English idiomatic expressions while translating Arabic proverbs into English instead of lingering over thinking about the words and expressions to be used. Undergraduate Arab students of English translation studies in particular, should have a lot of English idioms and fixed expressions besides their English skills of speaking and writing. This handbook is chiefly intended for them. Arabic culture is rich with proverbs and idioms. Spoken Arabic proves to be a good source for a translator student to pick up equivalents or substitutions for the English proverbs and idioms. Here, I have translated English idioms and proverbs by finding an Arabic saying or quotation that approximates the intended message of the original. It is safer to say that finding direct literary Arabic proverbs for English sayings with same linguistic equivalences is difficult. However, I do my best effort to find for every English idiom or proverb recorded here an Arabic parallel which are seen to roughly have equivalent meaning, if not similar meaning, or effect on the Arab audience but dissimilar form. To put it differently, translating of English proverbs has been partly based on personal renderings and partly on cultural substitutions by replacing an English idiomatic expression with an Arabic one, no matter if the Arabic substitution does not have the same linguistic equivalence of a particular English idiom or proverb. Importantly, the Arabic substitution should have an equivalent effect on Arab audience. Indeed, a lot of time has been put into collecting English idioms and proverbs from various sources. Much more time has been put into reading various Arabic sources of proverbs and wise sayings in an effort to find equivalents and substitutions. Spoken Arabic and informal Arabic sources have been found richer wirh equivalents for English proverbs and idioms than literary Arabic sources.I have cautiously resorted to informal Arabic expressions to translate most of the English proverbs and idioms given here. Yemeni expressions here are picked up by word of mouth from people. Searching the Internet high and low for Arabic proverbs, formal and popular, helps me much overcome many problems. No reference for the English and Arabic proverbs, idioms, quotes etc is included here. As a matter of fact, the literal translations of English proverbs made by some Arab writers sound poor., and it and lacks the equivalent effect on the Arab reader.It is no exaggeration when I say that I have beaten my brain out all the time trying to find an Arabic equivalent or a substitution which has a corresponding effect on Arab audience regardless of the sum meaning of the words used in an English proverb. There are 1600 items, or even more, listed as main English proverbs and idioms with equivalent number of Arabic translations. Corresponding or related proverbs are listed as (*) symbol, except where necessary, I have given my own renderings. They are marked as (*). As already mentioned, because a proverb or an idiomatic expression is indirect, its meaning is greater than the meaning of the individual words put together. Unlike literal translation which is based on the sum meaning of these words taken individually, figurative translation sounds not only more beautiful, but also more fitting with the message and spirit of the original. To sum up, since proverbs and idioms are metaphoricals, a translator should be aware more of the message of a proverb other than the sum meaning of words taken individually. I hope that readers will find it very interesting

Proverbs have been the author's passion since childhood in his Lebanese village and later in Iraq. Here he has brought together over 4000 proverbs, humorous and wise anecdotes and popular quotations from throughout the Arab world.

Reproduction of the original: Arabian Wisdom by John Wortabet