Posts under "Literature"

Kana and Sisters (Part 2)

Posted by Fisal No Comments
Jan 18 2012

     

       Now that we have learnt the verb Kana and its sisters, we should all ask: What do these verbs mean? What do they refer to? What are they used for? In today’s post, we will try to answer these Questions. We will look at these verbs in different categories according to their use because kana and its sisters can refer to different things. The first category of these verbs is the category of the verbs that refer to TIME. These verbs are:

* أصبحَ  : This verb refers to “something happening in the morning”. It can also mean “to become”

              Ex. – أصبح المبنى مكتملاً  = The building was completed in the morning.  

                    -  أصبحَ الفيلُ مريضاً   = The elephant became sick in the morning.

* أضحى   : This verb refers to “something happening before noon or late in the morning”. It also means “to become”.

               Ex.  – أضحى الجوُ جميلاً   = The weather has become beautiful in the late morning.

*  ظلَّ  : This verb refers to “something that is happening during the day” It can also mean “to stay” or “to remain”.

              Ex.  -  ظلَّ الولدُ صائماً حتى الغروب  = The boy remained fasting till sunset.

* أمسى   :  This verb refers to “something happening in the evening” It is the opposite of أصبح .

               Ex. – أمست الطيورُ عائدةً إلى أعشاشها  = The birds returned to their nests in the evening.

*  باتَ  : This verb means “something that is happening during the night”. It also means, “to spend the night doing something”

              Ex.  -  باتَ الحارسُ مستيقظاً   = The guard spent the night awake.    

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Next time, In Sha’a Allah,  we will continue with more meanings of these verbs.

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Peace  سلام /Salam/

Mother of the Egyptians

Posted by Fisal 2 Comments
Jan 13 2012

Safiya Zagloul (1878 – 1946)

       

     Born to an aristocratic family, Safiya Zaghloul صفية زغلول was the daughter of Mustafa Fahmy  Pasha  مصطفى فهمي باشا , who was one of Egypt’s first Prime Ministers. She was nicknamed after her husband Saad Pasha Zaghloul سعد باشا زغلول . She was also nicknamed the ‘Mother of the Egyptians أم المصريين‘ after she had taken part in the feminist demonstrations مظاهرات نسائية  that followed the 1919 Revolution against the British occupation toEgypt. Safiya played an important role in the political life inEgypt at that time.

     Safiya was born in 1878 and died on January 12th, 1946 leaving behind a rich and extra-ordinary life of an Egyptian woman and a faithful wife زوجة مخلصة . Safiya and her husband used to open their house to all national leaders and patriotic figures to discuss the country’s politics and think together of legal and peaceful ways to embarrass the occupation. The house also was open to all kinds of people so that it was called the “House of the Nation بيت الأمة” . After her husband was sent to exile المنفى out of the country, a lot of people gathered around her house. Safiya immediately, issued a declaration بيان that was read to the angry demonstrators in which she promised that she would follow in her husband’s footsteps and that she considered herself a mother to all the Egyptians who went out to face the bullets for the sake of freedom. One of the demonstrators cheered up, “long live تحيا the mother of the Egyptians” and hence came her nickname as the Mother of the Egyptians.

      In 1921, Safiya was the first wife of a political Arab leader to appear with him publicly unveiled. She had French education تعليم and her husband gave her all credit ثقة . She was also the first Egyptian woman to carry the name of her husband like westerners. Safiya was a good example of the great Arab women.

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Peace  سلام  /Salam/

Top Ten Arabic Blog Articles

Posted by Fisal 1 Comment
Dec 31 2011

Hi friends and Arabic fans ! Today, is the last day of 2011, so we wish you all a Happy New Year. In today’s post I am going to go over the top ten Arabic Blog articles.

     1- The first top post was about the Arabic Numbers from 1 – 100 . You can review the post here.

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/arabic-numbers-1-100/  

      2- The second top post was speaking about Love in the Arabic Language and you can view it here:

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/love-in-arabic/

      3- The third top post was entitled; “Some Arabic Words and Sentences – Part 1: Transliteration”. Here is the link to this blog.

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/common-arabic-words-and-sentences-part-i-transliteration/

      4- The fourth top article was a Love poem by the famous Egyptian poet; Farouk Goweedah.  

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/i-live-in-your-eyes/

       5- The fifth top Arabic Blog Article was dealing with and discussing the Arabic Calligraphy and you can access the article by clicking this link. 

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/?s=Arabic+calligraphy

       6- The sixth top article was explaining the Arabic Diacritics and here is the link.  

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/?p=2018

       7- The seventh top article was about telling the time in Arabic.  

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/telling-the-time/

       8- The top blog article number eight was Fisal’s Dictionary and it was trying to explain the different Arabic derivatives of the word “Love”. You can read these derivatives here.   

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/?p=1942 

       9- The ninth top Arabic article was speaking about the famous city ofAlexandriaand its history. To view the article click on this link.

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/?p=2069

       10- Finally, top article number ten which was a grammatical post trying to wrap-up all information about nouns. To access the blog, click this link.

http://www.transparent.com/arabic/?p=1432

    We do wish you the best of wishes and may all your dreams come true in 2012.  

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Peace  سلام / Salam/

Every Year, You are my LOVE !

Posted by Fisal No Comments
Dec 30 2011

Every Year, You are my LOVE !

     Happy New Year, everyone. The new year is at the door. May all your wishes come true. Today, I present this beautiful song أغنية   of  the famous Iraqi singer; Kazim  Al-Sahir كاظم الساهر . The song was written by the great Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani نزار قباني .

YouTube Preview Image

 كـُـلُّ عـَـامٍ وأنتِ حـَـبـيـبـتــي 

Every year, you are my Love

كـُـلُّ عـَـامٍ وأنــا حـَـبـيـبــُــكِ

Every year, I am your Love

آهٍ يـَـا سـَـيـّـدتـِـي لـَـو كـانَ الأمـْــرُ بـيـَـدِي

Oh, my Lady, If it were my choice, 

إذاً لـَـصـَــنــَــعـــتُ سـَــنــَــة ً لـكــِي وَحـْــدَكِ 

I would create a year for you 

تــُـفـــَـصــِّــلـيــنَ أيــَّــامــَـهــَــا كـمـَـا تــُـريــديــن  

To distribute its days as you like 

وتــُـســنــِـديــنَ ظــَــهــْـرَكِ عـلـى أسـَــابـيــعـِـهــَــا كـمَـا تــُريـديــن 

And to lean your back to its weeks as you like  

وتــتــشــمـَّـســِـي … وتــَـرقــُـصــِـي … وتــَـركــُــضـِـين 

And to sun .. to dance .. and run 

عـلـى رمـَــالِ شــُـهــُـورِهــَــا كـمَـا تــُـريــديـــن

On the sand of its months as you like 

كــُــلُّ عـَــامٍ وأنـتــِـي حـَـبـيـبـتـِـي

Every year, you are my Love 

أقــُـولــُـهــَــا لكي عـلـى طــريـقــتــِــي  

I say it my way

رافــِــضــًا كــُــلَّ الـعــِـبــَــاراتِ الــكــِــلاســيــكــيــّــةِ الـتـي  

Rejecting all the classic sentences that 

يـُــردّدهــَــا الــرّجــَــالُ عـلـى مَـسـَــامـِــع الـنــِّــســَــاءِ  

Men repeat in the ears of women 

كـُـلُّ عـَـامٍ وأنتِ حـَـبـيـبـتــي .. حـَـبـيـبـتــي 

Every year, you are my Love .. my Love 

سَــوفَ لــَـنْ نــَـشــتــري هــَــذا الـعــِـيــد شــجـــرة  

We will not buy a tree this year 

ســتــكــُــونــيــن أنـتــِــي الــشــَّــجــَــرَة 

You will be the Tree 

وســَـأعـَــلـــِّــقُ عــَــلــيــكِ أمـْــنــيـــَــاتـِـي  

And I will hang my wishes onto you

 ودعـَــوَاتــِــي .. وقــَــنــَـــادِيــلَ دُمـُــوعــِــي 

My prayers .. and the lights of my tears 

كــُــلُّ عـَــامٍ وأنـتــِـي حـَـبـيـبـتـِـي  

Every year, you are my Love 

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If you are interested in learning how to say I love you in Arabic, you can hear it said by a native speaker here.

Yehia Haqqi (1905 – 1992)

Posted by Fisal No Comments
Dec 10 2011

       Yehia Haqqi يحيى حقي  was one of the pioneers رُوّاد of the modern Egyptian literature. As well as being an important writer, he was an expert خبير on the Arab culture. He is considered a landmark in the cinema and literature and is compared to Naguib Mahfouz نجيب محفوظ and Yusuf Idris يوسف ادريس . He spent most of his life as a civil servant until he rose to become adviser to the National Library of Egypt.   

      Yehia Haqqi was born on January 7th 1905 in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Cairo. He graduated in Law القانون in 1925 a nd worked for a short time as a lawyer مُحامى . In 1929, he began his career as a diplomat دبلوماسي and he worked abroad for more than 20 years. The time he spent in France فرنسا , Italy ايطاليا , Turkey تركيا and Libya ليبيا gave him experiences which he later used in his writings.

       At the same time as he was working, Haqqi was writing stories. His first short story, published in 1925, established his name as one of the great short story writers of the Arab world. He wrote many articles  مقالات and short stories and won many awards. From 1961 to 1971, he was editor of the literary magazine; Al-Majallah المجلة .  

       Haqqi always wanted to help poor and disabled people. He had to go to hospital after an earthquake زلزال in Cairo, but gave his bed to a poor person who he thought needed it more. In 1955, he wrote a collection of short stories about the poor الفقراء and the disabled المعاقين which won an important prize. Another of his stories; The Postman البوسطجى or ساعى البريد , was made into a film.

       Haqqi wrote in a new way about the Arab society المجتمع and customs العادات in the twentieth century. He was also interested in the Arabic Language and he developed a new style أسلوب of writing which is still respected today.

      As well as writing his own novels and stories, Haqqi also translated Russian, French, Italian and Turkish literature into Arabic. He was a very strong believer in the power قوة of education التعليم and supported many young Egyptian writers.

     Haqqi died on December, 9th 1992, but is still thought of as the “Father of the Modern Short Story and Novel”  in Egypt.

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Peace  سلام  / Salam/

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