EXCITED!
Quotes you never read before (unless you know Arabic ;p)
ابن ادم اذا مات وعنده ثقة انسان واحد فهو كسبان
If a son of Adam died having the trust of even one human being, he is a winner
Tayeb Saleh (1929 - 2009) - A Sudanese novelist; best known for his Seasons of Migration to the North
Susan Abulhawa (born 1970) - a Palestinian-American writer and human rights activist. She is the author of a bestselling novel, Mornings in Jenin (2010) and the founder of a non-governmental organization, Playgrounds for Palestine.
كان من المؤلم جداً أنّ الناس لا يصلون… ولكنه كان من المؤلم أكثر، أنهم إذا صلّوا، ربما لا يتغيّرون
It is painful that people do not pray, but what is even more painful is that even when they do pray, they may not change
Ahmed Khairy al-Omary (b. 1970) - An Iraqi revisionist/rationalist writer on Islamic thought
Aqqad is so very misunderstood! His analysis of ibn al-Rumi’s poetry are understood as endorsement of racial theory! He was the only Arab thinker against Hitler at a time when Arabs were for ANYONE against France and England because he saw the dangerous dogma of Nazism..
Btw, hope you don’t mind these iPhone posts of my readings! No links, too! I’m afraid you’ll see more of them in the next few weeks! Think of it as me sharing photos of my intellectual walks with you ;)
English Romanticism & Arabic/Egyptian Romantic Poetry in the early 20th Century ❤️
From “Three Egyptian Poets of “Westernization” by Robin C. Ostle
Burmese monk Wirathu is on the cover of July 2013 Time Maganzine. Wirathu has been leading a plot to ethnically cleanse the Rohingya people. The Rohingya people are Muslims. He has compared Muslims to “African carp” and has described them as “quick breeding and violent.” His speeches have been blamed for the rise of violence against the Rohingya people. In his recent sermon, he described the reported massacre of schoolchildren and other Muslim inhabitants in the central city of Meiktila in March, documented by a human rights group, as “a show of strength” The Muslims are suffering. Please keep them in your duas(prayers).
I am a practicing Muslim but I am also a meditation & Buddhist mysticism junkie! This is a reminder that TERRORISM HAS NO RELIGION!
إن سرعة التصديق وسرعة الإنكار كلاهما يدلان على سذاجة غير محمودة
Both, to quickly believe and to quickly deny, indicate a naivete not to be commended
Ali Al Wardi (1913-1995) - Iraqi sociologist and historian
لا يستطيع الرجل ان يفكر باتزان إذا لم تكن المرأة قريبة منه إن عقله يختل،ويصرف وقتاً طويلا في حل أمور صغيرة
A man can not think with equanimity if his woman is not near him; his mind breaks down, and spends long times solving minor things
Abdulrahman Munif (1933 - 2004) - A novelist born to a Saudi father & Iraqi Mother & brought up in Jordan.. best known for his trilogy “Cities of Salt”
“If a King is lost, another king will come..
but if a land is lost, there will be no other land..
Hark, all ye kings!
They’re coming! the Berbers are coming!
Lend us your sword, Yusuf bin Tahfin”
Molouk al-Tawef [Petty Kingdoms]- 2001 (Ghassan Saliba, Carole Samaha)
the OST of this play is burned on my mind! I used to hear it over & over again on the way to university & back 6 years ago & YET I didn’t watch it! The complete musical was not released on DVD as far as I know & it’s not on YouTube :( Anyone knows where I can find it online?
so the last seminar I attended was on how to make an impact through your research in the humanities; I mentioned my blog & it became the focus of a brain storm session on how to make an “impact” !!!! I’m glad I didn’t mention the url (although it’s now the number one google result if you type in “Arabic Quotes”) the professor coordinating this series of seminars & the seminar presenter were very interested, and the latter actually gave me her email to arrange for a meeting.. but I didn’t email her.. I just don’t want this to be another chore & I sure don’t want my supervisors reading these translations, thank you very much! ALSO: I don’t want to make an “impact” in life! IMPACT, mind you! Not a difference or change or raise awareness! IMPACT!! Whatever is that supposed to mean!!! I really hate the superficial grandiosity of academia :( that’s why I worry if I’ll ever be a “professional researcher”! I’m a literature student & I don’t understand why I’m supposed to read more of Marx! Well, I don’t like Marx! (after all, I’m an Aqqadian at heart! it’s a shame he’s not translated!) I was only exposed to these ideas here in the west! & I find them absurd! “class consciousness”??? I come from a family that was living in abject poverty less than 30 years ago! If they “identified with their class”, they would have remained “victims” for the rest of their life!!!! You can’t attribute every step forward that people take to theories & philosophies! There’s such a thing called Human Will!! Women in my country made a HUGE step forward & there was no feminist movement there! I’m not a racist (it IS racist to hate on white people, you know!) but seriously expecting me to see everything through the lens of Western thought history is so Eurocentric! I’m babbling a lot BUT Long story short: I love that this page is my little secret & I want it to remain that way <3
أتركوا لي ما تبقى مني!!!
Leave me whatever is left of me!!!
Ahmed Khaled Tawfik (b. 1962) - An Egyptian Horror & Science Fiction author
These are the lines which a Syrian student wrote in his notebook, which was later found by his teacher in Madinah.
-“When the war ends in Syria we’re going to close its doors and put a sign that says “nobody can enter”. We’re going to cry out of joy by ourselves, just like we lived our sadness by ourselves.”
