One Story from a Million Stories; Consolation
Screenshot from mr ooossh’s Instagram (Khalid Salah) video featured in this week’s post.
Background to This Week’s Text
The highly colloquial 2-minute conversation featured this week for listening and lexical focus encapsulates in miniature the unfolding tragedy of Sudan’s civil war. This fast, lower-intermediate text is full of everyday courteous and formulaic conversational expressions used in Sudan.
A chance meeting in a street in Omdurman sparks a conversation which speaks volumes on Sudanese powers of resilience and dignity.
Possible Approaches
Why not use the text as a dictation test from cold and compare your accuracy against the transcript below?
Alternatively, you might like to make a note of the colloquial responses used by the older man interviewed to describe his health, life circumstances and feelings. What are his circumstances? Why is he where he is? How does he survive financially? How do his responses change as he becomes more relaxed with his interlocutor? What questions does the interviewer ask and what surprises him?
What’s your reaction to the interview and the old man’s situation? And the interviewer’s actions? Do you have any reservations about the video?
Lexical Focus
How would you translate the title of the video clip? What other expressions are derived from the same verbal root? If you have been following this blog, you will remember we’ve seen this expression before. Can you remember where?
Which expression might you use if you feel that words fail you because of the emotional power of the situation you are experiencing?
How many words do you know for “beg / “seek alms” in classical and Sudanese Arabic? Which expressions are used in the text?
Which colloquial verb for “to leave” do you predict will be used in the text? And which expressions might you expect to hear for “to be powerless / have no strength left”, “turbid / murky”, “family / children”?
Which religious phrase is used to say “God save / preserve you”?
Watch the Video Here:
www.instagram.com/reel/C3VlMgfoJok/
Transcript
Annotated Transcript
1 jabar al-khawaaTir; in this context, the expression means consolation, the healer of broken hearts / souls
You can see more examples of this term in as-Sayyida Maryam ash-Sharifa (Maryam Al-Mirghaniyah), Part 1/3, where the expression is one of several epithets of Sharifa Maryam; jaabira; literally a bone-setter, (jabiira; splint) / jaarara, III; to treat kindly, ajbara IV; to splint; but as a name, Consoler or Comforter; of al-khawaaTir, plural of khaaTir, here, spirit / soul / heart / mind. The word can also mean thoughts / preoccupations; but here, Consoler of Broken Souls
2 al-waaHid galbu ya`jiz
`an ta`biir zaatu; literally, one’s heart is incapable of expressing; perhaps here, words fail us
3 mafiish `awaja; note this colloquial response to “How are you?”; all is well, no problem and also in other contexts, no harm done
4 maaluu yaa Hajj; here, why is it that while everyone else has left, you’re still here, alone
5 khaalii gudra; a powerful expression of resignation or sadness; I have no power / I am powerless, perhaps here too, no strength left
6 mu`akkara; literally turbid, muddy, perhaps here, describing life, troubled / bitter / harsh
also in the expression washh mu`akkar; looking disturbed, a grumpy face
7 al-dunya Harb; notice this way of describing the situation, using dunya; earthly existence / world for the general situation
8 aZ-Zuruuf kuluhaa maa waaHida; note this way of saying “not everyone enjoys the same circumstances
9 ana fii baab Allah; this expression is used for someone who subsists by begging or seeking alms
10 taHshad; shaHda; see below; to beg
11 faatuu; from the verb faat, (u), foota, fawataan; to go, leave, note also the expression faat `ala, to call in at, drop in on, also overtake
12 baladii al-kaan gaa`id foogu; note the use of the preposition “foog” rather than “fii”
13 maa `indak
`iyaal; Don’t you have any children, also family
14 muHtaaj; in need
15 mablagh maalii; a sum of money
16 aHaawil aZbuT; I am trying to ease your circumstances; from the verb ZabaT, (u, ZabiT) to fix, put something right, also ZabbaT, taZbiiT; to put something right
17 yaa ghaalii; an affectionate form of address, see as-Sayyida Maryam ash-Sharifa (Maryam al-Mirghaniya) Part 2/3
18 Note this religious phrase for “May God preserve you and may God preserve Sudan.”
19 maSaariif; literally, expenses, outlay, here funds
Sudanese Arabic Documentary Transcripts with English Notes 