SOME ARABIC PROVERBS AND THEIR ENGLISH TRANSLATION EQUIVALENTS: A STUDY OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES & SIMILARITIES
...nforce their points of view through the use of proverbial expressions. It is true that individual members of one and the same community may as well vary in the way they would use proverbs and in their choice of a given proverb in the one and very same situation. It is equally true, however, that the average majority would resort to the use of proverbial expressions, one way or the other, whenever they want to bestow some kind of credibility of collective nature on their, otherwise, individualistic views . When proverbs are used in conversational situations, they “bear great weight because the speaker is linking his sayings to the past. By doing so, he shifts the responsibility of his con- tent to past traditions and authorities whose wisdom cannot be questioned” Since proverbs usually “conform to the general rhythm of the language in which they have been taken down” (Tylor, 1996), and with regard to the grossly different nature of Arabic and English in this respect, formal linguistic differences between the two sets of proverbs in question, (Arabic/English) are discarded. The emphasis is laid only on the thematic differences between Arabic and English proverbs that are generally used in similar or identical situations, the various attitudes reflected by them, and, hence, the cultural differences and/or similarities between the two cultural/linguistic communities in question. In her research on Arabic proverbs and related forms, Sheila Webster points out that both classical Arabic and the colloquial dialects are rich in proverbial lore. As H. R. P Dickson observed earlier last century, “The Arab is forever quoting proverbs or sayings of some poet or other, and he seems to enjoy this almost as much as story telling" (Webster, 2000).Given the basic nature of proverbs as conversational tools (Ibid) and the diglossic nature of the Arabic language (Trudgill, 1974), the Arabic proverbs examined in this paper shall be mainly colloquial. The basic situations corresponding to the set of proverbs selected for this paper are those that mainly advocate caution and/or cowardice, prudence and/or passivity, and tolerance/tactfulness and/or social hypocrisy. As may be evident from the above mentioned pairs of attributes, an attempt shall be made in the following “snapshot’ as it may be properly labeled, to decide how far these positive/negative sides of equivalent Arabic and English proverbs may reflect cultural differences between the two communities concerned. The researcher takes the Arabic language/culture as his starting point. The choice of the Arabic colloquial proverbs was documented by referring back to Ahmed Timour’s famous book on Egyptian proverbs entitled ÇáÃãËÇá ÇáÚÇãíÉ in its fourth edition (1984). The only standard Arabic proverb included in the sample was chosen from commonly used ones by the average native speaker, even in everyday conversations. The choice of functionally and communicatively equivalent English proverbs is partly intuitional and partly dependent on the description of the function of these English proverbs as stated by monolingual English dictionaries and in some linguistic as well as anthropological studies. It is to be noted, in this respect, that the historical origin and chronological sequence of the Arabic and English proverbs under study is of no significance to the present research, since they are still commonly used by native speakers of both cultural/linguistic communities in question. Finally, it has to be emphasized that the findings of this paper are meant to be tentative reflections of a general nature rather than arbitrary overgeneralizations disguised as academic conclusions. Sample Proverbs Group Arabic Proverb Literal Translation Assumed Function English Equivalent A 1- ÚÕÝæÑ Ýí ÇáíÏ ÎíÑ ãä ÚÔÑÉ Úáì ÇáÔÌÑÉ 1- A bird in the hand is better than ten on the tree Advocating prudence and/or practicality 1- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush B 1- Ýí ÇáÊÃäí ÇáÓáÇãÉ æÝí ÇáÚÌáÉ ÇáäÏÇãÉ 2- ßá ÊÃÎíÑÉ æÝíåÇ ÎíÑÉ 3- ÅãÔí ÓäÉ æáÇ ÊÎØí ÞäÇ 1-Patience leads to safety, and haste to regret 2- Every delay has something good about it 3-Walk for a whole year rather than cross a channel Advocating caution and/or patience 1- Haste is waste C 1- Çááí íÊÌæÒ Ããí ÃÞæá áå íÇ Úãí 2- Åä ßÇä áß ÚäÏ ÇáßáÈ ÍÇÌÉ¡ Þæá áå íÇ ÓíÏ(í) 1- Whoever marries my mother, I shall address him as my uncle (My father’s brother) 2- If you need something from a dog, address him as your master. Advocating tolerance, tactfulness and/or hypocrisy 1- When you are in Rome, do as the Romans do Commentary Looking at the two groups “A” and “B”, we notice the following: I. The Arabic proverb in “A” tends to be much more emphatic and exaggerated when compared with its English counterpart. Instead of “worth” in the English proverb, we have the comparative form “ÎíÑ’ (better), and in place of “two” only, the Arabic uses "ÚÔÑÉ" (ten). These two slight differences, as it were, may already give an impression of excessive caution, on the part of the Arab community member; excessive to the extent that it could almost lead to the loss of any kind of ambitions. This impression, however becomes more of an objective observation when we examine the Arabic proverbs in group “B” in contrast with their English counterpart ‘Haste is waste”. The English proverb implies a practical attitude and may be a reflection of the simple fact that when one does any job or task hastily, one may do it improperly, and, thus, may have to re-do it again and again. Hence, ‘haste” may, literally, lead to a “waste’ of time and effort. The Arabic proverbs, on the other hand, display some elements of exaggeration that may even seem to advocate “laziness”, or, at the best, “passiveness”, ratter than merely warning the addressee against the adverse consequences of “haste” per se. The third Arabic proverb in that group is certainly a case in point. According to it, any delay has something good about it! There should be no offense, when governmental officials postpone doing their work until tomorrow, which never comes. There should be no reason for the public to complain, if a taxi driver loses his way in traffic jam and causes the passenger to miss an important appointment or even a plane, just because the driver has picked up the wrong road; there should be no problem, as long as"ßá ÊÃÎíÑÉ æÝíåÇ ÎíÑÉ" ! It may be argued that this proverb is associated with another semi-proverbial, semi-religious saying, viz, "ÇáÎíÑÉ Ýí ãÇÇÎÊÇÑå Çááå", and that, consequently, it is not meant to excuse laziness or encourage carelessness, but only submission to God’s will. Nevertheless, the latter is usually used only as a means of consolation when an unpleasant event has already taken place and nothing can be done about it. In other words, it reflects a rather fatalistic attitude (that may also be negative to some extent too!), while “ßá ÊÃÎíÑÉ æÝíåÇ ÎíÑÉ’ is practically used as a justification of human mistakes and an attempt at rationalizing them. We then reach the climax of passiveness, laziness, and even cowardice with the third proverb in group "B”. It also, typically, reflects the traditional lack of a sense of time in traditional agricultural societies, as well as fear of new experiences, such fear that almost amounts to sheer cowardice. In his book A Dictionary of Idioms, ( 2000), El Batal gives the English proverb “Better safe than sorry” (p.14)as the accepted translation of the Arabic “ÅãÔí ÓäÉ æáÇ ÊÎØí ÞäÇ “, but this is rather inaccurate as there is another Arabic proverb that serves as a much more appropriate equivalent to the English proverb in question, i.e., “ãä ÎÇÝ Óáã”. In fact, when the author lists his translations from English to Arabic his English – Egyptian Arabic glossary at the end of the dictionary, he lists “ãä ÎÇÝ Óáã” as the translation of the English “Better safe than sorry”, which only consolidates the view that the third Arabic proverb in group “B” is to be appropriately translated into the English “Haste is waste” rather than “Better safe than sorry”. It is also interesting to note the difference between the emphasis on “caution’ as such with the use of the lexical item “safe’ versus “sorry” in the English proverb, in contrast with the use of the Arabic lexical item “ÎÇÝ” which means “to fear- to be afraid”, in the Arabic proverb, which reinforces the negative nature of Arabic proverbs when it comes to advocating caution. All the Arabic proverbs in groups “A” and “B” have one thing in common despite their supposedly different functions. They all advocate negative/passive attitudes, whether in the form of excessive...