Lost in translation
May. 12th, 2008 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatarperegrineLast week someone feeling rather despondent wrote "أين تذهب حياتي؟؟" on my whiteboard at work: "Where is my life going?"
Yesterday, a colleague's eyebrows shot up when he saw my whiteboard. "حياتي؟" he asked, dubiously. I looked at the sentence again and realized that, since "my life" is a common Arabic term of endearment, and the ت prefix can denote the second person masculine as well as the third person feminine, the sentence could also be translated "Where are you going, my love?" Oh, the scandal.
Yesterday, a colleague's eyebrows shot up when he saw my whiteboard. "حياتي؟" he asked, dubiously. I looked at the sentence again and realized that, since "my life" is a common Arabic term of endearment, and the ت prefix can denote the second person masculine as well as the third person feminine, the sentence could also be translated "Where are you going, my love?" Oh, the scandal.
