I'm reading a book of classical poems by Arab women, and found this gem from some 1000 years ago:
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@TarkabarkaHolgy that poem is fire. What’s the book? I’d love to add it to my list.
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It's ironic given the poem that her actual name is missing and she listed in terms of the men in her life. "Umm Ja'afar" meaning "Ja'afar's mother" and "bint Ali" meaning "Ali's daughter"
@gbargoud @TarkabarkaHolgy So THAT is where the pejorative "bint", the British-English slang word for a woman or girl came from.
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I'm reading a book of classical poems by Arab women, and found this gem from some 1000 years ago:
"Leave me alone, you’re not my equal, you’re not a man of the world nor a man of faith, yet you want to own me, you mindless twit."
(by Umm Ja'far bint Ali)
That's it. That's the whole poem.
#poetry #poem #WomensHistory #women #literature #art #bookstodon
y'all I'm really sorry but there has been something making me incredibly tense because NO ONE acknowledges it. A true, real life elephant in the wild!
I'm getting really bint out of shape over the accidental, REALLY unfortunate homophone(?) with some English slang
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@TarkabarkaHolgy @nixCraft ftr it's been available, at least US side, for a while, now (2001?). You can get it at places other than Big River, but even Barnes n Noble or BAM should stock it.
@samuel tänkte på dig här!
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@TarkabarkaHolgy Sooo.... a man of faith CAN own her? Very sus.
She doesn’t say so; it might be a necessary but not sufficient condition.
And being a ‘man of the world’ appears to be just as good a qualification.At a wild guess,* the poet may simply be playing with the common juxtaposition of /dīn/ (faith, religion) and /dunyā/ (world), similar-sounding words with contrasting meanings.
(* — My daughter has the book, so I’ve checked that these are the words used, but I’m not an Arabist.)
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@notyourfanboy @TarkabarkaHolgy Me too. I make “mindless twit” out to be the translation of three words meaning something like weak, foolish, and stubborn. “Twit” sounds like a great choice.
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I'm reading a book of classical poems by Arab women, and found this gem from some 1000 years ago:
"Leave me alone, you’re not my equal, you’re not a man of the world nor a man of faith, yet you want to own me, you mindless twit."
(by Umm Ja'far bint Ali)
That's it. That's the whole poem.
#poetry #poem #WomensHistory #women #literature #art #bookstodon
@TarkabarkaHolgy Who would print or write that in nice arabic calligraphy? For a fee, of course.
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@notyourfanboy @TarkabarkaHolgy Me too. I make “mindless twit” out to be the translation of three words meaning something like weak, foolish, and stubborn. “Twit” sounds like a great choice.
@noctuaminervae @notyourfanboy @TarkabarkaHolgy I suspect it's a good translation choice because I immediately knew which kind of That Guy she's referring to.
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@TarkabarkaHolgy Who would print or write that in nice arabic calligraphy? For a fee, of course.
@newstik I don't know Arabic, but the book is bilingual, so you could find someone who can?
