Some words are not translatable. Nor they should be. Whomever done this has my utmost respect. And no, the English does not begin to express how incredible the Arabic is... Small hint: unimageinable would have been a better and more fitting English line, and yes, you're welcome.
The legacy of verse for the all new GMC, a lovely title for what turned out to be a little of an underwhelming film. Don't get me wrong, the film is well done, well shot, with a very nice narrative. But honestly there's not enough "verse" to justify all the acclaim it was made to be. In the end if you are going to stress the Bedouin heritage, the campfire tales in the middle of the desert, more than a couple of words are needed. Actually what got me excited about the film is exactly what ended up disappointing me: I thought it would be word-based, and being very partial to the Arabic language, the film left me wanting. I mean it is nice objectively but certainly fails to deliver its original promise. Maybe some other tale would follow and rectify but as is.... Oh, you can watch the film here. And by the way, the majestic "bil haybati ykoud" is certainly, definitely, not the cheapo-slang-ish "leads like a pro"!
Originally published on June 8, 2011:
Rim goes out and about defending Arabic language and assuring everyone – specifically the youth – that is a “cool” and “contemporary” language… She took the association fi’il amer (which exists in real life to promote and safeguard the Arabic language). She designed a new logo for them, created the selling line “Iltafit nahawi” (which means both “look at me!” and “let’s see what the literary Arabic is all about” (Nahawi is the Arabic used by newspapers)).
To make the whole thing look cool she used Magritte but with a twist. She goes on to ridicule all those who do not know the difference between “z” and “Zein” or “Daaad” and “dad” (two different letters in the language) and then attacks all those who use the Latinized version of Arabic (2 is not a “Hamze”!, 7 is not “Heh”!)…
And then, she blows a major strike picking words and sentences from Arabic luminaries (Oum Koulsoum, Ziad Rahbani, etc…) puts them in a visual pop art sauce and tries to translate them into English… All the poetry, mystique, humour, double-entendre is suddenly gone! You see, some sentences simply out to be said and written in Arabic!...
And she did the whole presentation without uttering ONE word in any language apart from Arabic!
Smashingly well done!