True Story

It was about 1:30 AM two summers ago, I was in the basement surfing the net when the phone started flashing (all phone ringers were off). I picked up the phone to hear the crying voice of a close family friend telling “itassalt bjozee bi shoghol wa 2aloli inno in2ata3 isba3o” (my husband’s finger was cutoff at work) My heart started beating faster, I told her to stay put, and in a matter of minutes me and the family would be there. She insisted that I wouldn’t bother them with the issue, I insisted back, and 15 minutes later we were at her house. My dad took off to the hospital, and I stayed behind with my mom trying to calm the lady down.

Half an hour later my dad calls and tells us that the husband is fine, and he’s getting stitches. That is, his finger wasn’t cut off. So why did she think his finger was cut off?

Well, it was a classic case of direct (literal) translation from English to Arabic. When she called his work to inquire about him being late, she was told “You’re husband cut his finger, and he’s in the hospital now.” If you were to translate that directly into Arabic you would understand “You’re husband’s finger was cut off, and he’s in the hospital now.” In Arabic the word ‘cut’ would not be used in the context of this story. Arabic has two distinct words, one for cut, and one for “causing a small wound”. Hopefully you can see where the confusion took place.

I wanted to share this story with you to point out what direct translation could cause, and hopefully to encourage people to be ware of such mistakes.

Hope you found it somewhat interesting.