Moroccan equivalent to "go with the flow"?

[Fredeni]

Hello all,

My girlfriend likes the beauty of arabic writing, and she would like to get herself tattooed with the moroccan equivalent of the english saying "go with the flow". Is there a proverb or common saying that means something similar, that invites to not care too much, to believe that things will turn out good?

If there is, and you can post it in arabic writing, my girlfriend will be thankful for the rest of her life


Oh, by the way, 2nd request. I know nothing about arabic alphabet, but is there equivalent for the latin letters A and C?


Thanks,



Fred

 

[ruby_ghawi]

Go with the flow?lmao

sorry, but we don't write in moroccan dialect, we write in classical arabic, and i don't really know how to say "go with the flow" in a classical language

But, i wish you luck it's gonna be hard to find..

Anyways, in arabic as in all semitic languages, people don't write vowels, they use diacritic signs to materialize them which is why most of the letters aren't prononce alone (for exemple, the letter "n": you read "n" without diacritic signs but you read "na" or "ni" or "no" (it depends of where the sign is situated) when a letter is marked with a sign).

c/s corresponds to the letter "sin" and a to "alif" when it's pronounced alone or used to make a letter sound longer, but usually if you want to write "a" after a conson, you just mark it with an horizontal line above the letter

i did my best to help, but i think you should seriously go to wikipedia, there you can find all the informations...

 

[lfmrime]

Hello all,

My girlfriend likes the beauty of arabic writing, and she would like to get herself tattooed with the moroccan equivalent of the english saying "go with the flow". Is there a proverb or common saying that means something similar, that invites to not care too much, to believe that things will turn out good?

If there is, and you can post it in arabic writing, my girlfriend will be thankful for the rest of her life


Oh, by the way, 2nd request. I know nothing about arabic alphabet, but is there equivalent for the latin letters A and C?


Thanks,



Fred

Well,
For the first question we can say:

"IDA MARIHO MALATE LALA HAYTO TAMILO" classical Arabic
"FINE MA MCHATE YADIHA RIHE" Morrocan

But I think that it's too long...... I don't find theses proverbs very romantic..sorry.


For the second one, Sure there is equivalent for these letters but I prefer to have the both of your first name in order not to make a mistake! You can send them with a private message

 

[Ancien-Membre]

[...]
"FINE MA MCHATE YADIHA RIHE" Morrocan
[...]

This is really an offense, and can be said about a weak person. DON'T USE IT!

IMHO, "SIR MAA AL WAD SAFI" is much better, as it means "Take the right path".

Literally:

sir maa: take the path
al wad : the river
safi: pure
al wad safi: the pure river/ the pure river of water

 

[Fredeni]

Shukran for the quick replies!

ruby_ghawi, I wouldn't have bet on it, but had a feeling moroccan dialect wouldn't have its own writing system. But I had also a feeling there might be ways to say what I wanted that were particular to Morocco, just as here, in Quebec (Canada), we say things in French that are said otherwise in France. Thanks for the crash course on arabic writing, though. I sure will have a look on Wikipedia.

lfmrime, how would translate in English both sentences you wrote (meaning, word for for word)? I don't know if it's possible to write in arabic in these forum, but if not, could you PM me an image or a pdf?


Thanks,


Fred

 

[Fredeni]

Thanks musafir, I just read your reply.

Actually, "go with the flow" can be understood as
"to follow the lead of other people and react to their opinions or actions passively" (encarta.msn.com)

But it also can has the meaning of:
"to take things as they come" in a relaxed way (wiktionary)

I can understand that suggestions probably more related to the 1st were given. Of course, we're looking more for the 2nd meaning


Thanks for your suggestion, and for taking the time to explain its literal meaning.

By the way, I really appreciate the time everyone takes to reply to this thread.

 

[Fredeni]

lfmrime,

I can't send private messages yet, so here's the words behind the two letters:

A is for Amitié (friendship)
C is for Caroline


Thanks,


Fred

 

[Ancien-Membre]

Hello Fredeni,

The morrocan saying I did suggest you as an equivalent was with the second meaning you stated in mind.

In fact, cultural and linguistic barriers make it sometimes difficult to find the right equivalence.
As you know probably, in Morocco, most of us are muslims, and so, in our everyday's life,
the name of God (Allah) is omnipresent. And this is the case also about many sayings.

There is another one that is popular, commonly used, and sounds really nice.:

"Dnya hanya wa sma safya" wich means "Everythng goes well" or "Don't worry, life is beautifull"

Literally:

Dnya: the world, the earth
hanya: is quiet, is peaceful
wa: and
sma: the sky
safia: is pure (blue)

Moroccan speaking, like most dialects, is limited, not as rich or beautiful (at least for me) as classical
arabic or arabic for short, an incredibly rich and complex language that is called "the language of poets".

Follows is an extract from an article (link below) about how rich arabic language is:

[Take just one English word – “love” – and you will find more than 50 Arabic words to appropriately
describe it, each more harmonic than the last]

http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2008/11/15/60190.html

Fred, a tatoo is something very personal, expressive and can last for the entire life. Take your time, ask in other
places than here, and at best, try to get in touch with a moroccan linguist, writer, poet, someone who can
really suggest you the right choice.

I would have for sure used for myself the suggestion I made to you, still there must be a much better equivalent.

Good luck!

 

[Fredeni]

Bonjour,

J'ai posté avant-hier un message dans le forum en anglais où je demandais quelle expression marocaine représenterait bien celle anglaise de "go with the flow". Après quelques réponses reçues (merci à ceux qui ont répondus), je me rends compte que ce n'est pas aussi facile que je le pensais, l'expression anglaise ayant déjà deux significations bien différentes. Et ce soir, après avoir passé un moment avec des gens du Centre Culturel Islamique de Granby (CCIG), que je remercie encore une fois pour leur accueil et leur aide, je comprends que la traduction ne doit pas avoir de sens religieux, compte tenu de l'utilisation qui doit en être faite, pour ne risquer de choquer.

Tout d'abord, il faut savoir que ma copine trouve l'écriture arabe très belle. Elle a eu comme idée de se faire tatouer une phrase dans cette calligraphie. L'expression qu'elle a retenue est "go with the flow", qui représente pour elle une philosophie à garder en tête.

"Go with the flow" peut être comprise comme une invitation à ne pas sortir du rang, à suivre les autres docilement où qu'ils aillent. Mais l'expression peut aussi être comprise comme une invitation à ne pas s'en faire avec la vie: laisse-toi porter par le courant, tout ira bien; pas de panique, les choses vont s'arranger; "don't worry, be happy"... On comprendra évidemment que un sens équivalent à cette deuxième "définition" qui est recherché dans une expression marocaine, ou arabe.

Après discussions, donc, avec les gens du CCIG, je comprend qu'il serait mal vu de se faire tatouer quoi que ce soit qui ait un sens religieux. Ma copine n'est pas musulmane mais ne veut pas pour autant risquer de froisser ceux qui seraient capable de lire son tatou (les rares fois qu'elle sera sur une plage, puisqu'il sera dans son dos).

Les gens du CCIG m'ont suggéré de poster ma requête dans un forum en français, considérant le plus grand nombre de francophones marocains. Me voici donc, prêt à lire vos suggestions, espérant avoir pu trouver les bons mots en français pour expliquer le sens de l'expression recherchée.

Jusqu'à présent, j'ai reçu comme suggestions:

"IDA MARIHO MALATE LALA HAYTO TAMILO" : arabe classique;

"FINE MA MCHATE YADIHA RIHE" : marocain, mais on m'a expliqué que ce n'était pas une bonne idée;

"SIR MAA AL WAD SAFI" : "suis le droit chemin", mais je ne suis pas certain que c'est bien ce qu'on recherche;

"Dnya hanya wa sma safya" : de par l'explication donnée par musafir, ça me semblait coller assez bien;


D'autres suggestions? Nous aimerions pouvoir lire vos expressions en alphabet latin (pour se donner une idée de la prononciation), en écriture arabe, une petite explication du sens entendu par l'expression et une courte traduction litérale. Malheureusement, le temps est court d'ici à la visite chez le tatoueur: samedi, 11h, heure de Montréal, QC, Canada...


En remerciant à l'avance ceux qui voudront bien partager un petit peu de leur culture,


Frédéric