On Vox: Week of the Book.

I don't usually buy books on the "week of the book", but since everyone around me was buying, I decided to spoil myself just a little bit. I got me the "Bilingual etymological dictionary of spoken Israeli Arabic and Hebrew", by Abraham Stahl. A very serious book, in two volumes. Here's a little joke from the preface of the book, translated from Iraqi Arabic into Palestinian Arabic, and into English (the last one I did myself).

Sane3 il-kaslaan.
wa7ad qaal laSana3o: qoum shouf, qa3ed maTar ya la?
qaal lo: na3am, ya sidi, qa3ed maTar.
qaal lo: minnein Sar 3indak ma3loum?!
qaal lo: halqeit faatat min Sob il-quTTeh mablouleh.
qaal lo: qoum iTfi il-lamba.
qaal lo: ya sidi, tghaTTi lafoq raasak bil-l7aaf.
qaal lo: Tayyeb, qoum sakker il-baab mli7.
qaal lo: rabbna yi7fazak, ya sidi. qadeit lak shughultein, ushughlet ttalaateh qoum inte iqdiha.

The lazy worker.
A man said to his worker: get up and look, is it raining or not?
He replied: Yes, master, it is raining.
He said to him: How do you know that?!
He replied: Just now a wet cat passed by.
He said to him: Get up, turn off the lamp.
He replied: Master, cover your head with a blanket.
He said to him: Very well, get up, close the door firmly.
He replied: God help you, master. I already did two jobs for you, get up and do the third yourself.

Originally posted on wildernesscat.vox.com