Shams Saghira 3

Abu and Um Fahd hadn’t eaten meat in a week!”

He approached the sheep and tried to force it to walk by pushing it forward, but it refused to move. So Abu Fahd grabbed it by its two small horns and pulled on them, but the sheep became rigid and clung to the wall. So Abu Fahd looked at it angrily and said, “I’m gonna carry you, and then I’ll get your mother and father, too.”

So Abu Fahd carried the sheep, raising it up and putting it on his back, holding its front hooves in his hands, then he went on his way, and continued singing. However, his happiness and intoxication had been diminished.

After a while he stopped singing, for it seemed the the weight and size of the sheep had increased. He then unexpectedly heard a voice saying, “Let me go!”

He furrowed his brow and said to himself, “Goddamn booze.” After a moment he heard the very same voice again, saying, “Let me go, I’m not a sheep!”

Abu Fahd shivered and pushed back his fear and hung onto the sheep, but stopped walking. The voice said,…

Vocabulary and Translation Notes

إجبار- To force

رمق- To look at

غيظ – Exasperation, ire, rage

قائمتين- (Two) paws, feet of an animal

نشوة- Intoxication

قطب جبينه- To furrow ones brow

ارتعد- Shiver, shudder. From ‘thunder’.

تشبث- To hold on to, cling to

Translation Notes

على حين غرة-unexpectedly, out of nowhere

قائمتيه- The dual-marker nun is dropped because of the addition of a conjoined personal pronoun, making this word an idafa.

لعن الله السكر-Literally “God Curse Drunkenness”, I chose to translate that as “Goddamn Booze.”