# لا معي كلمة أن أحدر أتكلم



## Toxaris

I have a picture with some arabic words/sentences on it. I would like to have those words/sentences electronically in a text (UTF) document. However, I have no knowledge about arabic, so this would be hard. I tried several OCR methods (online and ABBYY), but that didn't help. I think because it was handwritten originally.

Could anybody be of assistence?


----------



## كلمات

Well you can take a picture of it and post it, no?


----------



## Toxaris

Of course I can.


----------



## كلمات

Without the tashkil:

لا معي كلمة أن أحدر أتكلم
سدر
أوردة
حلد و سوط
صحراء خوف

حلد might have a missing dot to become جلد.


----------



## Toxaris

Thanks, that looks totally different. I would never have found that out.


----------



## Toxaris

The first and second might be a little bit different, although that could also be caused by Google translate. I was told that the first line would mean something like 'There is no name I cannot speak' or 'I don't have a name for it'.
The second line should mean something like 'blinded' or 'dazed'. Would that help?

Oh, and you were right. There was a missing dot.


----------



## HermanTheGerman

Since صَحرآءُ خَوفِ seems to be an iḍāfa; it should read صَحرآءُ خَوفٍ unless another noun follows.
@Toxaris: Any chance that there's a stroke missing in the lower left corner of the screen capture? 
I.e. under the فِ which should probably read فٍ.

Anyway, here's the text written as in the screen capture (with the dot added to جلد but without extra stroke under فِ):

لاَ مَعى كَلمةٌ أَنْ أَحدَرَ أَتَكَلَّمُ
سَدِرَ
أوْردَةٌ
جلدٌ ,سَوْطٌ
صَحرآءُ خَوفِ

If you want to mimic the original font, use SIL's Sheherazade font.


----------



## Toxaris

No, there is no stroke missing. Also, the translation makes sense, so I think there is no stroke missing.


----------



## HermanTheGerman

Toxaris said:


> No, there is no stroke missing. Also, the translation makes sense, so I think there is no stroke missing.


That doesn't mean anything. For example, Google will translate both:

1. صَحرآءُ الخَوفِ
2. صَحرآءُ خَوفِ

as "The desert of fear," but only the first version has this exact meaning.


----------



## rayloom

If the first sentence is supposed to be a sentence, it makes absolutely no sense!


----------



## Toxaris

It is supposed to be a sentence. The meaning should be something like 'There is no name I cannot speak' or 'I don't have a name/word for it'. I don't have an exact translation.


----------



## rayloom

Toxaris said:


> It is supposed to be a sentence. The meaning should be something like 'There is no name I cannot speak' or 'I don't have a name/word for it'. I don't have an exact translation.



May I ask from which book those sentences/words were taken?


----------



## Toxaris

Sure. The references are from the book '13th Warrior' (aka Eaters of the Dead) from Michael Crichton. The text are supposed to be from an Arabic geographical lexicon written by Yakut ibn-Abdallah sometime in the thirteenth century.


----------



## rayloom

Toxaris said:


> Sure. The references are from the book '13th Warrior' (aka Eaters of the Dead) from Michael Crichton. The text are supposed to be from an Arabic geographical lexicon written by Yakut ibn-Abdallah sometime in the thirteenth century.



It might be badly copied from the original.


----------



## Schem

Or just made-up.


----------



## TheRiLi

What is that ?! it's not even Arabic :/ nonsense-ness lol ,,



Toxaris said:


> It is supposed to be a sentence. The meaning should be something like 'There is no name I cannot speak' or 'I don't have a name/word for it'. I don't have an exact translation.



If it is the case, they were supposed to write it as : ليس هناك ما أحذر قوله / or لا يوجد كلمة أحذر قولها

In general this piece is full of mistakes like :

أحدر = maybe they want : أحذر (warn, fear ..)
سدر = ????? taking into account the subsequent word : maybe they want : شجرة
أوردة = maybe, maaaybe : أو وردة
حلد = it seems "جلد" as *كلمات* noted, since سوط is mentioned later :/

I think that the person who write this used automatic traslator.


----------



## إسكندراني

سدر is a tree, right?
Maybe it was originally something meaningful but is now full of typos?


----------

