# يطرق إلى الأرض



## kersalflyer

Hello again.
Does anyone know how to put this sentence into decent English, please?
أضحك من كل قلبي كيف يطرق زوج سقيقتي في سيره إلى الأرض ربما عثر على سيء​


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## cherine

Hi,

Here's an attempt in a not very decent English, sorry, but maybe you can work a better wording from it:

I laugh from the bottom of my heart at how my brother-in-law looks down when he's walking. Maybe he found something.

The verb aTraqa - yuTriqu أطرق - يطرق - إطراقاً means to look down, to bend your head down.

P.S. There are 2 typos in your sentence: شقيقتي، شيء .


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## Talib

First of all the spelling is off. It should be: أضحك من كل قلبي كيف يطرق زوج شقيقتي في سيره إلى الأرض ربما عثر على شيء

Revised translation: I laugh with all my heart at how my sister's husband looks down to the ground while he's walking. Maybe he's found something.

Now what that means is a mystery. What's the context?


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## cherine

Talib said:


> First of all the spelling is off. It should be: أضحك من كل قلبي كيف يترك زوج شقيقتي في سيره إلى الأرض ربما عثر على شيء


I guess you know by now that يطرق is not a spelling mistake, it's a perfectly correct Arabic verb.


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## Talib

cherine said:


> I guess you know by now that يطرق is not a spelling mistake, it's a perfectly correct Arabic verb.


Yes but my translation (he knocks) didn't make sense here so I assumed it was a mistake like the other spelling mistakes the threadstarter made.

What exactly does يطرق mean? You're the native speaker.


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## cherine

Talib said:


> What exactly does يطرق mean? You're the native speaker.


I gave it in my previous post.


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## xebonyx

Talib said:


> What exactly does يطرق mean? You're the native speaker.
> No, brother-in-law. A step brother/sister is a sibling which is brought into the family by the marriage of parents who already have children.


 
I'm pretty sure يطرق as "knock" is more commonly used as "to knock on a door".


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## cherine

Yes, but the verb is yuTriqu not yaTruqu. The difference in the vowels حركات/تشكيل marks a difference in the meaning.
Also the past of yaTruqu (to knock) is طرق Taraqa, while the past of yuTriqu is aTraqa أطرق . So, we have a 3 letters verb فعل ثلاثي: طرق, and a 4 letters verb. فعل رباعي: أطرق .


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## Talib

But my dictionary says طرق is "to knock," related to طرّق which means "to hammer."

Does the verb have more than one meaning? Or am I confusing this with another, similar-sounding verb?

Either way I see changing it to "he leaves" was a mistake, I'll revert that.


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## djara

I have a good laugh whenever I see my brother-in-law walking with his eyes down in the hope of finding something.


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## Talib

My new translation is: I laugh with all my heart at how my sister's husband looks down to the ground while he's walking. Maybe he's found something.

That's good, right? (To you native speakers.) 


			
				djara said:
			
		

> I have a good laugh


I prefer "laugh with all of my heart" which is a common English idiom and close to the original.


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## clevermizo

Talib said:


> Now what that means is a mystery. What's the context?



ًWell, some people look down when they walk, and others look straight ahead. In American culture at least, looking down implies weakness/sadness and looking ahead implies assertiveness and strength of will. These are culturally specific, but obviously whoever wrote this sentence thinks that this guy looking down when he walks is humorous.


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## djara

clevermizo said:


> ًWell, some people look down when they walk, and others look straight ahead. In American culture at least, looking down implies weakness/sadness and looking ahead implies assertiveness and strength of will. These are culturally specific, but obviously whoever wrote this sentence thinks that this guy looking down when he walks is humorous.


He laughs not because his brother-in-law looks down but because he's constantly looking for something to pick up from the ground ربما عثر على شئ


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## Talib

Yes, though I'm not sure about the connection between looking down and feeling defeated, etc. I don't know if it has the same meaning in Arab culture that it does in ours.

While I'm here, what exactly is the meaning of ربما عثر? I've seen ربما before but I don't recall its definition.


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## clevermizo

Talib said:


> Yes, though I'm not sure about the connection between looking down and feeling defeated, etc. I don't know if it has the same meaning in Arab culture that it does in ours.
> 
> While I'm here, what exactly is the meaning of ربما عثر? I've seen ربما before but I don't recall its definition.



Rubbama means "perhaps, maybe (he's found...)." In the context of laughing at someone, I would say in this sentence it is equivalent to كأنه عثر "as though he's found something..."


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## Talib

So it's a particle of sorts meaning roughly "perhaps."

And عثر is the verb _he found_? My dictionary lists وجد under "find."


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## djara

Talib said:


> So it's a particle of sorts meaning roughly "perhaps."
> 
> And عثر is the verb _he found_?


Please have a look at post #10


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## xebonyx

Talib said:


> And عثر is the verb _he found_? My dictionary lists وجد under "find."


 
عليك أن تشتري قاموسا أكثر شمولاً يا أخي 

There's actually a nice thread that breaks down the usage of 3athara 3ala here.


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## kersalflyer

Thanks everyone for your help with this. Sorry about the typos, I'm always typing 'س' instead of 'ش', I should have checked!
Yes, the problem I had was in how to translate ربما. I've always known it as 'perhaps', though I think the suggestion 'as though' is a good one, so that it would then read 'as though he's found something'.
And the other verb which was mentioned is from the root T-r-q, not t-r-k. I assumed like the others, that it was a form IV verb (aTraqa) and not form I (Taraqa). It makes more sense in this context.


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## Talib

I didn't know about the verb أطرق which is why assumed you meant something different. Innocent mistake.


xebonyx said:


> عليك أن تشتري قاموسا أكثر شمولاً يا أخي
> 
> There's actually a nice thread that breaks down the usage of 3athara 3ala here.


ألف شكرًا لك
I think the Hans Wehr will do nicely.


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## kersalflyer

Hans Wehr is my hero!


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## elroy

The best translation so far is Djara's.  ربما normally means "maybe" or "perhaps" but in this context it means something like "because he might."  In other words, he looks down thinking "Maybe I'll find something."

"Although" is not the right translation.

I would say

"It cracks me up how my brother-in-law walks with his head down hoping to find something."


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## Faylasoof

My attempt in idiomatic English: 

  <<I laugh heartily at how my brother-in-law has his eyes on the ground when walking as if he has found something / has come across something / is looking for something.>>

  For accuracy, the first two. But my choice would be the last (..is looking for something) as it conveys a habitual action and evokes a comical image, which is what I think the original Arabic sentence is meant to give. 

  [أَطرَقَ = to be silent and walk with eyes fixed to the ground]


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## xebonyx

talib said:


> i didn't know about the verb أطرق which is why assumed you meant something different. Innocent mistake.
> ألف شكرًا لك
> i think the hans wehr will do nicely.


 
So you already have Hans Wehr? (!آآه، غريب  .كنت سأظن أن قد يتضمن هانز وير ذلك الدخول )
If so, there's also Lisan Al-3arab.


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## ayed

*يطرق(بنظره) إلى الأرض* to look down as Cherine has just said.


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