# جمهورية كأن



## Aliph

جمهورية كأن
is the title of the last novel of the Egyptian author Ala el Aswany. The title was translated to English “ The Republic as if”.
My question: is this an idiomatic expression or did the author invent the title? To me it sounds like “ the fake republic”. Is that right?
Originally what does كأن mean?


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## momai

Aliph said:


> Originally what does كأن mean?


As if  I didn't read the novel but the first thing that came to mind when I read the title is the republic where everything is fake or uncertain.


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## Saleh Hussain

Actually, as a native Arabic, I can't tell the real meaning behind the title which makes it not an idiomatic expression. I read few lines about the novel and understood that the title kind of means _a fake republic_.

Anyway, the word كأن can mean something like "looks like" or "as if".


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## djara

I would translate the title as The Republic of Make-Believe or The Republic of Pretense


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## bamia

This usage of كأن looks like an anglicism to me.


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## ayed

Or
The Republic of Dystopia


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## Mahaodeh

Aliph said:


> My question: is this an idiomatic expression or did the author invent the title?


I'd have to say that the author invented the title, unless it has an idiomatic meaning in Egyptian Arabic that the rest of us are unaware of.


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## cherine

It not an idiomatic Egyptian usage, it literally means "as if". I'm sure the title is explained through the novel (which I haven't read, nor heard of  ). But concerning the translation, it can be "the as if republic" or the excellent suggestions made by Djara:


djara said:


> The Republic of Make-Believe or The Republic of Pretense


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## elroy

Without knowing anything about the novel, I like “The Republic of Make-Believe.”


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## Aliph

cherine said:


> It not an idiomatic Egyptian usage, it literally means "as if". I'm sure the title is explained through the novel (which I haven't read, nor heard of  ). But concerning the translation, it can be "the as if republic" or the excellent suggestions made by Djara:


Djara’s suggestion is very eloquent. 
By the way, the book was forbidden in Egypt and many other Arab countries, except Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco.
Thank you to all of you for your explanations. I really appreciate.
I was wondering however about what Bamia says (posts #6) that the use of كأن in the title of the book may be a kind of anglicisme in this context. It is clear to me now that كأن means “as if” in English and “comme si” in French but does it sound natural in the title?


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## cherine

It didn't feel unnatural to me, I don't know why Bamia felt it's a anglicisme.

P.S. The word كأن is pronounced ka2en in Egyptian Arabic.


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## Sadda7

Aliph said:


> does it sound natural in the title?


It didn't seem correct and I think it is an anglicism since that is common in english, like"The As If Pinciple" "The what if Man" "The Which Way Tree" but not known in arabic.


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## cherine

El-Aswani is a writer who has some liberty inventing expressions. As long as they make sense in their context, I don't see why we need to say they're borrowed from another language.

With some searching, I found that he had made-up this expression in an article (here) that seems to have been the seed of his novel. Here's a few excerpts from the article that explain this expression:

بعد سنوات من الاستبداد يعيش المجتمع فى «حالة كأن» فيبدو كل شىء وكأنه حقيقى بينما هو مزيف.

مع انتشار «حالة كأن» تنشأ اللغة الرسمية للنظام التى هى مجموعة أكاذيب مغلفة بلهجة وقورة، لغة تعلم الشعب ألا يصدقها لأنها تعنى بالضبط عكس ما تقول.

في «جمهورية كأن» تنشأ بين الشعب والنظام علاقات تبدو كأنها حقيقية لكنها مزيفة. الدولة تدفع مبلغا ضئيلا للمدرس كأنه راتب فيتظاهر بقبوله ثم يتظاهر بالعمل، بينما هو يذهب للمدرسة من أجل التعاقد على الدروس الخصوصية. تدفع الدولة جنيهات قليلة للطبيب وكأنها راتب فيتظاهر بقبولها لكنه يذهب إلى المستشفى الحكومى ليوقع بالحضور ثم يزوغ ليعمل فى مستشفيات خاصة تعطيه راتباً حقيقياً فيعمل فيها بجد.


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## A. Adama

Grammatical question here: Do you understand the title as an idaafa? Should I pronounce it "jumhuriyyat ka2anna" in fusha? The Republic _of_ As If?


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## Aliph

cherine said:


> El-Aswani is a writer who has some liberty inventing expressions. As long as they make sense in their context, I don't see why we need to say they're borrowed from another language.


That makes sense to me. So it isn’t a calque.

ألف شكر Cherine


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## elroy

Not only does it not sound like a calque, it sounds _very_ _Arabic_!  The practice of nominalizing particles is very native and if anything _more_ common than it is in English, I would say.


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## J.F. de TROYES

cherine said:


> With some searching, I found that he had made-up this expression in an article (here) that seems to have been the seed of his novel. Here's a few excerpts from the article that explain this expression:
> 
> بعد سنوات من الاستبداد يعيش المجتمع فى «حالة كأن» فيبدو كل شىء وكأنه حقيقى بينما هو مزيف.
> 
> مع انتشار «حالة كأن» تنشأ اللغة الرسمية للنظام التى هى مجموعة أكاذيب مغلفة بلهجة وقورة، لغة تعلم الشعب ألا يصدقها لأنها تعنى بالضبط عكس ما تقول.
> 
> في «جمهورية كأن» تنشأ بين الشعب والنظام علاقات تبدو كأنها حقيقية لكنها مزيفة. الدولة تدفع مبلغا ضئيلا للمدرس كأنه راتب فيتظاهر بقبوله ثم يتظاهر بالعمل، بينما هو يذهب للمدرسة من أجل التعاقد على الدروس الخصوصية. تدفع الدولة جنيهات قليلة للطبيب وكأنها راتب فيتظاهر بقبولها لكنه يذهب إلى المستشفى الحكومى ليوقع بالحضور ثم يزوغ ليعمل فى مستشفيات خاصة تعطيه راتباً حقيقياً فيعمل فيها بجد.



Congratultions, Cherine, for having  discovered this text. It's interesting to see that Al Aswani created and used the phrase جمهورية كأن  three years before publishing a novel with this title. I'd liked to add that one of the characters in the novel also uses it three times in the same passage.  At the end of the novel Asma writes to her boy friend Mazen . Both have joined the كفايه movement and  participated in the Tahir square protests. Unlike Mazen, she no longer believes in the revolution and explains her reasons. She lives Egypt for London. Here is an except from Asma's letter ( unfortunately from the French version ) :
 " Egyptians live* "in a republic as if".* They live in the midst of a set of lies that take the place of reality. They practice religion ritually and seem pious , when in truth they are completely corrupt. Everything in Egypt is *"as if" *it was true, when it's only lie on lie [ ... ]  In Egypt everything is lie, outside the revolution. Only the revolution was true. That why they hated it, because it exposed their corruption and hypocrisy. Egypt is  *" a republic as if" *[ ... ]
Al Aswany attributes to his character his bitterness and sharp criticism against the Egyptian system.  Besides Asma leaves Egypt as Al  Aswani did ( he is living in U.S. ) .

 So the context like the text found by Cherin shows that the title does mean something as  “The Republic of Make-Believe.” as Djara said or the "Republic of the Lie" , "the Republic of the Sham".


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## cherine

Merci, J.F.

I understand this is your English translation of the quote. Could you please share with us how جمهورية كأن is rendered in the French translation?


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## J.F. de TROYES

I didn't mention the title of the French translation, because the publisher has chosen a quite different one : "J'ai couru vers le Nil " probably for being more attractive for a French public, but unlike the original title it doesn't mirror the content of the novel . However the publisher also picks up words pronounced by another character ( There are a lot ) . Mahmud Essayed, a man who came down on the square, testifies that he ran away as a threatening tank was approching and had to leave a wounded or dead man, fallen on the ground.  He insists on his feeling of humilation : in this  context "I ran away towards the Nile" makes sense.


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## Aliph

I read the book in Italian. The title is the same as in French “ Sono corso verso il Nilo “ “I Ran to the Nile”
Here the phrase “L’Egitto è una repubblica per modo di dire, una repubblica come se.” In English it would be roughly: “Egypt is a so-called republic. (A republic in a manner of speaking), a republic as if”.


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## Aliph

The term جمهوريَّة كأنَّ comes twice in the original Arabic version
لقد تأثَّر المصريُّون بالإعلام لأنَّهم يريدون أن يتأثَّروا به. القطاع الأكبر من المصريِّين راضٍ بالقمع، وقدتوافق مع الفساد وأصبح جزءًا منه... هؤلاء كرهوا الثورة من البداية لأنَّها تُحرجهم أمام أنفسهم... لقدكرهوا الثورة أوَّلًا، ثم أعطاهم الإعلام أسباب الكراهية... المصريُّون يعيشون في جمهوريَّة كأنَّ.

الثورة وحدها هي الحقيقة، لذلك يكرهونها لأنَّها تفضح فسادهم ونفاقهم... مصر هي جمهوريَّة كأنَّ،ونحن قدَّمنا إلى المصريين الحقيقة فكرهونا من أعماق قلوبهم... لقد سافرتُ لأنَّني لن أقبل بأن أعيشفي بلد أُعامَل فيه على أنَّني «ولا حاجة».


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## cherine

J.F. de TROYES said:


> I didn't mention the title of the French translation, because the publisher has chosen a quite different one


I understand the publisher's choice. It's very common to change the titles of books and movies when translating them. But would you know how the expression itself is translated inside the book? Something like the Italian given by Aliph:


Aliph said:


> Here the phrase “L’Egitto è una repubblica per modo di dire, una repubblica come se.”


Thank you for providing the Italian translation. It's interesting that they turned it into an adjective describing the country itself as fake, instead of the way some things in it work. Though I guess the meaning doesn't change all that much.


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## J.F. de TROYES

In French the phrase is  word for word the same as in Arabic :_ L'Egypte est " une république comme si _" .


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## Aliph

cherine said:


> It's interesting that they turned it into an adjective describing the country itself as fake, instead of the way some things in it work.


In Arabic it’s similar مصر هي جمهوريَّة كأنَّ not only the republic but also the country is described as fake.

Can we say that grammatically  كأنّ is used as an adjective in this phrase ? Or am I wrong?


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## analeeh

I instinctively read it as an iDaafe, which seems to line up with how the natives read it too - 'a republic of as-if(s)'. This gives the meaning not of the country itself but of how things work in it.

جمهورية كذا كذا is a pretty common metaphorical formulation now I think about it. There's a fairly silly song called جمهورية قلبي, for example.


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## djara

analeeh said:


> I instinctively read it as an iDaafe, which seems to line up with how the natives read it too


That's exactly how I read it.


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## cherine

J.F. de TROYES said:


> In French the phrase is  word for word the same as in Arabic :_ L'Egypte est " une république comme si _" .


Merci, J.F.
I see the French translator also made it an adjective.


Aliph said:


> In Arabic it’s similar مصر هي جمهوريَّة كأنَّ not only the republic but also the country is described as fake.


Which is why I say that the translation is a bit different than the original.


> Can we say that grammatically  كأنّ is used as an adjective in this phrase ? Or am I wrong?


I think in the case of using it as an adjective, it would be a نعت مبني maybe. But then again, I'm of the opinion that this is an iDaafa structure.


analeeh said:


> I instinctively read it as an iDaafe, which seems to line up with how the natives read it too - 'a republic of as-if(s)'. This gives the meaning not of the country itself but of how things work in it.


Exactly.


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## Aliph

Thank you to all of you for your replies.


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