# Urdu:زندگی ایک کتیا ہے



## Regina22

Hi 

I just saw the facebook status of a friend of mine: 

زندگی ایک کتیا ہے

I presume it's "life's a bitch", as per the google translator, but I wonder it it makes sense in urdu at all.

Can anyone help with a better suggestion of the same phrase?


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## BP.

That makes no sense you're right.


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## teaboy

It just doesn't work. The thing is, in the English expression, the word "bitch" doesn't really mean a female dog.  It means an irritation or a difficult or annoying thing.  So your facebook pal should maybe use an Urdu slang word which carries those connotations.  

It's like calling someone a "son of an owl" in English.  It just has no impact (besides a befuddled look!)


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## panjabigator

teaboy said:


> It just doesn't work. The thing is, in the English expression, the word "bitch" doesn't really mean a female dog.  It means an irritation or a difficult or annoying thing.  So your facebook pal should maybe use an Urdu slang word which carries those connotations.
> 
> It's like calling someone a "son of an owl" in English.  It just has no impact (besides a befuddled look!)



I agree completely with BP and Teaboy.

How about دنیا بڑی ظالم ھے؟

re: "son of an owl"
   Perhaps in a Rushdie novel


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## Faylasoof

As others have said, this doesn't make sense! It is never really a good idea to take these kinds of remarks literally when going from one language to another. 

We have no exact equivalent in Urdu. Even in English this is a fairly recent invention. So expressing the idea that life can be irritating and make you fed up may be expressed in different ways but not this. 

Depending on how bad one is feeling, one can say:

زندگی برافروختہ \ پر كوفت ہے

_zindagii bar afruuxtah / pur koft hai. _

But these are not quite the same as the English expression.


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## Regina22

Thanks a lot! 

Can you give some more details on these words? I tried to search for them in the online dictionaries - in all possible options, but could not find them.

 برافروختہ \ پر كوفت


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## Koozagar

dunya bari zalim hai is a very common expression to say that 'life is unjust' or 'life's a bitch'. Good suggestion PG!


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## akak

Also, my understanding is that if you want to call someone a bitch, you'd say _kutti_, not _kutiya_. I remember my Hindi teacher chastizing me for writing _kutti_ as female dog during a grammar exercise.


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## panjabigator

koozagar said:


> dunya bari zalim hai is a very common expression to say that 'life is unjust' or 'life's a bitch'. Good suggestion pg!



خواھش میکنم، جناب


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## Faylasoof

PG, one can use  دنیا بڑی ظالم ھے but it may also depend on in what circumstances we wish to say something like  <life is a bitch>. This expression is used with more than a single meaning anyway. Some people use it for irritating issues rather than, say, a misfortune, while others for the latter. I don’t think there is a fixed expression in Urdu for this. 

One could use all of the above or none of them. Equally we can go for something like: 

زندگی (بس ) ایک ایذا ہے
_zindagii (bas) ek iizaa hai_

The use of بس_ bas_ is not obligatory though employing it would make it more emphatic. 

 … and akak 


akak said:


> Also, my understanding is that if you want to call  someone a bitch, you'd say _kutti_, not _kutiya_. I remember  my Hindi teacher chastizing me for writing _kutti_ as female dog  during a grammar exercise.


 both کتيا  कुतिया kutiya and کتي  कुत्तीkuttii are correct. Here and here is Platts:

H کتيا   कुतिया kutiyā = H کتي  कुत्ती kuttī  (fem. of kuttā, q.v.;—iyā = S. aff. इका), s.f. A bitch; a term of abuse:—kutiyā-kā pillā, s.m. A pup, puppy;—a bastard

However, I am assuming that you'd be inclined to agree with us that in this context we shouldn’t do a literal translation into Urdu using either of these to mean <life is a bitch>.


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## akak

> However, I am assuming that you'd be inclined to agree with us that in this context we shouldn’t do a literal translation into Urdu using either of these to mean <life is a bitch>.


 
Absolutely! It's as bad as the "_zameeni haqeeqaat_" that newscasters spout all the time.

I wonder if the FB poster was being ironic? Making fun of this kind of usage?


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## Faylasoof

akak said:


> Absolutely! It's as bad as the "_zameeni haqeeqaat_" that newscasters spout all the time.
> 
> I wonder if the FB poster was being ironic? Making fun of this kind of usage?


 Oh dear! This _is_ monstrous and yes it is as bad as the _kutiyaa_ aspect of _zindagii_ which has us all riled up!


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## Regina22

Thank you all 

The FB user didn't mean to use the phrase ironically, I guess he wanted to impress an urdu-speaking friend of his.

I also asked a hindi native speaker about what expression he would use in this case and he said he needed some time to figure it out (I guess the English influence to be blamed here...)


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## Cilquiestsuens

If you want to get close to the original expression, the proper expression in Urdu slang would be:

_*zindagii baRii kuttii chiiz hai.
*_
I am kind of surprised nobody mentioned it...??? Nobody speaks slang here ??? kitne shariif log hai.N sab 

And dear Faylasoof, allow me to point out a typo in your above post


Faylasoof said:


> زندگی (بس ) ایک  ایزا  ہے
> _zindagii  (bas) ek iizaa hai_



*iizaa *should be written with a *dhaal*, not a *ze*, but I am sure you've already noticed. 

*ايذا*


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## Faylasoof

Cilquiestsuens said:


> If you want to get close to the original expression, the proper expression in Urdu slang would be:
> 
> _*zindagii baRii kuttii chiiz hai.
> *_


 A good calque for sure!! There are plenty of alternatives above!  
... and you say this is "proper Urdu slang", except slang follows few standards, if any, so whether it is proper or improper is hardly relevant.



Cilquiestsuens said:


> I am kind of surprised nobody mentioned it...??? Nobody speaks slang here ??? kitne shariif log hai.N sab



Speaking for myself, this is not the kind of Urdu we speak at home so I'm sure I can forgiven for this massive oversight! 



Cilquiestsuens said:


> And dear Faylasoof, allow me to point out a typo in your above post
> 
> *iizaa *should be written with a *dhaal*, not a *ze*, but I am sure you've already noticed.


Thank you dear Cilquiestsuens for this. It is only a matter of pressing or nor a shift key for the same letter on my English keyboard! When typing in a rush one always runs this risk!!


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## Faylasoof

Regina22 said:


> Thanks a lot!
> 
> Can you give some more details on these words? I tried to search for them in the online dictionaries - in all possible options, but could not find them.
> 
> برافروختہ \ پر كوفت




Sorry! I just noticed that I haven't answered this query of yours.

برافروختہ = kindled, afire – used here to mean vexation, anxiety etc.

پر كوفت is made of پر (=full) and  كوفت (= vexation, anguish). So, پر كوفت means _full of anguish / vexation/ toil_.

زندگی برافروختہ \ پر كوفت ہے

Life is vexation / full of anguish.


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## Cilquiestsuens

Faylasoof said:


> ... and you say this is "proper Urdu slang", except slang follows few standards, if any, so whether it is proper or improper is hardly relevant.
> 
> 
> 
> Speaking for myself, this is not the kind of Urdu we speak at home so I'm sure I can forgiven for this massive oversight!


 
Yes, I agree, I should not have written 'proper' slang, I don't really know why I wrote that. Proper and slang here are two words combined that can't make sense.

I actually meant standard. This is the way the youth speaks nowadays in Pakistan.

*Tu baRii hii kutti chiiz hai*. (It's kind of more polite than calling someone directly *kutta*!)

I wouldn't call that a calque, because of the insertion of the word *cheez* to attenuate its meaning. It is true however that nowadays Urdu slang is filled with English words, expressions and calques.

Who can be blamed for not speaking this kind of language. I will avoid being judgemental, but I don't speak like this neither!


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## panjabigator

Just read an article where I encountered “_Bombay badi kutti cheez hai_,” or “Bombay’s a real bitch!”.


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## Faylasoof

panjabigator said:


> Just read an article where I encountered “_Bombay badi kutti cheez hai_,” or “Bombay’s a real bitch!”.



I think we can still regard this as a slang expression which has found its way into someone's writing style! It is certainly not standard Urdu.


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