CultureTalk Egypt Video Transcripts: http://langmedia.fivecolleges.

edu
Studying Literature at dar El Ulum – Part 1

Egyptian Arabic transcript :

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...3B‫د وأ‬2‫ا وأ‬,‫"ﺕ‬D

English translation:

Man: … ah … Thank God, the College of Science -- I found it a very beautiful college,
that focuses on studying literature and language and … and the Shari’a.1 It focuses on the
study of so many things. And we study in it; the most important thing in it is the language
and its arts, the language and its art. We study pre-Islamic poetry; we study pre-Islamic
poets such as Antara bin Shadad,2 Umru el-Qais,3 Zuhair bin Abi Sulma, Al-Nabegha Al-
Thubyani … and how Al-Nabegha Al-Thubyani used to judge among the poets due to
his magnificence and greatness among the poets. And we study Al-Khansa’a,4 and, where
I was, we study all the pre-Islamic poets in the freshman year. And we also study poems
in order to know how pre-Islamic poetry was written, and its civilization, and how it left a
1
Shari’ a Law is the Islamic law.
2
A very famous poet who’s known mostly for falling in love with his cousin, Abla, and writing entire
poems about her.
3
Another famous poet who’s known for his adventures with women in a way that forced his father to move
him out of the house. His attitude changed after his father’s death. He became mature and responsible.
4
A female poet who was well-known for lamenting the death of her favorite brother in her poems. She
witnessed both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods and became Muslim.
print known for the far and near,5 known by all people; how this pre-Islamic poetry
reached its place, and how Antara bin Shadad said his mulaka.6 We study mulakat
[plural] and how they were named after this name. We go through the period after the
pre-Islamic era; we study the … ah … Islamic poetry, and then we study the Umayyad
poetry, and we study poets in the Abbasid era, and the Umayyad, and Andalusia.

We study poets such as Al-Mutanabi, and how a verse, two verses killed him, which are,
which he said, which are two verses that he said, which are:

I am the one [of] whom a blind person saw my literature,

And my words reached [one] who suffers from deafness.

Stallions and night and desert know me,

And the sword, and the spear and the book and the pencil.

… ah … here when Al-Mutanabi said those two verses, they were the reason he got
killed; and how Abu el-Alaa Al-Ma’ari, who is a blind man … and in fact, the saying of
Abu el-Alaa Al-Ma’ari, I adopted it as a philosophy in my life, because it is very
beautiful saying.

… ah … Abu el-Alaa Al-Ma’ari was a blind man. What did he say?

I, even if I were the last in time,

I will do what the previous ones couldn’t accomplish.

I mean, he didn’t say, like people, no, we are at the end of days, it’s not working out, I
don’t know. No, he said that I have to be better than the past ones, and renew [add new
accomplishments] and work, and that’s it.

About CultureTalk: CultureTalk is produced by the Five College Center for the Study
of World Languages and housed on the LangMedia Website. The project provides
students of language and culture with samples of people talking about their lives in the
languages they use every day. The participants in CultureTalk interviews and discussions
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College Center for the Study of World Languages, Five Colleges, Incorporated, or any of
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Smith College and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

© 2007-2010 Five College Center for the Study of World Languages and Five Colleges,
Incorporated

5
A proverb that means everyone, whether far or close.
6
Mulaka is the poem that is known by everyone in the pre-Islamic period.