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Translation (Third & Final Draft) - Please read regarding FI Quran translation project.
- Wed 10 Oct, 2007 3:52 am
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It is a very tough job and may Allah Tabarak wa ta'ala bless you for that. Ameen

Take your time. I intend to comment and extend any help that I can to go thru your efforts but it will be after Ramadan.

It is a huge task and a translator's nightmare, not in a horrible sense, as he/she tries to get the closest meanings in English while keeping to the style of Qur'aan's Arabic and it's choice of words. Smile

Salaams, Ahmed

BMZ
- Wed 10 Oct, 2007 9:50 pm
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BMZ wrote:
It is a very tough job and may Allah Tabarak wa ta'ala bless you for that. Ameen


Salam mate

indeed brother, it is a tough task, I won�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??t classify it as hard though, I'm a type of person with an attitude that is always can do, and if it can be done then it is not hard, you only need to know how it is done and in this aspect we meet toughness but I stress not hardship, it's a great experience though. I love it man, see, I have read the whole Quran in the last 26 years ate least 15 times, about 5-8 of those were pure study to the words and meanings, not just quick reading, however even when I just read it quick I still understand the words quick, that is how I always remember a word or two words from any verse, no wonder the Quran claims about itself it was made ease for REMEMBERANCE, this is 100% true dear brother, that is how I always find the verses I want, by remembering a word from it then search using an Arabic engine search which brings to me all occurrences in the Quran then I go quickly through the results, the results can be 1 verse (pin-point, if I know an exact word and it was repeated once), or it can be hundreds of verses, in any case I still go through all those hundreds of verses one after the other quick, ie, it still adds to my memory more words to remember

in some occasions though, I don't even remember the word rather I guess it based on my Arabic language knowledge and not based on my memory to any Quran word, then search using that word and ironically 99% at least of what I guess of Arabic words is found in the Quran, it is an amazing experience mate, I just love it and what made me take it to that extent is fighting those who present the wrong image about this great religion and te only way to do it is knowing about this religion from its unchanged source (the Quran)

BMZ wrote:
Take your time. I intend to comment and extend any help that I can to go thru your efforts but it will be after Ramadan.


I understand mate, Doing it in Ramadan is tough, however what I used Ramadan for, is to get started and Ramadan indeed helped in such aspect, I�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??m really glad that I finished sura 2 draft before the end of Ramadan, I regret that I didn�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??t start from the first day of Ramadan, I would have finished Sura 3 draft as well with the will of Allah, no loss yet because I don�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??t want to rush it, it is not like the people are waiting for it, in fact I say it will be critisized somewhere or another and I have to take that into consideration while doing it, but as you know well (if you know what I mean) that two heads is better than one, and three is better than 2 and one and so on.

BMZ wrote:
It is a huge task and a translator's nightmare,


I will always try to ignore the above FACT, this is very important to keep my enthusiasm going, I�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??m not going to let myself down, in fact I have to look at in a way or at least convince myself that it is an easy and doable task


BMZ wrote:

not in a horrible sense, as he/she tries to get the closest meanings in English while keeping to the style of Qur'aan's Arabic and it's choice of words. Smile

Salaams, Ahmed
BMZ


Exactly mate, and if you noticed that I started to do that already, may need fine tuning after I post my notes regarding sura 2 which I have not done yet, your feedback to that thread is vital so please keep an eye on it

A few examples to one of the biggest problems I faced is the names (properties of Allah)

Like

Sami7 or Al-Sami7

Aleem or Al-Aleem


Etc etc, and as you know there tens of it, and as seen above some are without the Al and the same comes with the Al, I have no issue with the AL, if it appears then I will use the word (THE)

The options for me was as follow:

1) do I use the prefix all-***** Or The all-***** for all these names?
2) Should I not use the prefix all- completely and just ***** or The *****
3) Use a mix between 1 & 2

To be honest and after long thoughts and tens of times of editing I had to go for option 3



Now for your notes above regarding how the Arabic words is used and how it is translated while keeping sort of the same order and context of the Arabic sentence, indeed that is a big one and repeated numerous times, but the answer is really simple, I will try to keep the English words as close as possible to the Arabic words as long as I end up with a sane English sentence

For example the following senyence appeared numerous times in the Quran

وَاللّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ , Wa Allah Basir Bima Yaamaloon

I found many failed to translate the above properly, despite it is very doable, if it is not doable then I would have excused them but it�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??s really easy to translate and keep the same context

Firstly most translated the above as follow:

and Allah sees what they do

while it is ok but it can�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??t be accurate this is because the word Basir is a noun and not a verb, however they translated it as a verb (sees)

FI translation is as follow:

and Allah is all-Seeing of what they do

as you can see I kept the same order exactly:

وَاللّهُ , Wa Allah, And Allah

بَصِيرٌ , , is all-Seeing, as you can see that I kept it noun, also I have to use the verb to be in here because it follow different rule in the Arabic grammar, the rule is called Mubtadda (sort of a starter) and Khabar Sort of news about that starter, most likely the Mubtadda and the Khabar are one word each, in the case of the above Arabic sentence, the Mubtadda is the word Allah and the Khabar is the word Basir, i.e. the Khabar is telling us news about Allah, and the news is that He is Basir, and as you can see there is no verb to be in such rule in Arabic, just the two words however it is 100% accurate to add verb to be in between when you translate the Mubtadda and the Khabar

بِمَا , Bima, of what

يَعْمَلُونَ , Yaamaloon, They do, the word They does not actually appear in the arabic words, however the verb is presented in a form that tells us that 100% iit is They, therefore I have to put it there, similar to verb to be issue above


But, see how I kept the same order of the Arabic words and their properties of being nouns and verbs intact, and that is my plan inshaallah, I�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??m sure with some sentence it will be hard but I just have to try and see, what will be good that the above sentence is repeated many times in the Quran, in fact it is repeated many times in sura 2 alone and you should see the consistency that I tried tough to achieve during sura 2 live test run, therefore whenever we see the above sentence, we should know well how to translate it to and keep it consistent

Look mate, I�?????�????�???�??�?�¢??m not degrading all other translators, in fact, I believe the early ones who had no computer nor search engines has to be excused, but for those who did it while the computer and the internet are here then come up with silly translations can not be excused, I truly believe that translating the Quran is not just a matter of finding which word suits which word according to the context, on a verse by verse basis nor on a sura by sura basis rather on the whole Quran as one big basis, and this is when accuracy and consistency can be achieved

There a lot to say man but I say I will leave it at that until I get my head around all other notes and tough issues I faced in sure 2, that should be a huge thread btw and Allah only know when I will be able to finishs it ASAP

Take care
- Wed 14 Oct, 2009 3:29 pm
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Salam all

I have started the second Quran draft yesterday 13/10/2009, I am hoping to finish it inshaallah in under a year

I have done sura 1 and the first 40 verses of sura 2

Salam
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