Showing respect to and taking care of one’s parents is something Islam and our culture/traditions teach us. It is even extended to all the elders who are often called mother and father. Unfortunately, sometimes, we hear of children misbehaving with or beating their parents, when not worse.
Below are three Kabyle stories which aim at reminding us of the place our parents should have in our hearts and lives.
Au FLN, nous accomplissons ce que nous promettons.
Seuls les imbéciles peuvent croire que
nous ne lutterons pas contre la corruption.
Parce que, il y a quelque chose de certain pour nous :
L’honnêteté et la transparence sont fondamentales pour atteindre nos idéaux.
Nous démontrons que c’est une grande stupidité de croire que
les mafias feront partie du gouvernement.
Nous assurons, sans l’ombre d’un doute, que
la justice sociale sera le but principal de notre mandat.
Malgré cela, il y a encore des gens stupides qui s’imaginent que
l’on puisse gouverner
avec les ruses de la vieille politique.
Quand nous assumerons le pouvoir, nous ferons tout pour que
soit mis fin aux situations privilégiées et au trafic d’influences
nous ne permettrons d’aucune façon que
nos enfants meurent de faim
nous accomplirons nos desseins même si
les réserves économiques se vident complètement
nous exercerons le pouvoir jusqu’à ce que
vous aurez compris qu’à partir de maintenant
nous sommes avec A. Bouteflika, l’homme qui réinvente le rêve
Lire maintenant de bas en hau en commençant par la dernière ligne et en remontant jusqu’ au début…
Elli ydjibou enhar yeddih ellil
Elli darha b yeddih yfek’ha b sennih
Elli sbar westenna ynal ma yetmenna
Elli fat waqtou ma yetma3 fi weqt enness
Elli khanou sa3dou yqoul biya es’hour
Elli ma yeshba3 mel qas3a ma yeshba3 men lhis’ha
Boumediene:
Can’t remember any.
Chadli:
Probably the one who stimulated Algerian imagination most.
1/
Chadli, Readan and Mitterand decided to take a plane and visit their respective countries. Somewhere above the USA, Reagan opened the window (it’s a joke) and laughed at his counterparts while trying to catch something in the air. Suddenly he said, “We’re in New York, I just touched the Statue of Liberty”. Chadli and Mitterand applauded. Then Mitterand did the same and told them they were in Paris as he touched the Eiffel Tower. Chadli thought he mustn’t lose to them and hoped he could touch Maqam Shahid. Unfortunately, he had no chance to touch it from the plane as it flew very high in the sky. But still, he did feel something and screamed, “we are in ElHarrach”. The two presidents didn’t understand and asked him how he could be sure. He answered, “simple. Someone just stole my watch”.
Funny but meaningful…
3abbaz ysil
Bara khir men but
Beddel sa3a b sa3a tarbeh reveil
El3ilm ferrass mashi fel korrass
Elli ma yhabbesh el weswas yakoul el besbas
Elli qra qra bekri
I3addad ur issellem ma dh udhay nagh dhi neslem.
“He passed by without saying hi, as if he’s a Jew and not a Muslim”.
Yiwen yetghenni selquran, wayedh ur yessin elhamdou ithzallith.
“One sings with Quran, and another doesn’t even know el fatiha for the prayers”.
Ur hamlagh Gma, Ur hamlagh win ith yewthen.
“I don’t like my brother but I don’t like those who beat him”. Interesting having Libya in mind…
Ennanas i Fer3oun amek i thughaledh ed rabbi. Innayassen Ar thura yiwen ur yidiqerre3
“They asked pharaoh, how did you become a god? He replied, till now nobody prevented me from doing it”. This is interesting as well when you think of most all the Arab rulers.
If you seek an advice or if you are advising somebody keep these in mind.
Elli khtah kbirou wedder tedbirou.
Elli ma shawrek ma tdebber 3lih.
Elli fatek b’lila fatek b’hila.
Khoud erray elli ybekkik, elli ydahkek yed’hak 3lik.
These provers were contributed by Oumelkheir:
– “Akher sboula qetta3 sob3ou”. Au dernier épi, il s’est coupé le doigt. Se dit lorsque quelqu’un fait preuve d’efforts mais gache tout à la fin.
– “Ma’hla el fass fi yed ennass”. Que la pioche est est belle aux mains des autres. Se dit pour le fainéant.
(c’est un proverbe qui va très bien aux “chefs d’équipe” très nombreux chez nous 😉
–”Men lahaytou bekharlou”. Avec sa barbe encense-le ou bien fais-lui de l’encens. Se dit quand quelqu’un fait preuve de générosité alors qu’il ne fait en réalité don que de ce qui appartient à la personne à qui il vient de donner.
About time to post some Kabyle proverbs. It’s interesting that I wrote the above Arab proverbs in Arabic with Latin transliteration but no translation (like I expected the non-Arab /non-Algerian readers to understand 🙂 ) and now I use Latin transliteration (I would use Tifinagh which I learnt when I was a teenager if I had an adequate keyboard) and English translation for the Kabyle ones. It probably tells something about the languages’ situation in Algeria.
“A vava uwthennagh, A mmi 3aqlenagh”
Father, they beat us. Son, they recognised us. This proverb tells the same thing as Malek Bennabi’s colonisability concept.“Amu dhella3 leqmash, ama tellidh ama ulash”
Said to useless things/persons. Nobody notices their presence or their absence.“Kthalaghass tardhasth iwi ighil”
Said to someone who uses some other one’s generosity to get more than he/she deserves/needs.“Win ivghan adh yizur yarqiq”
I like this one. Whoever wants to become solid/strong/tough must suffer (this is not the literal translation).
This joke was contributed by dahmane dehici:
Two migrants laborers from algeria , one of them get sick and ask his mate to write a letter to his family telling them about the sickness of their provider in very details and kept going , the friend respond to him saying , look I’m just going to tell them that you’re dead and that’s it’.
