Too funny not to share!
I read a blog by Jimmy Akin. It’s a Catholic apologetics site, and given the current uproar over the Pope’s remarks about Islam, that subject has been getting a lot of attention.
One reader posted the following remark (anonymously, or I’d give credit) that is just too funny not to share.
I kind of wonder how German speakers can take Islam seriously when so many religious terms in Arabic are quite humorous when transliterated into German.
For example:
Man muss fuenfmal taeglich Salat machen.
(”One must do the salat ritual five times a day” would be understood as “One must make salad five times a day.”)Allah sitzt auf dem Arsch.
(”Allah is seated upon the Arsh–Arabic for the throne of Allah” would be understood as “Allah sits on his buttocks.”)Die Gesetze des Fickes regeln unsere Leben.
(”The rules of fiqh–Islamic jurisprudence–govern our lives” would be understood as “The rules of getting laid govern our lives.”)It must be really interesting to hear an Islamic speaker give a sermon in German with Arabic terminology mixed in. :-)
It reminds me of Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner”. It went around for a while that when translated, he was really saying “I am a jelly doughnut”. That’s an urban ledgend (see here), but it’s the same sort of thing. Somethings just don’t translate well.
