If the Olive Tree Knew

ok, back to the translation of this poster, to finish all the chatter about it referenced below: http://www.palestineposterproject.org/poster/if-the-tree-knew-its-planter this translation is not correct. as in it doesn't make any sense. first off, the makers of the poster likely got it wrong. it has to be either يعرف or يذكر since it is a line from a darwish poem, we can look it up. but it is not عرف this is according to tamim barghouti who said the meter is not correct. since we can do nothing to change the poster itself, we need to make sure the translation is correct. whatever the arabic is, it should read, in ENGLISH: if the tree knew [what was happening to its] planter, its oil would become tears. makes way more sense this way. this is tamim's interpretation, not mine, btw. if you don't like this, i'll look up what his exact words are. r

i just googled it in arabic. nehad can do this sort of thing, i would imagine. here's a news article on the ittahad al-fallahin in gaza... http://www.al-ayyam.ps/znews/site/template/article.aspx?did=124494&date=... seems like in some cases it is called this: اتحاد الفلاحين والتعاونيين الزراعيين http://www.alquds.com/node/523 head of it is a guy named Jabr Qadeeh. and there's an article about them here...http://www.pgftu.ps/news-action-show-id-552.htm On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Dan Walsh wrote: ...OK...you MAY be right. I had some issues and ran it by Nehad and when she didn't change anything I had written I wrote back for confirmation... As I see it, the tree doesn't know the woman is crying, doesn't know that it is about to be sacraficed...if it did it too would cry. I asked Nehad if she could read the credit under the line of text but like me, she could not. Can you? This is one of the problems I face... I don't have Zoomify. I also don't have a good hi res shot of this poster. Probably it IS a line from a poem or a Palestinian proverb which, when understood says something different. But what? About the PPU...how would you find it? Where would you look? dw On Jan 18, 2010, at 9:31 PM, Rochelle Davis wrote: 1) done. 2) i don't know of it. but i like it. and i don't think this translation is correct. i mean it is what it means grammatically. but it doesn't make sense. the tree does know its planter. why wouldn't it? that person is the one who planted it. and if it did know that, why would its oil be tears? see what i mean? i'll ask baccouche when he is back. or someone else. On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Dan Walsh wrote: 1) please tell Nick thank you for the Euro-poster link... 2) did I just write to you like in the past three days and ask you if you knew of the "Palestinian Peasants Union"? I THINK you did but I can't find that email anywhere. http://www.palestineposterproject.org/poster/if-the-tree-knew-its-planter Dw -- Rochelle Davis Assistant Professor, Culture and Society Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Georgetown University http://ccas.georgetown.edu -- Rochelle Davis Assistant Professor, Culture and Society Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Georgetown University http://ccas.georgetown.edu

dear tamim, i'm trying to figure out a translation. and I'd like to ask your quick help. this is the poster (from our MAAS student Dan Walsh's archive of Palestine posters) http://www.palestineposterproject.org/poster/if-the-tree-knew-its-planter with the line لو عرف الزيتون غارسه لصار الزيت دمعا it has been translated as "If the tree knew its planter, its oil would have become tears" i think the translation is incorrect, on a number of different levels. BUT in trying to figure it out, i came across a reference to this poem by mahmoud darwish: لو يذكر الزيتون غارسه لصار الزيت دمعا ! يا حكمة الأجداد لو من لحمنا نعطيك درعا ! any thoughts on all of this? -- Rochelle Davis Assistant Professor, Culture and Society Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Georgetown University http://ccas.georgetown.edu