Apr 3, 2021 13:19
3 yrs ago
27 viewers *
English term

big deal

Homework / test English to Arabic Art/Literary Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
the writer is trying to indicate that the things he mentioned are not important enough, using "big deal" in its ironic sense. how can we translate "big deal" into Arabic, while conveying the same irony?

text:
When we, when we formed empires and empires got overturned,
when we tried democracy, when we invented zero
and mathematics and fundamental discoveries about the universe,
big deal.
It just, the numbers don't change very much.
Change log

Apr 3, 2021 23:30: Murad AWAD changed "Field" from "Other" to "Art/Literary" , "Field (write-in)" from "sayings" to "(none)"

Proposed translations

+2
1 hr
Selected

ما شاء الله، عظمة على عظمة

"Big deal" here is used sarcastically, meaning "this is not a big deal." You can use the same approach in Arabic, using expressions (preferably low-brow) commonly used to glorify achievements, when you mean the opposite.

ما شاء الله
عظمة على عظمة
الله الله
الله علينا

etc.
Peer comment(s):

agree Saeed Najmi : يا للعظمة
41 mins
Thanks, Saeed. That would be in a higher register. I chose the lower register because the text seems conversational in style.
agree Yassine El Bouknify : Great translations
1 hr
Thanks, Yassine.
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2 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you for this great suggestion. "
1 hr

ويا لها من انجازات مصيبة /أليست بالإنجازات المصيبة

لابد أنها انجازات مصيبة
أليست بالإنجازات المصيبة
كَبُرتْ من انجازتٍ مصيبة
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

ومن يهتم/وان يكن/وما اهمية ذلك/غير مهم

Note from asker:
thank u for this suggestion, I opted for "غير مهم" .
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