Arabic-L:LING:talk the talk, walk the walk

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 02 Feb 2011
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dil at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: talk the talk, walk the walk
2) Subject: talk the talk, walk the walk
3) Subject: talk the talk, walk the walk

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1)
Date: 002 Feb 2011
From: "A. Ferhadi" <af3 at nyu.edu>
Subject: talk the talk, walk the walk

In Arabic this would be قولاً وعملا "qawlan wa 9amalan." In the same vein, "to talk the talk but not walk the walk" would translate to: قولاً وليس عملا

Ahmed Ferhadi
New York University

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2)
Date: 002 Feb 2011
From: Eiman Al-Shammari <eiman.tamah at gmail.com>
Subject: talk the talk, walk the walk

كلام على الفاضي
first one 
kalam 3ala alfathi
means "only talk no action"
كون قد كلمتك
second one
koon gad kalmitik
take responsibility of your words

قول وفعل
gool wa fi3il
complements someone who says something and does it 

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3)
Date: 002 Feb 2011
From: Ali H. Raddaoui <araddaoui at gmail.com>
Subject: talk the talk, walk the walk


ARABIC EQUIVALENTS FOR "WALK THE TALK", "WALK THE WALK" AND "TALK THE TALK"
Hello,
 
Arabs typically use a number of expressions to refer to the discrepancy between action and words.  One expression other than ‘walk the talk’ in English is, of course, ‘actions speaker louder than words’, but in Arabic, here is what comes to mind at this point:
 
·         The first expression is perhaps the closest you can get to the English equivalent, and this is taken from the Quran:
o    يقولون ما لا يفعلون – They say that which they do not do.  This is an indication of hypocrisy. 
·         The second expression is used when it noted that someone tries dissuade you, in words, from doing something they themselves do:
o   ينهي عن خلق ويأتي بمثله:  forbidding you (in words) from doing something while performing actions that illustrate the (verbal) forbidding.
·         The third expression, a grinding metaphor, is used when there is too much talk and no action to accompany that talk: 
o   تسمع جعجعة لا ترى طحنا – You hear (much) roaring/fanfare/grinding noise, but you see no powder.
·         The fourth expression comes from a celebrated poem by Arab poet Abu Tammam, and is a variation on these three.  It says in traditional warfare terms that when you see an action performed, this action is truer, more concrete than a piece of news that appears in a book.  Here is focused is shifted from speaking and hearsay to news in writing.  That something appears in print does not make it a fact:
o   السيف أصدق أنباء من الكتب :: في حده الحد بين الجد واللعب  The sword represents truer news than (written) books::On its edge is the edge/line between seriousness and play.
 
I hope this helps.
 
Ali H. Raddaoui <araddaoui at gmail.com>

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