Arabic Genie » love

Mysterious Arabic Calligraphy #2

ArabicGenie — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:01:02 +0000

Firdaus sent me the following picture with the request to identify the Arabic writing in this tattoo:

The writing is an artistic calligraphic rendering of on top:

حب (Hubb)

and on bottom:

سلام (salaam)

which mean “love” and “peace” respectively. Confusingly, the dot that belongs to the letter baa’ is placed under the meem for what I guess are aesthetic reasons.

Love Hate Calligraphy

ArabicGenie — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:02:33 +0000

Through Tarek Atrissi’s excellent blog I cam accross this piece of Arabic calligraphy here that says “love hate” in Arabic:

Love Hate Calligraphy

The design is written with ornamental decorations. What some might disregard as doodles underneath the writings actually consists of a repetition of exactly the same two words – “love hate”.

I really like this calligraphy and it inspired me to attempt my own design of the “love hate” dichotomy in Arabic. The result is this:

Love-Hate Arabic Calligraphy Design

The word for “hate” – الكراهية – is flipped horizontally to indicate that it’s the flip-side of love – الحب. The two words “cross swords” by crossing letters: the raa’ of الكراهية and the laam of الحب, indicating the intertwined nature of the two emotions.

Love in Arabic, Natasha: More Arabic Tattoos

ArabicGenie — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:46:49 +0000

Another round of Arabic tattoo translations:

I was just looking on your website and wondered if you could possibly translate these words for me. I have wanted an Arabic tattoo for some time now, but I have been so busy, and also trying to find the correct translation has been proving hard! So I’m here hoping you can help me. My name is Natassja (or Natasha, I just spell it differently) would you be able to translate my name into Arabic? Even if you can only translate the common spelling “Natasha” that would be great!

Also please could you translate love (meaning the love between a couple) and strength and courage (as separate words please).

Natassja (Natasha) in Arabic

Ok, let’s start with your name. I’m glad you provided the pronunciation for your name, because the most important thing for translating names into Arabic is that the sound of the name is preserved. The spelling cannot be preserved and would in fact be misleading – Arabic words are pronounced as they are written.

Natasha in Arabic is ناتاشا, which is the closest phonetically that you can get to the original pronunciation. I also believe that this is the most popular translation of your name.

If you do a Google search for this name in Arabic you will find that there are around 61,000 results for this spelling. The alterative translation نتاشا is found less than 30,000 times.

Here is Natasha in Arabic in 4 different fonts:

Natasha in Arabic tattoo

Love in Arabic

“Love” in Arabic is حبّ (pronounced Hubb, with the H being strongly aspirated). But, in Arabic abstract concepts are usually prefixed with the article ال (al). So, the best translation is الحبّ (al-Hubb).

There are two different versions of this word below, because one can write it with the shadda sign (the little “w” above the letter on the left) or without it. The function of this sign is to indicate that the letter underneath is doubly pronounced. But, Arabs know this anyways, so it is not really necessary to write it. In the end, it is up to you whether to use the shadda or not.

Below is “love” in Arabic in 4 different fonts:

Version1: Love in Arabic with shadda

Version2: Love in Arabic tattoo without shadda

Strength in Arabic & courage in Arabic

I’ve already translated these two words in a recent blog post. Please see here for the Arabic tattoos of “strength” and “courage”.

Let me know if you find this helpful!