# Help with romanization and translation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2019, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251 "2019-03-17T05:48:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251/21 "2019-03-19T16:45:03Z")
Well, **Spherical Bus**? Do you want me to translate it? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251/22 "2019-03-19T17:58:34Z")
You have a translation, but it only works for a spherical bus in a vacuum… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251/23 "2019-03-19T18:33:02Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Before starting, please note that the last letter was left out of the song title in the OP. Fixed it for you: نشيد القوات المسلحة الجنوبية I’m not interested in the translation, but another thing. When I see Arabic on my screen, it looks quite small to me compared to the Roman letters surrounding it. I guess I have no idea how big the text is on your screen, but I could comfortably read the Roman letters, but the Arabic I could barely tell what’s going on with them and would need to magnify a few times before I could tell what each individual stroke is. For you who knows Arabic, do you just recognize the words pretty easily, because you are familiar with the language, or does it also look a little difficult to read? Like on my screen, I feel like I have to go to at least 200% to even be able to see the strokes and dots well enough that I’d be able to make a crude reproduction of it on paper, and maybe even 400% before I’m fully confident in my reproduction. Then again, of course I understand I have no idea what is important and not in the alphabet, and you have knowledge of the letterforms and words, so can pick them out much more easily even if it looks indistinct to someone unfamiliar with the language. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251/24 "2019-03-19T19:30:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m not interested in the translation, but another thing. When I see Arabic on my screen, it looks quite small to me compared to the Roman letters surrounding it. I guess I have no idea how big the text is on your screen, but I could comfortably read the Roman letters, but the Arabic I could barely tell what’s going on with them and would need to magnify a few times before I could tell what each individual stroke is. > > For you who knows Arabic, do you just recognize the words pretty easily, because you are familiar with the language, or does it also look a little difficult to read? Like on my screen, I feel like I have to go to at least 200% to even be able to see the strokes and dots well enough that I’d be able to make a crude reproduction of it on paper, and maybe even 400% before I’m fully confident in my reproduction. Then again, of course I understand I have no idea what is important and not in the alphabet, and you have knowledge of the letterforms and words, so can pick them out much more easily even if it looks indistinct to someone unfamiliar with the language. I have a sort-of-intermediate reading knowledge of Arabic and my reading vision needs a little help these days, but I can distinguish pretty easily between the characters without any magnification, and (somewhat slowly) recognize overall words. Yes, if you know the script and language, even a little bit, the overall shapes of words and letters are familiar to you without scrutinizing every point and curve. It’s true that printed Arabic is considerably more “cursive-looking” than printed roman text, and I agree that the standard Arabic font displayed in SDMB posts looks a little small, but it’s perfectly legible if you have the requisite background knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Spherical\_Bus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Spherical\_Bus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spherical_Bus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251/25 "2019-03-19T21:50:53Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > She’s not going to translate it before she in paid for it! The really horrible Google translation is 317 words. The accurate translation will surely be within about 50 words of that, give or take. So that’s 20 or 30 bucks. Which seems pretty cheap for a professional translation. Ok I have $25 and 5 cents Should I mail it to her? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251/26 "2019-03-19T22:54:31Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m not interested in the translation, but another thing. When I see Arabic on my screen, it looks quite small to me compared to the Roman letters surrounding it. I guess I have no idea how big the text is on your screen, but I could comfortably read the Roman letters, but the Arabic I could barely tell what’s going on with them and would need to magnify a few times before I could tell what each individual stroke is. > > For you who knows Arabic, do you just recognize the words pretty easily, because you are familiar with the language, or does it also look a little difficult to read? Like on my screen, I feel like I have to go to at least 200% to even be able to see the strokes and dots well enough that I’d be able to make a crude reproduction of it on paper, and maybe even 400% before I’m fully confident in my reproduction. Then again, of course I understand I have no idea what is important and not in the alphabet, and you have knowledge of the letterforms and words, so can pick them out much more easily even if it looks indistinct to someone unfamiliar with the language. At my age, I have to magnify everything. I have the SDMB and the English, French, and Italian Wikipedias at 150% zoom-in. I keep the Arabic Wikipedia at 175%. I always have to bump an Arabic screen a notch or two higher than one in the Latin alphabet. Does that answer your question? I, too, have wondered how others manage the exact same question. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251/27 "2019-03-19T22:57:47Z")
> [@Spherical\_Bus](#): > > Ok I have $25 and 5 cents > Should I mail it to her? I’ll know how much to charge once the translation is done. PM me about it and we’ll talk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-romanization-and-translation/831251.md?page=1)