Artifact 3: Translating text from "Aaj Himur Biye" (Today is Himu's Wedding)
TRANSLATION:
(This is when Himu is talking to Renu, the girl that his aunt wants him to get married to).
(Himu) "I am talking sweetly to you with my honeyed voice and you got mad like this? Renu sweetheart, come around in a gentle sweet way. What's your favorite color? What's your horoscope?"
Renu said, "Bastard, you face me and come in front of me right now and I'll bite off your ear and if I don't then my name isn't Renu, but my name is Renu and I will do it! You bastard's son bastard, you."
"Renu, you replied with an argument. Your brother-in-law's son (*the word for bastard/jerk is the same as brother-in-law) isn't your brother-in-law. You can say brother-in-law's son is the nephew.
"Shut up!"
"Why are you threatening me, Renu? Talk to me with gentleness and kindness. Husband-wife arguments will happen after the wedding, not before the marriage.
"After these words, there was a sudden noise and the mobile phone turned off. Because of me, Renu threw the phone. The phone is supposed to have gotten broken. But no. It must be an expensive phone. Because some people's only phone breaks. The phone makes "foosh foosh" noises. Others makes "fere fere" noises." (This is Himu speaking to his aunt).
"Himu, did you see the girl's temper? Bengali girls' tempers weren't like this before!"
Translating this text as I read is helpful since I can struggle through it on my own and see what words make sense or not which alerts me to whether or not I'm reading it right or wrong. Translating and writing it down helps me keep up with the story rather than forgetting what happened in the line or paragraph before it. It's very productive in trying to figure out the meaning of words I don't know, too, especially if they have conjuncts. I found out that if I don't know the word and know what the sentence might be trying to say and a couple of the letters in the word, I can figure out the conjunct if I know the word in speech, but not in writing. If I don't know the word, I just look it up in the dictionary.
Artifact 4:
CONVERSATION WITH COUSIN IN BENGALI SCRIPT
Jubair Hasan Biwashello apu, how are you??
hello apu, আমাকে কি চিনছেন?? Do you recognize me?
Noraya Razzaqueআসালামু অলাইকুম ভ্ঐয্যা, হ্যাঁ ছিন্ছি তুমারে. নঐ মামার ছেলে না? বাঙ্লাদেশে জখন গিএছেলাম একবার দেখা হযঅছিল. তুমি কেমন অছ, ভিঅয্যা? অমার বাঙ্লা লেখা বেশি ভাল না এখন শিখ্তিছি. Asalamu-alaikum, bhaiyya (bhaiyya means brother; cousins are considered brothers and we call them that it's kind of like the generic address) yes, I recognize you, you're Uncle Naun's son, right? I saw you in Bangladesh once. How are you, bhaiyya? My Bengali writing isn't all that great, so I apologize for that beforehand.
- Jubair Hasan Biwas
ভালো আপু, আপনাকে এই বার দেখতে চেয়েছিলাম কিন্তু দেখা হল না আপনার সাথে। আসলে কপালে না থাকলে দেখা হয় না?? Good, apu (apu= sister, same concept as explained earlier with bhaiyya), I didn't get to see you that time, though I wanted to. Really, if it wasn't in my fate to see you, I couldn't have seen you anyway.
- Jubair Hasan Biwas
আপু কেমন আছো?? Apu, how are you?
- Noraya Razzaque
তুমার কি পরিখা ছিল জখন অমি অযে ছেলাম্? ঞুনায্র্দের শাতে দেখা হযে ছেল তালে, না? কতাই পর তুমি? Did you have exams going on at the time? I think I met Junayd, then, no? Where do you study?
This is my conversation with another cousin who messaged me on Facebook. My other cousins keep trying to talk to me in romanized Bangla and the conversations never quite go anywhere because of how circular they are, as I mentioned before in another post. This cousin seems to be more talkative or at least better at talking about other things rather than saying one or two words and then expecting me to say a bunch. However, I have noticed he asks how I am a lot, which is something every one of my cousin has been doing. I'm curious about why that is- another cultural thing that I don't know about, maybe? Anyway, it's exciting to keep this conversation going in Bangla script. Though I can't tell if I have any spelling mistakes, I think my choice for the letters are correct because as I type in the online Bangla keyboard, I catch mistakes that the keyboard makes with certain letters, for example the different "t's" and "d's". This is a good way to practice self awareness in language writing.
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