Have a little shame! - إستحي على دمك

I've got 2 phrases for you today that are pretty cool. They are إستحي على دمك and إحترم نفسك . The first is used in Levantine countries and I'm not sure where else, and the second is used everywhere as it is MSA. I've got some clips that illustrate the usage of these phrases as well as a video I made for You Tube.

• إستحي على دمك (istahi 'ala demek) - Have some shame!

To set up the context for this clip, this girl has been walking around everywhere getting hit on by every guy and finally she gets into a taxi where she thinks she's safe and the taxi driver starts ogling her. The clip is from the Syrian comedy show بقعة ضو (spotlight).



و بعدين معك انت؟ خلاص بقى! إستحي على دمك! حاج البصبصة - And with you too! Cut it out now! Have some shame! Stop ogling!

- بعدين - This word usually means "later" or "afterward", like بسوّيها بعدين "I'll do it later". Here it's used for some emphasis. The sentence would mean the same thing without it.

- خلاص - You say this when you want something to be finished. Like if your mom and dad are arguing and you get fed up with it you can yell خلاص (khalaas) for them to stop.

- بقى - This word is used a lot for emphasis. In MSA it means "to stay" or "to remain" بقينا في الفندق ل3 ايام means "We stayed at the hotel for 3 days." In dialect they use ظل or ضل (same word) to mean "to stay". I guess you can compare بقى to the word "now" in English. For instance. We say "come on now" or "cut it out now" but not really mean for it to be done literally "right now". We say it for emphasis. The word بقى is the same way.

- إستحي - Someone who is shy is مستحي . This word can mean "have shame" or "be shy". Shyness is more accurately خجل though. I knew an old Iraqi guy who would jokingly tell girls to إخجلي when they were being a bit too racy for him :D. It's not appropriate for girls to joke about sex and stuff in Arab cultures.

- حاج البصبصة - The word حاج here means "stop". You'll also see حاجة . It's not like the Egyptian word حاجة which means "something". And بصبصة is ogling.

• إحترم نفسك (ihtarim nefsek) - respect yourself
  

In this next clip we have Saddam Hussein being tried. He goes off on a tirade calling the trial a farce and the judge says إحترم نفسك. And without missing a beat Saddam comes up with the quick witted response إحترم نفسك انت "YOU respect yourself!". I don't know how he came up with that one on the fly like that. And the judge responds in Iraqi dialect, آني محترم نفسي . "I do respect myself."



"Respect yourself" is used when you want to say that someone is making a fool of themself.

Here's another example clip for احترم نفسك . This is from the show الاتجاه المعاكس which is a debate show that always ends in arguing and yelling. The guy on the left is saying how bad of a dictator Saddam Hussein was and the guy on the left is supporting Saddam Hussein. The guy on the left just got done saying a bunch of bad stuff about Saddam and the guy on the right isn't too happy about it.




امراً عليك ان تحترم نفسك و تُأدّب ألفاظك جيداً و إلا أسوّي بيك شيء ما تتصور ابداً - I order you to respect yourself and clean up your mouth or else I'm going to do something to you that you can't imagine

This is all MSA except for when he says اسوّي . That's Iraqi.

- تُأدّب ألفاظك - I translate this to "clean up your mouth". ادب is manners (also literature), for example, when someone says that you are قليل الادب it means you are "bad mannered", literally "few manners". لفظ is pronunciation but here he means كلام. So تُأدّب ألفاظك means to "nicen up your talk" or "clean up your mouth" which sounds more natural.

- سوّي - means "to do". This is used in Iraqi and sometimes in Syrian.

- شيء ما تتصور - something that you can't imagine

- ابدا - this means "never", but here you just attribute it to emphasis. I wouldn't translate it as "something you can never imagine!" Personal preference really.