About the work

A closer look.

Send me up to about 400 words, Arabic or English. You get the translation plus the tone notes a dictionary drops: what a word carries besides its meaning, which register I chose, and when you would pick each alternative instead. The model is a piece I wrote, 'معلش is not "never mind": ten English lives for one Egyptian word' — one word, ten moods, and the notes that choose between them. Best for: a caption, a bio, a message, a short page, a line you cannot get to land. Tell me who will read it and what you want them to feel; that is what the tone notes turn on. I write the notes honestly. If a phrase has no clean equivalent, I say so and tell you the trade-off rather than inventing a smooth line that loses the point.