Penat lelah. (Exhaustion)

I don’t like leaving you all wondering what I’m on about, so here’s the translation:

Penat tak terkira pagi ini. Kalau boleh, ingin aku tidur terus sahaja. Tiada minat untuk masuk kerja langsung.

Really tired this morning. If I could I’d just stay in bed. I don’t feel like going to work at all.

Blog pagi semalam telah saya tag dengan kata ‘renungan’. Entah kenapa, hanya perkataan itulah yang rasanya sesuai.

I tagged my post yesterday with the word ‘renungan’ [Malay for contemplation, meditation, rumination]. I don’t know why, but that was the only word that felt right.

Eh, kali terakhir aku menulis dalam Bahasa Malaysia di blog ini hari Khamis juga! Waktu itu aku cuti beberapa hari. Mungkin aku perlu mengambil cuti kali ini juga…

Eh, the last time I wrote in Malay here was a Thursday as well! Back then I was on a few days’ holiday. Maybe I need a holiday this time around too…

Gambar: aku dengan Si Manja Baubles, amboi nyenyaknya tidur!

Picture: Me with Baubles the Cat, how soundly we’re sleeping!

Si Manja Baubles doesn’t really translate as Baubles the Cat. The word Si is used “in front of adjectives as an appellation, in mockery, endearment, etc. – Si kecil the little one, the baby. Si manis the sweetie [either for humans, or food sweeteners]. Si sulung the oldest one [sulung oldest child].”

Manja is one of those words that I don’t think can be properly translated into English. The dictionary* says:
1. spoiled, pampered (of a child, young woman).
2. attached (emotionally).
3. intimate, familiar, confidential.

Baubles could be said to be very manja (spoiled, pampered, indulged) I suppose. In fact, my grandmother has said this of Baubles many times!

The word nyenyak literally means to be sound asleep.

* For the definitions I consulted A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary by Alan M Stevens and A. Ed. Schmidgall-Tellings, Ohio University Press in association with the American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, 2004.

Sorry it wasn’t more profound!

3 Comments

Simone 26 October 2006

Ah ha! Thanks!

Wow, it’s nothing like what I thought!

The languages I know bits of (Dutch, English, French and German) have all got similar bit, or even words exactly the same, so I can always sort of tell what it’s about. Not so with any Asian langauges for me!
Anyway, I’m never going to get into it, as I have enough trouble with my two mothers langauges, Dutch and English. French I had for a few years at school, but I’m hopeless with that, can only read bits. And German may be quite similar to Dutch, but there are heaps of differences, and I’ve never had it at school.
What I would be interested in finding out about (one day when I can be bothered and am in the mood!!), is how languages such as chinese and japanese work with symbols that are whole words, etc etc.

Simone 26 October 2006

As you can tell by all the spelling and grammar mistakes and typos, I really do have enough trouble with English!!!

CW 26 October 2006

Yes, it can be hard to decipher Asian languages! I might just have to write about how Chinese works, some time soon, just for you Simone 🙂