معجم الأمثال اللبنانية الحديثة، عربي - إنكليزي
تاريخ النشر: 01/01/1995
الناشر: مكتبة لبنان ناشرون
نبذة الناشر:This collection was made in Ras al-Matn, a small village in the district of Matn to the East of Beirut. It is a predominantly Druze village and more and more is becoming a religious center for Druzedom. The primary source from which they were gleaned is the people’s daily conversation. ...Those who insist, in historic and scientific work, upon documentation and citation will be disappointment in finding nothing of this sort in this work. Nevertheless, we believe that living men and women are the best authentic source for collecting proverbs, determining their true pronunciation and meaning.
At one time I was interested in making a collection of Lebanese folklore, nursery rhymes, popular songs and superstitions, before they should be lost with the passing of this generation. Ras al-Matn was chosen for this project, not so much because it is my native village in a rapidly changing Lebanon. This village has not strongly felt the impact of westernization. Social Life, economic life, and Druze religious life goes on uninterrupted in the same manner as they did in the early part of the last century. As I carefully listened to farmers, workers, artisans, and religious chiefs, I was impressed by their frequent resort to proverbs to substantiate their statements or to enhance their manner of expression. I thought to myself: here is valuable, literary material which will also disappear with the passing of this generation unless someone records it. So I began to jot down every proverb I heard. When it was known in the village that I was collecting proverbs, and that I would pay a franc for every new one not found in my already growing collection, people came to me with long lists of proverbs. "And have you heard this one? And have you got this one in your collection?" they said, hoping to get a few francs. This went on until practically no one in Ras al-Matn could add anything new. إقرأ المزيد