Translation challenge

Angla bella
Issaqqi w tbaqqi
Kemm-il werqa fih
il-Habaq ghazzi?

Int Sultan, u bin is-Slaten
Tikteb u tqari
Kemm-il kewkba fih
is-Sema l-ghali?

These are the first two verses of a traditional poem in Maltese. It is a
dialogue between a young man (a prince?) and a woman, who is watering a pot
of basil on a window sill. In days gone by, this pot of basil indicated that
women of a marriageable age lived in the house - a subtle hint for Earnest
young men.



The vocabulary list is here:

Italian root words
Angla - Angela (a name)
bella - beautiful [*]

Arabic root words
issaqqi [SQJ] be_irrigated.3S.impf from issaqqa
tbaqqi [BQQ] irrigate.2S.impf [*] from baqqa
tikteb [KTB] write.2S.impf from kiteb
tqari [QRJ] read.2S.impf from qara
werqa [WRQ] leaf.F
habaq [HBQ] sweet_basil.M
kewkba [KWKB] star.F
sema [SMJ] sky.M
bin [BN] son
sultan [SLTN] king.M
slaten [SLTN] king.PL
ghazzi [GhZZ] sweet [*]
ghali [GhLJ] high ; tall ; costly
kemm-il - how many
fih - in
int - you ; thou
u ; w - and
il ; is ; l - the

[*] Items marked are not actually confirmed in my Maltese dictionaries - I
am relying on the source material for these specific items.

Bracketed capital letters indicate my guess as to the original root
consonants. I'm mostly correct I think.

Below is the English translation that was given with the original Maltese
verses. Don't read if you want to hack through the Maltese.

S

P

O

I

L

E

R



S

P

A

C

E



*



M

O

R

E



S

P

O

I

L

E

R



S

P

A

C

E


Lovely Angela
Watering abundantly
How many leaves are there
In the basil plant?

O Thou king, son of kings
Continually writing and reading
How many stars are there
In the high heavens?

Taken from Maltese Linguistic Surveys p 156, by J Aquilina

--
Fabian
Find your enemy's weakest point, and destroy it.
But remember who your own worst enemy is.

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