Mazal Tov Amritas
מזל טוב לבן
נצח
עד מאה
ועשרים
Mazal tov l’ven nesah
`ad me’a v`esrim
Happy Birthday Amritas
May you live to 120
Actually, “Mazal
tov” means congratulations, not happy birthday. But Israelis don’t say, “Happy birthday” to someone who has a birthday. Not that it’s ungrammatical, it’s just not normal. It would be something like wishing an English speaker, “Good week.” You can say, “Good day,” why can’t you say, “Good week?” It’s just not done. But in Hebrew it’s normal to say, shavua` tov – “Good week.”
So why did I translate it as, “happy birthday?” The wish, `ad me’a v`esrim is the traditional blessing for one who has a birthday, so obviously, “congratulations” means “happy birthday” in this context.
(If you’re wondering about the Hebrew for Amritas, go
here. Grammatical point: b > v after a vowel, when not doubled. In this case the vowel is a schwa.)
UPDATE: To see what Amritas says go
here.
UPDATE: Thirty-three in Hebrew is shloshim v’shalosh (lit. thirty and three). In Biblical Hebrew it would be the other way around: shalosh ushloshim. A thirty-three year-old in Hebrew is ben shloshim v’shalosh. Hebrew numbers have gender from 1 to 10, after that, they’re genderless. In this case, shalosh is feminine, (masculine: shlosha) not because Amritas is feminine! It agrees with the unspoken word “year,” shana, which is feminine. (For those of you who are wondering, usually words that end in –a are feminine, but for numbers it’s the other way around.)
Today Amritas is thirty three.
Hayom Ben Ne
sa
h ben shloshim v’shalosh.
(lit. Today Amritas is a thirty-three year-old.)
(more lit. Today Son of Eternity is a son of thirty-three.)
(even more lit. This day Son of Eternity is a son of thirty-three.)
Posted by David Boxenhorn at July 29, 2004 01:56 PM