Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 August 9

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August 9

Urdu title

Among the titles of Jagatjit Singh, I see Rasikh-al-Iqtidad-i-Daulat-i-Inglishia. I guess that Inglishia means Great Britain, but don't understand the rest. Could you translate? --Error (talk) 01:31, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

The whole title means: the steadfast dear child of English government. Omidinist (talk) 02:23, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

Should that be taken as sarcastically as it sounds ? SinisterLefty (talk) 18:23, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

I don't think so. The Sikhs fought for the British in the Indian Mutiny (despite the recent First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars) and the rulers of the princely states, representing 40% of the whole Indian Empire, depended on the Raj for their security and status. The princely states were internally self-governing (within certain limits) and many Indian princes grew to be fabulously wealthy under British rule.

This article gives a flavour of their taste in cars, "the Maharaja of Mysore ordered seven [Rolls-Royce] cars at a time, and the Maharaja of Patiala owned 44 Rolls-Royce automobiles at the time of his death".

This article describes the bed commissioned in Paris by the Nawab of Bahawalpur; "ornamented with four life-size bronze figures (of naked females) painted in flesh colour with natural hair, movable eyes and arms, holding fans and horse tails... Some 290kg of silver was needed to decorate the bed. The four naked figures were European, representing women of France, Spain, Italy and Greece, each with a different skin-tone and hair colour. Through ingenious mechanics linked to the mattress, the Nawab was able to set the figures in motion so that they fanned him while winking at him, against a 30-minute cycle of music from Gounod's Faust generated by a music box built into the bed". Alansplodge (talk) 13:38, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

I wonder if the translation provided by Omidinist has come out a little unfortunately. Perhaps it could equally be rendered, idiomatically rather than literally, something like "The loyal and favoured Crown vassal"? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.123.24.56 (talk) 16:18, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Well, you could take it idiomatically. What I rendered is the exact literal meaning of the title. Omidinist (talk) 18:15, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks. --Error (talk) 22:43, 10 August 2019 (UTC)