Tomorrow from my arse

Or ‘ass’, for our American readers.

In the course of your studies, especially if you study Levantine, you may have encountered the charming Palestinian expression بكرا بالمشمش bukra bilmishmish, ‘tomorrow with the apricots’, or in short بالمشمش ‘with the apricots’. This is a pleasantly folksy and agricultural way of saying, essentially, ‘it’ll never happen’. According to the supervisor who taught us the expression way back when, this is because apricots have a very brief and unpredictable ripening time (? I’m not a farmer). It probably also depends a bit for its effect on the fact that mishmish literally means ‘notnot’.

Anyway, as appealing as this innocent expression is, it’s not very common in Syrian. Instead we say:

بكرا من طيزي
bukra mén Tiizi
‘tomorrow from my arse!’

Or just

من طيزي
mén Tiizi!

from my arse!

NB: this is a p vulgar expression so don’t go around just using it with anyone or I will not be held responsible for the consequences