Monday, March 25, 2013

Abdel Halim Hafez - Why are You Blaming Me?عبد الحليم حافظ - بتلوموني ليه؟

This is one of those songs that is ostensibly about a girl but the object of desire is grammatically masculine. I couldn't translate it as such



Abdel Halim Hafez - Why are You Blaming Me?

Why are you blaming me, why are you blaming me?
If you saw how beautiful her eyes are
You would say my preoccupation and sleeplessness
Are not too much for her, so why are you blaming me?

Captive of the beloveds, ones my heart is melting
I am trapped in the scent of her silky hair
Which lightly touches her cheeks and then returns to floating in the air
Yet people are blaming me, so what can I do my heart?
Why do they want to deprive me of her, my heart?
Why are you blaming me?

Since the day her love touched my heart
She opened the door to desire to play with me

She is my beloved and my destiny
And she is the light of my heart and eyes
And she is my youth and my companion
She is my all my relatives and all my beloved
And people are blaming me so what can I do my heart?
Why do they want to deprive me of her my heart?
Why are you blaming me?

عبد الحليم حافظ - بتلوموني ليه؟

بتلوموني ليــــه .. بتلوموني ليـــــــــــــــه
لو شفتم عنيه حلوين اد ايـــــــــــــــــــــــه
حتقولوا انشغالي وسهد الليالــــــــــــــــــي
مش كتير عليه .. ليه بتلومونـــــــــــــــــي

اسير الحبايب يا قلبي يا ذايـــــــــــــــــــــب
في موجة عبير من الشعر الحريـــــــــــــــر
عالخدود يهفهف ويرجع يطيــــــــــــــــــــر
والناس بيلوموني واعمل ايه يا قلبــــــــــي
عايزين يحرموني منه ليه يا قلبـــــــــــــــي
بتلوموني ليه ..

من يوم حبه ما لمس قلبي ما لمس قلبـــــي
فتح الباب للشوق يلعب بي للشوق يلعب بي

وهوّ حبيبي وهوّ نصيبـــــــــــــــــــــــــــي
وهوّ النور لعنّيه وقلبــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــي
وهوّ شبابي وهوّ صحابــــــــــــــــــــــــــي
وهوّ قرايبي وكل حبايبـــــــــــــــــــــــــــي
والناس بيلوموني واعمل ايه يا قلبــــــــــي
عايزين يحرموني منه ليه يا قلبـــــــــــــــي
بتلوموني ليه
..

Friday, March 22, 2013

Above the Palm Trees/I've Got a Friend Up Thereفوك النخل\فوق إلنا خلFoug El Nakhel/Foug Ilna Khill

We've translated many an Arabic folk song here on the blog performed by various artists, but the discussion on this song is so massive and the versions so numerous that it deserves its own post. "Fog al-Nakhel (فوق النخل)" is one of the most famous Arabic songs. It originated in Iraq and quickly spread throughout the Arabic world with the advent of radio and television. One of the earliest versions was performed by Nazem al-Ghazali, but there are others by Sabah Fakhri, Ilham al-Madfai, Kazem el-Saher and many others. Of course, the verses seem to be infinite.

I've always tried to understand the song, which eventually led me to discussion forums discussing the lyrics and meaning. That's when I discovered the open secret that the lyrics are not actually فوق النخل, or "above the palm trees," but rather فوق إلنا خل, ie "I've got a friend above/up there" however you want to translate it. According to a discussion among posters in this forum here, the original composers had intended the song to be فوق النا خل (Fog ilna khell). The story behind the song is that there is a poor young man in love with a girl that belongs to a rich family, after seeing her on their big house's balcony and exchanging glances. The song became "Foq al-Nakhel (فوق النخل)" because even though it makes the meaning quite strange, the audiences liked it better, according Sabah Fakhri and others. This explains the lyrics:

I've got a friend above
I don't know if that's the shine of your cheek or a shine above (ie the moon)
I swear I don't even want her
It's ruining me/It's causing me a problem

فوق إلنا خل فوق يابا فوق النا خل فوق
مدري لامع خدك يابا مدري لامع فوق
ولله ما ريده باليني بلوة


That is pretty much the standard chorus and after that the versions diverge greatly. I'll try to add as many versions as I can here, hopefully with the help of the readers, since lyrics are surprisingly scarce.

First and foremost is the Nazem al-Ghazali (ناظم الغزالي) version:



ناظم الغزالي - فوق النخل (فوق إلنا خل)

I have no hope for my soul, you're still my beloved
Everyone gets to be with you and my destiny is to be abandoned by you
I swear she's torturing me and she has no interest in me

مالي امل بالروح يبا بعدك حبيبي بعدك حبيبي
وصلك صفى للناس يبا هجرك نصيبي
والله معذبني وماعنده امروه


Here's the version by Sabah Fakhri (صباح فخري), the legendary Syrian singer hailing from Aleppo. I haven't included the lyrics for "albulbul nagha", which he usually performs alongside "foug al nakhel".



It contains this additional verse:

Oh river, go say hi to them for me
The separation is hard for me
I miss them

بالله يا مجرى الماي يابا سلم عليهم
صعبان الفرقه علي يابا اشتقنا إليهم

Here is the Kazem el-Saher version I found on youtube.com. I'd like to point out that Kazem days no say "yaba" rather he uses "3ayni" which means about the same thing: nothing.



Here is an Ilham al-Madfai (إلهام المدفعي) version. Note the excessive palm trees in the video.



Here's some new verses, I'll do my best:

Your cheek shined, my love, and lit up the country
I can't make my soul patient or bear this separation
I swear she's torturing me with her beautiful eyes

All the faces pass, and my eyes are only on yours
May the lord give you my love
I swear she's torturing me and she has no interest

خدك لمع ياهواي وأضوى على البلاد
مقدر أصبر الروح واتحمل البعاد
والله معذبني بعيونه الحلوة

كل البلام تفوت يابه عيني على بلمك
ومن الهوى والروح ربي يسلمك
والله معذبني وما عنده مروة

There's more versions available, but I don't really have lyrics for them.

Here is a stupid version by Dania (دانيا)



Here is George Wassouf (جورج وسوف)



Here is Palestinian band Zaman (زمان) with a flamenco version

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Amr Diab - The Perfect Solution

Updated

Amr Diab. This is one of his earlier songs, that features a delicious keyboard solo.


Amr Diab - The Perfect Solution

The perfect solution
Either we live life together
Or I stay right where I am

O darling so long as you are away
I live in the world alone
I became tired of the feelings with the pain
And my heart which is that which is so wronged
And every day my darling
I know nothing but sighing

I lived years of my life in your abscence
While my heart is sad
I tired of the sadness all of it
And my life that I lived at one time
I know nothing but sighing
Either we live life together
Or I stay right where I am

Without you I have seen so much
And I run before them so much
And I am fine with the course of my destiny
And the live that is going to be wasted
And every day my darling
I know nothing but sighing
Either we live life together
Or I stay right where I am

عمرو دياب - ملهاش حل تاني

ملهاش حل تاني
يا نعيش الحياه انا وانت
يا وقفت في مكاني

يا حبيبى طول ما انت بعيد
انا عايش في الدنيا وحيد
مليت الاحساس بالألم
والقلب اللي كتير اتظلم
وفي كل الايام يا حبيبي
مش عارف الا التنهيد
يا نعيش الحياه انا وانت
يا وقفت في مكاني

في بعادك انا عشت سنين
من عمري وانا قلبي حزين
مليت الاحزان كلها
وحياتى اللى زمان عشتها
وفي كل الايام يا حبيبي
مش عارف الا التنهيد
يا نعيش الحياه انا وانت
يا وقفت في مكاني

من غيرك ياما شفت كتير
وأنا وأنا باجرى وراهم كتير
وأنا راضي بمشيئه القدر
والعمر اللى راح وانهدر
وفي كل الايام يا حبيبي
مش عارف الا التنهيد
يا نعيش الحياه انا وانت
يا وقفت في مكاني