Always learning from books can be very monotonous. That’s why I now loosen up my schedule with Arabic music. There is enough choice of great songs. The Lebanese singer Fairuz, for example, is one of my absolute favourites.
Fairuz فيروز
Fairuz – Nuhad Haddad حداد حداد with civil name – is called „Mother of the Lebanese Nation“, but is loved by all Arabs. Fairuz means „turquoise“; her songs are world famous.
Fairuz comes from a Christian, Syrian Orthodox family. Together with the Mansour brothers and her later husband, the Lebanese became pioneer of a new musical movement in Lebanon, in which Latin American influences were recognizable and which moved away from Egyptian models.
Already her first large performance in 1957 made Fairuz a star of Lebanese music. After the civil war and the death of her husband, the singer worked together with her son Ziad Rahbani. In 1998, Mitterrand’s nephew, Frédéric Mitterrand, produced a TV documentary about Fairuz (German) “ for the series „Music Planet“ on arte.
And here comes a translation of her sad love song, سيف بلحاج هابيتاك – Habaytak Bisayf »
„I loved you in summer“
Be ayam el bard, be ayam el sheti… – In the cold days, in the winter days…
We el raseef bohayra, we el sharea gharee’a … – when the pavement has become a lake and the road is under water…
Teegi hak el bent, men bita el aateek… – The girl comes out of her old house and waits for him…
We yekola intareeni, we tontor aa el tareek… – He told her to wait, but he left…
We yeroh we yensaha, we tedbel be el sheti … – and has forgotten her, and she withers away in winter …
Habiytak bel sayif, natartal bel sheti… – I loved you in summer, I waited for you in winter…
We aoyonak bel sayif, we aoyoni bel sheti… – Your eyes are summer, my eyes are winter…
We maleana ya habibi, khalf el sayif we khalf el sheti… – And our reunion, oh, my love, will go beyond summer and winter…
Mara’et el ghariba, aatatini resala… – The stranger came by and gave me a message…
Katabiha habibi, be el damea el hazeen… – My love wrote in tears…
Fatahit el resala, horofan Dhayeen… – I opened the message whose letters were lost…
We mara’et eyam, we gharabitina seneen… – And the days passed, the years made us strangers…
We Horof el resala, mahaha el sheti… – when winter had erased the letters of the message…
More songs from Fairuz
Fairuz with one of her most famous songs, Jerusalem (القدس)