An Arabic love song
You are my life. Those words were sung by the world famous singer Um Kulthum. The song is about love which is perfect for Valentine's Day.
Three years of love
Last year, we celebrated Valentine's Day by reading quotes from Arabic love poems. The year before that, we celebrated the day by learning Arabic words and phrases that express love. This is the third year that I blog about Valentine's Day. This time, I will write about a love song.
You are my life
The song has the title [anta umri] that means you are my life.
In a previous blog post, we have learned another Arabic phrase that also means you are my life.
Both the Arabic word [umr] and the Arabic word [Hayaa] means life.
Artists from Egypt
The song [anta umri] is performed by Um Kulthum and written by Ahmad Shafik Kamel, both of them were rfrom Egypt. The song is in Arabic dialect but many of the words are familiar if you know Modern Standard Arabic. However, two of the words can be difficult if you are not used to dialect. One of them is the pronoun [illii] that is written اللي. In Modern Standard Arabic, we use [alladhii] instead.
The other is the question word [azaay] that is written ازاي. In Modern Standard Arabic, we say [kayf] instead.
Four versions of the text
It is not possible to go though the entire song in this blog post, so we have to settle with the beginning. I will show each line of the song in four different ways. First I will write the original lyrics that is in dialect. After that, I will transform that line to Modern Standard Arabic. Then I will show the pronunciation with gray text. Finally I will write my translation.
Under each row, I will list the Arabic words that are used. You can click the eye symbol under each word to get more information. Note that the words are in their basic form in the list, but if you click on them, you can often find the conjugation or declension that is used in the song text.
Your eyes took me back
They taught me how to regret
Before you: wasted life
How can they?
You are my life
What pedagogic style do you prefer?
That was all for this time. I suggest you to listen to the song, but be patient because it starts with a musical introducation that lasts about eight minutes.
In this text, I have chosen to show the Arabic text and its translation first, and then present a list with links to the words. In some poems, ilke Love letter 49, each sentence is clickable. And when you click the sentence, you get to a page where each word is clickable. On the rest of this website, and in some poems like The camel driver tormented my heart, both the sentences and their individual words are clickable. So, the perdagogical style is a bit different here. I prefer when everything is clickable. What do you prefer?