Take your dancing
to the next level with my new Arabic song translation service!
Upon popular suggestion,
I’ve finally decided to offer a song translation service. Now you can have ANY Arabic song translated & transliterated into fluent, native
English for just $25 USD. I provide
accurate, precise translations, phonetic transliterations, and explanations of all
idioms, terms, and cultural references that aren’t immediately intelligible to
non-Arabic speakers. No more limited, awkward, online translations by
translators who are limited in either English or Arabic.
Understanding the
meaning of song lyrics will significantly improve the way you feel the music, and
allow your audiences to feel connected to you. Song translation is also a great
way to gain further insight into Middle Eastern culture.
For the record: I
have four years of formal Arabic study under my belt: two years at Harvard
University, 1year at Columbia University and the City University of New York,
and about one year in Syria, Yemen, and Egypt combined. I have also been living
in Cairo for three years and am now fluent in the Egyptian dialect.
Payment via Pay
Pal or Venmo. To request a translation, contact me at lunaofcairo@gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Example
translation:
Abdo
“Si” is the local ‘baladi’ equivalent of mister.
Abdo!
Mr. Abdo’s eyes
looking at me Mr. Abdo, oh Mr. Abdo
is too strong for me, and I’m not up to it
both like each other, but the girl is afraid to start a relationship because of
the complications that may arise.)
Abdo
Abdo
said that love has a cure
came back to me and said…
don’t think so!
told me, ‘wait, there’s a cure,’ that I can have an entire palm tree with dates
cure me of love, but I said
doesn’t really make sense in English.
What it means is that finding a cure for love is like trying to tear
down an entire palm tree with dates, or, a better example, trying to capture a
star and bring it down to earth. Very difficult).
don’t think so!
is in love, sleeps very well at night
don’t think so!
hit and crush and break things [to get rid of his love]
no no! I don’t think so!
lover ran away from me
I was able to break her check mate (reference
to a move in Backgammon similar to the check mate in chess.)
the song starts using the metaphor of a Backgammon game to describe what’s happening
in the game of love. This was really difficult to translate, as it’s extremely
local, and normal
Egyptians don’t speak like this. It also
makes very little sense if you have no clue about Backgammon. 😀 I did my best not to translate literally.
lover ran away from me
I was able to break her check mate
said he got lucky
song starts out with the singer speaking in the first person. Then he shifts to singing in the third
person. It’s really typical of Arabic
poetry, from the Quran to modern day shaabi music, for the author to shift
between persons. This is done for two reasons. One, the rhyme scheme may call for it, and
two, it’s more respectful for a man to address or speak about his lover in the
masculine.
he wants to try his luck (literally throw the dice and hope for the outcome he
wants)
lover ran away from me
I was able to break her check mate
the professionals (at backgammon, but really the game of love)
two (on the dice)
two, and four (on the dice)
professionals too
two, and four
professionals too
the professionals
those who are jealous of our love are confused
they’re a dime a dozen
crystals, sugar crystals
grew up on sweet things (he means good values)
crystals, sugar crystals
grew up on sweet things
like sugar crystals
you, my sweet, make me melt
love makes me melt
with the love in my heart I will build you a house
leaves, he doesn’t ask about me, he loves and then forgets
leaves, he doesn’t ask about me, he loves and then forgets
treating me badly and playing with my emotions
treating me badly and playing with my emotions
complain to all the lovers
say that you have the cure (for love)
complain to all the lovers
say that you have the cure (for love)
playing with my heart and emotions.
go, beautiful
home beautiful
go, beautiful
home beautiful
That sounds fantastic!
Thank you!
Yowzaaa!! This is really good translation. Thanks a lot for this. I have been trying scrape bits from the internet to understand what it means. Thanks again
Yowzaa!! This is really good translation. Thanks a lot for this! I have been scraping bits from the internet to make sense of this song. Thanks again.