Tuesday

بابا تليفون Dad, Telephone - Arabic Children's Song

This song is awesome and pretty simple to understand so it should be a good learning tool if you're starting out. It's by a group called طيور الجنة (The Birds of Paradise) that sings a lot of great songs for kids such as اسناني واوا which I guess you could translate as (My teeth hurt) and also أنا البندورة الحمرة (I am the red tomato). Their songs are all in Syrian Arabic and all really cool!

I don't think the words in this song need much explaining. It's just a matter of looking at the text as they sing and matching what you hear to the words written down. قدوة might not be a word you've heard before. It's an MSA word and means "an example".





بابا تليفون - Dad, telephone!
قلو مو هون - Tell him I'm not here (Literally, tell him not here)
بابا بيقلك هو مو هون - Dad tells you that he's not here

مو قلتلي يا بابا ان الكذب حرام - Didn't you tell me, Dad, that lying is wrong
و انو إللي بيكذب يا بابا الله بيزعل منو - And that God gets angry at those who lie
عينه ما بتقدر إتنام والناس بتبعد عنه - They can't sleep and everyone stays away from them

بتعلمني و بتنسى يا بابا اللي قلتو - Dad, you teach me then you forget what you said
انت القدوة يا بابا و انت المثل الأعلى - You are my model and (high) example
ما تزعل مني يا بابا يا عيوني و اغلى بابا - Don't get mad at me, Dad. Oh precious apple of my eye.

15 comments:

HouariB said...

Hello ArabicStudent,

i've seen your comment you let in arabicmusictranslation about so far algerian arabic is from eastern arabic. You made your opinion with one song ?? khaled is known to sing very locally and with street arabic. Sometimes I didn't understand what he is singing. So this is some links to show you what is arabic algerian is
let me know if you stick on your opinion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka_-sbWcpec
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qzyz_ahmed-wahbi-wahran-wahran_music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAonJ1IUZcY&hl
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4p93d_saloua-ellab-biya-elhob_music

I am waiting your comments

HouariB said...

And I forgot this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQpmRihWtek&hl

Unknown said...

Oh! If I ever get back to studying Arabic, your blog will surely be useful, it looks really nice! :)

The Arabic Student said...

Ok, I admit those songs are easier to understand than Khaled's songs. Thanks for showing me the light =D.

HouariB said...

Hey you forgot to tell if you liked one of them or not. I think if you like one that is the last one I sent

Cat said...

Awesome blog! I took 3 years of Arabic in college but I'm very much out of practice, so I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic blog, thanks for sharing your work with us!
Just one comment - I'm not sure, but I think
يا عيوني و اغلى
means my darling, my precious one (يا عيوني is a bit like "apple of my eye")

honey :-) said...

hey what's up ?
I just want to comment on this part
(((و انو إللي بيكذب يا بابا الله بيزعل منو - And that God gets angry at those who lie)))
the word بيزعل means when someone is upset , sad or so .
I hope i helped :-)

ilham_eyad said...

hello ,, mar7ba

thank you for this bloge

شكرا كتير على كلامك الحلو ودروسك من جد شي حلو نشوف واحد امريكي مهتم باللغة العربية وبيغلب اصحابها باللكنة

انا حاليا متابعة لك على اليوتيوب

بس حبيت اصحح لك شي انت كاتب انو الاغاني اللي من قناة طيور الجنة هن اغاني سورية هالشي مو صحيح لانو طيور الجنة قناة اردنية يملكها فلسطيني واغنية بابا تلفون هي لكنة فلسطينية اردنية وطبعا اللهجات الشامية الاربعة الفلسطينية والاردنية والسورية واللبنانية لهجات جدا متقاربة فأنا بعذرك انك ما ميزتها وطبعا بالقناة في اطفال سوريين بيغنو متل رغد الوزان لكن اغلب الاغاني باللهجة الفلسطينية والاردنية :)

Anonymous said...

Aaaaah omg, I can't believe you posted this song! hhhhh We taught the little kids at our masjid to sing and dance to this! :P

amir said...

can u translate this video for me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEcIqHMQ3p4&feature=share

Anonymous said...

at the end what does he say to mean, tell them i am home. it sounds like قلو حايو هون
I don't know if that's like the fusha ها هو which means here it is or here he is. so, the whole thing would be like, tell him here he is, here, or tell him i'm here. or is he saying something else (more likely)? i lovey your posts. thanks in advance

The Arabic Student said...

Anon, at the end he says قله هيه هون which is basically the dad giving in and finally saying, "tell him here he is". Yes, it's like ها هو .

H said...

Great work. Keep it up!

Ali Khan said...

Masha'Allah, I am so happy to read the recent update. May Allah reward all those who contributed and shared to make their efforts successful, Aameen.
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