Thursday

Rashed El Maged & Yara: El Maw'ed El Da'ea'

This song (الموعد الضائع) by Rashed El Maged (راشد الماجد) and Yara (يارا) is one of my favorites.  It's about how this guy was supposed to meet this girl for a date but he fell asleep and dreamed that he was on the date and therefore missed it.  Thus the song is called "the missed date".  I'm sure there must be a deeper meaning behind the song because the music video starts out with scenes and audio clips from the first moon landing.  I think maybe the song writer is trying to say that the Arab countries have missed achieving their full potential (i.e. landing on the moon). The song is in the Gulf dialect and uses words that I've never heard before (التهيت and احتريتك).  I can get them from context (I think التهيت means "to get side tracked" and احتريتك means "I waited for you", but I don't want to give the wrong definition so I didn't translate things I wasn't sure about.  The lyrics are below the song along with a vocabulary list of the words and phrases that I feel comfortable translating.  I know in general what is meant by all of the words, but some of them I don't know the exact way they would translate into English so I won't translate the whole song.  Useful phrases are highlighted in blue.






يا حبيبة ما نسيت موعدي الضايع معاك
 و اسمعيني لو دقيقة مثل ما كنت أسمعك

إسمعي عذري و بعدها سوي اللي تشتهين
 وأعترف لك ياغلاي إني غلطان و حزين

وإسمحي لي أحكي فيه اللي حصل .. احكي فيه اللي حصل .. وخففي عني العتاب .. يمكن في عذري جواب
يمكن في عذري جواب

كنت في موعد لقانا جالسة بس أنتظر .. و أحتريتك و ما حضرت وكنت أدور لك عذر

و صرت أرجف و أشعر بحسرة و خوف .. حسرة إنك ما وفيت و خوفي إنك التهيت

بس تدري!؟.. يلا احكي و اسمعك .. يلا احكي و اسمعك .. عندها يمكن ألاقي عذر منك و أفهمك
..
أنا جيتك .. يا الحبيبة .. قبل موعدنا بدقايق / وكنت منتظره و كان الجو رايق .. وكان الجو رآيق
رحت أسولف عن شجوني .. و عن أحاسيسي و ظنوني
وقلت لك إني أحبك .. ياللي ماليتن عيوني
كل هذا كان في لحظة غفيت .. كان في لحظة غفيت
كل هذا كان في لحظة غفيت .. كان في لحظة غفيت
و فجأة من نومي صحيت .. و فجأة من نومي صحيت
و ما لقيتك يا الحبيبة
..
آآه .. آآه منك وش أقول / افرح بحلمك معاي
و لا أزعل في ذهول .. لا و تبيني ما أنفعل / لا .. لا وتبيني ما أنفعل
خلني أصدق وش تقول
..
صدقيني ذي الحقيقة .. الكذب لا لا ما أطيقه
صدقيني .. ذي الحقيقة .. الكذب لا لا ما أطيقه
..
أنت تدري آآه تدري كيف أحبك وإني .. ما أقدر أسيبك .. أسيبك
لكن الغيرة في قلبي .. ضيعت فكري و دربي
..
يلا ننسى اللي حصل .. و نجعل الدنيا أمل .. و نفرح ببكرة سوا
يا حبيبي .. يالله ننسى اللي حصل ونجعل الدنيا أمل .. ونفرح ببكرة سوا
يا الحبيبة .. يا حبيبي

Vocabulary List:
  • إسمعي عذري و بعدها سوي اللي تشتهين (isma'i 'athri oo ma ba'daha. sawi illi tishtahin) - Listen to my excuse and what's after it.  Do what you want.
  •  إسمحي لي أحكي فيه اللي حصل (ismahi li ahki fi illi hasal) - Let me talk about what happened.
  • يلا احكي و اسمعك. عندها يمكن ألاقي عذر منك و أفهمك (yalla ahki wa asma'k. 'andaha yimkin alagi 'athra minak wa afhamak) - Go on.  Talk and I'll listen.  When you do that maybe I can find an excuse from you and understand you. (Literally it's "at that" instead of "when you do that" but we wouldn't say that in English.  Maybe "at that time" is good.)
  •  أنا جيتك .. يا الحبيبة .. قبل موعدنا بدقايق (Ana jeetak yal habiba, qabli maw'idna b dagayig) - I came to you, oh my love, (a few) minutes before our date.
  • كل هذا كان في لحظة غفيت (Kila hatha kan fi lahtha gafeyt) - All of that was in a moment that I fell asleep.
  •  و فجأة من نومي صحيت (wa faj'a min nawmi saheyt) - And suddenly from my sleep I awoke.
  • و ما لقيتك يا الحبيبة (wa ma lageytak yal habiba) - And I didn't find you, my love.
  •  خلني أصدق وش تقول (khali asadig wish tagool) - Let me trust what you say.
  •  صدقيني ذي الحقيقة .. الكذب لا لا ما أطيقه (sadigini thil hagiga. al kithib la la ma teega) - Trust me, this is the truth.  No, no I can't bear to lie.
  • ما أقدر أسيبك (Magdar asibak) - I can't leave you.
  •  يلا ننسى اللي حصل (yalla nansa illi hasal) - Let's forget what happened.

2 comments:

makkay said...

Hi the arabic student .. i'm an arabic native speaker from saudi arabia ..

yes your definitions of احتريت and التهيت are correct.

what are other words that you couldn't understand?

Can we talk on skype .. i could be a help for you in arabic if u like

my skype id is memetwofive

SodaJerk said...

Here’s an interesting and very clear 3-minute video featuring 2 Arabic speakers. They’re not speaking to each other – they’re individually commenting on a certain subject - but they each use a different dialect. (Saudi and Syrian).

The dialog takes place in Michigan. What I found especially interesting is that it clearly shows the contrast between the dialects.

What’s also interesting is that the lady appears to be a “2nd generation” American. She identifies herself as of “Syrian origin”. Her Arabic, although fluent, is obviously her 2nd language, English being her first. She probably learned it as a child, but used it less and less as she got older.

Another interesting aspect of her speech is that she kinda stumbles at first and has a marked American accent, but as she goes along she gets better and better. (She knows more and is more fluent than she thinks….she just doesn’t use it that much anymore, it seems).

The guy is a Saudi through and through and is addressing his countrymen back home. He uses typical Saudi speech patterns and dialect, which is a little hard to find on video.

Maybe our host would find the time to do some transcription/translating of this episode as he does with songs. You can see the video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-svVlDZfmo