Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Saturday, 16 January 2021

One of my favourite songs

is  Raoui, راوي  by the Algerian singer Souad Massi.


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This my gloss on the lyrics:


O  STORYTELLER 
 راوي 

Speak, storyteller, tell us a story.
Make it as long as War and Peace.
Tell us about people gone before,
men of infamy, women of glory.
Tell us about the Thousand Nights and a Night,
A thousand and one ever-falling leaves -
Sinbad and Odysseus on their stormy Sea of Stories,
Sheherazade, Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves,

Start your story, start your story,
Take us away from our misery,
Let it briefly stop being the main part
Of our story. Tell your story, tell your story,
There's a story in everyone's heart.
Tell your story, tell your story,
There's a terrible story in everyone's heart.
Tell your story, tell your story,
There's a wonderful story in everyone's heart.

Start telling while forgetting that we have grown up,
Imagine us as children trusting,
Not knowing what is and what is not crime.
Tell us everything, everything, but keep us
'Once upon a time'.



Here is the (somewhat different)  original text

which of course I cannot read, being a 'blind translator' :

يا راوي حكي حكاية
مادابك تكون رواية
حكي لي على ناس الزمان
حكي لي على ألف ليلة وليلة
وعلى لنجة بنت الغولة
وعلى ولد السلطان

حانجيتك مانجيتك
دنا بعيد من هادي دنيا
حاجيتك ماجيتك
كل واحد منا في قلبه حكاية

حكي وانسى بلي احنا كبار
في بالك رانا صغار
حكي لنا على الجنة حكي لنا على النار
على طير عمره ما طار
فهمنا معانى الدنيا

يا راوي حكي كما حكوا لك
ما تزيد ما نقص من عندك
كاين نشفوا على بالك
حكي لنسينا في هاد زمان
خلينا في كان يا ما كان

***

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