قصاد عيني - عمرو دياب Osad Einy - Amr Diab (English Translation)

So I've been doing a lot of translating recently and translated this song by Amr Diab called "Osad Einy" (lit. in front of my eye/s). Let's get to it :)

First Verse: 
 و بينا معاد لو احنا بعاد اكيد راجع لو بيني و بينه بلاد

معاد literally means 'a place to which one returns' or 'destination' or 'meeting point' from عاد 'to return'. So و بينا معاد is something like, 'There's a place to which we both return' (lit. Between us is a returning place). Oh and و  is just a filler word, it means 'and' and it's used a lot in Arabic in places where it would be unnecessary in English.

بعاد rhymes with معاد and it means distance coming from the root verb بعُد which means to be far or keep one's distance from something/someone. So here بعاد implies distance from each other and لو احنا بعاد is 'Even if we are far away from eachother'.

Next, اكيد is a very common word meaning sure and used much like sure in English and is used in this case just as an intensifier or like 'surely/no doubt'. راجع means literally 'something which is returning' and this kind of structure of using the participle instead of the verb is common in Egyptian Arabic (eg. "انا فاهم" means I get it/I understand). I guess the singer is referring to himself and saying  'I'll (surely) return' or 'I'll be coming back (to it)' ('it' being the returning place).

لو  here means 'even if'. This structure بينـ و بينـ (eg. بيني و بينك) is like 'between you and me' in English but in Arabic the preposition بين is repeated. In this case the singer says  بيني و بينه بلاد and I suppose the ه in بينه is referring back to the meeting place. So  it will be 'I'll return (to the meeting place) even if there was a country separating me from it/you.'



Bridge:
قصاد عيني في كل مكان

Then to the bridge and the verses which are the namesake of the song: قصاد عيني في كل مكان . One of the few words that Egyptian Arabic uses to say 'in front of' is قصاد , pronounced without the ق  sound (more like 'osad'). And of course عيني means my eye. Sounds a bit funny in English to tell someone that they are in front of your eye and if you did, you'de probably be trying to tell them that they need to move out of the way (of your one eye :P) so idiomatically, I'd translate this phrase as 'You're in my heart' or 'You're on my mind". And في كل مكان literally means 'in every place' or 'everywhere' however a nicer translation is everywhere I go or wherever I am. 'Wherever I am, you're in my heart". Aww how sweet :)



Enough of that, we're at the Chorus:

و من تاني اكيد راجعين انا دايب و كلي حنين ولا عمري ابيع لو مين قصاد عيني

و من تاني اكيد راجعين - We've seen اكيد and راجع before (راجعين being the plural of راجع) and with من تاني meaning 'again' you can translate this sentence yourself :) the translation is 'No doubt we'll return to eachother' or some meaning like it for example 'We shall (definitely) meet again'.

انا دايب و كلي حنين - I had to search for دايب in the dictionary under the root داب and the word is originally دائب (colloquial Arabic often replaces ء with a softer long vowel) and the meanings are 'devoted, addicted, eager, persistent' etc. so he's devoted to his love, or persistent in his attempts to be reunited with her and كلي حنين literally means 'all of me is loning' which is better translated as 'and I deeply long for you/us to be reunited'.

As for the line ولا عمري ابيع لو مين it's idiomatic. عمري here means never and ابيع means sell but can be seen as give up or replace. The combination of لا...لو and مين is who (which is مَن in standard arabic) we'll translate as no matter what so the whole thing means something like 'I'd never trade you no matter who for' or less awkwardly 'I could never give you up'.

و مش قادر على الايام و لا يوصف هويا كلام و طول ليلي ولما بانام قصاد عيني

و مش قادر على الايام - So in this line we're introduced to a typically Egyptian form of negation which is مش and it means not and its used with the participle قادر which means able. So مش قادر means 'I'm not able to' or 'I can't' and with على الايام (lit. on the days) is another idiomatic sort of thing meaning 'I can't take the days' as in, 'I can't take it anymore'

لا يوصف هويا كلام -  The word  يوصف comes from the verb وصف which is a standard word meaning describe and if I'm correct in my understanding هويا is my desires. كلام just means word. So the whole things is I can't describe my feelings/desires in words.

و طول ليلي ولما بانام قصاد عيني - Well, طول ليطي Means and throughout my nights literally and is nicely translated and through the night as for و لما بانام , the verb نام means to sleep and this little بـ before it is an indication of present or continuous tense (لما is the same as Standard, it just means when). So all together, "All through the night and even in my sleep, you're on my mind".



Now for the Second Verse which is actually the final unique part of the song, the rest is repeating the parts we've looked at:

فيه يوم هنعود ده بينا وعود في غيابه اكيد لسه الامل موجود

The song is all pretty similar and talking about this return to each other and this theme continues. The singer says فيه يوم هنعود, and فيه basically means 'there is' and we know that يوم is day. هنعود may look and sound a bit strange but it's not! :) We looked at the verb عاد right at the start right? Well نعود is just a present tense conjugation meaning 'We return' and with this هـ at the start it means 'We will return' (adding هـ or حـ at the beginning of a verb in Egyptian dialect is like سـ or سوف in standard, namely an indication of future). So it means 'There will come a day when we return'.

ده بينا وعود - This line sees the introduction of an egyptian demonstrative which is ده which just means this/that and its masculine. The only other new thing is a word, وعود means promise so we get the literal meaning 'that is a promise between us'.

Finally we have the line في غيابه لسه الامل موجود. A couple of things: غياب means absence but I am not sure what the ـه at the end is referring to here. I'm guessing he means his lover, masculine pronouns are used frequently in Arabic songs to refer to females and its perfectly normal. لسه (lissa) means 'still' (or 'just' for example لسه شربت meaning I just drank). And الامل موجود literally means a hope is existing. موجود literally means existing from the verb وجد 'to be found' but we don't want this awkward translation (دي بطيخة 'it's so awkward, as they say in Egypt) can be translated as, 'There's still hope' as we'de say in English. So translation of this last line is 'Even in her absence, there is still hope".



Full (and مش بطيخة I hope :D) English Translation


Verse One: 

There's a place to which we both return
Even if we are separated by distance
But no doubt I'll return even if this distance was that of a whole country.

There's a place to which we both return
Even if we are separated by distance
But no doubt I'll return even if this distance was that of a whole country.

Bridge: 

You're always on my mind wherever I am.
You're always on my mind wherever I am.

Chorus:

We shall be meeting again
And I deeply long for us to be reunited
I could never give you up
You're always on my mind

I can't take it anymore
I'm unable to put how I feel in words
All through the night and even when I sleep
You're always on my mind

Verse Two:

There will come a day when we'll be reunited
We promised eachother this
And even in this absence there's still hope


Bridge: 

You're always on my mind wherever I am.
You're always on my mind wherever I am.

Chorus:

We shall be meeting again
And I deeply long for us to be reunited
I could never give you up
You're always on my mind

I can't take it anymore
I'm unable to put how I feel in words
All through the night and even when I sleep
You're always on my mind


You're always on my mind wherever I am...
( ad infintium :D )


Please correct any mistakes if you see them :)

Much love and hope this helped,

You're friend, The Student

Learning Arabic in Damascus

For degree level foreign language courses in the UK, spending an academic year in a foreign country is often a compulsory component. For Arabic courses, the main option is Egypt (Cairo or Alexandria) but also some varying options like Morocco, Syria and Jordan. Egypt is probably the most popular option and is offered as an option in most (if not all) Universities as a country for the year abroad. As much as I love Egypt though, Syria is where I wanted to go.

Since deciding that I wanted to learn Arabic, I was pretty set on spending some time in Damascus and up until lately my heart was set on spending my year abroad there. According to this news broadcast from a few years back, Syria was becoming a popular destination for aspiring Arabic learners:

It was Egypt's dominant position in the world of Arab cinema that lead to it becoming the most recognised Arabic dialect (ergo the most popular for students to learn). However, it is also through cinema that Syrian Arabic is becoming more popular:

"Egypt has long dominated the Arab film industry and with it, the world of dubbing. But thanks to the increasing popularity of Syrian musalsalaat, or soap operas, filmed on location rather than in studios, the Syrian vernacular with its soft lilting tones is on the up. It is used in everything from "Bab al-Hara", a saga about a Damascene neighbourhood under the French mandate to programmes dealing with Islamic extremism and adultery. Even Turkish soap operas such as Gümüs—Nour in Arabic—have been been dubbed into Syrian. The Syrians have been faster on their feet commercially when it comes to dubbing, and have offered cheaper rates than the Egyptians, where much television output is still in the hands of lumbering state broadcasters. Many also think that Syrian Arabic is closer in sound to classical Arabic, so more appropriate to a pan-Arab audience." - The whole article is here on The Economist.

If the events that are currently going down in Syria don't subdue then I probably won't be spending my year abroad there. It is disappointing but I guess to the Syrian people (and indeed to me) their freedom is imperative whilst my acquisition of their dialect is not.

Doesn't change the fact that I really, really, realllllly want to study in Dimashq. Hopefully when I get there/if I ever get there I will be welcomed by a free Syria.

How I learned the Arabic Alphabet

..and every other alphabet I've ever known: through song. I guess the only reason I still remember the order of the English alphabet is because of the song. Fact is, we remember songs better than we remember monotonous repetition. I learned the alphabet in order a few years back here when I first began to get interested in the language and since then it's stuck. Knowing the alphabet order is pretty handy when you're using an Arabic dictionary although (unfortunately) there aren't many situations where singing that song is particularly handy.

Just a little google search and you'll find that there's plenty of kids songs on various topics like months, days of the week, colours and fruits which are all both incredibly useful and incredibly silly for an adult learner. But there's nothing wrong with a bit of silly especially when it gets the job done!

Arabic Calligraphy

The Dashti Pen from ArabicCalligrapher on Vimeo.

I found this video completely fascinating. I don't even want to begin to comprehend the amount of work that this man had to put in to be able to create such beautiful calligraphy. Seriously, I hated the handwriting lessons I had last year. It's hours upon hours of practice and a lot of repetition and so considering that it wasn't of much importance in the scheme of things I kind of ignored it hence I have Arabic handwriting that wouldn't look out of place in a 1st grade Syrian classroom.

If I knew that learning a new script could lead to something this stunning, I would have perhaps paid more attention in those classes.

Well, more studentess.

Hey All,

I'd originally planned to start this blog along with the start of my studies but alas, things don't always go the way you plan them to - and besides I forgot. In the hustle and bustle of learning a new language (particularly Arabic, it seems) you tend to forget a lot of things. When I was deciding if I wanted to study Arabic, I would have loved to read about another persons experiences with their academic studies and so I guess this is what this is. I'm not here to teach you the language, heck I have trouble teaching my own self. I'm here so that if by chance a prospective Arabic student stumbles across this blog they can gain some sort of insight into what life for an Arabic student in the UK is like.

There's a LOT to share so far! I'm nearing the end of my first year undergrad now so there's quite a bit to catch up on! :) Sooo, we shall get to it in due course :)

Ma'salama