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
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