Happy New year سنة جديدة وسعيدة عليكم 🙂 Just 2 days before 2020 ended, the Legendary Egyptian singer المغنّي الأسطورة المصري Mohamed Mounir محمد منير  (or The King المَلِكْ as he’s often called), released أطلق the first song  الأغنية الأولى from his new album “Bab El Gamal” باب الجمال. The song is full of مليئة بـ joy البهجة and positivity الإيجابية. So, you could use this song to start your Arabic learning journey for the year 2021.

 

The song we’re studying today is bab el-gamal, which means: the door of beauty. It’s in Egyptian Arabic باللهجة المصرية

 

Let’s listen to the song (below).

 

*You could either follow the lyrics appearing on the clip or the Arabic lyrics I provide below (together with the English translation).

 

باب الجمال

The door of beauty

 

أول ما جت

When she first came

 

قفّلنا ترابيسو

We closed its bolts

 

والقلب مال

And the heart leaned

 

اتفنّنت

She mastered

 

جدًا – في ترقيصه

a lot – making it dance

 

قلبي اتهبل

My heart got crazy

 

دُقّوا الطُبَل

Beat the drums

 

غنوا بقا وهيصوا

Sing and get hyper

 

توب الفرح مظبوط عليها

The dress of joy (wedding dress) fits her perfectly

 

قبل ما تقيسو

Before she tries it on

 

 = = = = = = = 

 

وأدي اللي موش عاملينلو حساب

And this is that we didn’t prepare for it

 

العشق سكّرنا

Love got us drunk

 

وإحنا اللي قولنا الحب عذاب

And we were the one who said that love is misery

 

وبيبانه سكّرنا

And its doors, we closed

 

بنت اللذينَ

The cheeky/witty girl

 

قدرت علينا

She has a grip on us

 

سكنت في أفكارنا

She lived in our thoughts

 

 = = = = = = = 

 

وقف الزمان

Time stopped

 

أول ما بان

When it first appeared

 

الرّمش ده وهدّى

This eyelash, and landed off

 

والعقل طار

And the mind flew (is gone)

 

عشنا في حصار

We lived under a siege

 

لمّا الجميل عدّى

When the beautiful one passed by

 

تاه الكلام

Words are lost

 

والضمة قلبت فجأة عالشدة

And the “Dhamma” turned suddenly into a “shaddah”

 

وجابتنا لمس أكتاف خلاص

And she got us to shoulders touching¹The use of “shoulder touching” here is a reference borrowed from Boxing. Shoulder touch or لمس أكتاف is a technique that shows one of the players has won, that’s it

 

خلصت آخر عدّة

The last count is done

 = = = = = = = 

Explanation of the underlined phrase:

 

1. ترابيسو/ ترابيسه

ترباس terbaas is the Egyptian word for “bolt” and tarabees ترابيس is its plural form.

 

2. اتفنّنت

يتفنّن ye-tfannin i.e. “to master” is derived from the noun fann فنّ, i.e. “art”.

 

3. اتهبل

The verb اتهبل (in the passive voice form) is derived from the noun هبل habal, i.e. “craziness”.

 

4. هيّصوا

This imperative verb is derived from the noun He:SA هيصة, i.e. “getting crazy/ hyper and having fun”. Y-hayyas يهيّص is to have fun/get hyper (3rd person – male).

 

5. عاملينلو/عاملينله حساب

The phrase translates literally to “we did maths for it”, but the intended meaning is “we anticipated it/ prepared for it”.

 

6. بنت الذين

The phrase translates literally to “the daughter of those”, but the intended meaning is as above “the cheeky, witty one”.

 = = = = = = = 

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  The use of “shoulder touching” here is a reference borrowed from Boxing. Shoulder touch or لمس أكتاف is a technique that shows one of the players has won