Ahlan, Arabic fans! In my previous post I introduced a short biography of the Saudi prince and poet Abdullah Al-Faisal. Today,

 we are going to read and listen to one of his masterpiece Fus’ha poems. The poem was published in the prince’s first volume of poetry; وحــى الــحــِــرمــان (revelations of Deprivation) but it had another title there; عــَــواطــِـــف حــَــائــِــرة (Confused Emotions). The poem was sung by the great Egyptian singer أُم كــُــلــْــثــُـــوم (Om Kolthoum) who named the song ثــَــوْرة الــشــَّـــك (A Revolution of Doubt). The song was composed by the fantastic Egyptian composer ريــَــاض الــســُّــنــْــبــَــاطــِــى (Riyad Al-Sunbaty).

    The song – in a very sad tone – depicts the case of suspicion that the lover feels towards his beloved. He is in conflict whether to believe the rumors or to listen to his heart. I did the English translation for the song and I hope that you all will enjoy it.

Listen to the whole poem recited by Om Kolthoum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3hzC3r7ZDg

Now listen to the full song as you read the transcript below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05kLx2vH3Wc

ثــَـــوْرَةُ الــشــَّــكّ

A Revolution of Doubt

 أَكــَــادُ أَشــُــكُّ فــى نــَــفــسـِــى لأنــى أَكــَــادُ أَشــُــكُّ فــِــيــكَ و أَنــْــتَ مــِــنــِّــى

I almost doubt myself because I almost doubt you and you are from me

يــَــقــُــولُ الــنــَّــاسُ إنــَّــكَ خــُــنــْــتَ عــَــهــْــدِى و لــَــمْ تــَــحــْــفــَــظْ هــَــوَاىَ و لــَــمْ تــَــصــُــنــِّــى

People say that you have betrayed me and didn’t keep my love
وَ أَنــْــتَ مــُــنــَــاىَ أَجــْــمــَــعــُــهــَــا مــَــشــَــتْ بــِــى إلــيــْــكَ خــُــطــَــى الــشــَّــبــَــابِ الــمــُــطــْــمــَــئــِــنِ

And you are my hope that the confident steps of youth have driven me to you
يــُــكــَــذِّبُ فــِــيــكَ كــُــلَّ الــنــَّــاسِ قــَــلــْــبــِــى ، و تــَــســْــمــَــعُ فــِــيــكَ كــُــلَّ الــنــَّــاسِ أُذُنــِــى  

My heart unbelieves all people in you, and my ears hear all people in you
وَ كــَــمْ طــَــافــَــتْ عــَــلــَــىَّ ظــِــلالُ شــَــكٍ ، أَقــَــضــَّــتْ بــِــمــَــضــْــجــَــعــِــى  وَ اِســْــتــَــعــْــبــَــدَتــْــنــِـــى  

How often have the doubt shadows fallen over me that drove sleep away and me enslaved!

كــَــأنــِّــى طــَــافَ بــِــى رَكــْــبُ الــلــيــَــالــى يــُــحــَــدِّثُ عــَــنــْــكَ فــِــى الــدُّنــْــيــا و عــَــنــِّــى

As if the night gossiper had hovered over me, telling the world about you and me
عــَــلــَــى أَنــِّــى أُغــَــالــِــطُ فــِــيــكَ ســَــمــْــعــِــى ، و تــُــبــْــصــِــرُ فــِــيــكَ غــَــيــْــرَ الــشــَّــكِّ عــَــيــْــنــِــى

But I disbelieve my hearing in you, and my eyes see doubt not in you
و مــَــا أَنــَــا بــِــالــمــُــصــَــدِّقِ فــِــيــكَ قــَــوْلاً و لــكــِــنــِّــى شــَــقــِــيــتُ بــِــحــُــســْــنِ ظــَــنــِّــي

And I will never believe a word in you but I have suffered from my well-intention
و بــِــى مــِــمــَّــا يــُــســَــاوِرُنــِــى كــَــثــِــيــرٌ مــِــنَ الــشــَــجــَــنِ الــمــُــؤَرِّقِ لا تــَــدَعــْــنــِــى  

And I have a lot of sorrow because of that annoying doubt that doesn’t leave me
تــُــعــَــذَّبُ فـِـى لــَــهــِــيــبِ الــشــَّــكِّ رُوحــِــي و تــَــشــْــقــَــى بــِــالــظــُّــنــُــونِ و بــِــالــتــَــمــَــنــِّــي

My soul is tortured in the fires of doubt and it is hopeless by thoughts and wishes
أَجــِــبــْــنــِــي إذْ ســَــألــتــُــكَ هــَــلْ صــَــحــِــيــحٌ حــَــدِيــثُ الــنــَّــاسِ خــُــنــْــتَ ؟ أَلــَــمْ تــَــخــُــنــِّــي ؟  

So, answer me when I ask if it was right what people said that you had betrayed me? Hadn’t you?
أَكــَــادُ أَشــُــكُّ فــى نــَــفــسـِــى لأنــى أَكــَــادُ أَشــُــكُّ فــِــيــكَ و أَنــْــتَ مــِــنــِّــى

I almost doubt myself because I almost doubt you and you are from me

يــَــقــُــولُ الــنــَّــاسُ إنــَّــكَ خــُــنــْــتَ عــَــهــْــدِى و لــَــمْ تــَــحــْــفــَــظْ هــَــوَاىَ و لــَــمْ تــَــصــُــنــِّــى

People say that you have betrayed me and didn’t keep my love
وَ أَنــْــتَ مــُــنــَــاىَ أَجــْــمــَــعــُــهــَــا مــَــشــَــتْ بــِــى إلــيــْــكَ خــُــطــَــى الــشــَّــبــَــابِ الــمــُــطــْــمــَــئــِــنِ

And you are my hope that the confident steps of youth have driven me to you.

******

Read the biograpghy of Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal here. 

Read and listen to more songs of Om Kolthoum here. 

Check us back Soon 

Peace  ســَــلام /Salam/