The King’s new song: “Bab El-gamal” Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Jan 4, 2021 in Arabic Language, Vocabulary
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”.
= = = = = = =
- 1The 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
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