Ya Ali (Hey Ali) - by Marcel Khalifeh

My own translation of Marcel Khalifeh's song "Ali" about the freedom fighter Ali from the South of Lebanon. Beautiful song, brings you to tears, beautiful lyrics, and the oud (lute) music is gorgeous... From the album "A'araas" (Weddings).

Rami E. Cremesti
Sherman Oaks, CA
May 28, 2001

"

Hey Ali, Hey Ali

We the people of the South, with naked bodies we tell your story, at the bottom of the ponds and valleys. The remains of our sons and their weapons cover the faces of the mountains.

and we see that silently... silently, silently, silently...

Every bomb-shell falls and with it a rifle on the mountain, and we see that silently, silently, silently

But one day we will point the sharp tips of our tiller to their fat ugly treacherous hearts

You fought to liberate your blood from the richness of fat, and your mouth from the hoards of sugar, and your bones from the seats of the pashas, and the princes of the circles

However, ali, ali, ali, where do you find here a resting place for a free mind like yours and free hands

(Music...)

Who forgets, the empty eyes of the children in the land of my homeland

Who forgets, oh, forgets, how the peasant works in the earth of his land

Who forgets, oh, who forgets?

(Music...)

Hey you long tall figure in the rugged mountain, and the desert that contains the detonator, and the heart from which springs forth the water of the country

The tears of mothers have born you too early and sent you to your premature death

Hey Ali, Hey Ali, Hey Ali

My heart is made of Southern stuff and a Southern drum
And I like you someday, and I like you someday, on a less-glorious land, my Love is going to kill me, my Sadness is going to kill me. My Love is going to kill me, my Sadness is going to kill me...

Hey Ali, Hey Ali, Hey Ali

"

 

 

Home | Webmaster