Friday, January 11, 2008

Egyptian rock: "Mama Ayez Atgawez" from Wast al-Balad

Don't really know anything about this band. Wast al-Balad means "downtown." I can't make out all the lyrics, but here are some of them (thanks to Robin for help):

Mama ayiz atgawwiz, bass ma fish filus (Mama, I want to get married, but I don't have any money)...

Mama ayiz atgawwiz, ma indish filus ashtari sha'ah (Mama, I want to get married, but I don't have any money to buy an apartment)...

Mama ayiz atgawwiz, ma indish filus ashtari arabiyah (Mama, I want to get married, [but] I don't have money to buy a car).
Habibi sakin fi z-Zamalek, w-ana sakin fi-l-Abbasiyah! (My sweetheart lives in Zamalek, and I live in Abbasiyah.)

The song deals with typical problems facing young people in Cairo, who want to get married and to gain the status of adulthood, but who have difficulty putting together enough funds to do so. Middle class parents will not allow their daughters to marry a young man, if he can't provide an apartment, fully furnished, a car, etc. And what's worse, for the young man singing the song, he and his sweetheart reside in two different, and quite distant, neighborhoods of Cairo.

Great fun!

3 comments:

Misho0 said...

Hey there.. I was googling this song after i had heard it in a concert and found a link to your blog..
there is a missing sentence in the lyrics, i can help you in any arabic song as im Egyptian. Any way im so happy for your interesting in arabic songs...

Elissa said...

thaaaaaaaaaaaanks

Anonymous said...

Just an FYI, this song was originally written by a different band called Stonefish.