Egyptian song - My mother

مارس 24th, 2008

This is a song by Tamer Hosny, Yara, Ramy Ayash, Ganat, and Haytham Shaker, called أمي ثم أمي (My mother, and then, my mother). Like many songs, this one is sung in Egyptian colloquial dialect, which helps to highlight differences in Egyptian colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic.

Here are the lyrics for the first line:

بعد الحب ده ايه الى تعمل كل ده تستاهل ايه بعد الحب ده ايه الى تدى حنان كده من غير حساب نبوس التراب الى مشيه عليه

بعد (ba’da) - after

الحب (al-hub) - love

ده (da) - does, is (in questions), such as “does she?”, “is it?” - this is different than standard Arabic

عمل (’amal) - work

كل (kul) - all

تستاهل (tastahalla) - she deserves

إدى (ihda) - give; or تدى (tahda) - she gives

حنان (hunan) - affection

غير (gher)

حساب

بوسة (busa) - kiss; نبوس - we kiss - this word is different than standard arabic

التراب (al turab) - the ground, earth, dirt

مشية (mashia) - walk

عليه (a’lia) - upon

With these words, the first line of the song roughly translates as:

“After this love
What does she does all of this deserve
After this love, what
She who gives affection like this without asking for anything in return;
We kiss the ground she walks upon”

About This Blog

I am studying Arabic at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, and will be in Egypt in the summer. This site covers Arabic grammar, vocabulary, and other aspects of the Arabic language, and makes frequent use of YouTube videos, news, and other Arabic language resources on the Internet.