Another song

On the fourth day of my visit I took a walk at sunset and visited my father's cousin, Um-Camille. She and her siblings were particularly close to my father, and I knew the family well growing up; later several of her sons came to America where they are very successful professionals in medicine, IT, and economics. Her oldest son is a doctor in Beirut and kindly consulted with me by phone on a minor issue during my visit.

Um-Camille listened to my aunt's song (see previous post, "Ma Tante") and told me she also had a song for me.

The first verse means roughly "Because of Leila I learned to love the night." (Leila means night...) She chats with me a bit, then sings a second verse which I don't really get, except that it's an ode to refugees who return (mhejireen), expatriates, and Lebanon. It also includes some wordplay on "zeleftoona" which I don't understand at all, but I *think* was intended as a nod to her daughter Zelfa who was sitting with us. Would any Arabic speakers reading and listening please enlighten us?

The chat includes her lament that her voice has gone. She used to have a beautiful voice, she says, and I try to assure her in my clumsy Arabic that it is still beautiful.

In looking at the pictures of her, I remember that she said to me: "You are one of us, Leila, you have our eyes, eyes just like ours." During this whole trip strangers kept telling me I looked foreign, Russian or Swedish or German. They said my friend Laura looks more Lebanese than I do. Chemo has taken away my eyelashes, my wild Arab hair, my black bushy eyebrows, even my cheekbones. But looking into Um-Camille's eyes, which look like my father's eyes, I saw that she is right, I have the eyes of our clan, and I am grateful that she told me so.

The sunset from Um-Camille's balcony.

Daughter Zelfa.
Abu-Camille.

Comments

[A blogger from Lebanon]

Hi Leila,
Don't know if this helps, but "zulfa" refers to part of the night, or more accurately, the first part of the night. There's also an expression "zalafa ila" which means approached, but I think she's just doing a wordplay on the "Leila" bit. Pretty smart wordplay if you ask me, especially that her daughter's name is Zelfa!

[Leila Abu-Saba]

Thanks, anonymous blogger. I'm hoping for a full translation of the whole thing from somebody...

Laila Abu-Lughod spent years in the desert taping the songs of Bedouin women. Our Arab women do very well with wordplay and poetry in song. I wish some energetic anthropology student (preferably a native Arabic speaker) would document the songs and wedding chants of women of the Levant.

[A blogger from Lebanon]

"I'm hoping for a full translation of the whole thing from somebody..."

Oh, sorry, I didn't translate the whole word because I didn't know how to. The word zulfa isn't a verb, and I'm not sure how it can be translated as a verb since it means part of the night... But this is the context : "you (plural you) [insert verb in past tense here] us (or to us)". Hm..

"I wish some energetic anthropology student (preferably a native Arabic speaker) would document the songs and wedding chants of women of the Levant."

Yup! But hasn't it been done before? I don't know anything about this subject so I don't know if anyone has undertaken such a project!

I'm not that anonymous! I'm a veteran blogger. :) I used to read your blog a long time ago, but then I took a 1-year break from blogging and from checking the blogosphere, and got back to blogging not long ago, except that lately I find I'm not in the mood to write anything, so my blog hasn't all that active... I used to do "Blogging the Middle East" (did extensive reporting during the July 2006 war), then changed to Street: Middle East, and now The Politburo... :)

[Alison Chaiken]

Extra charming! Your blog has it all: political commentary, recipes, music.

[Sophia]

Leila,

You look radiant! And very much like Umm-Camille. I am glad you went to lebanon and your native south. And October is the best time to visit.

Take care,

Sophia

[paul]

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