“Your place in my heart” is a great song from Lebanese diva Magida El Roumi, here set in my Palatino Arabic:
The Arabic world lives in a case of diglossia, that is to say, that the spoken language is so different from the literary one that it is practically a new language. This is especially true for Arabic. A simple example is this song in Lebanese dialect. In Literary Arabic (what we read in books and newspapers), one may not start a word with a Sukoun. Sukoun is the diacritic that denotes the absence of a vowel. Similarly, no two Sukouns can occur in a row. As you can see, this short poem has tons of “illegal” vowel combinations and this is very common in spoken Lebanese. Spoken Arabic also differs in its syntax, plural formation, repertoire of vowels used, and quite often vocabulary.
In case you are interested in hearing the song, you can find it here.
And here is the translation, though I have to say that Arabic is a flowery language and the actual version sounds very romantic and sweet and the lyrics rhyme well.
Your Place in My Heart (Matrahak Bi Albi)
No-one fills your place in my heart
How could you be so hard on a heart that loved you that much?
Tell me my love!
I love you while you are coming
I love you while you are going
I love you, my love, wherever you are…
Look into my eyes,
Look a bit more,
My eyes don’t hide:
No one fills your place in my heart!
A Story that isn’t new
Has occupied your mind and mine
And you ask: “what do you want?”
Why don’t you ask yourself?
As far as I know, lovers do not hide…
What is the story, my heart?
No one fills your place in my heart
I hope, another time, you’d ask your heart about me
And it will tell you about my tenderness;
And you know I love you so much
And without your love, My heart will be empty.
No one fills your place in my heart… So tell me my love!