Batal Harakatak

Stop the Way

Music from CD Kermalek
by Dominique Hourani
lyrics by Samir Zaki Ahmed
composition by Essam Karika

Batal harakatak deya
Stop doing how you are doing it
wa khush alaya beloon gher dah
and try in other way.
Ana albi khalas mish aisak
My heart doesn't want you
wala haygilak
and it will not come to you
wala yindah
nor will it call to you.
*Wemalaksh andi ya habibi
And I don't owe anything to you, oh my love
malaksh illa dah eeh
except this, eeh.

Low kont gamil wahlewa ya wad
Even though you are pretty and handsome, oh boy
wmalaksh fi el gharam.
you don't know how to love.
Ana hakhdak khamsa fe sitta fe saba'h
I will take you - five, six, seven
wa alimak el kalam
and teach you "the words".
Repeat from *

I'm very grateful for all my friends, who helped me to translate the lyrics of this song. None of my friends is a professional Arabic-English translator: some of them are fluent in Arabic, some in English and a few - my self included - have some skill in both languages. It's often quite challenging to express both the idea and the literal meaning of the lyrics in a few words, as I consider it most useful to dancers that the translation include both these aspects.