From Lennie Clark's Web Site:

El-Bint el-Shalabia
(The Pretty Girl)

This page contains a translation into English of the lyrics to the song "El Bint el Shalabia", which was sung by Fairouz. About Fairouz Fairouz is a legendary Lebanese vocalist, one of the most deeply respected living singers in the Arabic-speaking world. She was born in 1934. Her singing career began in the 1950's, and she achieved stardom in the 1960's. Her husband, Assi Rahbani, and his brother Mansour Rahbani, and they achieved legendary status as a composer and lyricist duo. The three worked closely together from the 1950's through 1979, with Fairouz's beautiful voice turning many of their compositions into hits. Fairouz' name is also sometimes spelled as "Feiruz", "Feirouz", "Feyrouz", "Fayrouz", "Fairoz", or "Fairuz". Song lyrics are provided for educational purposes. If you like the song, please purchase either the album or a download from an authorized source.

Lyrics

There are translations by two different people on this page. This translation was done by Adel Abdallah:

The pretty girl
Her eye is bright
I love you from my heart
You are my eye

At the picnic area my lover is waiting
And I do not feel like I should upset him
Hard days they come and go
And the heart is hurt
But these days they get tough
And they go
Under the pomogranite tree my lover talked to me
He told me good songs and pleased me
I love you from my heart
You are my eyes
Tough days come and go

This is a somewhat different translation that also appeared on the "Arabic Song Translations" web site:

Notes from Lennie Clark:

* The sound represented by 3a is made like aa, but opening more the back of the throat.

** Breaking my thoughts means breaking my concentration, "wilfii" is a loved one but like a dear friend or family member, not necessarily a girlfriend / boyfriend.

*** Unsure of this part

**** "Oh my eye" is an endearment

***** "itghazal" means flirting with an approved person; it does not have a negative connotation

Where to Get Recordings of this Song

		Artist: Fairuz CD Title: Paradise Music of Arabia
		Artist: Hend Zouari CD Title: L'Envol

Translations of
Feiruz' Songs On This Site

Acknowledgements

About the Translator

Adel Abdallah is an Egyptian who resides in New Orleans, Louisiana. If you are traveling to that great city, he invites you to stop by the Cafe Picasso, located at 3401 Chartres (on the corner of Chartres and Desire, in the Bywater). The cafe serves delicious Middle Eastern food, and offers shiisha smoking. They are open daily except for Sundays, from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. (Deliveries until 10 P.M.) The phone number is (504) 948-6881.

The translation summary was done by Adel at Lennie Clark's request. Muchisimas gracias to Kruz, (whose Morocco to India ethnic boutique, located in the historic French Quarter, is not-to-be-missed) for suggesting Adel as a translator.

About the Source

This article originally appeared on Lennie Clark's web site, "Arabic Song Translations." Lennie created this web site in 2002 as a response to discussion on the Internet regarding incidents of dancers who performed inappropriate sensual dances to religious music. Lennie's web site resided on a free web hosting service known as Geocities. When the planned October 2009 closure of the Geocities web hosting service was announced, Lennie and Shira agreed to move the contents of Lennie's site to Shira.net. To explore all the articles and song translations that once appeared on Lennie's Geocities site, visit Lennie's portal page here on Shira.net.

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