From Lennie Clark's Web Site:

Shatti Ya Dini
(Rain, Life, Rain)

This page contains a translation into English of the lyrics to the Lebanese song "Shatti Ya Dunya" which was recorded by legendary vocalist Fairouz. This song is suitable for doing the Lebanese line dance known as debke. Another way to spell the song title is "Shattie Ya Douniah", "Shatti Ya Denyi", or "Shatie Ya Donia". About Fairouz Fairouz is a legendary Lebanese vocalist, one of the most deeply respected living singers in the Arab 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

Note from Shira: Two different translations of this song have been contributed to this web site. I have decided to make both available. Song lyrics are poetry, and it can be challenging for a translator to communicate nuances of meaning. By having two translations to use, you can explore two different people's ideas on how to convey these nuances.

• Translation by Adel Abdallah
• Translation provided by Linda Grondahl

Translation by Adel Abdallah

Rain, Life, please that our season will be good
And bring water to our plants
That we will be prosperous
Keep your eye on our house
Tomorrow winter will be gone
And a lot of happiness is on the way

Go pick up some flowers for your hands
And flowers for your heart
Meet me by the wind
And let's farm our land together
Rain, Life, Rain
Make our season great
Bring water to our farm
And a good economy

Translation by Linda Grondahl

Note from Linda Grondahl: "This is a Lebanese debke and I've had it in my file for fifteen years. I have no idea where I got it."

Where to Get Recordings of this Song

		Artist: Fairuz CD Title: Paradise Music of Arabia
		Artist: Salatin Al Tarab Orchestra CD Title: Music of Lebanon
		Artist: Fairuz CD Title: Ya Hnayina

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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