The notables have betrayed you

Animation by Ehab Aziz
Words by Abdel-Rahman El-Abnoudi

لأعيــــان خـــانوكي
سـارقين طين أبوكي
لعـــدوّك بــاعــوكي
ولإيــــد الــــزمــــن

Your sorrow besieges you

And your worries exhaust you

And why?

Why can’t you cry

The notables have betrayed you

Those who stole your land,

Sold you to your enemy

And did not look back

They sacrificed you and watched you

Being slaughtered

They laughed and left you

And went to get paid

They undressed you in their courtyards

And no one blamed them

They raised their ears 

And wore their bells

Your executioner is a lawyer

Your protector is a thief

What use are my words?

When you are a mute

Close your eyes and dance...

Artwork: Ehab Aziz

Words by Salah Jaheen

I love to live be it in a jungle deep.

Naked to wake, and naked go to sleep.

To live as beast, bird, man or even ant.

Life is so lovely even as a plant!

Close your eyes and dance... Keep your step light

Your partner is life herself, you are her night.

She'll love you as long as you step proud and tall

If once you look down at your feet... You'll fall!

I was first something, then something else became...

Strange are God's ways who Alone can take and give...

The trees lose their leaves and whispered my name.

"Something must die for something else to live".

Raise Your Voice

Artwork - Portrait by Ehab Aziz
Raise Your Voice by Mohamed Mounir

Raise your voice in song
We can still sing
And song is still so much part of our lives
Raise your voice in song, song is still possible

And if one day you feel you'll break

You must stand tall

Standing just as a palm tree stretching towards the sky

Don't be defeated, don't break down

Don't be afraid

Be a dream blossoming in the desert

Your song among the chorus shakes my joyous heart

Healing all my wounds

When you dance, I dance, I'm compelled to dance

Our dreams become intertwined

When you dance, I dance, I'm compelled to dance

Don't be defeated, don't break down

Don't be afraid

Be a dream blossoming in the desert

Raise your voice in song

We can still sing

محمد منير - علي صوتك

على صوتك بالغنى لسه الاغانى ممكنة, ممكنة

ولسه يامه ياما ياماه فى عمرنا

على صوتك بالغنى لسه الاغانى ممكنة, ممكنة

ولو فى يوم راح تنكسر لازم تقوم

واقف كما النخل باصص للسما للسما

ولا انهزام ولا انكسار ولا انهزام ولا انكسار

ولا خوف ولا ولا حلم نابت فى الخلا

على صوتك بالغنى لسه الاغانى ممكنة, ممكنة

غنوتك وسط الجموع تهز قلبى اللى انفرح

تداوى جرحى اللى انجرح

غنوتك وسط الجموع تهز قلبى اللى انفرح

تداوى جرحى اللى انجرح

ترقص ارقص غصب عنى ارقص

غصب عنى غصب عنى ارقص

ينشبك حلمك فى حلمى

ترقص ارقص غصب عنى غصب عنى ارقص

ولا انهزام ولا انكسار ولا انهزام ولا انكسار

ولاخوف ولا ولا حلم نابت فى الخلا

Egypt: Who says NO

Artwork by Ehab Aziz
Words by Amal Donkol

I said:
Let love be on earth, and it was not

I said:
Let river dissolve into ocean
Ocean into drought
Drought into fertility
Sprouting bread to sustain hungry hearts
Grass for the earth’s cattle
Shade for exiles in sorrow’s desert
I saw the son of Adam
Raising his fences around God’s personal farm
Shopping for border guards
Selling bread and water to his brethren
Milking lean cows

I said:
Let love be on earth, and it was not
Love was now possessed
By those who could afford the price
And God saw this was not good

I said:
Let justice be on earth
An eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth

I said:
Does the wolf devour the wolf?
The goat devour the goat?
Don’t brandish the sword against the necks of these two:
The child or the old man
And I came to see the son of Adam
Slaughtering the son of Adam
Setting cities ablaze
Planting his dagger in the bellies of pregnant women
Giving his children’s fmgers as fodder to horses
Decorating victory banquet with rosettes of severed lips
Justice become death
The gun its measure
Its children crucified in public squares and city street corners

I said:
Let justice be on earth
But it was not
Justice was now possessed
By figures seated on thrones of skulls
With shrouds for mantles
And God saw this was not good

I said:
Let reason be on earth
With its measured voice

I said:
Do birds build nests in a snake’s mouth?
Do worms live in fiery flames?
Does the owl paint its eye-lashes black with Kohl?
Is salt strewn when wheat is intended
In the run of time’s wheel?
I saw the son of Adam go mad:
Uprooting tall trees
Spitting in wells
Spilling oil on the face river’s face
Living in a house while storing a deadly bomb
Under the sill
Giving shelter to scorpions in the warmth of his ribs
Bequeathing to his descendants
His faith
His name
His shirt of strife
Reason become an exiled beggar
Stoned by brats
Arrested by border guards
His patriotic identity invalidated by governments
His name listed among those who hate their homeland

I said:
Let reason be on earth
But it was not
Reason fell apart in a spiral of exile and prison
Until it went mad
And God saw this was not good

The Egyptian Revolutions

September Tunes
by Salah Jaheen (December 25, 1930 – April 21, 1986) has had a singular effect on development of colloquial Arabic poetry in Egypt.

Art work by Ehab Aziz

The film stopped, frozen

Now we can ponder the image

No detail missing.

Everything speaks, articulate

wordless, voiceless.

The instant death pushed down –

gentle yet omnipotent, one desultory day –

On a button in this kingdom

The film stopped, frozen.

Let the projectionist rewind the scene

I want to see myself in the old days — young

among the ranks of the revolution — proud,

Impressed by neither king nor father

I want to see again and remember

Why one of my blows hit,

one of them missed

And one stopped the film, froze it.

The projectionist said: No return

Live as long as you have breath enough to live

And look and see.

Where the young sit — row after row –

Where the young sit in the cinema whistling

No stopping.

Where the young sit there are a thousand million

Impressed by neither king nor father.

Look at them

And you will remember