Celebrating Love Through Song: Remembering the Classic Egyptian Love Song
Many of us who were raised by Egyptian parents or grandparents will remember growing up hearing the voices of Abdelhalim Hafez and Shadia as they sang for lovers everywhere. The golden age of Egyptian cinema between the 1940s and 1960s wasn’t just an unforgettable era for the art of film but it was too for the art of the love song. Musical films were at their height back then, and definitely not as commonly found in contemporary Egyptian cinema. The love song still remains with us until this day, not just in Egypt but everywhere. Expressing one’s love through song is probably a tale as old as time. For as long as people have loved, they have sung about it. There are love songs for trees, for birds, for the rivers, for women and for men. There are love songs for books, for music itself, for the dying, for the stars and planets. There are love songs about literally everything. Perhaps that speaks to the nature of love itself, perhaps too it says something beautiful about our capacity to love as human beings, not just to love each other, but to love all of it.
Image Credit: Papyrus Harris 500 which is housed today in the British Museum (photo: © Trustees of the British Museum).
One of the earliest records of song in Egypt date back to the Ramesside Period between the 13th and 12th centuries BC. They originate from a community of elite craftsmen who worked on the tomb of the King in Deir el-Medina. One of the most elaborate series of songs found was Merut Ek (Your love) a seven stanza on the back of a papyrus roll now preserved in the Chester Beatty Library and Gallery in Dublin. In alternate stanza, a young man and young woman sing of their love in separation. Here’s a translated excerpt:
My heart bares itself instantly,
at the memory of your love.
It does not let me walk like a person,
it has strayed from its shelter.
It does not let me put on a dress,
I cannot even wrap my scarf,
No kohl can be put into my eye,
I am not anointed with oil.
'Don't stand there - go in to him'
it tells me at each memory of him.
Don't, my heart, be stupid at me:
why are you acting the fool?
Sit, be cool, the sister has come to you'
but my eye is just as troubled.
Don't make people say of me
'she is a woman fallen by love'
Be firm each time you remember him,
My heart, do not stray.
You can listen to the modern-day version of this ancient Egyptian song just released last January by Egyptian soprano Amira Selim below:
The beauty of the love song is that it reminds us that love is always with us, that we can feel it even if the object of our love is far. The Egyptian love song comes with a great deal of nostalgia. This song by Shadia and Farid El-Atrash "Ya Salam Ala Hobi We Hobak" from the film Ent Habibi (1957) is a classic that I hope will survive millennia just like its ancient counterpart has.
As the annual celebrations of love on Valentine’s Day take over our worlds with shops selling red and pink everything, perhaps though, there is a much more beautiful and priceless gift you can share with your loved one, for after all there is nothing better than a love song to bring a smile to the heart. Wishing you all a very loving and musical Valentine’s Day this year.