Friday 15 April 2016

They stopped me at the border - Marcel Khalife

This song by Marcel Khalife (b. 1950, Lebanon) is from the album "At the border", released in 1980.



وقفوني ع الحدود                   


وقفوني ع الحدود... قال بدن هويتي
قلتلن إنَّ بيافا... مخبايتها ستي


يا كلمة القلتها... تقسموا صفين
صف بكرابيج... وصف يسأل وين
صرخت بفلسطين... فسخوني نصين
نصي على الحدود... ونص بحضن ستي


وقفوني ع الحدود... قال بدن هويتي
قلتلن إنِّ بيافا... مخبايتها ستي



ستي يامخبايّ... مدري بأي بيت
هويتي ضبيها...خبيها بشي حيط
بدّهن يحرقوها... من الدني يمحوها
ويا غيمات بلادي... عليهم ما تشتي


وقفوني ع الحدود... قال بدهن هويتي
قلتلن إنَّ بيافا... مخبايتها ستي






They stopped me at the border, asking for my I.D.
I told them, "Its in Jaffa, my grandmother's hiding it"


And with these words, the group split in two
One half carried whips, the other asked, “Where is it?”
"In Palestine," I cried, and they split me in two
One half at the border, one half in my grandmother’s breast



They stopped me at the border, asking for my I.D.
I told them, "Its in Jaffa, my grandmother is hiding it"



Oh grandmother, hiding who knows where,
Hide my ID, hide it in some wall
They want to burn it, wipe it from the world
Oh clouds of my country, don’t rain on them



They stopped me at the border, asking for my I.D.
I told them, "Its in Jaffa, my grandmother is hiding it"


Apart from the recorded version, here's a performance from Kuwait, in 1988


and another from Jordan:


Translated with Boudi, my partner in innocent crime