ترجمة اثبت مكانك -كايروكي

The past few weeks have been troubling for Egypt by any measure. On June 30th the military announced that, in response to large protests in Cairo and other cities, it would intervene in the country's politics to remove the Muslim Brotherhood led government from power. General Abdel Fatteh el-Sisi informed then President Mohammad Morsi that he was no longer Egypt's political leader, less than a year after Morsi himself promoted Sisi to his post as Commander in Chief of the Egyptian armed forces. Since then the situation on the ground has only gotten worse for the Arab world's most populous nation with events reaching a potential critical mass with the interim government's decision to disperse pro-Morsi sit-ins last week. To date the political strife has lead to hundreds of deaths by conservative measures with running street battles continuing in Cairo, Alexandria and beyond.

The protests that led to the ouster of Morsi were spearheaded by anti-Muslim Brotherhood movements that claimed the former president was putting the country on the fast track to autocracy while failing to include non-Brotherhood groups in the political process. On the other hand supporters of Morsi claim legitimacy in that Morsi was the first democratically elected President in Egyptian history.

The current situation is a far cry from the seemingly cohesive and inclusive movement that ousted Hosni Mubarak from power in early 2011. When I arrived in Egypt in the Summer of 2012 the January 25th revolution had become something of a "brand name" for the new Egypt. Signs of the revolution, from the names' of martyrs on billboards and windshields to tea shirts saying "Tahrir - 25-1-12," could be seen everywhere. Of course music picked up on the political fervor. The song we have translated here was one of the more popular "songs of the revolution."

Cairokee, like every other band in Egypt, was a huge supporter of the movement against Mubarak and in this song, translated as "Hold Your Position," the band encourages Egyptians to not give up on the revolution's ideals. But what are those ideals today? Supporters of Morsi would claim that the ideal of democracy has been bruised and battered. Of course opponents of Morsi may argue that his autocratic measures while in office were the first attacks on Egyptian democracy. Regardless of one's political beliefs it is clear that the only way forward for Egypt today is through dialogue, healing and eventually catharsis.

اثبت مكانك هنا عنوانك ده الخوف بيخاف منك و ضميرك عمره ما خانك

“Hold your position, this is your home. The fear fears you and your conscience has never betrayed you.”

اثبت- Imperative of ثبت, meaning to be stationary or immovable; also to be steadfast and courageous.

عنوان – Literally address, however, I used home in my translation because I feel it better carries the meaning in English.

ضمير  - Conscience

خان – يخون  - To betray

اثبت مكانك ده نور الشمس راجع يا تموت و انت واقف يا تعيش و انت راكع

“Hold your position, the sunlight is returning. Either die while you’re standing or live your life on your knees”

راجع  - اسم فاعل رجع

راكع  - اسم فاعل ركع  To Bow

و انت راكع would be more directly translated as “kneeling” or “bowing in submission.” This is another instance where I have chosen the most suitable English word. Translations are intended for people who do not speak the primary language (that’s kind of the point).

اثبت مكانك ده عينيك شايفة الدليل ابعد عنهم و سيب الحيطة عليهم تميل

“Hold your position, the evidence is clear before your eyes. Let them take no chances and miss out on the chance for a better life.”

شايفة  - اسم فاعل شوف To see (referring to عينيك  )

دليل  - Evidence

The second sentence of this example is clearly paraphrased. The literal meaning of -ابعد عنهم و سيب الحيطة عليهم تميل – is to “back away and let the wall lean on them.”  In order to understand this lyric you have to know the Egyptian phrase بيمشي جمب الحيطة – “he walks next to the wall.” In Egyptian Arabic this phrase means that the person is “taking no chances,” hence the translation. Of course that does not explain the second part of the translation –“and miss out on the chance for a better life.” The implicit meaning in الحيطة عيلهم تميل is that the wall is going to fall on them.  In this instance we have translated an implicit meaning in the primary language into an explicit phrase in the target language in order to express the complete meaning.

ساب – يسيب – To leave (ex. انا سبت الشنطة في الأوضة ) or allow ( ex. ( سيب الحيطة عليهم تميل)

حيطة  - Wall; In MSA the term would be حائط but nobody likes Hamzas so it becomes حيطة

مال – يميل   - To lean

اثبت مكانك قلب الوطن اتجرح و صوت الحرية خلاص اتنبح كلامك ما بيتفهمش احساسك مابيتوصفش

“Hold your position, the nation’s heart is bleeding and the voice of freedom is dead. Your words are muted and your feelings are indescribable.”

اتجرح  - Injured ( In MSA the passive tense is formed either through the اسم مفعول or through الوزن 

السابع انفعل  in Egyptian Arabic the passive is formed by adding a ات to the beginning of the verb: اتفعل ). As you see the literal translation would be “the nation’s heart is injured” but bleeding just sounds better.

اتنبح – This word may not have a direct translation into English (it also may but I’m not aware of it).  The context it is used most often is اتنبح صوته meaning “He lost his voice,” referring to a sick person. We translated it as the “voice of freedom is dead” because “the voice of freedom is hoarse and needs a cough drop” just wouldn’t provide the meaning we wanted.

بيتفهمش – This is the passive (as explained above ) of فهم in the negated form ( Egyptian Arabic employs disjointed negation by adding a م to the beginning of a verb and a ش  to the ending. )

بيتوصفش  - passive negations of وصف  to describe.

كلامك ما بيتفهمش احساسك مابيتوصفش

و انت بتقول كرامة هما يردوا مهانة انت بتقول العدل بيقولوا عنك ندل

“You say dignity, they respond with humiliation. You say justice, they call you a traitor.”

مهانة  - Humiliation, submissiveness

نذل – Scoundrel   قصحى

ندل  - In general speech this means a generally sketchy dude i.e. a scoundrel. However, in the political context (this is a very political song if you haven’t noticed) it can also mean traitor.

اثبت مكانك هنا عنوانك ده الخوف بيخاف منك و ضميرك عمره ما خانك

انت نور الفجر و هتافك صوته اعلي من صوت الرصاص و الغدر اثبت مكانك

“You are the dawn’s light and your chants drown out the sound of bullets and betrayal.”

رصاص  - Bullets

غدر – Betrayal, Treachery

اثبت مكانك و ادعي وايا الادان لك رب اسمه الحق و العدل و السلام

“Hold your position, pray with the call to prayer. Your God is truth, justice and peace.”

ادعي وايا الادان – Literally: Call with the call to prayer.

دعا – to call

وايا-  with (Very Egyptian)

 - ادان The call to prayer in which reminds Muslims to pray 5 times a day.

اثبت مكانك و كتفك في كتف اخوك لو مهما راحت روح الفكرة مش هتموت

“Hold your position, shoulder to shoulder. No matter how many souls are lost the idea will not die.”

كتفك في كتف اخوك – Literally: “Your shoulder on your brother’s shoulder”

لو مهما  - “No matter what.” This is the same construction as is used in MSA.

EX. مهما حصل لن اكل و إلا فول و انا في مصر.  

“No matter what happens I will only eat Ful while I am in Egypt.”

راحت روح  - راح   means to go in Egyptian Arabic, however, روح can still carry its meaning from MSA, “soul”

كلامك ما بيتفهمش احساسك ما بيتوصفش

كلامك ما بيتفهمش احساسك ما بيتوصفش

انت بتقول كرامة هما يردوا بمهانة انت بتقول العدل بيقولوا عنك ندل

مطلوب منك السكوت تكون انسان بديل

" You’re ordered to shut up, be someone you’re not”

مطلوب  - Ordered

سكوت – Silence 

بديل  - Literally Alternative, Substitute ( I translated it as “someone you’re not)

مطلوب تسكت تموت او تعيش اسير

“You’re ordered to shut up, die or live life as a prisoner”

اسير  - Prisoner

عايش في اكبر سجن بس من جوايا حر

“I live in the largest prison, but inside I’m free.”

جوايا – “On the inside” (Literally “my insides,” but if you translate it like that it means “my insides are free” and that can have all kinds of weird connotations).

حاضر حتعجب تكفي عني كل الشر

“They want me to play nice, spare me all injury”

حاضر – this word is used in Egypt (and some other Arab countries as well) as a polite way of confirming someone’s request. It can most often be heard by waiters when taking customers’ orders. In this verse the rapper is using it in a sarcastic sense, as in “Ok, let me just play nice.” Because sarcasm can be difficult to express through the written word we have chosen to translate this verse into an explicit statement hence “They want me to..”

تكفي عني كل الشر –

كفى basically means to spare or be sufficient. It can be used in the phrase كفاء!! As in “Enough!!” Here it means “To spare me all the شر,” with شر meaning harm, malice or injury.

الولاء للماضي افكار لينا صديقة

“Loyalty to the past is all we can see”

ولاء  - Loyalty

لينا صديقة  - Literally “Our friend” ( translated as “all we can see”)

كذب الكاذب جوايا تاكد الحقيقة

“A liar’s lie within me confirms the truth.”

كذب الكاذب – Idafa “Lie of the Liar”

انعكاس تاريخ الزيف في المرايا واضح

“Reflections of a history of fabrications, clear in the mirror”

انعكاس  - Reflections

تاريخ الزيف – History of Fabrication

مرايا - Mirror

طوبة تكسر المرايا للحقيقة فاضح

“A stone breaks the mirror, exposes the disgraceful truth”

طوبة  - Stone

فاضح – Disgraceful

و مستورين من جوانا لو جسمنا انكشف

“We’re covered on the inside, even if our clothes are stripped away”

مستورين  - Covered (from the root ستر  to cover)

جسمنا انكشف – Literally “If our bodies were revealed”

فاللي ينطق بالحقيقة بالخيانة اتوصف

“Whoever speaks the truth is called a traitor”

اللي – الذي/التي  in Egyptian Arabic

نطق  - Literally pronounces or utters

انهازمي و انهزم لكن انتصاري اتسرق

“He is a quitter/defeatist so he was defeated, but my victory was stolen”

انهزامي – Quitter/ Defeatist

انهزم – To be defeated

انتصار – Victory

اتسرق  - To be stolen (here is the Egyptian passive again)

الحقيقة فبركوها بحزن علي كتاب اتحرق

“With grief they fabricated the truth in a burnt book.”

فبرك  - This is a great word. It means to fabricate and as you can see it is take from the English. The اسم مفعول  is متفبركة . I picked up some other English derived vocabulary in Jordan such as سيّف  to save (the ف is pronounced as a V) as in "انا رحأسيّف رقمك" (I’ll save your number) and تكست To text  as in تكستني لما بدك تروح (Text me when you want to go).

انا اللي ماتوا من سنة و اللي قاتل ما اتشنق

"I’m the one who died a year ago, and the one who fought not be hanged.”

اتشنق – To be hanged

انا السطور علي الورق انا اللي من جوا اتحرق

"I’m the text of the paper, I’m burned from the inside.”

سطر ج سطور – Lines of text

اتحرق – To be burned (another passive)

انا اللي شعر شاب بموته و هو طالب مدرسة

"  I’m the student who was killed”

شعر بموته – Literally “that felt his own death.” Notice that you can discern that شعر (to feel) is referring to موته  (his death) because the ب . You see prepositions can be your friends!!

انا اللي ثابت مهما قالوا و مهما زودوا الاسي

“I’m holding my position no matter what they say or bitterness they provide”

ثابت – اسم فاعل ثبت

زودوا الأسى – زود  is to provide and اسى is bitterness.