ـ "... إن فى الإنسان منطقة عجيبة سحيقة لا تصل إليها الفضيلة ولا الرذيلة ، ولا تشع فيها شمس العقل والإرادة ، ولا ينطق لسان المنطق ، ولا تطاع القوانين والأوضاع ، ولا تتداول فيها لغة أو تستخدم كلمة ... إنما هى مملكة نائية عن عالم الألفاظ والمعاني ... كل مافيها شفاف هفاف يأتي بالأعاجيب فى طرفة عين ... يكفي أن ترن فى أرجائها نبرة ، أو تبرق لمحة ، أو ينشر شذا عطر ، حتى يتصاعد من أعماقها فى لحظة من الإحساسات والصور والذكريات ، ما يهز كياننا ويفتح نفوسنا على أشياء لا قبل لنا بوصفها ، ولا بتجسيدها ، ولو لجأ إلى أدق العبارات و أبرع اللغات ... " ـ

توفيق الحكيم

Within man lies a deep wondrous spot, to which neither virtue nor vice can reach. Upon which the sun of reason and will never rise. In which the mouth of logic never speaks, the laws and rules are never obeyed, and not a language is used nor a word is ever spoken.
It is a distant Kingdom, beyond words and meanings. With everything is a sheer murmur offering wonders in a blink. From the depths of which, suffice a single tone or a flash of mind or a scent of a perfum, to allow rise of emotions, pictures and memories, a rising that will shake our being and open ourselves to things we can neither describe nor materialize even if we used the most refined of phrases or the most skillful of languages.

Tawfiq Al-Hakim.
(My humble transalation of the arabic text)

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Mireille & Patrick

Mireille is the great Mireille Mathieu, a legendary french singer, for me personally she is special because I knew her looks and voice before I even can say her name, she looked exactly like an older friend who spoke french too so I tied them together for many years, I loved her voice very much and till my mid 20s she was the BEST french female singer to me. In my childhood she was The Lady, my first and maybe only childhood Lady Model, why? I don't know may be because she spoke french. I liked her 'Rrrrrrr' very much ever since :)
And Patrick, he is Patrick Duffy, for the children of end of 1970s and start of 1980s like me , we all watched The Man From Atlantis, a T.V. series that personally made me stare in amusement and affected, maybe till now, the way I swam. At the age of 6,7 or 8 at the max I can say that he was one very early man model I liked :) funny, I don't feel like that now at all. Anyway for Patrick I never knew his name till I was in my 20s I think, when I looked the man from atlantis series info. I just memoriezed the series name for years, though I didn't know it's meaning back then. One day I will have the complete set of episodes to watch again :)
Why did I remember those two people, Because of a song that I was reminded of in a blog post a while ago, a song they sang together, a song that I watched as a little girl, never knew it's name and never understood a word of it, I was too young to do; and I forgot it completely till I heard it again today, But I remembered the music and them together in it. It's been more than 25 years since I last watched it I guess. But now I can understand evry word and I can say that they are good words, a great meaning if it's ever realised. Unfortunatly the song version on youtube is not complete till the end, but I hope whoever listens to it will like it. The song is

Together we're strong (1983)

Patrick Duffy:
A great man once said,
"Winter never fails to turn into Spring"
I know we are so different, you and I
When we are together, even a cold December
Feels like the middle of May

Mireille Mathieu:
You are the night, I am the day You are the star that shows the way You are the instrument I play You are the words I long to say
PD:You are the land, I am the sea
You are in counterpoint to me
And we agree to disagree

BOTH:No need to lie

MM: I only know when we're apart
PD: Together we're strong
MM: I only live with half a heart
PD: Together we're strong
MM: I need your hand to play my card
PD: Together we're strong

BOTH: We can't go wrong
BOTH: Together we're strong

MM: And now we know just what to do
PD: Together we're strong
MM: And how we get all meaning through
PD: Together we're strong
MM: We're only one when we are two
PD: Together we're strong

BOTH:Together we're strong

MM: Together we're strong
MM: Together we're strong Together we're strong We can't go wrong And every time your eyes meet mine I feel the world fall into line I'm passing on that good luck sign

BOTH: Let's keep hanging on
And now we know just what to do
And how we get all meaning through
We're only one when we are two
Together we're strong

MM: And I will always try to understand you
PD: I'll be there if you should need me
MM: Plan you in my life
PD: There's so much we can share with each other
MM: But if we say goodbye, it's not forever
PD: I can't lose you now I've found you
MM: I need you in my life
PD: 'Cause now you're in my life

PD: And together we're strong
There are so many ways of looking at the world
Everyone has a different dream
Yours may not be the same as mine
But when we're together
We can make them all come true

MM: You are the night, I am the day
PD: Together we're strong
MM: You are the star that shows the way
PD: Together we're strong
MM: You are the instrument I play
PD: Together we're strong
MM: You are the words I long to say
PD: Together we're strong
MM: Together we're strong
PD: You are the land I am the sea
MM: Together we're strong
PD: You are in counterpoint to me
MM: Together we're strong
PD: And we agree to disagree

BOTH: No need to lie

MM: You are the night, I am the day
PD: Together we're strong
MM: You are the star that shows the way
PD: Together we're strong
MM: You are the music to my song
PD: Together we're strong

BOTH: Together we're strong
PD: Together we're strong
BOTH: Together we're strong
PD: Together we're strong

4 comments:

Meshmesha said...

What a great choice ! I loved this song so much even before I know the Arabic meaning of all the words "looong time ago" but I liked their performance on the stage sooooo much. I just loved them together.
Thanks a million :)

Mmm! said...

aywa , hia loooooong time agoooo fe3lan :)da ely 7aseto awel ma shoftaha ba3d el seneen di kolaha . glad u liked it meshmesha. I liked it too and will be happy to remember more of these old songs we loved when we were too young to understand a word of .

Unknown said...

Dear Mmm! "funny", the things that pop up for us.on these gadgets... I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate all.that you wrote. Both Mireille and Patrick are very good hearted, nice people + perhaps this is what you also recognized,felt. In a comment written be "emidream", she says that while seeing and hearing mimi sing nos souvenirs on tv, and while knowing her well, for a few seconds she was only aware of mireille as a divine presence, that she was.not Mireille but only the music. (she stated it better on the YouTube comments of nos souvenir). Only recently I found Mireille again after 33 years - don't ask me how ... I got an ipod, didnt know how to program it. Someone "showed" me, and downloaded "together..." surprise to me, not my first choice, I thought. That was the only song on my ipod for almost a month - and I was the happiest person on the planet.again. I also wanted to express my appreciation for your translation above. I have never heard The Truth spoken so simply and clearly. And then, of course, Beautifully . Thank you. I will look onto This Sage. And one day soon Mireille will tell.you of her experience with exactly what he is speaking of. Love, ellen. Homer, Alaska

Mmm! said...

Dear Ellen , you don't know how much I appreciate your comment.:)
First because It came in a time when I was really down and wanted something to cheer me up and second because now i'm assured really that music is a universal language and I've never imagined to have a reader from Alaska,US. OMG , that's really far far from Alexandria, Egypt. In a way I was surprised that someone from the US would remember a french singer from the sixties and the seventies ,but probably the best things are the surprises like the one that made you download the song in the first place :)anyway i'm very glad you loved Mireille and you'll find some of here songs in the blog along the way :) hope you like them too .
Please come often and let me know your opinion about my choices in music and texts in general.
Thanx for leaving this lovely comment