3Ahd Lil (The Night Horse)
Posted by homoludo on February 2nd, 2008 filed in africa, maroc, videoHere’s the video for 3Ahd Lil’s (who featured prominently in last weeks Marrocco show) tune mas3oud. Below it are the translated lyrics – Deadpan, hard-hitting, dealing with poverty, rape and terrorism and managing to be funny, very sad while ringing truthfully.
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In a village around Ifrane, an old man passed on his mule. Attracted by the cries of child, he discovered in the bushes a new-born baby, turned blue by the cold. Its cries frightened the mule, which bucked. With its leg, it crushed the leg of the baby. Thus commences the history of Messaoud the cursed, the man never left alone by misfortune. The days passed, and Messaoud grows up in the hut of the old man and his wife, seldom eating with his hunger. The catastrophes followed one another, until a day of tragedy. Messaoud was only five years old. It was a Monday of festival, and he had awaked very content. Wanting to play with a firecracker, he set fire to the blankets. The two old ones died in the fire!
(Refrain) Why does life go after Messaoud? Why are all the doors closed to him? Why is he marked so much by misfortune? Why him?
Messaoud lands in an orphanage in Meknès. During 5 years, he was hit in the mouth by all those who passed. His face preserved the traces of them. The school? He understood nothing at all there. Until the day when he had enough and ran off. That evening he slept alone in the cold of a waste ground. Ali Boulahya [a bearded man] passed by there. He lured Messaoud behind the dump and hmm… to the hilt!
(Refrain)
Messaoud lived as a tramp until his sixteenth year. The age of the dreams, even if he had a squint and his nose was bent. Complexed with excess, he saw, one day, a fair one hanging laundry on a balcony. She made him a sign and smiled. The poor one lost his means. Each day, he returned to watch for her under the window. One morning, she finally came down. Having an errand to run, she gave him appointment at 9. Messaoud remained to await it, trembling of excitation. At the appointed time, he had hardly time to see her crossing when she was crushed by a bus which passed!
(Refrain)
Messaoud, destroyed, sank in smoking [hashish] and sniffing [glue]. One day, an Islamist saw him, and led him to a rich person’s mosque. He gave him food to eat, taught him to beg/pray and to express himself. Messaoud, proud of his new function, started to direct people. He made the turn of the mosques, rounded up young people and made a little money. Came the day when he was called for the jihad. He took the plane, very glad to meet Bin Laden. Arrived at the camp, someone give him a weapon and another says to him: “Don’t move any more from here, fire on all that moves, your place in paradise is guaranteed.†Messaoud stays on the spot two days. In one moment of carelessness, zdaou! An American gave him a blow on the head. On waking, he was found himself in cell, with a Pakistani, who smiled to him oddly. Messaoud howled of spite: it was another Ali Boulahya!
(Refrain)
Messaoud spent a difficult year, with Ali Boulahya. Misfortune pursued him as the Americans returned him to
Why Messaoud did he die? Why does misfortune stick to him so much? Why him?
Taken from the arab culture blog Al-Musharaka (d2) المشاركة
There are some more of his excellent tunes at the start of last weeks show. If anybody has any info or more translations let me know. Here’s another tune
[audio:/samia_we_lghalia%20good.mp3]
3awd lil gmakkoko
In the same show, there were a couple of tunes from Muslimgauze whose titles range from the beautiful, – ‘A Small Intricate Box, which contains Died Blue Opium Marzipan’
to the bracing -‘Fatah Guerrilla, Return of Black September, Hebron Massacre, Vote Hezbollah, United States of Islam and The Rape of Palestine’
Here’s an article about him worth reading.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
The article about Muslimgauze written by Jace Clayton (alias DJ/Rupture) is now here :
http://bidoun.com/11_muslingaze.php