Lebanese Arabic Song: Majnoun (Ramy Ayach)
Ramy Ayach has been in the Lebanese pop music scene since the late 1990s. His hit Majnoun originally came out in 2011, and has gained new popularity with the recent music video.
Have fun singing along while learning the lyrics. Below, you can see the Arabic script with tashkeel. Click on any line to expand it to reveal the English translation and language notes.
The first two lines in the lyrics are spoken in the telephone call at the beginning of the video. The actual song starts at the 2:00 mark.
Thank you to Nadine for helping with the tashkeel and translations.
| Arabic | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ألو؟ ألو؟ | Hello? Hello? | (Conversation on phone.) |
| ما عم فِيّي إِغْفى. مِش مِسْتْعِدِّة إِرْجع شوفك بُكْرا. حُبّك لح يِقْتِلْني... لح يِقْتِلْني. رامي؟ پْليز ما تْسكِّر. | I can't sleep. I am not ready to see you again tomorrow. Your love will kill me...will kill me.Rami? Please don't hang up. | فِيّي I can غِفي to fall asleep مِسْتْعِدّ prepared رِجِع to __ again (+ bare imperfect verb) لح = رح will قتل to kill سكّر (lit.) to close |
| طال السّهر، على بالي إغْفى. | The long nights have been prolonged, how I would like to sleep | (Song starts at 2:00 mark.) طال to take a long time على بالو on one's mind |
| إلّا بِعْيونِك قلْبي ما بْيِدْفا. | My heart is only warmed by your eyes. | إلّا... ما (lit. except... not) only دِفي to become warm |
| مع إِنّو يِمْكِن حُبِّك يِقْتِلْني، | Even though your love might kill me, | مع إنّو... لكِن even though |
| لكِن ما فِيّي مِنِّك إشْفا. | I cannot get over you. | شِفي to recover, be cured |
| واه شو بْحِبِّك اه! | And aah! How I love you! Aah! | شو what Notice the usage of شو here and how it translates. Another example: !شو لطيف How nice! |
| دخْلِك بدّي وَجعي إنْساه. | Please I want to forget my pain | دخْلك I beg you!; I implore you! بدّي I want وَجع pain نِسي to forget The ـه at the end of the verb is the pronoun suffix it/him (referring to his pain, which is a masculine noun). This pronoun suffix is ـو after a consonant but ـه after a vowel. |
| مع إِنّو يِمْكِن حُبِّك يِقْتِلْني، | Even though your love might kill me, | مع إنّو... لكِن even though |
| لكِن ما فِيّي مِنِّك إشْفا. | I cannot get over you. | شِفي to recover, be cured |
| شْتقْتِلِّك | I've missed you. | شْتاق to miss, long for This verb takes an indirect object, lit. "to you": ـلِك to you, and notice that the ل is doubled in this case. |
| مجْنون! | Crazy! | |
| مجْنون... لِ غيْرِك بْيِخْتار. | Crazy...is the one that chooses other than you | لِ= يلّي who, which, that; here: the one that..., he who... غيْر besides, other than خْتار to choose |
| نامي حْلمي فِيّي، إيدِك بِإيدَيِّي. | Sleep! Dream of me, your hand in my hands, | حِلِم في to dream about فِيّي, earlier in the song, means "I can", but here it is simply the preposition في + the pronoun suffix ـي (me) إيد hand |
| حتّى دمِع عَيْنَيِّي يِبْقا معِك فرْحان. | so that even my eyes' tears stay with you happy | حتّى even دمِع tearing up, weeping عيْن eye بقى to stay فرْحان happy, cheerful |
| طال السّهر، على بالي إغْفى. | The long nights have been prolonged, how I would like to sleep | طال to take a long time على بالو on one's mind |
| إلّا بِعْيونِك قلْبي ما بْيِدْفا. | My heart is only warmed by your eyes. | إلّا... ما (lit. except... not) only دِفي to become warm |
| مع إِنّو يِمْكِن حُبِّك يِقْتِلْني، | Even though your love might kill me, | مع إنّو... لكِن even though |
| لكِن ما فِيّي مِنِّك إشْفا. | I cannot get over you. | شِفي to recover, be cured |
If you like this song, check out Ramy Ayach’s YouTube channel for more.
This is amazing!
Great!
This sounds very passionate… thank you for sharing!