Saturday, January 28, 2012

Offendum


Omar Offendum is a Syrian American rapper and poet whose work is really, really powerful.  He incorporates Arabic music into his songs, and his work speaks to the broader experience of being an American of Middle Eastern descent.


Click here for the lyrics.

An especially powerful song is his rendition of a Langston Hughes poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," as follows below.

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Omar Offendum's version - with lyrics here.


أنهار كثيرة عرفتها 
أنهار كثيرة أزلية كما العالم عرفتها 
أنهار أزلية تدفقت حتى قبل أن يتدفق الدم في شرايين البشر 
وروحي ازدادت عمقاً كالأنهار 
فأنا بمياه الفرات استحممت حتى قبل انبلاج فجر الحياة 
وعلى ضفاف الكونجو بنيت كوخي ... 
حيث هللت لي مياهه لأغفو... 
من دلتا النيل العالي أشرفت... وشيدت الأهرامات العظيمة 
وإلى شدو المسيسيبي استمعت ... حين مر به لنكولن في دربه إلى نيواورليان 
ومع الغروب رأيت أحضانه الطينية تتحول لكتل ذهبية 
لقد عرفت أنهاراً وأنهاراً 
أنهاراً أزلية معتمة كما الغسق
وروحي توغلت في القدم ... 
وروحي ازدادت عمقاً كالأنهار

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