Authentic sun, love and the Nile
\nWritten by
\nHossam Badrawi
\nYesterday, while listening to the song Shams Al-Aseel, influenced by the splendor of the words, the beauty of the melody, and the dazzling performance of Mrs. Umm Kulthum, I was encouraged to record my feelings and feelings and send them to my friend, the genius musician Rajeh Daoud, to add and obtain the reflections of Shams Al-Aseel on his conscience.
\nThe Nile River, especially in Mansoura, where I was born and lived the first ten years of my life, has a special flavor. We lived in a villa on the shore of the Nile, among a group of ten villas, in front of Shagaret al-Durr Garden, and our house had a small garden that was covered by flood waters at its peak, so that its waters met the walls of the villa.
\nThe Nile in front of us was wide, and I had never seen anything like its breadth except in Aswan. The movement of the boats, the sight of the castles, the movement of the water that flows easily and carries them along, and the boatmen focusing their long oars on the wall of our house so that they do not collide with it, have remained stuck in my mind until now, as if they were an artistic painting.
\nThe river, with its beauty, must have created a place inside me. It romanticized my subconscious mind and emerged years later in my love for inspiring words, the search for beauty, and somehow connecting the fabric of serenity together.
\nI listened to the song Shams Al-Aseel in the quiet of the night and closed my eyes as if I was listening to it for the first time… and lost myself in the words of Bayram Al-Tunisi and the music composed by Riad Al-Sunbati.
\nI believe that Umm Kulthum was crowned \u201cShams Al Aseel\u201d at the pinnacle of Arabic singing, and she is one of the masterpieces of the classics of music that carried the spirit of Egypt with all its charm, appeal, and humanity in an authentic oriental melody that connects man to place, merges love with nature, and creates a genius tapestry that paints a complete picture, as if we see with the eye what the ear hears. From overlapping descriptions between the river, the sun, the breeze and lovers..
\nBayram chose to address the Nile as an introduction to his emotional theme, knowing that it is a symbol of life and stability. He immersed himself in describing it and describing the feelings of loved ones in a mixture that I have never seen in Arabic poetry. The composer took time to embody these natural and human images to weave with the poet and the creativity of the performance a multi-colored and dimensional palette that gives the listener spaces. Vast of imagination and invites contemplation.
\nI read it to a specialist, and I will go back to my friend Rajeh Daoud, the great musician, to confirm that the poetic text of Shams al-Asil is devoid of any repeated stanzas, and that the composer used two lines from the first stanza as a doctrine that is repeated between the poetic stanzas, thus creating a dramatic line that made this doctrine the distinctive melody of the entire song.
\nThat is, the structure of the song was written without a doctrine, that is, without repeating any verses, and therefore the audible doctrine was invented by the composer.
\nThe composer added another innovation that demonstrates experience and high craftsmanship by recalling the call word \u201cO Neil\u201d and adding it to the last verses of the doctrine he chose. It did not appear at the end of any verse in the written text except once in the first verse. The narratives say that this was an addition by the woman with her poetic sense.
\nShams Al-Aseel is a truly unique experience. If you listen to this melody while you are outside Egypt, you will have a strong feeling that it is not just a passing song. It addresses your feelings and nostalgia for your homeland with all the meanings of the homeland… place and time, people and memories, wishes and dreams. And if you are not Egyptian, perhaps you would like to go to Egypt one day to see what happens when the afternoon sun reflects on the Nile.
\nThe song begins with verses that paint a picture, and then begins to describe feelings and mix the Nile with feelings of love and loved ones
\nThe afternoon sun has set
\nPalm wicker, Neil
\nA masterpiece and an imaginative one
\nOn your page, beautiful
\nThe coup\u00e9 ends with the refrain created by the composer:
\nAnd the flute on the beach sang
\nAnd the feet lean towards the blowing of the air (and it is repeated on the blowing of the air)
\nWhen Ali passes by
\nOh Neil
\nYaaaaaaaaaannel
\nThe song takes us into another area with miraculous words, a unique melody, and an unparalleled performance:
\n\u201cOh Neil, me and the one I love
\nWe liken you to your class
\nBecause you softened our hearts when your love softened
\nThey described us in love
\nHe is your friend
\nWe don’t have anything to do with you or us
\nIn sweetness, he is like Neil
\nOh Neil
\n“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan”
\nWhat beauty and sweetness this is as she sings: \u201cNeither we nor you, there is no match for sweetness, Neil.\u201d
\nBefore ending with the refrain created by the composer and performer:
\n“”
\nUmm Kulthum continues her wonderful performance, Shadia:
\nMy love, Neil, and I have fulfilled our wishes
\nWhere passion anchors our anchors
\nAnd if the night grows longer and longer, our nights become shorter
\nAnd the one who lost his passion cried and had a long night
\nAnd the flute on the beach sang
\nAnd the feet lean on the blowing of the air
\nWhen Ali passes by
\nMy love, Neil, and I have fulfilled our wishes…
\nWhat’s this wonder
\nThe poet is creative in his words and the melody, which must be described as professional, and Umm Kulthum changes the tune while closing it. \u201cA place that anchors passion…it anchors our anchors.\u201d
\nWe do not know whether it is passion or passion.
\nThe song ends with:
\nMe and my beloved, Neil, are absent from conscience
\nThe moon rises for us and sets as if it had never happened
\nTwo nights around us we hear the curlew laughing
\nOh Neil, oh Neil
\nAnd the flute on the beach sang
\nAnd the feet lean on the blowing of the air
\nWhen Ali passes by
\nWe started in the evening sun, describing a magical moment at the end of the day, and we ended in the song with the moon that rose and set, and with the voice of the curlew in a performance. I advise you to re-listen to it because the listener will not differentiate between the real voice of the curlew and the voice of Umm Kulthum the curlew.
\nWe started at the end of the day in the afternoon until the end of the night in the absence of Qumra, on a journey of love in which the song combined humanity, feelings, the Nile, its purity, the breeze\u2019s leaf, and its whims.<\/p>\n