Mа̄lek & Jinа̄n

ba‘dne brūḥ w biji



’amenet


zaqzūq







Līzа̄ & Jа̄d

nohrob la ‘iddem

waḍ‘




Sа̄mia

marḥale ’intiqāliyye

min bʻīd la-bʻīd



kell janá ‘omrik



ghadarnā al-wa’it


Lа̄rа̄ & Jumа̄na

neftaḥ al-beyt



Nohá & Karīm

ma fike deyman tū’afe bel-nos

‘alá ’add ḥālnā




shū men‘ammir beyt w byomda el ‘omr



mwazz‘a ghrāde

I still come and go
literally translates to “I still leave and come,” emphasizing a return through the words’ sequence in the phrase

letters and remittances
‘amāna: thing or person given to somebody to take care of a narrow alleyway

used colloquially but infrequently
its wazin (morphological form) to fʻalūl emphasizes, through consonance, the [q] sound
while the Lebanese dialect debuccalizes the [q] with a hamza (‘), the Druze of Lebanon have retained its pronunciation





to escape by running forward

also used in the conversation is the word zrūf, meaning circumstances
one of many euphemisms to summarize and refer to the economic downturn and current climate in Lebanon



a transitional phase

literally translated to “from far to far,” meaning physically distant
also means not very involved or surface-level


all the reap of your life
janá: harvest
‘omr: lifespan

time betrayed us




to open a house
also means to start a family or run a household



you can’t always stand in the middle


to the extent of our capacity
’add: size
ḥāl: state
suggests a limited financial capacity

we would have built a house but our lives would have gone by
worded as a rhetorical question by adding the “shū,” a question- word commonly used in Lebanese Arabic


I disperse my belongings
its wazin (morphological form) to mufa‘‘al has an intensive reflexive meaning