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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Joe Offer Origins: Bisan / Bissan / Bissane (15) ADD Version: Bisan / Bissan / Bissane 28 Jul 16


Here are the lyrics from the Rise Up Singing songbook. Part of my project is to correct lyrics from this songbook. I do not know where the editors, Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, got this version.

BISAN

(intro) Kanat lana min zazan
Bayyraton jamila wa dai 'aton dhalila
Yanamu fi afy iha nisan dai 'atuna
Kanas muha Bisan

Khuthuni il Bisan, ila dia 'atish shita iyyah
Hunaka yashi 'ul hanan, 'alal hafafiren ramadiyyah

Khuthuni ilath thuhairat, ila ghafwaten 'inda babi
Hunaka maddat 'ailah, u'aniqu samtati turabi

(bridge) Athkuru ya Bisan, ya mal 'abat tufula
Afya ukil khajula, wa kullu shai en kan
Babon wa shubbakan, baituna fi Bisan

Khuthuni, khuthuni ma 'al hasasin ilath thilalil lati tabki
Rufufon minal 'aidin, 'ala haninen laha tahki
Khuthuni ila Bisan

— author unknown

Bisan is the name of an old Palestinian town, now within the borders of Israel & renamed Beit Shalan. This song, made famous by the Lebanese singer Fairouz, expresses the longing of the Palestinian (and any) people for a home and a homeland.
Published by M. Chahine & Sons, Beirut, Lebanon.
On Fairouz' albums, Bright Morning Star, Live in the USA, & in Broadside #159 (Songs for Peace & Justice in the Middle East).

    Translation of Arabic:
    A long time ago we owned a beautiful orchard.
    A shady village in which April surrendered to sleep.
    The name of our village was Bisan

    Take me to Bisan, to my winter village.
    There where tenderness thrives up to the grey edges
    Take me to those long afternoons,
    To those peaceful naps against my door
    Where I can hug the silence of the earth.

    I remember Bisan, a playground of innocence,
    humble dwellings, pastoral shadows,
    Everything we called home: our home, Bisan

    Take me, take me with the songbirds
    to those same shadows that now weep.
    Rows and rows of the Returning (from the Diaspora)
    To a tenderness now reduced to words.
    Take me to Bisan.


These are more-or-less the same lyrics and translation in Broadside Magazine, Issue #159, Songs for Peace & Justice in the Middle East
http://web.archive.org/web/20130602124853/http://www.broadsidemagazine.com/Broadside%20pdf/159.pdf


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