While I was living in Kenya in the 1960s, Fadhili William and Mona Miller had a huge hit single there with a version of Malaika in which they sang two verses in English and one in Swahili. I fell in love with the song then. You can download an mp3 of that version free here (click the Download button on that page).

There is one line of the English lyrics in this recording that I've never been able to make any sense of. Below are the English words as far as I've been able to make them out; with the line that makes no sense to me in bold and underlined. Can anyone else make sense of that line (by listening to the recording that I've linked to above)?

Malaika, how I love you my angel.
Malaika, how can we stay apart?
Ever since I met you, my heart has been aflame;
But if ever you should break this heart,
My love will haunt you, Malaika.
But if ever you should break this heart,
My love will haunt you, Malaika.

Dear heart, but I cannot marry.
Dear heart, you flew rich men dowry.
But if ever I can run from here,
And just now I do not know,
Then you and I will fly away,
Just you and your Malaika;
Then you and I will fly away,
Just you and your Malaika.


On a subsidiary note, the Wikipedia article about the song is absolutely definite that the song was really written by Adam Salim, even though Fadhili Williams holds the copyright (or his estate does, now that he's dead) - but the evidence for this doesn't look at all cut and dried to me and my instinct is to believe William's story rather than Salim's, based on the evidence that I'm aware of. Does anyone have any comments on this controversy?

Dave