The following are taken from my Blog: Little Bardos -apothecary of thoughts.
The Kiss and the Nation
I must have been between 10 and 14. Two or three years before the Israeli invasion of 1982. Lebanon was by most counts a Palestinian base and a bastion of ‘Arab Dignity.’ Our TV experience consisted of a few daily hours, and two and a half channels, and we had a manageable supply of print media. Sabah (Lebanese diva Sabah, that is) must have been in her late 50′s or early 60′s. I had seen her at the airport a couple of years before, and she looked like a russian doll. Wearing a baby blue satin coat with white fur lining (back when fur was acceptable) and a hat to match, she made me stop and stare. I stood there frozen, looking at that woman whose aura expanded into a huge circle around her, engrossing me into its field. She looked gorgeous.
I must have been between 10 and 14. I didn’t know much about Sabah’s music, but that encounter made me watch out for her when she or her name appeared on TV or in print. And it did. That year, Sabah came under media attack. They attacked her, calling her all sorts of names, because, she had appeared on a french talk show, and had apparently kissed another guest hello. The guest was Algerian-born Jewish singer Enrico Macias. I have heard a lot about Macias’ support of Israel but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. All I know is that the guy has been trying to visit his homeland Algeria and he has been denied entry. Anyway, point is, she said hello on a talk show. Whether or not you and I agree with her saying hello is besides the point. The point is not the hello, it’s the “kiss.” I remember distinctly that she was being called names and attacked, not on the basis of ‘Imperialism’ or ‘Zionism’ but of her being a woman, who dared kiss a man, nonetheless a Zionist man. I’m dropping all the allegedy’s from this text by the way.
She kissed a guy, and whether or not she did, no one in the media liked it.
Fast forward to a couple of years back. I had obtained a big collection of Sabah songs, and fell upon a song called “Killa Bawseh” meaning “it’s just a kiss.” The whole story came back to me as I listened to the song, which may very well be about that incident. Why else would she sing a song like that, around the time of the infamous kiss? Anyway, whether or not the song is about the incident, in the final count, thirty or so years later, it’s answering to it. The song is in Sabah’s usual fighting spirit. It denies ‘the’ kiss, but then proceeds to talk back to the media about the value of ‘a’ kiss, and about their unhealthy negative obsession with it. Here are the lyrics of the song, along with a quick translation.
بوسه ما بسنا وعقلن طار
كيف لو بسنا شو كان صار
We didn’t kiss and they went nuts
What would’ve happened if we had?
كلمة بوسه عملت هوسه
اه يا بوسه يا مي ونار
The word ‘kiss’ caused a hiss
Oh, kiss, you are water and fire
بوسه بتوعي مدينه
يا مدينه حيرتيني
وانا مين بدو يوعيني
وياخدني بألبو مشوار
A kiss wakes up a city
Oh, city you confuse me
Who’s going to wake ME up
and take me for a joyride in his heart?
اسمعني يا البي اسمعني
سر البوسه مضيعني
بسأل حالي شو يعني
وبضيع بحر الأسرار
Listen to me, my heart
The secret of the kiss is escaping me
I ask myself what does it all mean
And I get lost in the sea of secrets
رح خبي البوسه للعيد
وأهرب فيها بعيد بعيد
ولما بتحلا المواعيد
ازرعها ورده بالدار
I’m hiding the kiss till the holiday
And running away with it far far away
And when times gets sweet again
I’ll plant it, a rose, in the middle of the house
Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35GjW4g8MM4
Thirty years ago, Sabah stood up for her right to kiss and sang this song. I love her forever for it.
Why am I digging all this up, you ask? Because yesterday, more than thirty years later, twitter was in an ‘uproar’ over another kiss. The internet was ‘ablaze’ with the news that Mohamed ElBaradei, Nobel prize winner and former candidate for Egypt’s presidency, has kissed Angelina Jolie. I repeat. ElBaradei kissed Angelina Jolie at an awards ceremony. To make it all worse, he kissed her at the Cinema for Peace festival in Berlin. How dare he, now let’s leave everything, spring, autumn, and probably spring again and focus our attention on this crazy bit of news. And as if the news wasn’t bad enough, I had to scroll down and read the comments. Oh, the comments. Why do i ever read the comments on Alarabiya. I’m at fault here, I know. Some commentators joked, others lamented the state of Arab leadership, and some were even ‘understanding’ -because it is Angelina after all, or because ‘in the west’ they do that, kiss hello that is. Seriously? In the west? People in Jordan and Egypt still don’t know that people in their own countries kiss hello? On twitter, I was seriously surprised at the amount of negative and satirical comments, from people -revolutionaries- I was following. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Revolution. Yes, let’s change everything but our minds. Jean Genet once said that “The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man… not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.” Allah yirhamak ya Jano!
But, in perfect Diva style, I will let Sabah upstage Genet this time and quote another of her songs:
تغندري يا مغندرة
تدللي يا زغيرة
منمشي فشخة لإدام
منرجع عشرة لورا
Prance, little prancer
Be playful, little one,
We walk one step forward
We go backwards ten
Give me a kiss gone unnoticed and I will give you a nation!
I must have been between 10 and 14. I didn’t know much about Sabah’s music, but that encounter made me watch out for her when she or her name appeared on TV or in print. And it did. That year, Sabah came under media attack. They attacked her, calling her all sorts of names, because, she had appeared on a french talk show, and had apparently kissed another guest hello. The guest was Algerian-born Jewish singer Enrico Macias. I have heard a lot about Macias’ support of Israel but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. All I know is that the guy has been trying to visit his homeland Algeria and he has been denied entry. Anyway, point is, she said hello on a talk show. Whether or not you and I agree with her saying hello is besides the point. The point is not the hello, it’s the “kiss.” I remember distinctly that she was being called names and attacked, not on the basis of ‘Imperialism’ or ‘Zionism’ but of her being a woman, who dared kiss a man, nonetheless a Zionist man. I’m dropping all the allegedy’s from this text by the way.
She kissed a guy, and whether or not she did, no one in the media liked it.
Fast forward to a couple of years back. I had obtained a big collection of Sabah songs, and fell upon a song called “Killa Bawseh” meaning “it’s just a kiss.” The whole story came back to me as I listened to the song, which may very well be about that incident. Why else would she sing a song like that, around the time of the infamous kiss? Anyway, whether or not the song is about the incident, in the final count, thirty or so years later, it’s answering to it. The song is in Sabah’s usual fighting spirit. It denies ‘the’ kiss, but then proceeds to talk back to the media about the value of ‘a’ kiss, and about their unhealthy negative obsession with it. Here are the lyrics of the song, along with a quick translation.
بوسه ما بسنا وعقلن طار
كيف لو بسنا شو كان صار
We didn’t kiss and they went nuts
What would’ve happened if we had?
كلمة بوسه عملت هوسه
اه يا بوسه يا مي ونار
The word ‘kiss’ caused a hiss
Oh, kiss, you are water and fire
بوسه بتوعي مدينه
يا مدينه حيرتيني
وانا مين بدو يوعيني
وياخدني بألبو مشوار
A kiss wakes up a city
Oh, city you confuse me
Who’s going to wake ME up
and take me for a joyride in his heart?
اسمعني يا البي اسمعني
سر البوسه مضيعني
بسأل حالي شو يعني
وبضيع بحر الأسرار
Listen to me, my heart
The secret of the kiss is escaping me
I ask myself what does it all mean
And I get lost in the sea of secrets
رح خبي البوسه للعيد
وأهرب فيها بعيد بعيد
ولما بتحلا المواعيد
ازرعها ورده بالدار
I’m hiding the kiss till the holiday
And running away with it far far away
And when times gets sweet again
I’ll plant it, a rose, in the middle of the house
Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35GjW4g8MM4
Thirty years ago, Sabah stood up for her right to kiss and sang this song. I love her forever for it.
Why am I digging all this up, you ask? Because yesterday, more than thirty years later, twitter was in an ‘uproar’ over another kiss. The internet was ‘ablaze’ with the news that Mohamed ElBaradei, Nobel prize winner and former candidate for Egypt’s presidency, has kissed Angelina Jolie. I repeat. ElBaradei kissed Angelina Jolie at an awards ceremony. To make it all worse, he kissed her at the Cinema for Peace festival in Berlin. How dare he, now let’s leave everything, spring, autumn, and probably spring again and focus our attention on this crazy bit of news. And as if the news wasn’t bad enough, I had to scroll down and read the comments. Oh, the comments. Why do i ever read the comments on Alarabiya. I’m at fault here, I know. Some commentators joked, others lamented the state of Arab leadership, and some were even ‘understanding’ -because it is Angelina after all, or because ‘in the west’ they do that, kiss hello that is. Seriously? In the west? People in Jordan and Egypt still don’t know that people in their own countries kiss hello? On twitter, I was seriously surprised at the amount of negative and satirical comments, from people -revolutionaries- I was following. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Revolution. Yes, let’s change everything but our minds. Jean Genet once said that “The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man… not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.” Allah yirhamak ya Jano!
But, in perfect Diva style, I will let Sabah upstage Genet this time and quote another of her songs:
تغندري يا مغندرة
تدللي يا زغيرة
منمشي فشخة لإدام
منرجع عشرة لورا
Prance, little prancer
Be playful, little one,
We walk one step forward
We go backwards ten
Give me a kiss gone unnoticed and I will give you a nation!
Longing
They were lying naked in bed, covered up in thick soft blankets, heat combined into one source, hearts beating in unison.
“I read somewhere that objects don’t end at their visible boundaries.”
Their skins mingled, their body parts automatically and awkwardly intertwined into a sensible lot. They were breathing each other, intoxicated and unaware of where one starts and where another ends.
Comfortable. Serene. They surrendered to the high of non-bodily desire, tried to merge into one new being. Discomfited. Unrequited.
- I miss you.
- But, I’m right here.
- I know.
- …
The ultimate tragedy of love is that it can never be fully consumed. Its bitterness lies in its being an unsatisfiable hunger. It is heartbreak, by definition.
The ultimate joy of love is that it can never be fully consumed. Its sweetness lies in its being an unsatisfiable hunger: uncontrollable, always rising, never ejaculated; an endless spring of nourishment for us to enjoy, ponder, consume.
It is nature, by definition.
- (...) I miss you too.
“I read somewhere that objects don’t end at their visible boundaries.”
Their skins mingled, their body parts automatically and awkwardly intertwined into a sensible lot. They were breathing each other, intoxicated and unaware of where one starts and where another ends.
Comfortable. Serene. They surrendered to the high of non-bodily desire, tried to merge into one new being. Discomfited. Unrequited.
- I miss you.
- But, I’m right here.
- I know.
- …
The ultimate tragedy of love is that it can never be fully consumed. Its bitterness lies in its being an unsatisfiable hunger. It is heartbreak, by definition.
The ultimate joy of love is that it can never be fully consumed. Its sweetness lies in its being an unsatisfiable hunger: uncontrollable, always rising, never ejaculated; an endless spring of nourishment for us to enjoy, ponder, consume.
It is nature, by definition.
- (...) I miss you too.
All texts, screen captures, and photos: © mazen khaled 2013