Yes, soon enough, the Natacha Atlas videos that I posted before became “No Longer Available.” It’s a shame, because they are great. Oh, well.
I’m deleting those videos (or, rather, the pictures for those videos that lead to messages that tell you they’re no longer available), but I’m going to post another one, which I thought of posting anyway. (We’ll see how long it stays up here.) This is “Leysh Natarak” (“Why Are We Fighting?”), from her first solo album, Diaspora, which came out ten years ago.
If you find yourself not too interested in this video at the very beginning, just keep watching… I think it is very moving.
The song is in Arabic, but you don’t really need a translation to get the meaning once you’ve see the video – it makes the message quite clear. Still, there are translations available in different places (including in the comments for the YouTube page itself), although they might vary a little here and there.
Out of all the translations that I’ve seen, I would probably give the most credence to the one that Ted Swedenburg provided at Hawgblog:
Why Are We Fighting?
Why are we fighting
When we’re all together?…
Between me and you there is a long history…
Let’s return to peace
Let’s make peace, we are brothers
Dances on the Footpath 