From Lennie Clark's Web Site:

Al Ward Gamil
(Roses Are Beautiful)

This page contains a translation into English of the lyrics to the classic song "Al Ward Gamil", which was sung by Oum Kalthoum. Another spelling sometimes used for this song title is "El Warda Gameel".

Oum Kalthoum was born in 1904 and died in 1975. She was unquestionably the most gifted singer and musician of the 20th century in the Middle East. She was continuously popular for over 50 years and her songs are still played nightly on any number of Arabic-language radio stations. Oum Kalthoum is one of four vocalists who have achieved legendary status in Egyptian music. The other three are Farid al-Atrache, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, and Abdel Halim Hafez.

Her name is transliterated many different ways in the Roman alphabet, including Um Kulthum, Om Kalsoum, Umm Kulthoum, Om Kalthoum, Umm Kalsum, Oum Kalthum, Oum Kolthoum, Oum Kaltsoum, and others.

Lyrics

Roses are beautiful
They have leaves with guides of love
If someone gives roses to a lover
It will mean a good start to a steady relationship
Look at roses and you will learn to talk to your lover
The Nargis Flower leans right and left
Telling us to stay away from our opponents
The Honeysuckle flowers are the spirit of the universe
Look at Jasmine, beautiful she sleeps on the branches of the tree
Look at the roses and learn how to talk to your lover

Where to Get Recordings of this Song

		Artist: Various CD Title: Cairo Road: Great Songs of the Arab World Amazon Store:
		Artist: Oum Kalthoum CD Title: Chansons À L'Écran Amazon Store:

Translations of
Oum Kalthoum's Songs on This Site

Acknowledgements

About the Translator

Adel Abdallah is an Egyptian who resides in New Orleans, Louisiana. If you are traveling to that great city, he invites you to stop by the Cafe Picasso, located at 3401 Chartres (on the corner of Chartres and Desire, in the Bywater). The cafe serves delicious Middle Eastern food, and offers shiisha smoking. They are open daily except for Sundays, from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. (Deliveries until 10 P.M.) The phone number is (504) 948-6881.

The translation summary was done by Adel at Lennie Clark's request. Muchisimas gracias to Kruz, (whose Morocco to India ethnic boutique, located in the historic French Quarter, is not-to-be-missed) for suggesting Adel as a translator.

About the Source

This article originally appeared on Lennie Clark's web site, "Arabic Song Translations." Lennie created this web site in 2002 as a response to discussion on the Internet regarding incidents of dancers who performed inappropriate sensual dances to religious music. Lennie's web site resided on a free web hosting service known as Geocities. When the planned October 2009 closure of the Geocities web hosting service was announced, Lennie and Shira agreed to move the contents of Lennie's site to Shira.net. To explore all the articles and song translations that once appeared on Lennie's Geocities site, visit Lennie's portal page here on Shira.net.