From Lennie Clark's Web Site:

Ya Ritni Tir
(I Wish I Were a Bird)

This page contains a translation into English of the lyrics to the classic song "Ya Ritni Tir", which was sung by Farid al-Atrache, a legendary movie star, vocalist, oud player, and composer. Another spelling sometimes used for this song title is "Ya Raitni Tayr" or "Ya Reitni Teir".

In the 1940's, Egypt's thriving movie industry made Farid, a native of Syria, a major star throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Aficionados of raqs sharqi (the Egyptian name for belly dance) particularly think of Farid al-Atrache in connection with the six movies he made which co-starred Samia Gamal from 1947 through 1952. Many of his songs remain popular today, and continue to be used by many raqs sharqi performers throughout the world.

Farid al-Atrache is one of four vocalists who have achieved legendary status in Egyptian music. The other three are Oum Kalthoum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, and Abdel Halim Hafez.

Lyrics

I wish I were a bird
I would fly around you wherever you go
My eye on you
But this wish is like a dream
I wish the world was owned by my lover and me
I would not leave a second
But it is all "If" and "If"
As a word does not make a house exist*
I wish I were a hair of your eyelash
That I could hear your heartbeat
Or that I was one of your slaves between your hands
Day and night
But it is only a wish

* The expression is similar in meaning to the English one, "If wishes were horses then beggars would ride."

Where to Get Recordings of this Song

		Artist: Farid al-Atrache CD Title: Ya Ritni Tir Amazon Store:
		Artist: Various CD Title: Cairo Road: Great Songs of the Arab World Amazon Store:

Translations of
Farid al-Atrache'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.