Kemal by Manos Hatzidakis

[Foinikas]

Since most of you here are Muslims,I'd like to share a very old song by Manos Hatzidakis called "Kemal". Some of you might find it beautiful.

I will translate the lyrics:

Listen now to the story of Kemal,a young prince of the East,descendant of Sinbad the sailor,who thought he could change the world.
But bitter is the will of Allah and dark are the souls of men...

In the lands of the East,once upon a time,
the pouch was empty,the water stale,
In Mosul,in Basra,at the old date tree,
bitter,the desert children are crying now,
and a young man from a good origin and royal lineage,
listens to the lamenting and goes over there,
the Bedouins look at him with a sad expression in their eyes,
and he vows in Allah that times will change

As soon as the masters heard of the child's defiance,
they take off with a wolf's tooth and a lion's hide,
from Tigris to Euphrates and from earth to the sky,
they chase the renegade to capture him alive.
The swarms fall on him like mad dogs,
and they take him to the Caliph to tie the noose around him,
black honey,black milk he drank that morning,
before he left his last breath on the gallows.

With two old camels,with a red mare,
at the gates of Heaven the Prophet awaits,
they now walk hand by hand and it's cloudy all around,
but Damascus' star accompanied them,
in a month,in a year they see Allah in front of them,
who from his high throne says to the naive Sinbad
"My beaten smartboy,times don't change,
the world always goes forward with fire and knife"

Goodnight Kemal,this world will never change.

Goodnight...

 

[Foinikas]

Some notes:

1.The water was "moldy" in greek,literally. I think stale means the same,kind of.
2.I used the word "masters",but the word "archonti" in Greek literally means "lords",but also masters depending on the situation.
3.From earth to sky,can be also translated as "from earth to the heavens".
4.I used the word renegade,but the literal word in greek is "apostatis" which means "apostate". But in this sense,I think it means more of a renegade,revolutionary etc.
5.Fire and Knife,the word in greek is "knife",but the meaning is more of "Fire and sword",as you can understand.

The last line that says "Goodnight Kemal" has become a meme in Greece,because of Erdogan's oppression of secular Turkey and Kemalists. And also Kilicdaroglu.

Here's another version of the song: