Law Sharbu al-Bahr is a song about Acre (‘Akka), as a sea-side village with picturesque monuments of various eras (Hellenistic, Crusader, Ottoman). Its population continues to be predominantly Palestinian, yet it is administratively under Israeli rule, which takes its natural resources in exchange for not much to the local population. It is worth remembering that ‘Akka lay outside the state of Israel as recommended by the UN’s partition, and was conquered by siege by Haganah forces.
I remember the sea of ‘Akka. One couldn’t reach the sea from the city, which overlooks it from high medieval walls, so I walked out of the city limits to try to find an access to the beach. More walls. Then fences. Then private Israeli beaches.
***
لو شربوا البحر أو هَدّوا السور
If they drank the sea or demolished the wall
لو سرقوا الهوا أو خنقوا النور
If they stole the air or choked the light
ما بيعها لعكا بالدنيا كلها
I wouldn’t sell for ‘Akka for the world
وما ببدل حارتي ولا بقصور
I wouldn’t replace my neighborhood for castles
المينا وكل البحرية وشخاطيرها النايمه عالمية
The port and all port workers boats sleeping by the water
وشبكها الخضرا المطوية صورة راح تبقى بقلبي بدهور
And her folded green nets, a picture that will remain in my heart forever
لو شربوا البحر أو هدوا السور
لو سرقوا الهوا أو خنقوا النور
ما بيعها لعكا بالدنيا كلها
وما ببدل حارتي ولا بقصور
لو شمس الصبح وقمر الليل ونهار الغربة وليل الويل
If the sun of the morning and the moon of the night and the evening of exile and the night of woe
أخذوا روحي على نجم سهيل أنا روحي بزُريبا بخور
They took my soul to Canopus, and my soul is weak in captivity
لو شربوا البحر أو هدوا السور
لو سرقوا الهوا أو خنقوا النور
ما بيعها لعكا بالدنيا كلها
وما ببدل حارتي ولا بقصور
لو رمل الشط اللي ما بنعد وصدفاتو المخلوقة ع القد
If the sand of the shore that cannot be counted, and its shells created in just the right amount
ومزحات الدهر اللي صاروا جد ركعولي ما بترك هالسور
(if) the jokes of a long ago became serious and bowed down to me in prayer I (still) would not leave these walls.
***
Notes:
All verbs start with prefix ب, as is the norm in colloquial Levantine Arabic.
هدّ is Levantine Arabic for the fussha حتم, to demolish
ويل :affliction , woe
خنق :to strangle, choke
شبك nets
على القد: something perfect, hence: just the right amount
مخلوقة: adjective of خلق, to create (by God)
نجم سهيل: Canopus, an ill-omened star, cursed by Nabati (Bedouin) poets and feared by sailors
زربية: cattle pen, “zareba” (hence: captivity)
بخور: in خور, weakness, languor
صدفات: shells
شخترة: boat
مزحات: pl. of مزح, noun from the verb مزح, to joke: jokes
ترك: to leave
almanzali 