By: Wafa Arouri<\/p>\n
Fairuz\u2019s voice accompanies me every morning on the way from home to work. I know most of her songs by heart, and I enjoy singing along with her. Every time I reach the top of the hill on which the village of Ajjul is built, I am struck by the beauty of the place, as if I were a tourist or a visitor, not someone who has lived here for 32 years (in three days, it will be 33).<\/p>\n
I open the car window every day and shout at the top of my lungs: \u201cGood morning, Palestine!\u201d
\n\u201cMom, just how much oxygen I\u2019m breathing in through this open window\u2014and how much love I\u2019m expressing,\u201d but anyway\u2026 that\u2019s not our topic.<\/p>\n
Today, in particular, I was thinking along the whole road: how is it that Fairuz\u2019s songs resemble us so deeply? I told myself: maybe this is why her songs became so famous. Of course, Fairuz\u2019s voice itself is nothing short of a miracle, but the words of her songs also mirror our own lives and feelings\u2014childhood, love, longing, and the homelands we came from. All of this carried her songs far and wide.<\/p>\n
The songs I love most are: Ya Mirsal al-Marasil<\/em>, Sallimli Alayh<\/em>, Nassam Alayna al-Hawa<\/em>, Ya Jabal Elli Ba\u2018id<\/em> (\u201cBehind you are our loved ones\u201d), Sa\u2019alouni al-Nas<\/em>, Habbeitak wa Nseet al-Nawm<\/em>, Ehkileh Ehkileh \u2018an Baladi<\/em>, Tiri Ya Tayara<\/em>, and the verse: Personally, I believe that this love and deep connection people have with Fairuz cannot be separated from the fact that she is a woman and a mother who spent 90 years of her life caring for her son \u201cHali,\u201d who had a disability and passed away just two days ago.<\/p>\n Fairuz, whose songs are sung by millions around the world, held Hali in her arms from the moment he was born until the moment he passed away. She even sang to him Sallimli Alayh, Boosli \u2018Eneih<\/em>\u2014a song she also wrote herself.<\/p>\n Fairuz showed us that art and motherhood do not contradict each other, that success and hardship can coexist, and that fame does not oppose humility. She resembles us\u2014real in a time when so much around us has become fake.<\/p>\n Perhaps that is why we loved Fairuz the human being before we ever fell in love with her voice.<\/p>\n Long life to you, our beloved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Wafa Arouri Fairuz\u2019s voice accompanies me every morning on the way from home to work. I know most of her songs by heart, and I enjoy singing along with her. Every time I reach the top of the hill on which the village of Ajjul is built, I am struck by the beauty of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pal-pens"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cIf I return, I\u2019d go mad, and if I leave you, I\u2019d suffer.
\nI\u2019m not able to go on, and I\u2019m not able to stay\u2014
\nfrom \u2018if only\u2019 to \u2018if only not.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n