Thread: Esmaooni

I have the song and I know what the song is about by explantion of "Leila of Cairo", but does anyone know what the word Esmaooni itself means? Thanks

Sure, it means 'listen to me'.

Thanks Sarahamh! : ) XOXOXOXO

No problem :) Yasmina of Cairo explained the whole song to us in a workshop earlier this year, its one of my all time favourites.

I'm working on this song currently - I love it so much, and I've finally decided to be brave and try to do justice to it.

Ooh, please consider posting a clip when you are ready, I love love love this song so much and I love to see other dancers' interpretations of it. My favourite arrangement is the one on the Master's of Egyptian Choreography cd, I've yet to find another that comes close.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl5b--rPvQE]YouTube - Adishakti - Esmaooni (Complete)[/ame]

Here's one of my favorites. Adishakti is a great dancer, this is Leila of Cairo's choreography.

WOW!

I am doing mostly my own choreography this weekend at a show but some of it is Leila inspired! I'm excited!

Thanks, guys! Love that song.

Originally Posted by Adishakti

Thanks, guys! Love that song.

u danced it gorgeously !!!

Originally Posted by Sarahamh

Sure, it means 'listen to me'.

To be a bit more accurate, it means "listen to me" talking to a group. "Esma-ani" means "listen to me" talking to a male, "esma-iini" means "listen to me" talking to a female.

Oops... language geeking again!,r:;

Originally Posted by leylalanty

Oops... language geeking again!,r:;

No, that's the kind of stuff I want to know.

Or maybe there is just more than one language geek here.

I'm listening!

Here's the beginning of the song, English and phonetic Arabic.

"People [who know] of love, /ya ahl al hawa
Before you blame me.... Listen to me. [repeats several times] /abl ma tadloumooni, esmaooni.

We were in love... [repeats several times]" /'ashi'na, 'ashi'na

Okay, *takes big deep breath* here's the video of me dancing to Esmaooni at the Jim Boz show on Saturday.

Photo Sharing by MyPhotoAlbum :: Galatea and The Desert Wind Dancers - Video Gallery :: Jim Boz 2009

The first few seconds are jacked up, but it clears very quickly. Oh, and I had to edit the song for length to get it under 6 minutes, so it's not the full version.

I'm okay with feedback/suggestions, but I'll put it out there that I'm a wee bit vulnerable about this clip. This performance is quite special to me because I really pushed outside of my comfort zone in several scary ways while putting it together. I cried over it more than once, and not just because it's a hearbreaking song. My teacher and mentor was on the road, so I had to do it without her guidance; I'm sure it would have been better and been less painful of a process with her help.

It's about 80% choreography, 20% improv. There are a lot of things I like about it, and a bunch of things I wish I'd done better (most particularly I think my hands look very weird at several points) - but overall I think I was mostly able to accomplish what I wanted to do with it. I was inspired by Ahava's performance on the By Dancers for Dancers DVD, but mostly by her musical interpretation and intensity rather than her movements/steps. Any similarity of Leila of Cairo's choreo would be completely coincidental - When I saw Adishakti's clip, I had already put the majority of this piece together.

Hi ladies,

thank you very much for your translations. I've learned the choreo from the Leila-DVD (with some changes which suits me better), and I am very glad to geht more information about the text.
I love love love this song and the choreo and I am very inspirated(or inspired???? my english is not so good) by Leilas style.

Kind regards,
Salma

For those who are interested, I finally found a full translation to the song. Esma3ouni was the spelling that did it!

First, I found a Nancy Ajram recording with English translations:
Nancy Ajram Esma3ouni english lyrics EXCLUSIVE RARE - Video - Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 Music - 25 February 2009 - Vote, News, Big Gig, Tour, Tickets, The Cure, Previous Winners, Pictures, Images, Tour Dates & Shows

but it doesn't have the beginning portion, which is what I'm working on. Luckily, this popped up in Google:
http://lyrics-search-engine.allthely...esma3ouni.html

Hope that helps someone!

Galatea, thanks so much for sharing your performance. It was beautiful!

Originally Posted by Safiyah

For those who are interested, I finally found a full translation to the song. Esma3ouni was the spelling that did it!

First, I found a Nancy Ajram recording with English translations:
Nancy Ajram Esma3ouni english lyrics EXCLUSIVE RARE - Video - Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 Music - 25 February 2009 - Vote, News, Big Gig, Tour, Tickets, The Cure, Previous Winners, Pictures, Images, Tour Dates & Shows

but it doesn't have the beginning portion, which is what I'm working on. Luckily, this popped up in Google:
http://lyrics-search-engine.allthely...esma3ouni.html

Hope that helps someone!

Galatea, thanks so much for sharing your performance. It was beautiful!

Thanks for posting those links, that is so helpful!

There is one line in the song that isn't translated in that second link:

hwa fe 7ad el naharda byefteker

Does anyone know what it means?

Thanks in advance!

Amanda
Utah Bellydancer Amanda Home Page