Month: March 2023

Bambi appreciates smiles in life. Indeed, she has an earlier post entitled “Why don’t we just… smile?“. It is shown at the end of this one. Bearing this in mind, tonight just before going to sleep, she discovered a beautiful song entitled “Sourire” [“A Smile” in English]. It is composed by Mr. Nicola Ciccone and she would like to share it with you.

As she could not find this song’s lyrics online, neither in French nor in English, she pretended she was (still) a teenager :). So, she translated the lyrics for you by listening to the song and pausing to take notes. Thankfully, her friend Mr. Google Translate who never goes to sleep, kindly helped her :). You can find their quick English translation following the Youtube video.

Bravo and thank you, Mr. Nicola Ciccone for the depth of you writing, the charm of your voice, and for your inspiring philosophy of happiness!

“Smile when you’re in pain and can’t sleep at night.

When all is equal to us, smiling at our troubles.

Smile in the face of hatred and in the face of infamy.

Smile to those who hurt us. Disarm contempt.

Smile, life is much more beautiful through a smile.

Dare to take your pain away with a simple smile.

Smile even when love comes to break our hearts.

Smile at our weaknesses and face our mistakes.

Smiling is a medicine to soothe pain and give courage to face our fears.

Smile, life is much more beautiful through a smile.

Smile, yes even when facing death alone.

Smile through all the tears in your body.

Smile and if one day the life in you falls asleep, be sure that in our hearts you will smile again.

Smile, life is much more beautiful through a smile. Dare to take your pain away with a simple smile (2)”.

—

Why don’t we just… smile?

Louis, if you happen to be reading this post, do not panic! It is Mothers’ Day in Lebanon and part of the Middle East ONLY, not in Canada [Bernadette, your turn is in May :)]. Indeed, this fixed date coincides with the start of the spring season.

This being said, it is almost midnight and Bambi lacks words to express her deep love, gratitude, and fondness for her mom. Thus, she will borrow the beautiful lyrics of a few songs she would like to offer Robine today, wishing her a wonderful day with her family [OK minus Bambi :)].

The first deep Lebanese-Arabic song, by Ms. Nancy Ajram, is subtitled in English. The second French one about “the beautiful eyes” of Mr. Kendji Girac’s “mama” does not need any introduction. Plus, the talented Mr. Alexis Carlier was featured on this blog in the past. The third moving song is bilingual: in both Italian and French, thanks to Mr. Claude Capeo. As for the last two lighter kids’ songs, they are in Arabic and French respectively. They are meant to bring a smile to your face, mom.

To conclude this musical post, Bambi will advise you dear readers of this blog to block your ears because she is about to shout across ocean, sea, and land:

Akbel el Mieh Mama Habibi!

Bambi t’aime tant!

❤️❤️❤️

Bambi refuses to go to sleep without sharing a musical talent she discovered during the weekend. This artist’s name is Ms. Sama Aziz Shoufani. Her first name means sky [“Sama“] in the beautiful Arabic language. As you may notice yourself, her angelic voice seems to naturally travel through “the skies” in order to reach heaven!

From YouTube, we learn that Ms. Sama Shoufani “is a singer, guitarist and composer. Her music seamlessly blends two musical worlds of oriental and western rhythm into her own signature Arabic pop sound”.

We are also informed that “Sama was born into a musical family in Nazareth and from the age of six, she began to sing and play the guitar. Her parents recognized those gifts and fully supported her talent and passion. At the age of 18, she pursued an academic degree at the Jerusalem Academy of Music”.

Ms. Shoufani’s Youtube page (“About”) continues reading as follows: “Through the magic of her angelic voice, Sama brings joy and smiles into the hearts of our world and bridges cultural divides by singing in Arabic, English, and French. Sama says, “I sing to all people, embrace them with my music and want only to fill hearts with peace and happiness.” Sama was catapulted into stardom when her electrifying performance” .

Of note, Ms. Shoufani has her own Arabic songs:

In addition, she sings famous songs of Canadian and Lebanese artists in English and Arabic respectively.

She also sings for children, starting with Bambi’s favourite Amara Ya Amara’s melody.

She also sings Christmas carols in English and prays for Jesus in Arabic (i.e., one of Bambi’s favourite Byzantine prayers).

Last but not least, Ms. Shoufani sings for love and for Fairouz. As a Nazareth-born singer, it seems that she even got into public trouble for singing (a Fairouz love song) on the The Voice Israeli TV show. However, and ironically, isn’t she the one who stated: “I sing to all people, embrace them with my music and want only to fill hearts with peace and happiness“?

Related to the above, regardless of any political opinion about the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict and despite Lebanon’s official “state of war” with Israel, Bambi’s Afkar posts are SURELY not into censorship (as you all know), especially when sharing Fairouz beautiful music (from out of Canada and as widely found on Youtube).

To conclude this musical post, Bambi wishes Ms. Sama Aziz Shoufani a LONG career. Please keep singing and charming us with your voice and your style!

Did you know that today is the National Let’s Laugh Day. It is all about reminding us to take some time to laugh or to make someone’s day with our humour (https://bit.ly/2EEEhXu).

Thankfully, humour is absolutely free of charge while being accessible to all. In addition to being a cheap stress and pain relief “medicine”, humour is often contagious. This serves to reinforce social bonds, partly perhaps via the release of endorphins, which are our brain’s “feel-good” chemical messengers called neurotransmitters (https://bit.ly/3n57cze).

To benefit from the above and for more reasons, Bambi wishes you a fun day with at least one episode of a good laugh and lots of smiles. She will conclude this brief post with one kid’s song, two adult songs in French and English respectively (mentioning laughter), and… with two shorts featuring Mr. Mark Hachem making fun of Arabs 🙂 (i.e., with their endless voicemails and an escape of one’s family into space).

Just randomly, before heading to sleep, Bambi came across a grandiose song entitled “Beirut” , which seems to be two-week-old only. Bravo to Ms. Carole Samaha et al.!

Here is the text found on YouTube about this production: “Carole Samaha sings the poet Mahmoud Darwish in the “Golden Album” Vision & concept Album : Carole Samaha Music composer: Dr. Taisser Haddad Music Orchestration: Alexandre Missakian Kiev philharmonic orchestra Mix & Mastering: Jean-Pierre Boutros, Studio Playsound Lebanon. Carole’s vocals recorded at Sot El Hobb Studios – Cairo Recording Engineer: Akram Adel Oriental instruments & chorus recorded at Nota studio – Beirut Sound engineer: Eddy Jazra Artworks & Lyrics Video: H Media Solutions, Ahmed Hashem Video Direction & Animation: Omar Ayman Photo: Juliya Veklich Media consultant & marketing : Elie Abou Najem Outfit: Hass Idriss Hairdresser: Hamo Mohsen“.

Following the song, you can find a quick English translation of the lyrics by the late and great Palestinian poet, Mr. Mahmoud Darwish. Thanks to Mr. Google Translate for his help. The original Standard-Arabic lyrics follow the English words.

May Beirut rise again ❤️… Long live Lebanon and its capital!

“We burned our boats and hung our planets on the walls, O Beirut.

We are standing on the lines of fire, Beirut is an apple and the heart does not laugh.

And our siege is an oasis in a perishing world. We will dance the square and marry the night.

Oh Beirut, oh Beirut.

We will awaken this land that rested on our blood.

We’ll wake her up and extract our victims from her cells.

Arise, go home, our loved ones, go back to the wind that uprooted the south of the land.

From our ribs, go back to the sea, which does not remember the dead or the living.

Come back again.

We did not follow your lead in vain.

Our boats here are on fire“.

أحرقنا مراكبنا وعلقنا كواكبنا على الاسوار يا بيروت”
نحن الواقفين على خطوط النار بيروت تفاحه والقلب لا يضحك
وحصارنا واحه في عالم يهلك سنرقص الساحه و نزوج الليلك
يا بيروت يا بيروت

سنوقظ هذه الارض التي استندت الى دمنا
سنوقظها و نخرج من خلاياها ضحايانا

قوموا ارجعوا للبيت يا أحبابنا عودوا الى الريح التي اقتلعت جنوب الارض
من أضلاعنا عودوا الى البحر الذي لا يذكر الموتى ولا الاحياء

عودوا مرة اخرى
فلم نذهب وراء خطاكم عبثا
. “مراكبنا هنا احترقت

The lady shown above is (or was?) rather the HR Director of the City of Markham. She gave a talk to 100 students at the George Brown College. In discussing a real case study of an arbitration and engaging students to discuss how they would have handled this case, she pronounced the so-called “N- word“. Guess what happened? She apologized twice, immediately and again at the end of her lecture. Following this lecture, she was suspended from her municipal position (https://bit.ly/3ZWWJEi). If this is not a “Canadian delirium“, what is it then? Bambi calls such incidents “our collectively insane times“.

Bambi loves both bananas and Canada. She just does not like to see them increasingly combined. With all due respect to Mr. David Johnston, we learned today that he was named by our Prime Minster as a “Independent Special Rapporteur, which is “a new role as part of a suite of measures to help combat foreign interference [i.e. China”] and strengthen confidence in our federal electoral process and democratic institutions” (https://bit.ly/3JKXIlx).

Below you can first read and listen to Mr. Maxime Bernier (PPC) commenting on this nomination. Then, you can read Mr. Yves-François Blanchet’s (BQ) tweets in French, which inform us of the following: First, Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Johnston are good friends. Second, Mr. Johnston’s children studied in China.

If all this is not a conflict of interest, what is it then? This “special rapporteur” position appears to be FAR from being “independent” to the point that we can even wonder if it is not a political joke… but April Fool’s Day is still far away :).

Bambi would like to highlight this day in different ways:

First, she will thank her friend Jeff for sharing a picture of Mr. Gibran Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet… in Irish!

Second, she also would like to thank him for making her discover a beautiful short poem by Mr. Sheridan John Desmond (1903–80), Irish author of many books including “Joe’s no Saint and Other Poems”:

“No tears
Should ever come
To your dear eyes.
They should always be full
Of happiness, and laughter, and surprise

Tears are for tired eyes like mine –
That the world has made sad
Nothing can touch my heart
Or wake my fears
So surely as
Your tears”.

Third, she will pause to recall lovely memories of celebrations of Saint Patrick Day in three different Canadian provinces as well as during a trip to Beirut in which her cousin Rana took her out once at a nice Irish pub.

Last but not least, it is time for music now. First, the much talented Seo Linn singing a unique version of the traditional Irish song “Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile“. Second, the Saint Patrick’s Day kids’ song.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day ?! Bambi is thinking of all her friends (and kids’ friends :), especially of the Patrick, Patrice, and Patricia of this world!

She does not know about you, but a couple of melodies do make Bambi happier almost instantly. She will allow herself to share three of them in this musical post.

First, thanks to Mr. Kendji Girac for singing Aznavour’ Emmenez-moi [Take me along] in such a lovely and skilled way. Bambi will offer this song to… herself; yes tonight she wants to be absolutely selfish :).

Second, thanks to the talented Mr. André Souaid for his fantastic 3 dakat [3 heart beats] on the violin. Bambi will dedicate this musical piece to all of you, especially those who love this famous Egyptian summer love song.

Last but not least, bravo for Ms. Talia Lahoud for her beautiful interpretation of Fairouz’ Amara ya Amara [Amara Oh Amara], which is subtitled in English and Arabic. This is for you, dear Zeina ❤️. Bambi dreams of featuring this song again (among others!) in a future post, which will be devoted to your incredible singing talent. The latter makes your entire family members so happy… and proud!

In this post, Bambi will start by thanking Brittany for sharing a stunning sunrise in New Brunswick (Canada). If you wish, you can watch the magic of nature in her backyard in the short video shown below in which you can also hear birds singing. What a lovey way to start one’s day.

Following Brittany’s video, you may wish to appreciate a superb picture of the sunset in Lebanon. Thank you Hala for sharing with us this beauty in the horizon of the Mediterranean sea, which you captured from your own balcony… or “cloud”, as you joke. Yes, the cloud of beauty and humanity; despite any bankruptcy or craziness.

Whether you are reading this post following a sunrise, close to a sunset or in-between (depending on your time zone), may you have a good one. To celebrate the sunshine, Bambi will end this post on a musical note with the “Sous les sunlights des tropiques“, as performed by Chico & The Gipsies. Long live the beauty in our world. May it always relax and inspire our minds!