Sometimes Bambi likes to hear the same song over and over. There is something soothing about repetition in life (when it does not becoming boring to death :).
Seriously, since yesterday evening, one song has been on Bambi’s mind, even before closing her eyes to sleep. It is called Bayti Ana Baytak [My home is yours] and it is like a prayer (spiritual). Thank you Fairouz and the Rahbani Brothers for the Key Guardian album, which includes this beautiful melody. In Arabic, the album in question is called Natourit el Mafatih.
The overall area of the Rabbit Island is about 4.2 km ² (likely also including the two smaller islands of Ramkeen and Sanani). It is located 5.5 Km from the coast, namely from the Noth-West of Elmina, Tripoli.
Now, if you are curious about the cute name of this island, like Bambi has been during her childhood, here is its origins: It comes from the LARGE number of rabbits that were grown on it during the French mandate of Lebanon in early 1920s (Lebanon got its independence on November 22, 1943). Cool, isn’t it? Here is picture of a rabbit for you taken from Plus 961 (https://plus961.blog/2020/07/16/8-things-you-didnt-know-about-rabbits-island/).
A resident of the Rabbit Island (Lebanon). A picture taken from Plus 961,
Before showing you two short yet fun videos featuring this island that Bambi found on YouTube, here are some interesting pictures and facts.
The first picture comes from 961:
A picture of the Rabbit Island in Lebanon (Jazeerat el Araneb in Arabic) taken from 961.
The next picture below shows another resident of the island, thanks also to Plus 961. Well, as can you see it is a beautiful giant sea turtle!
This picture of the giant sea turtle is now bringing Bambi perhaps 37 years ago [when she was born : ). That was a joke obviously]. She was a teenager at the time on a kayak by herself across from the coast of a city North of Beirut, called Jounieh. She saw five giant turtles floating and looking completely still. Her excitement to bump into them did not last long as she quickly understood that something was deeply wrong about them. She quickly reached the shore and called for help. Two men came and checked on them. They were divers and experts of the sea. Their verdict was that the five turtles got killed by the heavy shelling the night before that morning. Leaving this very sad story behind, Bambi will now share a happier scene with you:
A resident or a guest of the Rabbit Island in Lebanon (Jazeerat el Araneb in Arabic) . A picture taken from Plus 961.
OK, enough of rabbits and turtles now and back to the island itself and its human guests, the tourists.
The Rabbit Island in Lebanon (Jazeerat el Araneb in Arabic) . A picture taken from die Deusche Welle (DW) initially by Getty Images/the Associated France Press (AFP).
The Rabbit Island in Lebanon (Jazeerat el Araneb in Arabic) . A picture taken from die Deusche Welle (DW) initially by Getty Images/the Associated France Press (AFP).
Indeed, there will be a last fact or fun human story for you before the two promised videos, which will be followed by three songs, to end this post on a musical note.
First, we will hear our own Mr. Daniel Lavoie singing in French, with English sub-titles, J’ai quitté mon île [I left my island]. Second, if you wish, you can hear a very talented Lebanese singer discovered lately by Bambi, thanks to a Lebanese-American internet radio station. Her name is Ms. Christina Haddad. Her first song does not need any introduction as it is Madonna’s La Isla Bonita. Last but not least, Mr. Haddad’s last song is actually on of Bambi’s favourite ones in life, as you may know. Yes, it is the Egyptian Three dakat [3 heart beats] about a summer love on the beach. Ms. Haddad interprets it in her unique way and pace. Bambi hopes you will enjoy it.
Before letting music have the final word, it is time now for the last historical piece of information related to the Lebanese islands that Bambi mentioned earlier. Thank you Plus 961 for the interesting information!
A screen shot taken from Plus 961 (link provided above).
Below you can find a quick English translation of his Lebanese-Arabic song entitled “Kilna Mninjar” [We all get pulled], which Bambi loves, especially the first sentence. The latter reminds us that we are all human. Yes, a hardship can bring out the worst of human nature in anyone of us. However, the good piece of news is that it can also bring the best of human nature… Thank Goodness.
This being said, thanks/bravo to Mr. Kfoury for his great talent, beautiful voice, and inspiring career!
“We all get pulled. We start walking on a path, which starts good and turns evil (2)
And
you are free
This
life is very alluring
Our
planet keeps spinning
And
you want us to walk straight?
An
to ignore the truth?
Do
you want to hear the truth?
People
hate hearing the word “No”
This
world turned upside down
What is forbidden is what we desire the most
The
difference between what is right and wrong is getting smaller
In 2021 Bambi offered her sister and nephew personalized birthday songs with their respective names found on Youtube. A year later, their double birthday post is slightly different with one song meant for a nephew and the other for a sister (thanks to a certain Mr. Claude Marceau for making his two videos public).
In addition to the above, Rania and Michael you will also be jointly offered “Sana Helwa Ya Gamil” [the Arabic version of Happy Birthday] and “Oui, c’est la vie” the joyful song of Sheb Khaled inviting you/us all to dance.
May you have a wonderful day and a great year, each one of you! Bambi loves you beyond any word in any language, including music 🙂 ❤️❤️!
Bambi has an older post on “love with a big L”, as shown below.
This post is more focused on romantic love and it is strictly musical.
If she may, Bambi would like to offer this lovely song, produced by Sway Entertainment, to to her friend Mary and her sister Roula. If she recalls well, both of them shared with her this beautiful artistic performance on the streets of Beirut. Well, while searching for another Lebanese song, she came across this one. See it was meant to be posted :).
Bravo to these Lebanese artists who creatively blended a famous English love song with an Arabic classical one, Ahwak by the great Egyptian singer, Mr. Abdel Halim Hafez (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Halim_Hafez).
May ONLY love fill the streets of Beirut… May love, with big and small Ls, warm people’s hearts and inspire their minds wherever they are in Lebanon or around the world, including us here in Canada!
Bambi loves Ms. Ginette Reno. Indeed, she admires her incredible voice and inspiring career. We are so lucky (blessed even!) to have her in Québec/Canada.
Tonight, almost randomly, Bambi discovered one of Ms. Reno’s most uplifting songs entitled “Merci la vie“, which means “Thank You Life“. Below you can find an English translation (in bold) for you, taken from Musixmatch, followed by the melody.
Bambi hopes you will enjoy this song as much as she did. If she may now, she would like to offer it to a good friend, much talented in gratitude toward life, who also enjoys travelling around the world (e.g., Yerevan among other destinations).
Lyrics (English in bold)
“For the earth and for the water
/ Bravo! Pour la terre et pour l’eau / Bravo!
For the
sky and the bird / Hats off! Pour le
ciel et l’oiseau / Chapeau!
For the sun, the rain / Also! Pour le soleil, la pluie / Aussi!
I say
thank you! Je dis
Merci!
Thank you life! Merci la vie!
For this world that goes / Viva! Pour ce monde qui va / Viva!
For those
peals of laughter / Hooray! Pour ces
rires en éclats / Hourra!
For a few tears too / Too bad! Pour quelques larmes aussi / Tant pis!
I say thank you! Je dis Merci!
Thank you life! Merci la vie!
For the stream that goes to the
sea Pour le
ruisseau qui va vers la mer
For the oasis in the desert Pour l’oasis dans le désert
The showers of stars and their procession Les pluies d’étoiles et leur cortège
For major holidays and for
Christmas Pour les
grandes vacances et pour Noël
For the bees and for their honey Pour les abeilles et pour leur miel
Easter bells and snowmen Les cloches de Pâques et les bonhommes de neige
For that grenadine/Chin milk! Pour ce lait grenadine / Chin!
Chin! Chin!
When we have to go / Bye! Quand il faut qu’on s’en aille / Bye!
Bye! Bye!
And for all these feedback / Hello! Et pour tous ces retours / Bonjour!
I say
thank you! Je dis
Merci!
Thank you life! Merci la vie!
For all we have / Extra! Pour tous ce que l’on a / Extra!
For what
remains to be done / Great! Pour ce qu’il reste à faire / Super!
For this infinite dream / Also! Pour ce rêve infini / Aussi!
Hope in Lebanon did not last long since its last May 15 Parliamentary elections.
Hope of change with some new faces of independent, and highly skilled, elected politicians.
Hope of economic reforms and accountability to end corruption and bring justice.
Hope of the end of sectarianism and ghosts of strife or wars.
Why is Bambi saying all the above? Well, she just learned from journalist Roula Douglas’ re-tweets that the new Lebanese Parliament elected the same (highly corrupt) “dinosaur” for the seventh times in a row as President of Parliament. What a joke. Should we sarcastically laugh or cry “dam albna” (cry the blood of our heart, as they say in Lebanese Arabic)?
How sad for Lebanon. There too, like in Canada, politicians like to use beautiful words. Bambi read that someone said: It is a big day for democracy in Lebanon. He is right: it is a BIG day. Mabrouk! Not for democracy… but rather for STUPIDITY :(.
In the meantime, look at where Lebanon is now in terms of economic distress: Yes # 1 on the list before (in order) Belarus, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.
To conclude this post on a musical note (even if the heart does not feel like singing), one melody comes to Bambi’s mind while thinking of the people of her birth country. It is Mawtini [My Homeland] interpreted by the moving Ms. Talia Lahoud and sub-titled in English.
Is Bambi’s mom who, 49-50 years ago intuitively knew she was carrying a girl in her womb and even chose her name, simply “one of the people welove“? How is that possible? Yes, are our mothers “people we love” and are we to our children “people they love“? Why can’t we still call the most meaningful spade of our life a spade? Don’t mothers of the world deserve it?
“The media informed us this week that, in a growing number of French schools, Mother’s Day is replaced by a strange name, namely “Day of the People We Love”. The stated reason is often the same: Mother’s Day would discriminate against children from single-parent or homoparental families, or, even more, against those who are victims of parental abuse. Why then confine love to an exclusive figure to which not everyone would have access?
Behind this claimed sentimental pragmatism, a completely different movement is revealed, which we have become accustomed to associate with deconstruction. In the name of diversity, It is a question of erasing all clearly marked cultural or anthropological symbols, to replace them with more general terms, often floating, and even elusive, deemed more “inclusive” and less restrictive…”.
The rest of the article appears in the link above in a free-of-charge-format, as explained by Dr. Bock-Côté below:
To conclude this post, which seems to indicate collectively insane times have also reached France, Bambi would like to end with a kids’ song she loves so much. She would like to end with a song written for French mothers. A couple of years ago, she offered it to her own mom in Beirut on her Mother’s Day, which falls on March 21st. It is entitled “Maman, les petits bateaux ont-ils des jambes” [“Mom, do small boats have legs“?]?
Mr. Jean Charest is hoping to win the leadership of his Conservative Party of Canada. Today he tweeted the following in Canada’s official languages:
He is telling us that, in Canada, we live in one of the freest countries in the world :). Should we smile, laugh, or cry? At the moment Bambi posted the above, 788 readers liked his comment. What does this tell us, Bambi wonders?
Doesn’t he read the news about increased surreal censorship sagas in our country, including but sadly FAR from being limited to Bambi?
Is Mr. Charest running for the largest opposition party or for the party in power? And would there be any difference?
To conclude this post, and if she may, Bambi would like to offer Mr. Charest, Dalida’s song. Yes, it is the exact same melody she offers to Mr. Trudeau on this blog from time to time :). You have probably guessed that it is Dalida and Mr. Alain Delon’s eternal song “Paroles, Paroles” about the “blahblahblah” of beautiful yet empty words in (some) romantic relationships :). Sometimes people like to hear nice words so badly. They seem to be in denial or deceive themselves, especially when they are in love. They do not seem to care about reality checks or walks. In other terms, talks seem to be enough to act as a pleasant music to their ears, at least until their next disappointment or major couple crisis. Will potential voters of the Conservative Party of Canada be like the latter when they will chose their next leader? Time will tell…
“Mabrouk” mom/dad :)! Bambi will start by thanking you for having offered your children life, love, roots, wings, and a living example of a beautiful 56-year-long union (63 if we count all your years of love since youth) ❤️.
This being said, it is now time for music! Yes, with MUCH love, your fawn would like to offer you mom and dad four songs, which are interpreted by different artists.
The first melody is Fairouz’ love song, entitled “Ana la habibi wa habibi ily” [“I belong to my lover and my lover belongs to me”], and in three versions: the original, subtitled in English, followed by two other versions by two talented artists, namely Ms. Talia Lahoud and Mr. Eido el Fakir. Bambi just discovered Mr. el Fakir whose voice and sensitivity moved her heart.
The second melody is by our own Mr. Daniel Lavoie. Mom, guess what this great Canadian artist will sing for you today? Yes, you likely got it right: “Ils s’aiment comme des enfants” [“They love each other like children do”] in a duo with the fabulous Ms. Luce Dufault.
Now, perhaps you are wondering if Bambi is too romantic today. Maybe. This is why your third song is just meant to encourage you to dance. Yes, it is Mr. Ramy Ayash’s “Mabrouk” [“Congrats”] Lebanese song. A melody to move? Sure. Just make no mistake. This song has a touch of oriental sentimentalism. You cannot escape it :).
As for your fourth and last song, it is an invitation not only to dance, but also to joyfully socialize with your loved ones. Yes, it is Mr. Hicham El Hajj’s “Yalla Nifrah” [“Let’s Rejoice“]’s melody, hoping you will enjoy listening to it.
To conclude this post, once again, “Alef Mabrouk” mom and dad ❤️. Have fun!
