Language of Song and Dance
Arabic script in Roman characters. For example, one popular song might be spelled in any of the following ways: "Habena", "Hebeena", "Hibbena", etc. But experiment with different spellings, and maybe you'll find what you're looking for.
Contact Musicians for Help
Another possible approach to finding song translations is to contact the artist who recorded the CD that you found the song on. You probably won't have much success contacting famous artists like Tarkan who recorded through big-name studios, but individuals in your own country who produced their CD's themselves may be willing to share what they know.
Ask Other Dancers
Subscribe to a Middle Eastern dance listserv such as med-dance (send e-mail to majordomo@world.std.com with "subscribe med-dance" as the only text in the body of the message), or join a Yahoo egroup on Oriental dance. Ask the other members of these groups whether anyone can tell you what your favorite song is about. Maybe someone else has a translation that an Arabic friend did for her.
In Conclusion
If you love Middle Eastern dance enough to spend large amounts of your time and money on acquiring costumes, attending events, and taking classes, then I urge you to also invest in learning at least a little Arabic or Turkish.
If you want to make claims that you are a "professional" dancer or instructor, then I encourage you to make the investment to build your own knowledge so that you can represent the dance with respect and dignity even in front of ethnic audiences who speak the language and know what the songs are about.
The tools for learning a little about these languages are out there, and the resources for researching song translations are out there. It may take a little time to investigate these resources, but you'll be rewarded with a better relationship with the ethnic audiences in your community.
This article is part of the Suite101 "Middle Eastern Dance" topic area. For the other Suite101 articles, discussion forums, and opinion polls related to Middle Eastern dance, music, and culture, see the Welcome page on Suite101. For other articles written by Shira about these topics, please see Shira's own popular web site at www.shira.net.
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