سلم لي عليه - Sallem Li 3aleih (Say Hello to Him for Me)

I apologize for taking a while to follow up my last post. I was caught up last week with finals, graduation, and yeah things happening in my life. Anyway, it took me a while to figure out which song I should go with next, and I had so many ideas, and ultimately could not choose. So, I opened my iTunes, searched for Fairouz, put songs on shuffle, and hit play. The result: this song. To start with Here's the lyrics, followed by the translation.

سلم لي عليه و قلو إني بسلم عليه
و بوسلي عينيه و قلو إني ببوس عينيه
إنتا يللي بتفهم عليه سلملي عليه سلم
قلو عيونو مش فجأة بينتسو
ضحكات عيونو ثابتين ما بينقصو
مدري شو بو و بعرف شو بو
مطبوعة بذاكرتو ما تبحثو عم تبحثو
ما تبحثو ما تبحثو ما تبحثو
هيدا حبيبي اللي إسمي بيهمسو
تعبان على سكوتو و دارسو
واضح شو بو ما تقول شو بو
أعمل حالك مش عارف ما تحرأسو بتحرأسو
ما تحرأسو ما تحرأسو ما تحرأسو
سلملي لي عليه و قلو إني بسلم عليه
بوسلي عينيه هو و مفتحهن عينيه
و بوسو بخدو طوللي عليه فهمت علي أيه و سلم
و أنا عم غني المذهب و لما بغني ردو عليه
و بعدو نفسو المذهب و لولا قدرتو زيدو عليه
و عودو تبقو عيدو الكوبلية سلملي عليه سلم 

Say hi to him for me, and tell him I said hi

Kiss his eyes for me, and tell him I kiss his eyes

You who knows him, say hi to him for me

Tell him that his eyes cannot be suddenly forgotten

The laughter in his eyes is always there and will never be less

I am not aware of what is up with him, and I know what is up with him

It is imprinted in his memory, and don't try to look it up

Don't search for it, don't search for it, don't search for it.

This is my love who whispers my name

He works for this silence and studies it.

It is obvious what is up with him, say what is up with him

You pretend that you do not know, and shy away

Don't shy away, don't shy away, don't shy away

Say hi to him for me, and tell him I say hi

Kiss his eyes for me when he has them open

Kiss his cheek, and make it a long one. Do you understand what you have to do?

I will sing the chorus and when I sing, repeat it

And then the same chorus, and if you can add some of it

And come back and repeat this last verse, and say hi to him for me.

and of course, here's the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_7gaJBwHwM

So, the song is basically about this woman who misses her man and is sending her love with a common friend who will have the chance to see him soon. She's going through this huge romantic gesture of making a song for him because she terribly misses him. She misses his laughter and deciphering his actions, which apparently no one else can understand. She knows her guy is super quiet and a major introvert and he will never go out of his way to show his emotions, but she's okay with that.

Why do I love this song? Well, I have a couple of people in my life at the moment that I want to send my hellos to and show them how much I care. They are my childhood friends in Egypt, especially my super close friend who went to hell and back with me when we were growing up. This girl understands me even without saying a word, and she is not the kind who will tell you straight away what's on her mind, so I just want to say, "I miss you!!" Another reason why I love this song is the fact that my mom used to play it a lot when I was little. She had some Fairouz album on tape that she played over and over again, and this song always stuck with me. At first, I always found the whole "kiss his eyes for me" part unhygienic, and slightly weird that you will involve a third-party in this weird request, but the song grew on me afterwards. As things stand, it now symbolizes my wish to tell those who mean a lot to me how much I miss them. So, if you even find me sending you this song, know that you are important to me, and I miss you. I truly do.