This is a famous song by Ziad Rahbani, one of my favourite Lebanese singers (and Feyrouz’s son, for what it’s worth). It’s in the classic Lebanese leftist ‘being poor ruined my relationship’ genre.
الحالة تعبانة يا ليلى
il7aali ta3baani yaa leyla
I’m in a bad way, Leila
Literally ‘the situation is tired’. Obviously saying ‘the situation is’ anything in English is very unidiomatic, but the same doesn’t apply to الحالة. The meaning of ta3baane here isn’t so much tired as ‘worn out’, ‘miserable’ (as in نفسيتي تعبانة ‘I’m worn out, depressed’ or بيت تعبان ‘a crappy/worn out house).
خطبة ما فيش
khéTbi mafiish
There’s no chance of an engagement
انتي غنية يا ليلى ونحنا دراويش
2inti ghaniyyi yaa leyla w né7na darawiish
You’re rich, Leila, and we’re poor
دراويش – plural of درويش, meaning something like ‘beggar’ literally.
انتي في وادي ونحنا في وادي
inti fii waadi w né7na fii waadi
We’re living in different worlds
Literally ‘you’re in a valley and we’re in a valley’. This is a common expression (X bwaad w Y bwaad) that expresses insurmountable difference between ways of thinking, social positions, etcetera.
كل لحظة بعدنا زيادة
kéll la7Za b3édna zyaade
Every moment we got further away
ارض العنا بلا سجادة وانتي معودة تمشي ع الريش
2arD il3énna bala séjjaade w2inti m3awwadi témshi 3arriish
We don’t even have a rug and you’re used to walking on feathers
ارض – floor, in this case
العنا – our house, from عندنا.
بلا سجادة – without a rug
معودة – less common than متعود, the active participle of the passive version.
تمشي ع الريش – this is an idiom referring to living a fancy life, with some wordplay obviously in the contrast with us not having a carbet. Subjunctive because of معود.
احتارو فيكي وحيروكي
7taaru fiiki w 7ayyaruuki
They were confused by you, they confused you
ضلو حتى غيروكي
Dallu 7atta ghayyaruuki
They kept going ’til they changed you
لبسوكي تاج ملوكي
labbasuuki taaj @mluuki
They put a crown on you
لبّس is causative, obvs
ونسيتي اهل الطرابيش
w @nsiiti 2ahl éTTarabiish
And you forget all about the normal people
اهل الطرابيش – you’ve probably encountered this use of 2ahl (‘the people of’) before, which is a lot more common in Arabic than in English. A طربوش is a fez, so literally ‘the fez people’. Here he’s using fez as a symbol for class, obviously.
رزق الله لمن كنتي وكنا
réz2aLLa lémmen kénti w kénna
How great it was when
رزقالله – this word has various different forms (z2aLLa, s2aLLa etc). It usually expresses nostalgia and is most commonly followed by a word meaning ‘when’.
لمن – one of various regional forms of lamma.
نجي لعندك تجي لعنا
néji la3éndek téji la3énna
We’d come and see you and you’d come and see us
The verbs are subjunctive because of the kénti w kénna in the previous sentence, which connects to this one. It’s literally ‘when you would and we would / come and see you, come and see us’.
لعندك, لعننا – the old chez-esque use of 3énd, obviously.
تاري العاش حدك وتهنى
taari l-3aash 7addek w @thanna
You know for someone who’s lived alongside you and loved it
تاري – in southern Lev 2ataari. Means something along the lines of ‘turns out that’.
العاش حدك وتهنى – this is a reduced form of اللي عاش حدك وتهنى, i.e. ‘who has lived next to you and loved it’.
صعبة يرجع وحدو ويعيش
Sa3bi yérja3 wa7do w y3iish
It’s difficult to go back to living alone
يرجع وحدو ويعيش — literally ‘go back to being on his own and live’ – this is a common use of réje3 with nouns, adjectives etc. Subjunctive because of ‘it’s difficult for’.