Writing songs in Arabic

For the longest time, the question that I would get the most is "Hey, why haven't you written a song in Arabic?", which is a very good question. I'm actually easing my self into it, my first attempt was a verse on a song called "Mesuzam" by my Tajiki brother from another mother, Seeno. Since it was only a verse, and I simply mimicked his melody structure, it went by smoothly! plus the rest of song was in Tajiki! so it didn't make sense for me to write in English!

In my upcoming album "Novella" I've used some minimal Arabic, the chorus for the songs "Land of Ornith" & "Shukran my totem" are both in Arabic & English, I'm warming up to the idea a bit.

What makes songwriting in Arabic a little difficult for me are two things: Vocabulary & Imagery.

Vocabulary is a VAST journey in the English language, which is a gift & a curse, but due to that fact, I'm able to find several words, with different symbols & sounds, to mean the same thing.
For example, lets say I wanted to use the word "Water",  I can use "water; serum, serosity; lymph; rheum; diluent; agua, aqua...ect.", each one of these words (nouns) sound different, yet they all relate back to the word I wanted to use!. I have not found that in Arabic, if I wanted to use "Water", my options are "water; sea; ocean; river; nile; rain" all are things that "contain" water, but don't "mean" water which limits my ability to fully express what I want to say.

Imagery is extremely important to me, I'm very visual in my writing, I try my best to give the listener a lush visual of the setting of the song/person/place. When I try to do that in Arabic, it sounds..awkward. This is due to years & years of specific images that you would hear consistently.

A little background on the Arab Music Scene that I have witnessed.

Most of the songs you would hear from the Middle East are either Love songs / Political songs / Heartbreak songs. You wouldn't hear a song like "Space Oddity", which is one of my favorite songs on the planet (pun intended). Also songs in the Middle East have their own culture, every now & then you will find a singer/songwriter who writes his own songs, most of the time, there are a few famous Lyricists, a few famous Composers, & a producer chooses the Lyrics from one person, gets it Composed by another person, & gives it to a Singer to sing. So you end up with many singers, singing VERY similar lyrics, to VERY similar compositions! & that became the "Norm". Of course there are a few exceptions to the rule!

Sudanese music is like the Indie Underground scene, that (in my opinion) is one of the coolest, because it breaks the "Norm". You will find Western influence in the music, & many of the singers are their own Songwriters, which makes the songs more authentic & heart felt .
For example the artist Hider Bor-Sudan wrote a song about Port Sudan describing the city by the sea as a Mermaid, it was a love song to the city, no politics, no nothing. The execution of the song was even simpler, it was just Hider with a keyboard, he used one of the built in beats on the keyboard while playing the song!. Very Indie! you wouldn't hear many songs like this in the rest of the Mid-East, they mostly have big productions for their songs. Don't get me wrong, we have Sudanese artist who play with bands as well! & they sound awesome, but you would find more Indie artist like Hider in Sudan :)

...Back to Imagery.
When I try to translate the images I have in my head, from English to Arabic, it just doesn't sound write. It sounds almost forced, also they are very unconventional. Western culture has a huge influence in my writing, mythical creatures like Dragons & Unicorns can easily find their way to my songs, & it would make sense in English..in fact, there is no word for "Unicorn" in Arabic, it just translates to "fictional animal with one horn". See what I mean! :).
The other way around though is much easier! I can think of an Arab imagery & easily translate it into English, due to the vast vocabulary of the language! Which is why I personally feel that I have more poetic freedom, & that my imagination runs farther & wilder in English.
But I am not giving up hope, one day I will try to write an entire song in my native tongue, even if its a simple homage to the language! & will do my best to make it the most poetic piece I write in the Arab tongue.

I hope you enjoyed the post.
Much Love.
-Mosno