Song of the Week: Raj'een Ya Hawa

Just recently, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. While I plan on writing about this experience in a separate post, I wanted to share the next edition of Song of the Week! 

I heard this week's song, Raj'een Ya Hawa, on my trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. in the exhibit dedicated to the ongoing crisis in Syria. The fourth floor of the museum is periodically dedicated to an ongoing genocide or humanitarian crisis. While walking through the exhibit, there was place where this song was sung by a Syrian man undergoing extreme persecution. I was enveloped by the tune with its distinct Middle Eastern style and jotted down the title to research when I got home. 

I was able to find this cover of the song by Lina Sleibi, a Lebanese singer. Her voice with its haunting lilts captured my breath. The freedom of the melody travels with a hint of nostalgia through each verse. Raj'een Ya Hawa is both love song, and a farewell song. Yet it is also about returning home. Its very title, "We are Coming Back, O Love," is a promise of hope.

Oh you are the flower for the poor / We are coming back, oh love / To love's home / filled with the fire of love / coming back

Those of you who know me, know I sing in a variety of languages including: Russian, German, Italian, Korean, Hebrew, and Chinese. I decided after hearing Lina's version of the song that my next language will be Arabic. 

After contacting a friend, I was able to find out a bit more about the song, namely that it is a very popular song originally by Fairouz, a famous Lebanese singer. Since then, besides working on learning Raj'een Ya Hawa, I've been listening to other songs by Lina Sleibi and Fairouz. I even found Lina's performance of an Aramaic Syriac Christian hymn, At Your Doors! (English translation available here). 

Raj'een Ya Hawa is a song to be savored.I am so glad I heard it for the first time with the experience of the Holocaust Museum. The museum emphasizes what it means to be a "witness." Now that we know about the Holocaust, what will we do about it? In the same way, when we see the poor, the orphaned, the Least of These lead off to slaughter - what will we do? Like the song, we may say we are leaving, but in reality - we are drawn to come back. Love should compel us to return and make an active difference. (James 1:27).

It is our responsibility. We can no longer stay silent. 

English Translation: 

We are coming back, oh love
coming back
Oh you are the flower for the poor
We are coming back, oh love
To love's home
filled with the fire of love
coming back

We bid an age farewell
And go to another age
It forgets us upon the land of forgetfulness
We say that we are leaving
but in reality we are coming back
to love's home
And we don't know it
We are coming back, oh love
To love's home
filled with the fire of love
coming back