Arabic songs can be written in formal Arabic or in a spoken dialect, and the two can be as different as two languages. Arabic and English are already set in the translator above. Paste the lyrics for a faithful English translation, a singable version and notes on the dialect and the imagery.
Older and more formal songs use classical or Modern Standard Arabic, while most pop is sung in a dialect: Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Iraqi or Maghrebi. The same idea can use completely different words. The translator recognizes the major dialects, and the notes say when a word means something specific in one of them.
Arabic marks gender in verbs, pronouns and even the word you (enta to a man, enti to a woman). Many love songs address the beloved in the masculine as a poetic convention, whatever the real gender. English loses all of this, and the notes mention it when it matters.
Arabic has many words for love and longing, from hubb to hawa to shawq, each with its own shade. One English word, love, cannot carry them all, so the faithful version chooses the closest English for each line and the notes explain the difference.
Arabic script gives the best results. Lyrics typed in Latin letters and numbers (Arabizi, like 7abibi) can be read too, but they are less precise, because several Arabic sounds share one Latin letter.
Arabic melodies stretch long vowels across many notes and repeat phrases and calls like ya leil. A literal English version can look repetitive on paper, but in the singable version that repetition is part of the music, so it is kept where it carries the melody.
Two original lines, written for this page in Egyptian Arabic, with a romanized version underneath. The first line has 11 syllables and the second has 12.
يا قمر الليل قول له إني سهران
Pronunciation: ya amar el leil, oulloh inni sahran
وإن سأل عني قول له لسه بستناه
Pronunciation: w in sa'al 'anni, oulloh lessa bastannah
O moon of the night, tell him I am awake,
and if he asks about me, tell him I am still waiting for him.
Moon of the night, go and tell him I can't sleep
and if he asks for me, say I'm still waiting up
Sahran means staying up late into the night, usually because of love or worry, so the singable line says I can't sleep. Lessa is Egyptian for still, one of the words that tells you this is dialect rather than formal Arabic, where you would expect ma ziltu. The singer and the person being waited for are both masculine, which may be literal or the poetic habit of addressing the beloved as he.
Modern Standard and classical Arabic, and the major spoken dialects, including Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Iraqi and Maghrebi. Strong local slang can be harder, and the notes say when a word was interpreted rather than translated directly.
Yes, but Arabic script is more accurate. In Arabizi, several different Arabic sounds can be written with the same Latin letter or number, so a few words may be read the wrong way.
Arabic love songs often address the beloved in the masculine as a convention. The faithful version follows the grammar of the original, and the notes mention it when the real gender is likely different, so you can change it in your own version.
It is written for one: each line stays within about two syllables of the Arabic and close to its stress pattern, and rhyming lines still rhyme. Arabic melodies stretch vowels over many notes, so sing it through and adjust where the English feels too busy. If the song is not yours, releasing a cover with new lyrics may need permission from its writers or publisher.