Little attention is paid to Iraqi lyrics, which date back millennia. Unlike Iraq’s formal poetry, which both in its classic and free verse forms is prized as one of the richest branches of the Arab literary tree, the vernacular lyrics of Iraq have received little attention. Iraqi lyrics can take many forms, but most often it is the form of a song. Together with its traditional Maqams, a modal system used in Oriental music, the often vernacular lyric makes a heartfelt connection to Iraq’s profound social history, art and culture.

In more recent times, Iraqi lyrics have reflected the trajectory of modernity since the state was born in 1921, making it an essential part of the nation’s popular culture. Its poetic sense combines ingredients of selfhood, individuality, community, religion, ideology, nation, class and gender. It also carries the diversity of the country’s local cultures and their musical styles and traditions. But most significantly, in their original genre and via their performance and poetry, Iraqi songs mirror and document romantic love as a prominent component of Iraqi’s human and social experience.

While lyrics explore the tension between desire and societal constraints, the music is deeply touching using lower tone melodies and reflecting powerful, appealing emotions.  However hard the times, Iraqi artists and listeners alike have responded to the themes of romance across time and space. A typical Iraqi song is a mesmerizing love story heard in the minds with its resonance going through the stomach.

Though Iraqi songs have been famous across the Arab world, Iraqi popular lyrics rarely receive the critical acclaim or academic representation they deserve. This deprives researchers of vital insights into the long struggle of modern Iraq to define its cultural identity through its rich and soulful music and singing. Instead, Iraqi songs that reflect the country’s ethnic and geographic diversity have often been the victim of stereotyping by characterising them as being dominated by grief and sorrow. This attitude denies Iraqi songs complexity and sophistication in expressing all manner of things, from feelings of love to appreciation of nature.

Listen to any discussion on Iraqi love songs abroad and the debate is always about why they are so sad, even nihilistic. Like many issues in identity politics, however, reflecting and mirroring the prevailing sense of culture based on stereotypical assumptions is a mistake. While further analytical and critical studies are needed, this is hardly the kind of cultural criticism that puts art in its proper socioeconomic perspective and breaks the boundary between popular and high culture.

They Say

Song: Qahtan Al-Attar

Lyrics: Jabbar Al-Ghazzi

Music: Muhsen Farhan

They say, Sing merrily!

They say, Sing merrily!

Me, whose songs are overwhelmed with sorrow?

I have been planted in the desert,

Deprived of water,

I sometimes dip,

At another time I rise.

Lost in the midst of nowhere,

Captivated by love,

Going nowhere, coming from nowhere.

They say, Sing merrily!

Me, whose songs are overwhelmed by sorrow?

Taken by a wheel all over the cities,

Strangers became my siblings,

And my friends laugh at me.

My years have been split between longing and patience.   

They say, Sing merrily!

Burn all the strips of blame,

Throw them to the wind,

And forget all talk of love,

You, whose hair is prettily made,

Life is nothing but a spent candle.

All that talk is over.

They say, Sing merrily!

They say, Sing merrily!

I used to see you as a full moon,

And a crescent from afar.

But once I was close you looked sad on that day of feast.

I know that life is dark when you do not come by.

At your doorsteps

Song: Hameed Mansour

Lyrics: Kadhum Al-Roy’ee

Music: Talib Al-Karaghouli

It was a pure chance.

I passed your house.

Once I stepped near the threshold,

Longing gathered in my soul.

And I hungered for your news.

I didn’t recall we’d parted,

Longing returned to my eyes

Once I was by the threshold.

All those desires gathered in my soul

And I hungered for your news.

Is that the end of our love story?

No passion, no memory,

No more coming into my dreams,

And no more naps for my eyelids.

Not even letters flying with our wishes.

I guess what’s left is poetry and songs.

I failed to recall we’d parted,

Longing returned to my eyes

Once I was by the threshold.

All those desires gathered in my soul

And I hungered for your news.

Your love returned, with sighs and songs.

Grudgingly, it echoed sorrow and joy,

Again I yearned for you,

Immersed in doubts of love.

Your love returned, with sighs and songs.

Grudgingly, it echoed sorrow and joy.

Your love returned, with sighs and songs.

Grudgingly, it echoed sorrow and joy.

I returned overwhelmed,

Opened the windows of love

With my two hands,

As if I hadn’t repent of your love.

I said goodbye.

I didn’t recall we’d parted,

Longing returned to my eyes.

Once I was by the threshold

Longing gathered in my soul,

And I hungered for your news.

Planet

Song: Rahma Riyadh

Lyrics: Mahir Al-Azzawi

Music: Ali Sabir

Let’s be a star and a cloud,

Travelling far and high,

And make no comeback.

Leave the planet and its injustice.

Let’s fly alone, high,

Plant a star in the sky,

Draw our love in the air,

And pray to God to keep us far and high.

We spend our time in love and longing,

Teach people caring,

Never talk about parting,

Making the world rosy.

Let’s be a star and a cloud,

Travelling far and high,

And never come back.

Leave the planet and its injustice.

Let’s fly alone, high,

Plant a star in the sky,

Draw our love in the air,

And pray to God to keep us far and high.

We spend our time in love and longing

Teach people caring,

Never talking about parting,

Making the world rosy.

What’s life without love?

It is tasteless, worthless.

Let’s fly far and high,

Give up the planet and its injustice.

Farewell

Singer: Mohammad Jawad Amori

Lyrics: Kadhum Ismael Ghate’a

Music: Mohammad Jawad Amori

In God’s hand.

Farewell, cheek.

In God’s hand,

Never to come back,

Farewell.

Let me smell you

Before parting,

Begging for your forgiveness.

Hold my chest,

To yours.

Listen to its countless beats.

Farewell.

You are the spring of my life.

It has gone dry after you.

Not one year, not two.

To bear your parting,

My heart has become a pillow in your tomb.

At dusk my eyes watch out for you.

Farewell.

O Love never reaped in April,

A spring never reaching its shores,

To whom shall I talk?

And who shall welcome me

When I am back home

And find the door slammed behind me?

In God’s hand, cheek.

Farewell.

In God’s hand.

Never come back.

Kind Hearted

Song: Ridha Ali

Lyrics: Seif Al-Deen Walaee

Music: Ridha Ali

Come on,

Kind hearted one.

Come on,

Kind hearted one.

Come on, come on.

You are my sun,

You are my shadow.

You know your parting is hard,

Never trouble-free.

Have you forgotten,

Do you ever remember

How happily we spent our youth.

The day you didn’t pass by,

I wasn’t happy,

Could never rest.

Can’t you see how dark our neighbourhood has become?

Come on,

Kind hearted one.

Whenever night falls

You shine.

I feel exhausted when you intend to go.

My tears flow,

They become water.

Come on, kind hearted one.

Haven’t you heard what happened to me?

You, joy of feasts,

Sorrow, trouble, pique

All descended on me

Without warning.

Come on and light my house like a mother, like a father,

Come on.

Come on,

Kind hearted one,

Kind hearted one,

Come on, come on.

You are my sun,

You are my shadow.

You know your parting is hard,

Never trouble-free.

Not in my hands

Song: Fouad Salim

Lyrics: Nadhum Al-Sumawi

Music:  Mohammad Nushi

Not in my hands,

Not in my hands.

To bid farewell to the beloved’s eyes.

Not in my hands.

Life is just a moment of love

Passing by.

Your eyes taste bashful,

My longing melts in your lashes.

Your night is a full blue moon,

Keeping my love sleepless.

Not in my hands.

You are my dearest.

Your love grows larger and larger,

You are the biggest world.

You are the green affection.

Your eyes taste bashful,

My longing melts in your lashes.

Your night is a full blue moon,

Keeping my love sleepless.

My soul is a bird missing its nest in your house.

My heart is a star shining over your window,

Oh, beloved, how can I forget your eyes?

Not in my hands.

Life is just a moment of love

Passing by.

Your eyes taste bashful,

My longing melts in your lashes.

Alas

Song: Hussein Ne’ma

Lyrics: Nadum Al-Sumawi

Music: Mohammad Jawad Amouri

Alas, alas,

Words have been stolen from my lips.

Alas,

Twenty and still loveless?

Love is scary.

Alas, alas.

No. No, please,

Don’t make me tell a tale passed on by the tribes.

Your lock of hair rivals your braids’ ends in tempting the night.

Take my sleepless soul

And the ghost that is left out by the beloved.

Take my unhealed wound.

You are the cure and the burn.

Take my life which tastes bitter.

You are the sweetest date.

You are a stem living under the shadow of a date palm.

Icy and grumpy,

That is what you are.

Set in stone.

Your promise never came true.

I left my tears planted on your cheek.

Time has made me a trodden road,

Alas, alas.