Nights of Stars
My orbits these days include imaginary travel through space and time to Andalusia of a 1,000 years past.
I have been listening to the heartbeat of Wallada, a female poet who never married, by choice. She had all the riches from her family to support her attitude. Her father was the ruler of the Ummayad dynasty in Moorish Iberia.
Wallada had many lovers, in Cordoba. She may have been born around 1001 AD (like 1001 nights).
Karima el Fillali is a beautiful 21st century singer who brings alive for modern ears the orbit of Wallada’s poetry about lovers, moons, and suns. Sung in Arabic by Karima, with powerful improvisation in an Arabic mawal style (موال) Performing live in studio, in Amsterdam.
Karima is singing an improvisational style to bring alive poetry from a thousand years ago. The poem is by Wallada Bint Al-Mustakfi:
When the evening descends, await my visit, for I see the night is the best keeper of secrets. I feel a love for you, which… If the sun would have felt a similar love, she would not rise, and the moon would not appear. And the stars would not undertake their nightly travel.
ترقّب إذا جنّ الظلام زيارتي
فإنّي رأيت الليل أكتم للسرِّ
وَبي منك ما لو كانَ بالشمسِ لم تلح
و بالبدر لم يطلع وَبالنجم لم يسرِ
To Savor
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
― Carl Sandburg
