The B-side . . . The A-sideAsk my heart when it comes to its senses
Perhaps it will hold beauty to blame.
Ask a sensible man for sensible answers
But who could keep his wits in the face of such beauty?
If I were to ask my heart
Tears would answer in its place.
In my chest there is only flesh and blood
Feeble now that youth has gone.
My heart weeps and I say: It’s over
In my chest it trembles and I say: Come to!
I thought I knew this part of the song well, so it was only when I read the words of the original poem the song is based on, in a book, that I realised my mistake. I became obsessed with the poem. At first I looked for it in the collected works of the poet Ahmed Shawqi, but it wasn’t there. Finally, I managed to find it in some books on Om Kalthoum, and in a couple of old
