In Translating Shafiqa And Metwallal Analysis

The narrative mawwāl is rarely sung without music accompanying it. Music is an essential element in the structure of the mawwāl as it contributes to the expression of different situations with which the mawwāl teems and reflects the general image the mawwāl portrays. Mawwāl is characterized by nonlinear musical structure where the singer/narrator is free to improvise; such improvisation occurs whenever he raises his voice. The beat of the mawwāl is said not to be evident (الموال في الغناء العربي); however, in Shafiqa and Metwally a short musical note is repeated whenever the chorus repeats: Oh, Metwally. Oh, Gergian, oh, Gerga, oh, Metwally, oh Gergian.
This forms what can be called a motif, a riff. In his article “The
These problems show themselves at different levels: oral, culturlal/contextual, phonological/musical and semantic.
3,1.Oral Level The mawwāl comes under oral poetry and being sung in Upper Egyptian dialect makes it so difficult to write it down in order to be translated. Too much effort should be exerted in listening to the mawwāl; this listening takes different levels: introducing the mawwāl to the ear; grasping it as musically contextualized narrative; listening to each stanza different times in order to decipher the highly assimilated syllables; writing each stanza carefully, and finally scrutinizing the written version while listening attentively. The inner ear will grasp the ideal structure of the mawwāl.
3,2.Cultural
Upper Egyptian traditions necessitate that the disgraceful should be killed so that the family’s honor is not stained. The most important points in the story: the exposition, the climax and the resolution may be missed or dislocated by the target reader whose culture exculpates women and men, who are not married to each other, to have sex as an expression of freedom. Listeners/readers are exposed to the conflict when Metwally is taunted by a new recruit who keeps Shafiqa’s photo in his