This song is off of Fairuz's album entitled "Al Quds fi al Bal (القدس في البال)" or "Jerusalem in My Heart," which was released in 1971 a few years after the Arab armies had suffered a crushing defeat to Israel in 1967 and Israel occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. Fairuz is describing a scene of seeing Old Jerusalem, then envisioning what it must have been like before the Israelis came and took over many of the neighborhoods and uprooted many of the families.
Fairuz - Old Jerusalem
I passed through the streets
The streets of Old Jerusalem
In front of the shops
That remained of Palestine
We talked about what had happened together
And they gave me a vase
They said to me this is a gift
From the "waiting people"
And I walked the streets
The streets of Old Jerusalem
I stood at the doorways
We become companions
And their sad eyes of the city's energy
Take me and move me with the torment of feeling estranged
There was a land and there were hands building beneath the sun and the wind
And there were houses and windows
Blossoming, and there were children with books in their hands
And in one night rage flowed into the houses
And the black hands unhinged the doors
And the houses became ownerless
Between them and their houses barbed-wire fence
And fire and the black hands
I'm screaming in the streets
The streets of Old Jerusalem
Let the songs storm and rumble
O my voice continue to stir up a hurricane with these consciences
Now I know what happened to them
Perhaps my conscience will awaken
فيروز - القدس العتيقة
مريت بالشوارع
شوارع القدس العتيقة
قدام الدكاكين
البقيت من فلسطين
حكينا سوى الخبرية
وعطيوني مزهرية
قالوا لي هيدي هدية من الناس الناطرين
و مشيت بالشوارع
شوارع القدس العتيقة
اوقف عباب بواب
صارت و صرنا صحاب
وعينيهن الحزينة من طاقة المدينة
تاخدني و توديني بغربة العذاب
كان في أرض و كان في ايدين
عم بتعمر تحت الشمس و تحت الريح
و صار في بيوت و صار في شبابيك
عم بتزهر صار في ولاد و بايديهم في كتاب
بليل كلو ليل سال الحقد بفية البيوت
و الايدين السودا خلعت البواب
و صارت البيوت بلا صحاب
بينن و بين بيوتن فاصل الشوك
و النار و الايدين السودا
عم صرخ بالشوارع
شوارع القدس العتيقة
خلي الغنيي تصير عواصف و هدير
يا صوتي ضلك طاير زوبع بهالضماير
خبرهن عللي صاير بلكي بيوعى الضمير
