We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Ship Sounded its Horn (Babour Zammar)

from Reem Kelani: Live at the Tabernacle by Reem Kelani

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £1.15 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

Also known as ‘The Migration Anthem’, this song was written in the 1970s as a tribute to the student revolution in France, and it returned to the Tunisian people’s consciousness when their own revolution erupted in December 2010. This was not just because the song speaks of the horrors that many North African migrants endure in order to find work overseas, but also because its composer and original performer, El–Hédi Guella, was a political activist in his own right. Guella lived to witness the revolution for which he had long strived, and he died fifteen months later.

The allegorical lyrics were written by El–Mouldi Zleilah, a self–taught poet, artist and champion of colloquial poetry, who also had a day job as a sweeper at the Tunisian Rail Company.

lyrics

The ship sounded its horn
Sailing out to sea
Turning its back on home, the best place of all…

The ship sounded its horn
Ferrying men to their drowning
On their way to far–off lands
Where the pain of exile burns like unquenched thirst...
Turning its back on friends
And companions…
Families’ faces pale and yellow
In sorrow and grief…

The ship sounded its horn so loud
Sailing back home
Carrying men beloved of their people
Their hands trembling…
Their loved ones’ tears
Sting and burn their faces
Their eyelids smarting with pain…

The ship sounded its horn
Heading out to sea
Sailing off to foreign lands
Turning its back on bright skies
Uprooting young men from fertile lands
To a life so harsh
Just as the rain–soaked valley
Fills up with tree trunks and branches…

The ship sounded its horn
Driven away from home
With a bow so sharp
Slicing through the foaming waves
Like a knife through cheese
Spouting coffins into the blue sea
Making ships quake in fear
As the sea surges backwards and forwards…

The ship sailed into the mist
Shrouded in fog
Packed to the gunnels with the best of men
Offered up to foreign lands
Without respite, like mules
The only difference between them and the cattle on board
Is the passport... the passport... the passport…

credits

from Reem Kelani: Live at the Tabernacle, released March 11, 2016
Lyrics: El–Mouldi Zleilah (1917–2009)
Music: El–Hédi Guella (1951–2012)
Arranged by: Reem Kelani (MCPS)

Reem Kelani - vocals
Bruno Heinen - piano
Tamer Abu Ghazaleh - 'oud
Ryan Trebilcock - double bass
Antonio Fusco - cajon

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Reem Kelani image

Reem Kelani London, UK

Reem Kelani is an independent artist. Please buy Reem’s music & support her work.
Get your copy of Reem's 2022 EP release "The Singer Said: Bird of Dawn". Reem's amazing booklet comes with the download!

contact / help

Contact Reem Kelani

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Reem Kelani, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Fabiana Palladino stops by to talk about her mesmeric debut LP.
listen now