Al Hayat

A somber lament, mostly in formal Arabic. The singer says that in the beloved's darkness there was his light, and when she was gone, the loss was total. A promise had given him hope, and he waited. But time is unjust and offers no safety, and the only place left for us in it is among the graves of the dear ones. The verse comes round three or four times like a mourner's refrain. A short Moroccan coda at the end turns to life itself, asks God for a long life, and ends with a half-joking curse on the way life has treated him.