Mziyanna

The title is Darija for "you were beautiful," here "you were good to me." A Moroccan love song of remembering. To me, he sings, you were beautiful; my heart wanted you, my mind wanted to forget, and my eyes keep wanting you. He is afraid of losing himself in her, asks God to hear him about her, calls her "my life," and says he named her after his own name. He fears they are too close, or too alike, or that they will separate later, with so much between them. The Egyptian verse that follows shows the break: he thought she was safe, like paradise, but she did what he himself had done; he does not blame himself for her mistake. He did not say he does not love her, he is fine without her, he laughs when he thinks of her and sees nobody else, but what she did shook him and broke him; he thought she was shelter and it was a flight.