Book 10 · Fire and FuryYa Hitta
يا حتة
Poems inspired by SNX's songs, retold by AIA Labs.
From the song
Ya Hitta يا حتة by SNX
A grief song in Egyptian Arabic that addresses the lost beloved as "a piece of me". The days they lived have gone in an instant, and the speaker asks who brought up their love at all. Friends laughed at them. If every wound she gave killed a heart, hearts would be dead by now, and all the loved ones have gone and repented. He says he cannot live without her, and in the chorus he begs God to take him with her. The title is repeated again and again like a lament, and the last lines return to the same plea that he cannot live without her.
Deeper meaning
The phrase "a piece of me" casts the beloved as part of the speaker's own body, so losing her feels like being cut in half. The song uses the old language of grief that wishes to follow the lost one, which is common in the tradition but weighs heavily here because the plea is repeated so many times.