Abdel Halim Hafez: The High Dam

Source: Arabic Song Lyrics and Translation Blog

We said we will build, and indeed we built, the High Dam.
O Colonialism, we built the High Dam with our hands.
We said we will build, and indeed we built, the High Dam.
O Colonialism, we built the High Dam with our hands.
With our money, with our workers’ hands.
With our money, with our workers’ hands.
That’s the word; indeed we built it.
We said we will build, and indeed we built, the High Dam.
I…
O Colonialism, we built the High Dam with our hands.
I…
What?
Excuse me, I’d like to say something.
What?
This isn’t a story about the Dam;
It’s a story about the struggle behind the Dam.
It’s our story, the story of
a people who, for the sacred march, rose and revolted
A people advancing, lighting sparks with each step.
A fighting people for whom victory was written.
Will you hear the story?
Just tell it from the beginning!
It’s the story of a war
Between us and colonialism
Do you remember when the people became Westernized
Inside their country?
Yes, we remember!
And the forceful occupier enjoyed himself
In it – him alone?
We haven’t forgotten!
And the gallows were for whoever was coming and going;
And the blood of the free who passed away in Denshawai.
Here it all started;
The people began the story.
Our struggle,
By the fire of our wounds,
Was written with the blood of the victims.
And we overcame! We overcame! We overcame!
We overcame the day the army rose up and revolted,
The day we lit the fire of its revolution,
The day we expelled corruption,
The day we liberated the country,
The day we made them withdraw!
We overcame! We overcame! We overcame!

The good, beloved land returned
to the hands of its owners.
We took back its glory and the treasures
lost in its soil.
We said, “Let’s go build its future
and return to it its youth.”
”What will we do?”
It was natural that we look to the Nile,
which holds our souls in its hands.
It dies and is lost in the sea,
while the deserts long for it.
We said, “Let’s build a High Dam,
a High Dam, a High Dam.”

But colonialism made it very difficult for us.
Why should we give it back our glory?
What did he do?
He went to the bank which helps and gives.
A clerk told him, told us, “I have nothing for you.”
”What did we say?”
There was a powerful outcry
In the square in Alexandria
A cry given by Gamal
And we nationalized the canal!
We nationalized the canal! We nationalized the canal!
That blow came from an instructorم
who made colonialism surrender.
And the economic blockade:
It brought its weapons and its planes,
Its submarines and its tanks,
And attacked to make us submit.
We were fire that ate their armies.
Fire that says, “Do you want more?”
And we overcame; their disgrace is still memorialized
in the soil of Port Said.
And Pan-Arabism… every home stood with us,
And the free people stood against those who attacked us.
And we overcame! We overcame! We overcame!

This, then, is the people’s story.
a people who, for the sacred march, rose and revolted
A people advancing, lighting sparks with each step.
A people Gamal made victorious.

We said we will build, and indeed we built, the High Dam.
The High Dam!
O Colonialism, we built the High Dam with our hands.
The High Dam!
With our money, with our workers’ hands.
With our money, with our workers’ hands.
That’s the word; indeed we built it.