So yesterday was what many parts in the world consider “Mothers’ day”. Though this is cliché to say, I am one of those people who believe that we should be very grateful to our parents all year long in a way that a day like this wouldn’t make us feel like doing something extra.

But, I can’t deny it’s a good chance to express love and gratitude to mothers especially that no matter what we do, it’s not enough to return them part of what they did for us. And I can’t deny that I enjoy how people make it a reason for a simple family gathering at their mother or grandmother’s house, like my evening yesterday at my grandma’s.

In the Arab world, every year on March 21^st, you can’t help but  hear one or some of the heart touching mothers’ songs, even if you don’t play any yourself, unless you never really watch TV or listen to radio and never play anything shared on your news feed by your social media friends.

What is interesting, is that despite the number of new songs being made almost every year for this occasion, people still listen to one specific song as if it’s the theme for this day, the 1958 song that was made specifically for this day, performed by the Egyptian singer “Faiza Ahmad”, is still on top of all charts of mothers’ songs in the Arab world and considered to be number one for this occasion by all generations, I even save my mother’s number by the title of the song; “Sett El Habayeb: dearest of all”.

It’s not the only one though, there are few other popular songs and the one that gets to my mind is an early seventies track by the great Syrian comedian “Dureid Lahham”. It was performed in the third episode of a comedy TV series at that time called “Melh Sukkar: Salt Sugar”.

The main character “Ghawwar”, a good though troublesome, smart though simple guy, was doing time in prison because of troubles he’s been causing in his neighbourhood. Few days prior to mothers’ day, he and his fellow prisoners asked their keeper to celebrate that day by performing a show in the presence of their mothers. The show was ended by Ghawwar’s part, a song dedicated to his mum, expressing his gratitude to her and his regret for disappointing her by getting in troubles until he ended up behind the bars despite everything she did to raise him well.

Though everyone  thinks the song’s title is “Yamoh” meaning Mum in Syrian dialect, the song was actually titled “From prison with love”.

Here I tried my best to translate the lyrics, hope it conveys the feelings and meanings in the Arabic one:

Yamoh ..  From Prison with Love!

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you, my dearest of all Yamoh ..

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you the most affectionate of all ..

For nine months  you carried me

And after that, you suffered a lot to deliver me

Caused you a lot of pain raising me

And it was all in vain Mum

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you, my dearest of all ..

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you the most affectionate of all ..

How many times you endured feeling cold to keep me warm

How many times you felt hungry to feed me

And how many pair of socks you patched for me

But it all didn’t yield any fruit in me Mom,

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you, my dearest of all  ..

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you the most affectionate of all ..

No matter what I do, I can never return to you what you did for me

Only God can reward you for that

Accept me with all your heart and forgive me

May God grant you a long life

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you, my dearest of all  ..

Yamoh .. Yamoh

Oh you the most affectionate of all ..