The desert stirred my spirit, and got me thinking about the vastness of the Eternal, of his creation.
Whilst travelling through the Atlas and Sahara recently, I listened on loop to this Arabic Orthodox Christian chant which recites psalm 33, a song from the Bible. It talks about praise, and awe at the might and creative power of God.
I thought it appropriate to include some verses in Arabic, and Tarifit (one of the many indigenous Amazigh dialects native to Morocco), naturally, the tongues of the people here. After all, North Africans were some of the earliest Christian communities, before the gospel had reached Europe or Asia. Simon of Cyrene, the man who helped Jesus carry his cross through Jerusalem, was from modern-day Libya, and tradition dates the arrival of the gospel to this part of the continent to around 60 AD.
6 بِأمْرِ اللهِ خُلِقَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ.
وَكُلُّ نُجُومِ السَّمَاءِ وُجِدَتْ بِنَسْمَةِ فَمِهِ.
7 جَمَعَ مِيَاهَ البَحْرِ مَعًا،
وَوَضَعَ المُحِيطَ فِي مَكَانِهِ.
8 يَا كُلَّ سُكَّانِ الأرْضِ اتَّقُوا اللهَ.
خَافُوهُ يَا جَمِيعَ سُكَّانِ المَسكُونَةِ.
9 لِأنَّهُ يَقُولُ شَيْئًا فَيَكُونَ،
6 Zeg wawař n SIDI twaggen ijenwan u zi Arruḥ n uqemmum nnes marra řɛeskarat nsen.
7 Netta issmun aman n řebḥar amecnaw ijj n weɣbar. Netta ixemmeř aman yuǧɣen deg ixammen n txubay.
8 Iři ad teggʷed marra tammurt zi SIDI, ad bedden marra imezdaɣ n ddunit x uɣezdis s uweqqar.
9 Maɣar netta issawař uca aqa t din, netta ittamar uca ad yiři ibedd din.
English translation:
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
he puts the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
-Psalm 33, verses 6-9
Credits to my muses, *the Sahara* and the beautiful Ari.
Comments