No national or social occasion in Jordan is complete without "Omar Al-Abdallat" gracing it as a light-hearted guest in our hearts. He touches our emotions with sincere, carefully chosen expressions that are emotionally charged, expressing our feelings, our joy, our pride in our country, and our trust in our leadership. Years ago, he stealthily went to Al-Karak at night with "Heyya 'ala Heyya" accompanied by poet Majed Al-Zureiqat's lyrics, paid tribute to its men who were executed on the walls of its fortress in defense, sang of its glory and history, and the sound of its horse hooves. How often we echoed with him "Like the bride Al-Karak, and tossed its grandeur" and "Their boiling pots and blazing fire". In an attempt to leverage Jordanian colloquial dialects and to highlight the uniqueness of the site, he released the song "Wa'alamak wa shlonak" performed in the Karak dialect, comprising his own lyrics and music which stirred a wide controversy among supporters who saw it as engagingy close to people, and opponents who saw it as derogatory to the Karak dialect and its heritage..
It is worth mentioning that Omar Al-Abdallat did not bring words from outer space, nor a dialect unfamiliar to us, but spoke in words we know, that know us, and we repeat in our daily lives, thus why all this anger, and popular disdain after the song was announced, and its fame spread?!
Here lies the lesson and the idea settles, the crisis is not about a spoken dialect as much as it is about the text. The lyrical text was fragile, dull, and did not do justice to the beauty of the dialect nor the poetic sensibility of its people. We, the people of Karak, select our words, elevate them, and imbue them with a particular poignancy, so the text fell below expectations as if it could not translate the soul of the dialect, nor reflect its cultural richness..
Abdallat did not succeed in choosing the words that befit Al-Karak. The song turned out to be rather superficial. The Karak dialect is not just common vocabulary, scattered or linguistic structures ready-made but a vessel for collective memory, a distinctive sign, and a means to express identity. The words of the song were not strange or unfamiliar to any Karaki, like "Wa shlonak" and "Wa'alamak", but they were not employed in the context of a lyrical poem that does justice to the richness of this dialect. The dialect is not just a phonetic phenomenon but an artistic tool that needs a strong text that gives it life and meaning, yet it came out weak, the words scattered, contrived, lacking poetic images and shifts, and emotional depth unlike what we are accustomed to in Al-Karak from a dialect that has not drifted from formal Arabic, often drawing from metaphor that conveys a sensory image to the far ends of the enlightened symbol distinguished by the Karak dialect from other dialects..
Karaki individuals are accustomed to folk songs charged with high emotional value, therefore Abdallat's song fell below their expectations, failing to translate the spirit of the place nor did it reflect the general taste's sensitivities, let alone the scrambled musical arrangement and the enthusiastic rhythm which did not suit a love song. Those who grew up on the stability and solidity of "Al-Samer", "Al-Hijeeni", and the delicacy of Maisoon Al-Sannaa's songs, and chanted "Give me the pen and the white paper", and "For the eyes of Mshakhas and the girls", and "Crossed the borders of Syria", and "They brought the horses, mother, in the afternoon", and "Oh our tender"... and others, do not resonate with ready-made structures from the colloquial dialect..
Lastly, it can be said that the song did not do justice to the Karak dialect, and its artistic presence was weakened by a text that did not rise to the level of identity, and the poetic taste of the people of Karak, and was not a truthful mirror reflecting the spirit of the place and its people. This article comes in the context of my pride in the Karak dialect, which to me is a well-established identity, a distinguishing mark I personally cherish and carry with me wherever I go..
