This is a blog about food, but since I have few to zero readers, I'm sure I won't disappoint anyone when I stray from my main subject matter. For me, today, I want to talk about Fatima.
Fatima is a song by the Somali artist K'naan off of his album Troubador. This song was named after a young girl K'naan fell in love with when he was 12 years old. I will never again be able to hear the name Fatima without thinking about this song and this young girl's story. I'm also sure that I will never be able to hear this song and not think of the beauty of love lost.
Yes, the beauty of love lost. I believe this song is able to create this contradictory sentiment by being both a picture and a mirror throughout the track.
The picture we first get is of a boy falling in love.
"And after school we studied the lessons
I ask God to slow down the seconds"
(later in the track)
"If beauty was in the eyes of the beholder,
how come everyone hushed when she walked by?
How come girls would look just to scold her?
Through these lyrics, K'naan has not only painted a picture of his young love, but he has also allowed us, the listeners, to see the reflection of our own lives. Through this song, we can see ourselves standing there in school, with butterflies in our stomachs, trying to talk to the girl we liked. We can feel the rush of excitement when we had our first kiss. It all seems so familiar. But, unfortunately the song quickly becomes more difficult to relate to when we learn that as a young girl Fatima was killed by gunmen in Somalia.
"Fatima, what did the young man say, before he took you away, on that fateful day?
At this point I know that I should not be able to see this song as a mirror any further. Nothing about my life can reflect the feeling of losing a love to violence in Somalia. But I couldn't help it. Through this song, I kept seeing the moments in my life when I felt the pain of losing someone. Maybe this reflection was not clear like a mirror, but rather faint like a window. A window that I could look through and see the outside world, yet at the same time, in some lights, see a faint reflection of my life.
I must admit that this made me feel ashamed. It seems so petty to think that I could relate having my heart broken, or having a relative pass away with losing a childhood love to violence. But I did. And I think I did this because when a love goes away, it is gone. It does not matter if that loved one was a grandmother who died of natural causes, a woman who decided she never wanted to talk to you again, or a girl you loved as a child who was killed in a War. In all of these cases, in that moment, when they leave, they are gone. And I believe it is very difficult for the heart to tell the difference.
I'll be the first to admit that I may be wrong. Maybe we all have experiences that are so unique that we can't possibly begin to understand what another person is feeling. But, if within this song I was able to get a glimpse into the love K'naan had for Fatima, while at the same time see the reflection of all the loves I've ever had and lost, then I think the world becomes a little smaller. And for me, a smaller world means that people are closer and can relate to each other more easily. And if it takes the feeling of lost love to help people relate to each other more easily, then I think love lost can be beautiful.
I posted a youtube link to the song. I hope you enjoy.
my connected to this song
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