Using LaTeX to set Arabic song lyrics
Thanks to issues of encoding, right-to-left text, cursive, and the mysteries of fonts, setting Arabic texts to create a document that looks good can be hard. I’m on a Mac and have tried a bunch of methods. Some work, some don’t. They’re all a pain.
For the last half year or so, I’ve also become moderately obsessed with LaTex, a typesetting system that’s convoluted and powerful. I’ll add more about this (the why and how) in a future post. (If you’re interested, this is the best starter that I’ve come across so far. The next step is the not so short version.) For now, I want to throw my two cents into the “how to get Arabic working” ring.
When struggling against this, I found some helpful answers to similar questions like this one, which I ended up bookmarking and coming back to repeatedly.
Eventually, I worked out a way to make this work (for me, using a Mac with xelatex). I’ll outline some of the important parts here and then share an example TeX file and output PDF using lyrics from “Kan az-Zaman wa-Kan” by Fairouz. This shows both Arabic text in an English document and transliteration.
Header settings
Parts of this draw on things I found around the internet, none of which worked “out of the box.” Here’s what I landed on. The header begins normally by setting the document up as expected. The \documentclass{article} and \geometry{letter} predefine the look of the final document and do some background work to keep the links in the document from overflowing.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{letterpaper}
The magic happens with these packages. The setspace package works with line spacing, but for some reason, leaving out prevents the system from finding the proper script within the arabic font. The fontspec and polyglossia packages allow for Arabic usage by telling LaTeX how to handle innumerable elements related to non-English type setting.
Setting the main and other languages defines defaults (within polyglossia) and the last line of the header defines which Arabic font will be used. Note that xelatex can make use of many system fonts, but you may need to spend some time in the FontBook program to get one working. Replace the Al Nile in this example with something from your system. Also polyglossia is an xelatex package. It’s far easier (from what I can tell) than trying to do this with latex itself.
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{arabic}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script = Arabic]{Al Nile}
Writing things out
Actually using the Arabic involves the \textarabic command. In this example, that looks like this:
\textarabic{كان الزمان و كان}
This places the Arabic text in line with the English, or whatever other language is set as the “main” language, above. In this example, I use the Arabic and a transliteration together in the title.
% in the header
\title{\textarabic{كان الزمان و كان} | Kān az-zamān wa-kān}
% other stuff, and then:
\begin{document}
\maketitle
The font in the transliteration is called “American Diacs.” Instructions for setting that up are here. It installs as another input source/keyboard layout.
Laying out the poetry
Because Arabic moves from right to left, it looks good to have it to the left side of a table, with the left-aligned English text next to it. This layout achieves a look that’s similar to the common way in which Arabic poetry is centered on a page, which is a nice benefit.
The tabular table environment works well for this. The environment parameters here create a centered table with a right aligned column followed by two left aligned columns (for the transliteration and translation).
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{ r l l }
The Arabic needs the textarabic command and the & separates the columns. I’ve used tabs here to make it easier to visualize, but they are not necessary. Also, a web browser may not choose to set the Arabic in a monotype font, so who knows, it may not work anyhow! The \\ breaks the row and begins a new one.
\textarabic{كان الزمان و كان} & Kān az-zamān wa-kān & Those were the days, there was \\
\textarabic{في دكانة بالفي} & fi dukāni bālfay & the shop in the shade \\
To show the divisions within the song text, I use \\[0.5cm] after the last line of a verse. This creates a slightly larger space.
\textarabic{أوعى تنسيني أوعى تنسيني} & Awʿa tensīnī, awʿa tensīnī & ``Never forget me, never forget me! \\
\textarabic{و تذكري حنا السكران} & wa-tadhkarī Ḥannā as-skīrān & And remember Henna the drunk!'' \\[0.5cm]
All that’s left is closing the environments.
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{document}
The full file
Since these kinds of split up demos are difficult to understand sometimes, here is the full TeX file and the output PDF. I’ll also paste the TeX file content here. Send any suggestions, comments, or questions my way.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{letterpaper}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{arabic}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script = Arabic]{Al Nile} % Replace 'Simplified Arabic' with a font from your system
\title{\textarabic{كان الزمان و كان} | Kān az-zamān wa-kān}
\author{As sung by Fairouz}
\date{}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\noindent
Adapted from https://lyricstranslate.com/en/Kaan-az-zaman-These-were-days.html by Christopher Witulski and based on the recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZBCGVAkZLI. 2021.
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{ r l l }
\textarabic{كان الزمان و كان} & Kān az-zamān wa-kān & Those were the days, there was \\
\textarabic{في دكانة بالفي} & fi dukāni bālfay & the shop in the shade \\
\textarabic{و بنيات و صبيان} & wa bnayāt u-ṣabyān & and boys and girls \\
\textarabic{نيجي نلعب عالمي} & nayjī nlʿab ʿāl-may & came to play by the water. \\
\textarabic{يبقى حنا السكران} & Yabaʾ Ḥannā as-sikrān & Drunk Henna remained \\
\textarabic{قاعد خلف الدكان} & ʾāʿid khalf ad-dukān & sitting by the shop \\
\textarabic{بغني و تحزن بنت الجيران} & bghanī u-taḥzan bint al-jīrān & and sang, saddening the girl next door. \\[0.5cm]
\textarabic{أوعى تنسيني أوعى تنسيني} & Awʿa tensīnī, awʿa tensīnī & ``Never forget me, never forget me! \\
\textarabic{و تذكري حنا السكران} & wa-tadhkarī Ḥannā as-skīrān & And remember Henna the drunk!'' \\[0.5cm]
\textarabic{نحنا و العصافير} & Naḥnā w-al-ʿṣāfīr & We and some birds \\
\textarabic{كنا بالحي ندور} & kunnā bil-ḥay ndūr & used to wander the neighborhood. \\
\textarabic{صوب الدكان نطير} & Ṣawwab id-dukān nṭīr & We flew toward the shop \\
\textarabic{حاملين غمار زهور} & ḥamlīn [a]ghamār zuhūr & carrying bunches of flowers. \\
\textarabic{يبقى حنا السكران} & Yabaʾ Ḥannā as-sikrān & Drunk Hanna remained \\
\textarabic{ملهي و على الحيطان} & milhī wa ʿala al-ḥayṭān & distracted on the walls, \\
\textarabic{عم بيصور بنت الجيران} & ʿam bīṣawwir bint al-jīrān & drawing the girl next door. \\[0.5cm]
\textarabic{حلوة ببيت الجيران} & Ḥalwa babīt al-jīrān & The beauty in the next door house \\
\textarabic{راحت بليلة عيد} & rāḥat bilīlat ʿaīd & left on one Eid [holiday, festival] night \\
\textarabic{و انهدت الدكان} & wa-nhadat ad-dukān & and the shop was torn down \\
\textarabic{و اتعمر بيت جديد} & w-ataʿamar bīt jadīd & and a new house put up. \\
\textarabic{و بعدو حنا السكران} & Yabaʾ Ḥannā as-sikrān & Drunk Henna remained \\
\textarabic{على حيطان النسيان} & ʿala ḥayṭān an-nasayān & on the forgotten walls \\
\textarabic{عم بيصور بنت الجيران} & ʿam bīṣawwir bint al-jīrān & drawing the girl next door. \\
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{document}