Sunday, here in the Muslim world, is like Monday in much of the rest of the world. The first day of the work week. And, thus not a day generally looked forward to. Sunday. Not Monday.

And today, it struck me that a whole batch of western pop songs would have to be rewritten, or go on puzzling people in the Arab world

To wit:

“Monday, Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas will have to become “Sunday, Sunday” over here. “Sunday, Sunday; can’t trust that day …” That wouldn’t take much reworking. “Any other day, any other day of the week is fine, yeah.”

The Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays” also won’t work. Has to be “Rainy Days and Sundays always get me down …”

The Bangles’ pop hit, “Just Another Manic Monday …” means nothing over here. Gonna have to be “Just Another Manic Sunday,” even if we lose some alliteration. And all the references in the song to wishing it were Sunday … “that’s my fun day, my ‘I don’t have to run’ day” … has to become “I wish it were Saturday” … though I have no idea how you’re going to do much rhyming with “Saturday.”

Hmm. Maybe that one just won’t translate.

“I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats is going to have to become “I Don’t Like Sundays.” This one should translate, because it’s about a woman who goes on a shooting spree because, as the wiki link notes, the shooter said she didn’t like Mondays and shooting at people “livens up the day.” That would be Sundays, over here.

Here is a link to a site purporting to show us song titles with “Monday” in them … but running down the list I don’t recognize any.

Whatever it is, we need to translate that to Sunday, here. Complaining about Mondays in this country would be like complaining about Tuesdays in the States … and has anyone, ever, written a song about how crummy Tuesdays are?

There you go.