“A science fiction song… This is almost the most accurate description of this old song presented by the American duo Zager and Evans in 1969. It achieved tremendous success at the time, to the extent that you could hear it all day long on radio stations in Egypt. For a long time, it was the soundtrack for any dramatic work related to futurism.

The song imagines the state of humanity in the year 2525, then leaps forward in increments of 1010 years in each new verse. It shows us how humanity will progress but towards the opposite of utopia, where humans turn into something akin to programmed machines. The song talks about what any contemporary science fiction writer discusses, with the same touch of pessimism and concern for the fate of this beautiful planet whose resources we have recklessly squandered.

The melody is fast and cheerful, but it also conveys a sense of awe and alienation. You feel it’s a frantic, fateful race with a mad time machine toward an unknown, dark end. There’s no turning back; you are rushing towards the black hole non-stop. Near the end of the song, you realize that this is a cycle of life and that everything will likely start anew.

” The book is a collection of essays where Dr. Ahmed Khaled Tawfik writes about the songs he loves and translates them.