Dear Ali: At one of the UAE National Day festivals, I heard many children perform the UAE national anthem. I was surprised that they all sang so well and knew the anthem by heart. I loved the melody and felt like I could already remember the words, which I don’t even understand since I don’t speak Arabic. What’s the story behind your national anthem? AT, Abu Dhabi
Dear AT: Indeed, from an early age, the UAE national anthem means a lot to us. We remember it by heart, reciting it daily in school, and every word reflects our patriotic feelings towards our country. It was written by the Emirati poet Aref Al Shaikh and the music is by the Egyptian composer Saad Abdulwahab.
Since it’s National Day week, I’ll give you a translation:
Live my country, the unity of our emirates lives (E’eshy biladi, asha etihadu emaratina).
You have lived for a nation (Ishti lisha’ben).
Whose religion is Islam and guide is the Quran (Dinahul Islam, hadyahul Quranu).
I made you stronger in God’s name oh homeland (Hassantuka bismillah ya watan).
My country, my country, my country, my country (Biladi, biladi, biladi, biladi).
God has protected you from the evils of the time (Hamaki al illah shuroor alzaman).
We have sworn to build and work (Aqsamna an nabni ya n’amal).
Work sincerely, work sincerely (N’amal nokhles, n’amal nokhles).
As long as we live, we’ll be sincere, sincere (Mahma eshna nokhles, nokhles).
The safety has lasted and the flag has lived oh our emirates (Dam al amanu wa ash al’alam ya emaratina).
The symbol of Arabism (Ramz ul ’orubati).
We all sacrifice for you, we supply you with our blood (Kulluna nafdeeki, bel dima narweeki).
We sacrifice for you with our souls oh homeland (Nafdeeka bel arwah ya watan).
Dear Ali: I was talking with one of my Emirati colleagues about the most beautiful female names. She was insisting on Emirati names, but after I heard the translation of some of them, such as “banana” and “fabric”, I was confused. Can you explain? FE, Al Ain
Dear FE: I can understand your confusion, but you need to understand the meanings correctly. Those names you translated are Moza and Gmashah. In the past, people here made a living by pearling. There were many types of pearls and each was precious in some way. The person who found the biggest pearl (called dana), was called Abu Dana – father of Dana – a title they would carry for the rest of their life. It was enough to let him and his family survive for the whole year without pearling.
Pearling had a huge impact on our culture, so we started to call our daughters the names of those rare and valuable pearls. The name Moza came from the shape of the pearl that looked like a banana.
Other names such as Hessa and Gmashah also became popular. Fabric in Arabic is gmash, but in relation to the female name, its meaning is linked to the traditional Arabic name for pearls. Lulu, which means pearl, wasn’t very popular in the Emirati dialect, so Gmashah was the name used for all types of pearl, but some people will still name their daughters Lulu.
Ali Al Saloom is a cultural adviser and public speaker from the UAE. Follow @AskAli on Twitter, and visit www.ask-ali.com to ask him a question.
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