Late Emirati poet's book reveals past

posted on 06/03/2011: 115 views

The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (Adach) and the Poetry Academy have announced the latest publication of a book by late Emirati poet Hamad Al Khalifa Bu Shihab.

Entitled "A View of the UAE's Past” reveals several fascinating insights into Emirati cultural and societal norms in addition to the history, economy and politics of the UAE.

"This book includes a lot of information about Emirati culture and history that has never been revealed before, such as the family tree of the rulers of the UAE and just how connected Emirati families are across all seven emirates," Sultan Al Amimi, Director of the Poetry Academy, said.

The original manuscript was written by Bu Shihab in 1989 and undergone several revisions but remained unpublished along with several other works until his death in 2002. The Poetry Academy had also published another book by the late Emirati poet, entitled Pauses, which is currently in its second edition. "Despite the names of the rulers changing after the author passed away, we kept the information present in this work unchanged because it represents the time which he approached his work, along with the names and events occurring during that period," Sultan explained.

While "A View of the UAE's Past” is currently available only in Arabic in book stores across the capital, the Poetry Academy plans to introduce an English version.

Al Amimi also noted that the academy took steps to ensure that the calligraphy used in the publication was as close to the Bu Shihab's handwriting, so the book remains as true as possible to the original manuscript.

"We will begin translating it into English next week … while there has always been an interest in countries such as China and Japan about publications from the region, we don't have any current plans to publish this book into any other language besides English. However, we will consider it in the future, depending on interest and demand," he said. – Gulf News

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