United Arab Emirates / All works
Poetry
ديوان فتاة العرب
Not translated into English
Synopsis
The collection gathers the poems of Ousha bint Khalifa, mainly in the Nabati language, with a few qasidas in classical Arabic. It contains love poems, social criticism, eulogies and religious pieces, and also nostalgia and attachment to the homeland. A share of it belongs to the poetic contests she exchanged with the great poets of the Gulf, among them Sheikhs Zayed bin Sultan and Mohammed bin Rashid.
Context
Collected and introduced by the poet Hamad bin Khalifa Bou Shihab, the diwan appeared in 1990 and was reissued in 2000. Its title takes up the nickname “girl of the Arabs” given to her in 1989 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in place of “girl of the Gulf”, under which she had signed until then. Olatunbosun Ishaq Tijani recalls her exchanges of poems with the sheikh in the 1990s, and an annual prize reserved for Emirati women poets has borne her name since 2011.
Who it is for
For discovering the Nabati poetry of the Emirates through one of the few women recognised in this genre.
Prizes and reception
She received the Abu Dhabi Award in 2009, and Google devoted a doodle to her on 28 November 2022.
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