[Saturday Reads] Of Proverbs and Arabic Sayings (Part 2 of 2)

Najla Al Owais here.

Every Saturday we hope to share with you our thoughts on reading and books. We thought that it would be good practice to reflect on our reading lives and our thoughts about reading in general. While on occasion, we would feature a few books in keeping with this, there would be a few posts where we will just write about our thoughts on read-alouds, libraries, reading journals, upcoming literary conferences, books that we are excited about, and just book love miscellany in general.

I have always been infatuated by both words and numbers. Last week, I highlighted a collectible of proverbs and sayings by Emirates Airlines from the 1990s. Today, I am glad to share a picture book on the stories behind Emirati sayings and proverbs.

The Stories behind Emirati Sayings قصص الأمثال الإماراتية

Written by Dr. Ali AbdulQader Al Hammadi Illustrated by Taibah Abdulla Published by: Dar Al Buragh for Children’s Culture (2016) ISBN: 9789641929284

Dr. Ali Al Hammadi’s picture book on the stories behind Emirati proverbs presents around 30 sayings, with the stories of how these sayings and proverbs came about. Each proverb is also accompanied with illustrations that beautifully depict the story with all its cultural elements.

The introduction raises awareness of the significance of proverbs and sayings in any culture and how the stories behind these sayings came to play an important role in understanding one’s past and one’s culture. The sayings and oral history give Emiratis in the present day an idea of how life was like in the past, the issues people found important, and snippets of their culture. The author also sheds light on the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s words on the significance of each generation understanding the lives and plights of the past generations, and how parents bear the responsibility of teaching their children their own history, especially the oral history, of the UAE, and how the generations that came before had to endure hardships and overcame them.

I will share two Emirati sayings, their story and a rough translation of what they mean. The first is “الي في الجدر يطلعه الملاس”

Literally, this means that the ladle will show us what is in the pot, or in other words, time will tell. The story of the saying goes back to a young Humaid who rushes to his mother asking her of news from their neighbors. He had asked for his neighbor’s daughter’s hand in marriage and was waiting for their answer and his mother replied that the ladle will show us what’s in the pot, and what she means is that sooner or later, they will know their neighbor’s response.

The second saying is “خذ علوم الدار من يهالها” and the rough translation would be children of a house will tell you the household’s news and means something like children and fools tell the truth. The story of the proverb goes back to Sultan who lent Obaid some money and has come to be paid back. However, when Sultan knocks on Obaid’s house, Obaid’s wife tells him that he was traveling. Sultan doesn’t believe that and waits a while and then knocks again. Obaid’s son opens the door and says, “My father has told me to tell you that he is not here.” Embarrassed, Obaid comes to the door and talks to Sultan.

Proverbs are what we typically use to describe a situation at work, or speak to our children, or something we remember our grandmother telling us time and time again. Knowing the stories behind them give us that link to the past, and makes us appreciate them even more. As a translator, I had always been fascinated with how proverbs were translated in stories, and found myself more inclined to have them sound foreign along with its equivalent when applicable, rather than localize the idioms and proverbs.

Najla Al Owais, PhD Candidate, Academic Nook Contributor for GatheringBooks.

Meet GatheringBooks’ Academic Nook Contributor:

Najla Al Owais is a PhD candidate studying Math Education at UAEU. She has previously worked as a middle school mathematics teacher, and a freelance translator and interpreter. She is passionate about teaching mathematics, and is an avid reader, and loves finding the intersection between both mathematics and reading. She has a Bachelor’s of Science from Zayed University in Math Education and Masters of Arts from the American University of Sharjah in English-Arabic-English Translating and Interpreting. Wherever she goes, books find her. She hopes to one day publish her own book.