Dubai: Two young poets braved an audience of VIPs including Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister, and Queen Elizabeth II after winning a British Council poetry competition.
"It was scary going up on to the podium," Michael Branicki-Tolchard, 16, from Jumeirah College told Gulf News this week, "maybe three or four metres in front of the podium they had a separate line for the Queen and Prince Philip… it was actually like I was talking to the Queen."
The competition was held to find two poets — one Emirati and one British — aged between 12 and 16. Entries were judged on literary merit and the extent to which they successfully embodied the concept of partnership and friendship between the UK and UAE.
And the prize was to read out the poem in front of Shaikh Abdullah, Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of York and the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, at a celebration of UK-UAE partnership event organised by the British Embassy, on November 25, during the Queen's state visit last week.
Branicki-Tolchard said that his winning entry is the first he's written, but he has been inspired by poems he's read at school, including those by Simon Armitage and Carol-Anne Duffy.
When he learned that Armitage is to be attending the Emirates Airline Literature Festival in March next year, he said it would be "really cool" to meet the poet.
The untitled partnership poem is "about how even though the UK and the UAE appear so different, underneath they're so connected and they're partners and friends, which work together", he continued.
Louisa Brown, Head of the English Department, Jumeirah College, said: "I don't know how he came on the stage and had the maturity to be so graceful about the whole thing. To come out and see Shaikh Abdullah and the Queen and Prince Philip and William Hague must have been very intimidating. He did such an amazing job, he was so composed and dignified," she said of her student's reading. Noora Mohammad Hummadi Al Shehi a student of Julphar Secondary School, RAK Educational Zone, was the Emirati student who won the competition. She has been writing poetry since she was 11 years old. "At first it was so simple, but later when I was 14, I started writing good and strong poems, especially about the UAE traditions and culture," she told Gulf News.
"I was so happy and I feel excited to stand in front of the most distinguished Queen ever. My family and my teachers Sa'ada Abdullah and Balqees Al Mulla were proud of me when most of the audience came and praised me and my poem," the student said.
Reading her poem for Shaikh Abdullah and the Queen was "the most exciting moment I've ever had... I proud and happy," Noora said. She thanked her teachers and Principal for encouraging and supporting her "from the beginning until the last minute of the poem recitation".
Partnership through poetry: the winning entries
Poem by Michael Branicki-Tolchard, Jumeirah College
The sun rises, the sun sets,
Our two nations never forget.
We stand as equals, on different shores,
Nobody understands anymore.
For the acceptance and knowledge, of the fruitfulness of a friend,
Is to stand in the shoes of your brothers, again.
Our nations are separate, but we shall lend a helpful hand,
To our forgotten brothers, in distant lands.
When you are in need, we shall offer our support,
To allow our nations to prosper, stand proud and to lead.
As a picture speaks a thousand words,
A thousand more languages, our nations have heard.
This multicultural difference, is clearly expressed,
By the way, in which we have dressed.
I stand here today and clearly see,
Tow of the most visually different heads of any monarchy.
Yet I can't help but try, and attempt to understand,
The underlying similarities, between our two lands.
As we stand together, on our common ground,
The presence of this unilateral respect,
Mutes the traffic, the noises, the sound.
Because I have both known and loved our two different lands,
Above and beyond, the sea and the sands.
As the sun sets, the moon will rise,
And bring about the changes, in our great oceans tides.
The seemingly resilient ground, upon which we stand,
Is as free and misunderstood, as the wind and waters, that wash away the sand.
The sun rises, the sun sets,
As we move closer through friendship and respect.
Our two nations shall never ever, ever forget,
That we stand together in plain sight, in unity for those who look, to detect.
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Poem by Noura Mohammad Hummadi Al Shehhi, Julphar Secondary School, RAK Educational Zone
On mentioning the country ruled by His Highness Shaikh Khalifa
Who is our glory... the crown of leadership
And mentioning the country (The UK) whose name becomes over the clouds
Due to its beauty-
Welcome... Welcome... Your Majesty the Queen Elizabeth
You are the symbol of harmony
I will begin with a history that knows it (the UK)
After Zayed's History and his fellows.
No-one reaches its decency (The UK)
Its people are generous (The UK)
On the beach of beauty... no country could be like it. (The UK)
My country also marked a sign (The UAE)
And my Lord drew its beauty (The UAE)
And who notice it in his speech (The UAE)
Will say: Oh my Lord... how charm it is
And remembers a news story that deeply-rooted its name
He issued it between his smiling
That his country -since its youthfulness-
Befriend with all people and without repenting
Their merits with us are a lot
Merits full of knowledge and cleverness
Oh bird... greet its mind... as much as the perfume shows its symphony
And on his hands embroiders its happiness
A lot of welcome to it (The UK)... to its people... and to its stake... To all who live in the laps of safety
Yes... it's a Kingdom, which no one could reach its position
And no one will be able to reach its place
Braveries that record the secret of its action (The UK)
Their Council commits to our country...
Supporting us... educate us of its intellects... it introduces us to it... to its generosity
They have customs that witnesses its glory
And never live the meaning of blaming
Oh... Allah... how smart it is
It lights our sky in its darkness
Welcome... Welcome Your Majesty
As much as the beauty imposes its solemnity.
