„Kimi ga yo„ Japan and “Mawtini” Palestine!

„Kimi ga yo„ Japan and “Mawtini” Palestine!


„Kimi ga yo”, in English “his Magisty‘s Reign“, with these words begin the Japanes their world’s shortest national anthem. A poem to praise the Emperor, written in the Heian period and a melody chosen in 1880 to replace a previous unpopular one were the reason for a controversy in democratic japan till a the passage of law which gave it recognition as Japan‘s national anthem in 1999.
Anthems the way we know them rose to prominence in the 19th century Europe and they are either „Marches“ or „Rymns „ in their musical style while in Latin America operatic styles can be found.
The Palestinian national anthem, which the core of my writing has it’s own interesting story. After a short web-based search i was surprised with the amount of confusion and controversy surrounding it.
I spent few hours searching the “painfully-confusing” Internet presence of the so called “ Ramallah government” and the “Gaza government “ as well, some websites where i could not figure out on which web-side I was, I found almost nothing regarding the Palestinian national anthem on those web pages I managed to search. It seems to me that YouTube & Wikipedia have space to preserve our national story while both respected Palestinian governments are busy innovating their Internet cockfighting over Ligitimacy.

And to bring you closer to the reality behind my irony, i need you to listen to the official Palestinian national anthem by clicking the following link (YouTube) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgdHQ_DgaNM

Fida‘i - The recognized Palestinian National Anthem
The anthem “Fida i” meaning Revolutionist was “It was adopted by the Palestinian National Council in 1996, in accordance with Article 31 of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence from 1988” after being first used by Fatah in the process of transforming it‘s institutions in the 70‘s. The lyrics were written by the Palestinian poet and martyr Said Al Muzayin and the melody by the Egyptian composer Ali Ismael. “Fida i” replaced the word “Biladi” in parts of the anthem as a sign of recognition and Gratitude to the Palestinian martyrs and prisoners.

“My country, my country
My country, my land, land of my ancestors
Revolutionist, Revolutionist
Revolutionist, my people, people of perpetuity

With my determination, my fire and the volcano of my revenge
With the longing in my blood for my land and my home
I have climbed the mountains and fought the wars
I have conquered the impossible, and crossed the frontiers

With the resolve of the winds and the fire of the guns
And the determination of my nation in the land of struggle
Palestine is my home, Palestine is my fire,
Palestine is my revenge and the land of endurance

By the oath under the shade of the flag
By my land and nation, and the fire of pain
I will live as a Revolutionist*, I will remain a Revolutionist,
I will end as a Revolutionist - until my country returns

Revolutionist”


The next link is to the unofficial Palestinian anthem and at the same time the official Iraqi national anthem:
Mawtini-The de facto Palestinan national Anthem

In the year 1934 the Palestinian nationalist poet Ibrahim Touqan wrote the poem “Mawtini” or “My Homeland” in English. The Poem played a role in mobilizing the masses against the British Occupation and got it‘s famous melody from the Lebaniese composer Mohamed Fuliefil. The song became very popular among the Arab world and was adopted by the Palestinan revolution and re-adopted as the national anthem of Iraq in 2004.

“My homeland, My homeland
Glory and beauty, Sublimity and splendor
Are in your hills, Are in your hills
Life and deliverance, Pleasure and hope
Are in your air, Are in your Air
Will I see you? Will I see you?
Safe and comforted, Sound and honored
Will I see you in your eminence?
Reaching to the stars, Reaching to the stars
My homeland, My homeland
My homeland, My homeland
The youth will not tire, till your independence
Or they die
We will drink from death
And will not be to our enemies
Like slaves, Like slaves
We do not want, We do not want
An eternal humiliation
Nor a miserable life
We do not want
But we will bring back
Our storied glory, Our storied glory
My homeland, My homeland
The sword and the pen
Not the talk nor the quarrel
Are our symbols, Are our symbols
Our glory and our covenant
And a duty to be faithful
Moves us, moves us
Our glory, Our glory
Is an honorable cause
And a waving standard
O, behold you
In your eminence
Victorious over your enemies
Victorious over your enemies
My homeland, My homeland”

The music expert and head of the Iraqi national committee for music Mr. Habib Daher Al Abas critisied the Iraqi goverment for readopting “Mawtini” as a national anthem. Mr. Habib claimed in his article in Al-Sabah iraqi newspaper that the melody of “Mawtini” is very difficult to chant for people without any musical training as he found out after conducting an experiment involving people from different ages and with different social and educational backgrounds. He asked the participants to sing “Mawtini” in order to reveal that only 5% could sing it and with a quality below the average.
Mr Haitham Al Mughanni, M. A. and lecture in Al-Aqsa university in Gaza and an active researcher of the topic “Palestinian patriotic songs” assured me on the Telephon that the difficulty of the melody was never a barrier between it and the masses.
Mr. Haitham added that allot of people prefer “Mawtini” because of it‘s “beautiful” melody and this fact contributes to the confusion surrounding the national anthem.

I might agree with the musical Analysis of Mr. Habib, however i disagree with his argument that a national anthem should be inspired by an easy melody to be easily sung by the masses and that a national committee of music experts are the ones to choose the national anthem. Mr. Habib ends his article questioning the wisdom of choosing an anthem written by a Palestinian poet over an Iraqi one. Here I would like to remind Mr. Habib that the composer Mohammed Fuliefil was born in Beirut and he is known to be Lebanese and not Syrian, he also composed the Syrian national Anthem.
Its also important to know that the Algerian national anthem composed by Mohamed Fawzi from Egypt, the origin of the Libyan national anthem is a popular Egyptian song written by Abd Allah Shamsuldeen and composed by Mahmoud Al Sharif both Egyptians and that in the 80‘s the Tunisian government has asked the famous Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab to do a new musical arrangement for the anthem but it did not work out for some reasons.

In my raw, unprofessional but Palestinian opinion, our national anthem and anthems in general are recognized by the people and should be chosen in popular Initiatives. The lyrics and melody of “Mawtini” are more related to our reality and the gravity of our Arab Identity.

The de facto “Mawtini” or the official “Biladi”, does not seem to be an important nor pressing topic nowadays and the factional political congestion that our leadership are suffering from should not distract us from the savage Israeli attempts to reduce our Heritage to a collection of colored banners and posters. The effort and the attitude of our leadership towards the collecting, sorting, reserving and promoting of such elements of our Palestinian character remains a point of question for me and many other Palestinians and non Palestinian as well!

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