Galiilyo Catastrophe

Galiilyo

Ifkay gogoshiisu hawl tay
Ogow galab noolba waa shil.
Ma oge taladii u goostay
Ma oga gurigay furayso
Galiilyada moog dambaysa.
 
Naftana hunguraa gadh qaada
Cakuye damacaa ku guura,
Haddana godobtiyo lurkeeda
Gefkiyo ceebtiyo xunkeeda
Ogow garashaa u qoollan.
 
Wedkana gamaskii ma iisho
Gaashaan celiyaa ma baajo
Ishaa gibidheed ma daaho
Qofnaba gabbalkii ma waaro
Wax aan hubo geeri kow dheh.
 
Taniyo anigoo gurguurta
Ilaa maantoo gadh leeyey
War geediya oo i qooma
Geddaafo wacaal xambaarsan
Dhegtaydu maxay guddoontay?
Intaan tebay gaan la waayey
Maxaan murugada la goohay
Barbaartii iga gablooshay
Kuwaan guruxyada u beelay?
Markaan godobtooda raadshay
Gunaadiyo ciil gadhoodhay
Miyaan gocashada ku qoomay?
 
Bad gawliyo gacanka xeebta
Miyaan gooddiyey guhaadshay
Gartayda miyaan bilaabay?
 
‘Haddaad maxastayda gawrac
Badyahay kaga gooban weyday
Inaad bir ma geydadayda
Sidaa u gashaa gar maaha.
Alleylehe waad gumowday!
Geshaan kugu leeyey qaana
Gar qaado ha soo gignaane
Ilaah naaraha ku geeye
Adaa gadhmadoobahayga
Haweenkiyo gaaridayda
Ku gaasira meel go’doon ah.
 
Gudhoo galabtaba abaadso
Biyuhu gororoo ku gawdhshe
Gawaan noqo meel garoon ah
Dhul geeddigu galab carraabo.’
 
Intay guuxday gigleysay
Hirkiyo doobtay garaacday
Waxay tidhi ‘Guurowgaagu
Gefiyo waa igu geddaafo
Ma geyo godobtaad i saartay
Aweytida aad ganayso
Miyaan galabsaday? Bal kaadso!
 
Adoo geyigaagu liito
Hadduu sahankaagu gaabsho
Hadduu samirkaagu guuro
Qaneecaadkuna gabnoobo
Quustoo kugu geylamaysa
Garaad hirilaa ka seexdo
Miyaan geerida shinkeeda
Horteed geedigu ku geynin?
 
Hablaha guday ee tahriibay
Hir gaatamayaa idleeyey
Geed ay cuskadaanna waayey
Markii gacal baajin waayey
Shariidku miyuu gasiintay?
 
Intuu saxaruhu go’doonshay
Halyey lagu giirtay fiicni
Intee xabsi lagu gumeeyey
Gashaantimo wada Quraysh ah
Intee guuleed tisqaaday
Raqdiisii haad ku goohay
Dhashii guuluhu ku siiyey
Dugaagu muxuu ku guusay?
 
Markuu huudhigu geddoomay
Markay goglanayd barbaartu
Kalluunku miyuu galiilyo
Ilmada ciil gabbax ka siiyey?
Tiiyoo xeebaha goshooda
Meydkeenii galangalcoobay
Miyaad garan weyday? Kaadso!
 
Xasuuqa tahriibku geysto
Gummaadiyo geeri foolxun
Hooyooyinka weerka goostay
Shilkani kugu gaaf wareegay
Waxuun baa laga guntaaye.
Miyeydaan kaba gaboobin?
 
Gu’goo da’ay oo gadooday
Gudgude soo galab-carraabay
Markay galawgiyo jugleydu
Ka yuusaan gelida kaynta
Miyaan garashadu dhigaynin
Dasada gibillada ku giiji?
 
Geel iyo geesley lo’daada
Halkii gelmi iyo dugaag le
Gelgelin gawsaha hungaysa
Miyaan garashadu dhigaynin
Inaad waaberi ka guurto?
 
Adoo gurigaagi iibshay
Haddaad gabankiina weydo
Adoo geboggebo u yaala
Haddaad dhiillada guddoonto
Wedkaad gini siisataaye
Haddaad geerida la jaarto
Hadduu maalkaagu gooyo
Intuu aadmigu ka giigay
Kolay waa galabsigaaye!
Maxaad gocashada ka toosin?’
 
Garwaaqsaday inan taraaray
Guddoon xaal idhi bal qaado.
 
Sareedadu may guddeene
Barbaartuna may go’deene
Badweyn iskuma gureene.
Xil baan gubin kaad u dhiibtay
Xal muu garan aayatiinle
Xaq muu gudin aad sugaysay
Halkaad u golleyd ma geynin
Hayaankiyo geedigaaga
Guubaabana wuu ka seexday
Inuu galab nool tibaaxo.
 
Guulguulka naftaa ku oogan
Dhallaankani sii gurmaaya
Hankaa laga wada gumaystay
Buug guunaa yidhi ma gaadhid
Halkuu aadmigu u guuray
Rajada gibil baa ka saaran
Runtana waa laga go’doonshay
Gabnaad tahay baa asqaysay
Gufaacaa lagu faruuray
Kalsoonida gabaggabaysay.
 
Qof baad tahay guul abuura
Qof baad tahay guri yagleela
Qof baad tahay gaar ahaantaa
Ku gaajo baxoo is keena
Gankaa kuma dheera caaro
Aqoontaaduna ma gaabna
Ma gaaggixin aayahaagu
Dadkaaguna kuma giriifin
Dalkaagan kama go’aysid
Galbeed Yurub kuuma yeedhin
Giriigguna kuuma baahna
Gob baad tahay moog inteeda.
Adiga geyigaagu waa kan.
Gargaara faray ka hoogtay.
 
Ku eeg gabargaal hortaada
U fiirso bal goonyahaaga
Gadaashaadana bal dheeho
Dhallaan baa kugu gedaaman
Gidaarrada dhaxanta jiifa
Garaadkaagaa u hiila
Qabyaa kugu gaafwareegsan
Hortaa aan cidi gufaynin
Xil baa guudkaaga saaran
Ka weyn goosoo dhaqaaji.
 

Catastrophe

The mat on which life lies is hard.
Beware: each day we stumble.
The one who’s unaware doesn’t know
what door a decision will open
nor the anguish which can follow.
 
Hunger leads a person by the chin,
then grubby greed rides it, so again
beware: good sense is harnessed
to blame, to guilt and shame
and all their rot.
 
The spear of death doesn’t miss its target,
or linger for a blink of an eye.
No shield repels it, no one
outlasts their life, so I
am certain of one thing: death.
 
From crawling baby to bearded man
bad news disturbed me
loaded with disaster.
I felt for the strong ones lost,
I groaned with grief for the young,
those who had no milk,
I sickened for them and wept.
 
Inflamed by the scab of resentment,
I chased the scourge
with blood on its hands.
Was I deranged by the memories?
I stood on the coast and threatened,
accused the booming ocean.
 
Sea! You didn’t prevent
the slaughter of the weak.
It’s criminal the way you treated
the people shielded by law.
By God, you’ve sunk low.
The reparation you owe is clear.
Admit it! Don’t stay silent.
 
God will send you to the fires of hell!
It’s you who tore at my people,
the fine women and men injured
in a desolate place.
 
Be drained each day, be empty,
may you dry up drop by drop,
become a drought-ridden
open desert that in the evening
the nomads will walk over.
 
I had spoken.
 
The sea roared and rumbled,
it rolled its waves and churned
its foam, then said: Your poem
is a travesty. I don’t deserve
the guilt you hurl, the curse you cast,
Is this my due? Just hold on!
 
Your leaders are lacking, your country
grows weak. Your patience is lost,
your smiles fade. Your understanding
sleeps, that would have tackled
the despair that seeps inside you
and steers the journey
to the hour of your death.
 
A wave crept up towards
the girls as they were trafficked
in darkness; it tore them apart,
they had no tree to cling to
and predators revelled when
no friend was there to save them.
 
All those the Sahara cut off,
good men proclaimed as heroes,
how many were left wretched in jail?
How many virtuous women
failed to reach their potential?
Vultures cawed over the carrion
of each corpse; wild beasts clawed
the offspring given you by God.
 
When the boat was overturned,
the young were scattered along
the shore. Did the fish in anguish
not weep tears of festering anger?
Are you unaware of your dead
amassed from coast to coast?
Just look!
 
The slaughtering migration,
the massacre and ugly death,
the mothers draped in mourning cloth
for a blunder which comes around again,
what binds you to it all?
 
When the bustard calls out from the bush
to warn of the heavy spring showers,
the gales and afternoon downpours,
are you not grown-up enough
to know to tighten the roof-mat
on the frame of your hut?
 
Doesn’t common sense tell you
to leave at dawn the place
where the jaws of your cattle
and camels have nothing to chew,
where ticks and carnivores threaten?
 
If you’ve sold your goods and your house,
if all your children are gone,
if you stagger at the brink
after hearing terrible news
and offer your final shilling
to death, who you make your neighbour,
if all your wealth has bought only
that which humans despise,
why lament the fate of loved-ones?
It’s what you deserve!
 
It had spoken and I replied:
 
Sea! I hear you.
I admit, I’ve gone too far.
Accept my apology.
 
To the people I say:
Prosperity should not have vanished.
The young should not have perished,
not thrown themselves on the ocean.
 
Duty didn’t burn in the spirit
of him you handed it to.
He had no plan for the future,
didn’t uphold the justice
you were expecting. He slept.
He didn’t speak out each day
as he should to inspire the camel-trek,
to the destination you gathered for.
 
Menace surrounds you, your children die,
all their dreams are crushed.
Colonial powers wrote in books
that you wouldn’t reach the place
to which humanity aspires.
A skin now covers hope,
truth has been cut away
and you’re told you’re worthless.
All this overwhelms you
and splits apart your sinking confidence.
 
You are people who can build a home.
You are people in your own right.
Leave behind the false
hunger and look to your success,
you’re not any less by even
a spear-tip than your peers elsewhere.
Your intellect is strong.
Your future is bright.
Your people need you.
Your country has not cut you off.
Western Europe hasn’t called you.
The Greeks don’t need you.
Where is your self-respect?
Your place is here. Life
got out of hand but look
to what’s ahead of you,
take in what’s by your side,
turn round and see the children
clumped together in the cold,
sleeping by the walls.
Only your effort can help them.
A shattered world surrounds you
that no one has yet made whole.
The responsibility rests on you
more pressing than cut and run.
 
Life of which the sleeping mat is effort/problems
Know! Every afternoon/day is a collision/difficult situation
The one ignorant of the decision he has made
Doesn't know the house it will open
Doesn't know what shock will come after it.
In life [the] gullet [i.e. greed] takes [the] beard [i.e. leads]
Huh! Greed moves on it [i.e. life] [as in: it drives it]
And then the grudge/blame and its trouble
The mistake and shame and its badness
Know! Understanding is haltered to them.
And the small spear does not miss its target of death
A shield to fend it off doesn't prevent it
It doesn't screen off [the effect of] the girl's eye
No person is permanent in the daylight [i.e. no one lasts forever]
Of what I am certain, number one is death.
Since I crawled
Until the day I have a beard
News which is a trek [i.e. news which is around me] and which disturbs me
Things carrying information
How much my ear has received [in the form of a rhetorical question]
As I lamented a brave young man who was lacking [lit: who one lacked]
How I groaned with sadness
The young ones/children who were lacking milk to me [i.e. who had nothing]
For whose sake my eyes [lit. eyeballs] became weak
When I looked for their grudge [i.e. the ones who are to blame for their problems]
[The] unhealed scab and grief
Did I become angry from recalling [these things]!
A booming sea and the inlet of the coast
Did I threaten it and accuse it!
Did I begin my case!
 
In the next section, the poet addresses the sea which causes the death of many people emigrating over it.
 
If you, oh sea, could not prevent my vulnerable ones [children, women, old people] from being slaughtered
That you threaten my protected ones in that way is not right [i.e. a lawful thing]
By God you have become worthless
Obligation you owe me which is a debt
Admit it [legally] don't stand stiff [as if you've done nothing]
May God take you to the fires [of hell]
It is you who has killed my black-bearded ones [younger men], the women and good women in an isolated place
Be empty and run dry by the end of the day
May the waters dry up drop by drop
Become a flat open ground
A land the nomadic trek passes over in the late afternoon
As she [the sea] roared and rumbled
The waves and the foam beat
 
In the following lines the sea replies to the poet's accusations.
 
She [the sea] said: 'Your poem
Is an offense and news to me
I don't deserve the blame you have put on me
The condemnation you launch
Have I deserved it?  Just be careful.
As your land is weak
If your leadership [lit: the people who go out to reconnoitre] is lacking
If your patience moves away
And your expectations diminish
Despair which overcomes you
Wise one[s] slacking are asleep
Doesn't the trek lead you in front of the season of death
The girls who travelled at night and emigrated over the sea
A wave which crept up on them killed them
A tree which would have supported them was lacking
When a loved one failed to prevent it
Did the roaming wild creatures in the wilderness eat them?
As the desert isolated them
A good hero who would be dependable
How many were abused in jail
Maidens who were all Quraysh [i.e. beautiful and innocent]
How many prime youths reached adulthood
Birds of prey cawed over his corpse
The offspring the Victorious One [i.e. God] gave you
What did the wild animals become satiated on?
When the boat overturned
When the young ones where scattered about
? Did the fish shed streams of tears at the shock
The one[s] who over the whole area of the coast
Scattered our dead
Do you fail to recognize [it/them]; just be careful.
The extermination which sea migration brings
Destruction and ugly death
The mothers who have cut the mourning cloth
This incident which looks on you all the time [i.e. keeps happening to you]
[Surely] some thing must be learned from it
Haven't you [pl.] grown old [enough to realize]
The gu' [rains] which have fallen and been heavy
The gudgude rain which has come in the late afternoon
When the galaw bustard and the jugley bustard
Call in the paths among the bush
Doesn't knowledge/understanding teach
To tighten the mats on the camel's back
Camels and your cattle with horns
The place where ticks and wild animals are many
?? A place which repeatedly has repeatedly made the back teeth empty
Doesn't knowledge/understanding teach
That you move from it at dawn?
As you have sold your house
If you lack your young children
As you are at the end
If you receive the bad news
Give pounds [i.e. money] for the time of your death
If you are neighbours with death
If your wealth buys
That which humanity shuns
Then it is what you deserve
Why should you arouse lamentation from it [this]?
 
In the next passage, the poet replies to the sea.
 
I admit, I've overdone it
I have said receive it and take my apology
Good fortune would not have left
The young ones would not have died
They would not have thrown themselves at the ocean
The one you passed them to has not accepted responsibility [i.e. the leadership has not taken responsibility for them]
He didn't learn a solution with a future
He didn't fulfil [the] duty you were expecting [of him]
He didn't lead [them] to where you aimed for
On the journey and the trek
He slept instead of warning
? That so many days he would have warned
The threat your life is surrounded by
These young ones whose number is getting small
The aspirations have been take away from them all
Colonial book[s] said you wouldn't reach it
There where humanity is moving towards
A veil has been put over the hope [hope is hidden by a veil]
One has been isolated from the truth [/reality]
'You're worthless' has overwhelmed him/them
A channel has been cut with a strong wind with rain [an expression of being overwhelmed]
[And] has withered the confidence.
You are a person who creates success
You are a person who prepares ground for a house [i.e. builds a house]
You are a person in your own right
Leave being hungry for it and bring yourself [to existence]
Your peers [i.e. people in other countries] are not greater than you by even a little bit
Your knowledge is not short
Your future has not been stemmed [the word for this comes from when the camel's milk is stemmed]
Your people have not forsaken you
You are not cut off from this country of yours
Western Europe has not called you
The Greeks don't need you
You are noble ?who doesn't know that
Here is your land
Look at what is in front of you (? gabargaal)
Consider your sides (?what is below you)
Enamel [i.e. polish, or something like that] your time to come
Children are clustered around you
Who sleep by the walls in the cold
Who are turning to your wisdom
Incompleteness is all around you
Before you that which no one has fulfilled
Responsibility that is set upon you
Is greater than that you break loose and move away.
 

Original Poem by

Xasan Daahir Ismaaciil ‘Weedhsame’

Translated by

Martin Orwin with Martin Orwin, Daljit Nagra Language

Somali

Country

Somalia/Somaliland