Daalacan Clarity

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Daalacan

Ma da’furin ogaalkay

Xaska dabada maan gelin

derejada ilhaamkiyo

hibadii dalaysnayd

uma dhiibin duudduub

Weli Dalawadaydii

Doobigeedi may dhimin

Dibu-dhigasho mooyee

Wax is doorshey may dhicin

Afartaa xan durugtiyo

Danni jira wax sheeggii

rag hadduu dagaal galo

Danta guud xilkeediyo

U dareero fuullaan

Ashkir deeddan badiyaan

xakamaha la doontaa

Duullaanka kama hadho

gaarriyoow dugaalkiyo

Shaxda Delebka taallee

Daawashiyo cayaarba leh

Sirmaqabe ku diirsaday

Aniguna hog baan degey

Digba waa digteedee

Deelleydu waa laba

Afartaasi waa duud

Arrin wadata diirkeed

Dulmar gabaygu lee yahay

marka dooddu kulushahay

daldaloollo muuqdaan

Doogashada qabiilkiyo

Dacar iyo ladh soo kaco

Nabaradu dillaacaan

dadku kala qaloodaan

Marka dhidar ku daadego

Booraan dahsoonoo

Hilbo laga diqoodoo

Damac-beelay yaalliin

Dabadeedna uuskiyo

Duufkiyo xumaystii

debedda ula soo baxo

Dadku shaamareeraan

Neecaw delleganoo

Doorsoontay uriyaan

Waxan ahay dareenkii

Noqon jirey daruurtee

Sidii roobka di’i jirey

Dalka wada dhammayn jiray

Indhaweyto daaf iyo

Cudur daansha socodoo

Duulduulay baa jirey

Daacuunse maahee

Asal-tira-ma doorshuhu

Duraygay abuureen

Ma og tahay nin doorkiyo

Inta neceb dir soocee

Derejeysa qarankiyo

Durdurrada aqoontiyo

Qalinkiyo Dawaadiyo

Deelleyda curatiyo

Innagaa ka daba tegi

Durbaankay tuntumayaan

Dawankaynu sidannaa

sida danaba u baab’in

Dugsadaha qabiilkiyo

Dib-ka-naaxa shaac baxay

Diga-rogashadeennii

Iyo dawladnimadii

Dib inay u celiyaan

Qorshahayga kuma darin

Nin kastaa ha duudsiyo

Ama dala’si haw xado

Ama duurka haw xulo

Ama dabinno haw dhigo

ama duhur ha weeraro

Ama damac ha dhaafsado

Gobannimadu waa degel

Dayax iyo iftiin nool

Dumimeyso weligeed

Anigaa dabka u sida

Dal-jirkeedi baan ahay

ninka xagal-ka-daaciyo

Goldaloola iga hela

Isaga iyo digtoonkii

Anigiyo dagnaantay

Taariikhdu duuggeed

Diiwaanka qarankiyo

Wixii deyn cad ii qoran

Dirirtiyo rogaalkay

Dahabka iyo maartiyo

lacag aan Dur wadannoo

Laba daabac sidatiyo

Dalaga iyo beeraha

dacalada Shabeelliyo

webiyada dugsaniyiyo

Danbarsada labeentiyo

Dirirradu habaaskiyo

Dusha sare ka maydhaan

Daarahan casuustaleh

Kolba midab la doortiyo

Diibka lagu mariimee

Shanta Datsun yaalliin

Hanti aan dal dheer iyo

laga keenin dibadaa

Karti iyo dedaaliyo

dardar lagula soo bixin

Duullaanna loo gelin

Duco waalid soo hoyn

Carshigana ka soo degin

Deeqdaa la yaabka leh

Ninka weel darsanayee

digashada saboolkiyo

Ku darsaday badheedhaha

Miyaan eedi daba ool

Godobtiisu dedanaa

Bulshadeenu waa duul

Daacad iyo xishood badan

Dun xariira weeyaan

Cidna uma darraadaan

Dar Allay ku dhaqantaa

Dareen waw dhegweyn tahay

Ogow doqonse maahee

Qofka maamul dalabliyo

Dabbaal-joogto hoosiyo

Dibindaabyo ugu maqan

Degdeg uma tilmaamaan

Nabar kulama duulaan

Dib bay ugu muddaystaan

Dulmigiisu waw kayd

Afartaa dun quruxliyo

Diillimaha Biciidkiyo

Dildilaha farshaxankiyo

sida delebka ma dhigay

Mid kalaase ii dihin

weli dooddu ii furan

Maansadan dabayshiyo

Duufaan sidiisii

Dalandool u socotee

Dalladii qabiilkiyo

Xidhan waranki deyllaa

Laga furay daboolkii

lagu gado dukaamada

Miyaan xeer dabbaaliyo

Sharci laba-dibleeyiyo

Dar u qaybsan loo hayn

Toloow daaya yaa yidhi

Duumadan xanuunka leh

Kuwa luuqda daba dhigay

Denbi miyaanu qabanayn

Dulucdiyo ujeeddada

Runta aan u daadego

Ducda hadalku waa hee

Inta gaajo doob tahay

Derbi tahay laxaad weyn

Dufan-jecesha ururtiyo

Dibna-leeftatarantee

Doorka maanta soo baxay

Dabatadu sad roon tahay

waxa yaal daldalayaan

Danyartiyo saboolkuna

Diingaraaro jiifaan

Dadku kala sarreeyaan

In qabiilku dabar-go’

Ama dumo ha eegina

Cilmi diidayaa jira

Deegaanta noloshiyo

Darantiyo samaantana

Ninkii doonayoow taas

Daw loo maraa jira

Umad yahay daryeelkaa

isku duubnidaa iyo

Adigiyo dedaalkaa

Dawadaadu waa taas

Dhan hadday ka debecdana

Gabbalkaa dam weeyaan

Ma dardaaran baa hadhay

Deexashada tusaalaha

Ama talada deeqda ah

Miyaad dood ka leedahay

Geenyadaydi Daalacan

Dabar saari maayee

Dibso aan idhaahdoo

Dagagara ayaamee

Sulmakii darbane mee

Dalandaliska Naylaha

Doonnanteenan boqorka leh

Deelleyda baaqa ah

Darka laaska beeshiyo

Duunyadu isugu timi

Dalbashada wadaantiyo

Adaa doojinteediyo

Haya dawliskeedoo

Dulqulaalka xanankiyo

Dogobkiyo Huuddiyo

Waxa tahay Bir-daaqeen

Ardaydiisa dooddiyo

deeqsiiya hadalkee

Sangahaagi Doolaal

mar labaad ha dananee

majaraha u sii daa

Sheekadu ha durugtee

Dawi Maxamed Xaashoow

Aniguna ku dayashada

Haddaan dayro kaa dhigo

Anaa daawadii furay

Waa innoo dantaas guud

Deelka-xeel-la’aaneed

Carrab dalab-la’aaneed

Clarity

I’ve still not admitted defeat,

nor have I withdrawn:

that high inspiration,

that talent I was endowed with,

has not been discarded.

Its milk-camel’s capacity to fill

the dairy pail is undiminished –

apart from my deliberate delay,

there is no difference in me.

So I have a few points to make

to deal with the spreaders of doubt.

When men dedicate to the struggle

and determine to fulfil their duty;

when they ready themselves for the charge,

amass the finest thoroughbreds;

when the reins are on the racers,

I never step aside.

Gaarriye, in this arena

where the chess game unfolds –

well worth the watching, promising play –

the innocent delight in alliterative war,

our Deelley with its two sides,

where tactic is met by counter-tactic –

and here’s where I put my piece.

These first points are just the outline

to the real issue, the whole shape of which

this poem will address.

When our debate gets heated

loopholes come to light:

that damage done by exploiting

the bitterness of tribes, the anguish of clans,

which opens gaping wounds,

divisions between the people.

When the hyenas descend

upon shallow graves

and the shunned bodies of the dead,

that rotten meat nothing else would touch,

and pull out the pulp from their bellies,

the flux and the phlegm,

and scatter it all around,

the people are dumbstruck,

the fresh air is defiled,

miasma fills every nostril.

Then I am that prediction

of clouds still to come

bringing a downpour

that will cover the whole country.

Now a strange disease of vision

has been seen, and similar sicknesses

have ravaged and ranged:

not fatal like a cholera,

their futile attempts

are more like the common cold.

Nonetheless, those with virtue,

who detest discrimination,

those who defend this country –

who value knowledge,

the pen and the ink, those who delivered

this Deelley into the light –

will track them down

and silence their tapping drum.

The clarion bell we carry will strike,

destroying them like lightning,

those huggers of tribalism,

grubbers in money, who are everywhere

lusting to turn back

all hopeful development

and to despoil our nation –

I can’t let that happen.

Anyone who tries to rob you of your rights,

whether by brazen thievery

or clandestine kleptocracy,

by hideous trickery or with

light fingers in the light of day,

the pettiest of selfish pilfering,

they can’t grasp how well-founded Freedom is –

both the Moon and its full clarity

which will never dim.

I carry its fire, and am

its emissary. Anyone

who seeks to damage me,

to find my feeblest point,

can do his damnedest:

no matter how depleted I seem,

History will display

in the nation’s records

the inevitable outcome

of the role that I play.

Their gold and their silver

is a counterfeit coin,

its two faces are the same.

Their farms and their fields

crowd the banks of the Shabeele,

shelter by that richest of rivers,

fed by its finest cream;

rain directed by the Dirir star

washes them clean of dirty sand.

Their buildings are lavishly daubed

any colour they fancy,

furnished with the fittest mahogany;

five Datsuns are parked out front.

Nothing is earned from distant labour,

the sweat of work done while abroad;

nothing from diligence and hard work.

Nothing is gained by toil,

by the effort of striving together.

This bewildering wealth

lacks the blessings of parents,

nor has it dropped from Heaven –

Anyone who indulges in such display,

looking down on the destitute

and blatantly bragging about it,

doesn’t he fear being called to account

and having his crime’s enormity uncovered?

Our nation is renowned

for its honesty, for humility;

woven from a silken thread

our people would harm no-one;

fearing Allah, their feelings

are slow to stir – still,

they are not so easily duped:

those immersed in misrule,

pretending to stand tall while swimming

in its depths, weaving their unseen nets –

our people don’t rush to blame

nor to lash out at them, but

they keep an excellent account

of such misdeeds and store it well.

Let these few lines be as striking

as the stripes on an oryx,

as visible and as lovely –

I simply place them in plain view.

But there’s one further point

which will finish my argument.

Those others’ poems are driven by the wind,

like a tornado they turn

wherever and in whatever direction:

swelling the banner of tribalism,

lifting its deadly spear,

taking the lid off restraint –

it’s released in every marketplace.

Is there no regulation that could stop it,

no law that might detain it,

no authority to enforce these rules?

I wonder who said to let it spread,

this baleful malaria?

Why are those who pipe its praises

not brought to trial?

Let me tell the whole truth,

put into words

the essence of our charge:

while hunger grips like a strong youth,

is impregnable as a sturdy wall,

and those who grab and gather wealth,

who love to lick their lips at it –

while this type is springing up all over,

doers of ill who demand the best,

hoarding all there is;

while the poor suffer,

are pushed over, helpless,

and everyone is divided into high or low,

don’t hope that tribalism

will fade and wither:

the facts oppose you.

Anyone who wants this life

to be serene,

to have savour and feel sound,

there is a path to follow:

people, you prosper

as one unit, as you share in

your shouldering of the burden –

that’s the only balm.

If it weakens in one wing

then its whole end is woe.

Is there any advice better than this,

any further examples you need

beyond this ample explanation,

or do you have some countering case?

My horse is Clarity, is Daalacan –

I won’t hobble it

but here I set it at ease

for a few days.

Where is that able, well-bred ram

who leads the lively lambs

to our betrothed, our princess,

the Deelley, whose call brings them all

to the well that is community,

both the people and the animals?

Who knows how best to order

the drawing of the water but you, Gaarriye,

master with the deftness to distinguish

tinder’s dry leaves and dead sticks

from the trunk and branches best for the fire.

You are tempered steel:

your speeches satisfy the curious

and your arguments convince.

Your horse is named Doolaal, the strong and fast:

let its neigh ring out again,

let loose its rein, let

our theme spread far abroad.

Dear friend, Maxamed Xaashi,

I am as you are and do as you do,

if I ever let you down,

let the blame be on me. Let’s be

united in our common goal:

clear of motive,

clear of voice.

Undying Glow

I haven’t given up yet

Nor have I made retreat;

The inspiration from heaven

and the achievement that goes along

I have never willingly discarded

My milky camel is ready

To fill the bowls to the brim

Apart from intended procrastination,

Nothing has changed in my mission.

These four points I make

To rebuff that baseless rumour

WHEN MEN truly go to war

with commitment and determination

and start harnessing the horses

I am never the one supposed

To fall far behind the others

My friend, Gaarriye, mark this:

the ongoing ‘Shax’ game

being watched by all and sundry

and trumpeted loud by the fools

I cast my dice with confidence

Knowing well the only two sides

To the ‘Deelley’ gauntlet

This four is but a prelude

To the issue at stake

My poem intends to address

WHEN THE DEBATE gets heated

And weaknesses become exposed

When some resort to tribal sentiments

And the damage shows in divisions

to which the society is split

When young hyenas go ahead

Pulling carcasses from covered holes

Scattering the chyme in the open

which smacks people’s noses

With unbearable stenches

And the thrown away parts

Fill the air with impurity

I tend to be the harbinger of the clouds

Of the long awaited rains

The people so hoped for

RECENTLY SIGNS of eye cataracts

And other similar illnesses

Has been seen rampantly at loose

It wasn’t cholera,

More like a slight cold

No doubt those of us,

Who hate discrimination,

And upheld their patriotism

With the might of their pen

And the recitation of the Deelley poems

Will soon track the mischievious and

Silence their drum beats.

Our clarion call will destroy

With the force of lightning

their malicious intent,

and tribal incitement of those

who exploit their kind

and try to defame of sovereignty

Theirs will never happen,

According to my reckoning

NO MATTER their weird attempts,

Blatant emezzlements,

resort to fraudulent means

Or even daylight robbery

and holding the country at ransom

for selfish personal gains,

The freedom that we have won

like a full moon’s glare

cannot be easily extinguished

I am on its guard

and its torch-bearer too

I am its roving ambassador

Whoever tries to get the better of it

May foolishly choose so

But will taste bitter defeat

because I am always on the alert

it is my historical mission

a duty upon my shoulders

to fight till the very end

WHETHER IT is gold or silver

This strange currency of money

Having both sides the same;

Farmlands at the banks of the Shebelle river

Washed clean and nurtured

by the Dirir star above,

Buildings cropping up here and there

Changing their paints to red and all hues

Made of wood from the fabulous ‘Diib’ tree

With five Datsun cars in their garage

This property not earned abroad

Nor gained by honest labour

Void of both the blessings of parents

And the bliss of providence

This absolutely inexplicable enrichment

Yielded by some who cause misery

And impoverish the public

Don’t they realise their gross villainy

That will for ever follow them.

OUR SOCIETY is known for its good

And fogiving attitudes

It is made of pure golden stock

It hates to harm any one

In Allah it always trusts

Wrongly percieved as unwitting at times

but it is far from being easily duped

true, it never hastily charges

those pent on doing it harm

and who dispense of public wealth;

It patiently takes record of all

And perpetrators never get away with it

These four verses, beautiful threads

Like the colours on the oryx skin

I only employed as mere illustrations

But still in store I have

One more point to say

The unleashing of these poems

Which like wirlwinds roaring

And moving in every direction

smarting the hat of tribalism

starkly seen in the open;

this commodity being sold in the shops

isn’t there a law forbidding it

can’t it be checked and stopped

isn’t there somebody assigned to that duty

I wonder who gave permisson to

The reciters of these harmful poems

Isn’t there a law banning them

THE LONG AND the short of it

The truth of the matter

Let me say it straight:

While hunger is so rife

Standing like stalwart

With the self-enriching lots

Are wetting their appetites

And increasing in number

With fraudulents winning the day

Having possession of all there is ;

With the poor bearing the brunt

And society divided into unequal classes

Never expect tribalism to go away

And disappear of its own

This is scientifically proven knowledge

WHOEVER wishes for peace

and prosperity in life,

there is always a right path

to go along for that.

The people’s well being

Lies in its unity and common toil

That is its healing medicine

But should it suffer a weakness on one side

That would certainly be a fatal blow.

There remains no louder warning

Or better examples to give

Or more genuine advice to go by.

Who dares to disagree, then!

MY HORSE poem ‘Daalacan’

I won’t hobble it any more

But give it time to rest.

And call for all our sheep and lambs

And all in the neighbourhood

To where all will gleefully witness

our beautifully adorned princess

The ‘Deelley’ poem we recite

Like a bountiful water well

Where every one can come

To quench their thirst .

You, my friend, are better equipped

For it and surely know how to sort

Out the weeds and throw the useless substance.

Like giving lessons to your students

Give the gathered crowds your words

Which they longingly came to hear

Let go your ‘Doolaal’ horse poem

Once again set its reigns free

So that it takes our tale to far away lands

Yes, my friend Maxmed Xaashi,

I will also follow suit

And do the same on my part

Thus we accomplish our noble task.

This is one of the most famous, and most important poems, in contemporary Somali poetry. Following his release from five year’s imprisonment by the dictator, Siad Barre, Hadraawi and his good friend, the late Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac ‘Gaarriye’, began this ‘chain’ of poems, ‘Deelley’, to which many prominent Somali poets contributed. Hadraawi’s ‘Clarity’ is dedicated to Gaarriye, whom he speaks of with enormous admiration and affection in the poem.

All the poems in the ‘Deelley’ chain are written in the demanding and complex gabay form and, in this case, they all alliterate with the letter ‘D’. The ‘Deelley’ poems were memorised and recited in secret and they had a significant impact on Barre’s reputation leading to his downfall. ‘The Sea Migrations’ by the Somali poet Caasha Lul Mohamud Yusuf is a recent addition to the chain.

WN Herbert, Poet-translator

Original Poem by

Maxamed Ibraahin Warsame ‘Hadraawi’

Translated by

Said Jama Hussein with W N Herbert Language

Somali

Country

Somalia/Somaliland

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