Agoon Orphan

Agoon

Ararta gabayga waayadaan, eeg isma lahayne
Ma aloosin maansooyinkii, aan astayn jiraye
Alifka iyo Miimkaba ma curin, iba furkoodiiye
Asaaski murtida waanigii, daayay illinkeede
Allaylee markaan uurxumada, eegi kari waayay
Inaan erey idhaahdaa kolkaa, way ekoontahye.
 
Waddan aabbihii waayay oo, wada agoomoobay
Ay ooridiisii mar hore, aakhirow hoyatay
Afka oodda laga saaray oo, aqal madow taagan
Oo aan adeer iyo abtiyo, eeddo kale haysan
Oo ehelka kii ugu xigaa, iilka wada geeyey
Oo ay ayaaniba ayaan, ugu amaah doontay.
 
Abris aadunoo laba afle ah, odayadiisii dheh!
Wixii aan aqoonyahan lahaa, aaway magacood dheh!
Isma dhaanto bay wada noqdeen, inan raggeedii dheh!
Ergadoodu waa taa iyaga, uubta gelinaysa
Amley baa wadnaha laga sudhaa, amarka kii diida
 
Iyagays arkaayee cid kale, kuma ilduufteene
Indho beeshey Soomaali oo, waa ogsoonnahaye
Awood hadday lahayd beri iyagays, jaray unuunkiiye
 
Abeesow inkaaraa dhiciyo, aafadiyo hoogga
Awaaraha iyo boodhkaa ka kaca, arladi Soomaale
Uuradaa ka boodaysa oo, aadmi geli waayey
Adduunyadaa ku tababbarata oo, waa iskuul furane
Ummaddii ku noolaydna waa, kala abraareene.
 
Argaggaxii ku dhacay waa kuwaa, inniba meel aadday;
Inna waa intaa ooyaysee, wada itaal beeshey
Inna waa intaa ololaysee, loo arxamahaynnin
Inna waa intaa aay cidla' ah, lagu ugaadhaysto
Inna waa intaa aayo li'i, arad Carbeed daadsan
Inna waa intaa aradkan Gaal, eeridhaban keeney
Inna waa intaa eedadday oo, ubuc badeed jiifta.
 
Ayaandarrada ina haystaan, la anfariiraaye
Eerigo'anka aan taagannaan, la amankaagaaye
Is afgarad la'aantaa ayaan, ka istixyoodaaye
Asaraarka diintii galee, loo abtirinaayo
Arday iyo macallinkii ayaa, wada alhuumaysan
Astaantii Kitaabkay wataan, iyo Axaaddiise
Nin waliba intuu doonayuu, ku andacoodaaye
Abdo beeshayoo waydinkaa, aan u tudhahayne
Waxa aan galnee uumiyuu, innagu eedeeyey
Af-ku-xoogle mooyee nin kale, waa ogsoonyahaye.
 
Aheey sow qalbiga kama ilmeeyn, umal la taaheenna!
Aheey sow qalbiga kama ilmeeyn, aayo li'idiinna!
Aheey sow qalbiga kama ilmeeyn, aniga ii daada!
Aheey sow qalbiga kama ilmeeyn, aano nagu raagta!
Aheey sow qalbiga kama ilmeeyn, ayaan li'ideeda!
 
Aheey sow qalbiga kama ilmeeyn, ‘aayar tali!' diidka!
 
Hooyada sidii igadh maqaar, wayday ubadkeeda
Hooyada halkay eeg tidhaa, lagaba awdaayo
Hooyada ‘ax!' iyo ‘way!' ku nool, oogtiyo allaylka
Hooyada halkay addin dhigtaba, adhax wareegaysa
Hooyada agteedii madfaca, lagu asiibaayo.
 
Waxba arami bay jiifsatee, yaanan urugoonnin
Isticimaar hadduu ii dhashiyo, amar-ku-taagleeyne
Addoonsigaan ka baxay waanigaa, galay albaabkiise
Afrikada madow bayga daran, aarka saanta cade
Asqow baa raggii iga noqdoo, wuu anbanayaaye
Sidii awrta raraygoo kalaa, ‘ooh!' la leeyahaye
Ama adhi xayeeysoo kalay, wada ekaadeene.
 
Afgembiga wax igaga daran, amal la'aantayda
Aayar baa wixii layla rabaan, oofinahayaaye
Ilig baa la dhaafsaday Abees, udubdhexaadkiiye
 
Asaaggay haddii aan ka hadhay, eegmo xumadayda
Waa inaan illoobaa naftaba, way eekoontahaye
Waa inaan abaadaa sidaan, aakhirow kacaye
Waa inaan adduunyada dhammaan, kaba ag guuraaye.
 
Waxba alifku yuu ila gudbine, waxaan ku soo ooday;
Eebbow iyagays eersadee, cidi ma aanayne
Eebbow is aamminid la'aan, uurxumada taalla
Eebbow iyagays wada arkee, adigu soo oolli,
Eebboow abaaraha dhiciyo, omoska jiilaalka
Inuu ubuxu noo soo baxaan, kaa igmanayaaye,
Nabad baan u oonnee Allow, adigu noo oofi,
Neecow udgoon badan inaad, uga dambeeysiisid
Isnacayb ayaa kala galee, mid isu keenaaya
Oo Eebbihii garanayaan, hadal ku soo ooday.
 
London, 2009
 

Orphan

Lately, I haven't attempted poems, or arresting public attention.
I've stopped articulating verses, advancing my words,
haven't recited the initials - the alliterative letters of Alif.
I've stopped being involved, playing by form's essential rules,
but how can I stand useless, whilst my people grieve and ache?
With affairs as they are, I must utter a few words.
 
A country has lost its father.  It is entirely orphaned.
Long ago his wife crossed over.  She passed from this earth.
The land's sealed off by fences, behind them dark acts happen.
There are no uncles to help, there are no aunts,
instead kin kill each other; they dig each other's graves
as life undermines life; one day occurs after another.
 
Say it: snakes are toxic-tongued, assuming human masks.
Say it: we can't observe those we once called intellectuals.
Say it: no one is different, they are all equally bad.
Where are the envoys? Cast into a pit.
Those who refused orders? Blades stabbed their arteries.
They antagonise each other, ignore the others,
these unseeing Somalis, who can't tell good from evil.
If once they were mighty, today they engage in self-slaughter.
 
Hey Abees! There's been curses, affliction, sorrow.
Above Somali ground, clouds of dust unspooled.
Humans couldn't endure it, the heat-blast of awful burning
or the dumping ground, where a world practises shitting.
An urgent stampede, no abode here for the living.
 
A terror so intense, they fragmented, fled apart:
some of them are impotent, they are howling out for help,
some of them are attacked, bombs aim at them without pity,
some of them are hunted, hiding in the jungle,
some of them are hopeless, flung across the Arab World,
some of them are running to asylum in the west,
some of them take boats, sink to death in the unfathomable sea.
 
I'm altogether bewildered. Don't understand this misfortune.
I'm angered in isolation - it feels like we're all alone.
I'm embarrassed at the lack, how there is no understanding -
wrongly interpreted religion, and the constant contradictions.
How insecure the student and educator's situation -
they're both aware of symbols in the Hadith and Qur'an
and select the lines of text that suit their assertions.
With your absence of mercy, the Qur'an loses eternity.
Other nations accuse us, and we've performed those acts.
Everyone knows this, but those who act.
 
Oh don't I weep and mourn in my heart, out of rage and agony?
Oh don't I weep and mourn in my heart, for the empty future?
Oh don't I weep and mourn in my heart, for their ‘leave-me-alone-to-have-it-
       all'?
Oh don't I weep and mourn in my heart, at idle hate and revenge?
Oh don't I weep and mourn in my heart, that we're not assigned to Paradise?
Oh don't I weep and mourn in my heart, when power's not quiet or easy?
 
Think of a mother, like the she-camel whose offspring has died -
they fill its skin up with grasses, trick her into giving milk.
The mother looks everywhere, but her searches are ended,
from dawn until its dark, she moans her ah and oh.
Every time she steps, an explosion rips her spinal cord,
every time she steps, heavy artillery shells fall.
 
Let me not eat out my heart, though distress accompanies me
and colonialism and dictatorship are reborn in my country.
Though owning slaves is over, inequality's door creaks open -
the black Africans are worse than white colonizers earlier.
Our men have lost awareness and also their way
like calves instructed to take the burden, to slow up at whoa!
 
Animate skeletons, undernourished goats, their bones show. 
But our hopelessness is the worst act, in this upside down society,
how, unresisting, we execute malevolent orders.
Hey Abees! The nation's trust was ensnared by selfish wealth.
If we're far behind our peers and looking so appalling,
maybe the appropriate thing is not to keep on living,
not to endure as if it's already after,
to move away entirely from this earth.
 
Let me halt my Alif alliteration. I could go on and on.
Oh God, no one else is responsible.  The blame ends with Them.
Oh God, the suspicions, the endless ill will.
Oh God, the collusion, the grudges against each other.
Oh God, the parched season, the drought occurring now.
This is a prayer for flowers and leaves.
Oh God, bring ease. We thirst after peace!
And later, usher in new starts, fresh air -
release from intense hatred.  I end now:
may a leader, obeying Allah, bring us together.
 

Orphan

I was not these days thinking to introduce Gabay to the attention of the public
Neither do I initiated poems I once used to brand and promote
Nor have I recited the formal beginnings of the alliterations of Alif and Miim,
I've stopped becoming involved in the foundations of the essential point of 
       literature;
But when I honestly couldn't able to stand idly by while my people suffered  
       grievances and hardship
Then it became suitable for me in the circumstance to say a few words. 
 
A country that have lost its father and completely orphaned
His wife has long time ago crossed over and passed away
The whole territory sealed off and fenced and inside dark deeds been
       ommitted
Having neither paternal and maternal uncles nor paternal aunts
It's their kinsmen who killed and send them to their graves
It's a very highly destructive life occurring one day after another.
 
Say, it's a forked tongue venomous snake with human masks!
Say, where are the people whom I used to call intellectuals!
Say, there is no difference between men - they are the two sides of the same
       coin!
Their envoys were been put in a pit
Anyone refusing to take the orders is stabbed in the heart by a dagger
It's they who are antagonizing each other and not giving attention to others
We know that there is an astonishing discernment among the Somalis
If once upon a time they were very powerful, today they killed by themselves.
 
Hey Abees! The curse, the disaster and the misfortune that took place
Clouds of dust soared into the sky in the Somali territory
Humans couldn't able to stay in because of the steam from a high flame
The country has become an open school where the world can do their training
       courses
And the population living there have moved with urgent haste and stampeded.
 
Because of the intense feeling of fear and terror each group have fled to 
       different destinations;
Part of them is those who are powerless and crying for help
Part of them is those who are attacked continuously with bombs or shells with
       no mercy
Part of them is those who have been hunted in the jungle
Part of them is those who are having no hope for the future and scattered in
       the Arab World
Part of them is those who have ran away from prosecution and travelled and
       sought asylum in the West
Part of them is those who have fled the country by boat faced hardship and
       reached their end in the deep sea.
 
I'm totally bewildered the misfortune condition that we are in
I'm outraged of the isolation and the feeling of being alone
I feel embarrassment of the lack of understanding between the people
The contradiction and putting the wrong interpretation on the religion
The student and the teacher are in a very perilous situation
They both hold the symbols of the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith
And carefully select the most suitable points for their claims,
You have not been merciful and because of that it has lost its eternity
What we have done that other nations have accused us
Everyone knows with the exception of the rude person.
 
Uh-oh! Aren't I grieve in the heart and wept because of our anger and
       expressing sufferings?
Uh-oh! Aren't I grieve in the heart and wept because of you not having
       prospect of a future?
Uh-oh! Aren't I grieved in the heart and wept because of the idea of let me
       alone have it all?
Uh-oh! Aren't I grieve in the heart and wept because of our lingering hate and
       revenge?
Uh-oh! Aren't I grieve in the heart and wept because of the fatelessness of the
       situation?
Uh-oh! Aren't I grieve in the heart and wept because of refusing to rule gently
       and quietly?
 
The mother who, like the female animal which has been induced to go on giving
       milk (by having her smell the skin of her dead young), failed to find her
       offspring
The mother who wherever she tries to look and search been blocked
The mother who lives from the morning twilight till dark in the night expressing
       a range of emotions of ah! And oh!
The mother who wherever she puts her feet break her strength and firmness
The mother who wherever she is located is targeted and bombarded with
       heavy artillery shells.
 
Let me not grief my pain and distress that is accompanying me
Colonialism and dictatorship have just now been born in my country
I entered an extreme form of inequality's door - a practice of owing slaves
       abolished long time ago
Worse are the black Africans than the previous white colonizers
Our men lost all the awareness of anything as well as the way
They are treated like a he-camel burden commanded and called whoa! To make
        them to slow down
And now they are walking skeletons and look like a thin sheep and goats.
 
Worse is my hopelessness than the situation and the whole society that turned
       upside down
And I execute without any resistance all malevolent orders given to me
Hey, Abees! People betrayed their nation's trust and broke its pillars for the
       sake of selfish desire for wealth and power
If once I'm way behind my peers and looking very horrible
It's appropriate for me to forget living further
I've to endure as if been taken to the hereafter
I've to move away completely from this world.
 
Let me bring my Alif alliteration to a halt before it keeps going on and on;
Oh, God! Nobody else is responsible but the blame can be put squarely on them
Oh, God! The luck of trust and the persistent feeling of ill will that exists
Oh, God! Draw together because they are harbouring a grudge against each
       other
Oh, God! The drought and the shortage of water in the dry season that is
       taking place
We pray for flowers and vegetations
Oh, God! Bring stability on our behalf, we are thirst for peace
And later give fresh air and new beginning
Among the people there is intense feeling of hatred
I conclude my verses with the wish that one day a leader who obeys Allah will
       bring the people together.
 
London, 2009
 

Original Poem by

Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf

Translated by

Maxamed Xasan ‘Alto’ with Clare Pollard Language

Somali

Country

Somalia/Somaliland