03-December-2024

Selected Poem: (Mohamed Osman Kajrai )

Selected Poem: (Mohamed Osman Kajrai )

KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Mohamed Osman Kajrai (1928-2003) is one of the most prominent modern Sudanese poets. Freedom, human dignity and social justice are permeating themes within his poetry. He was known for writing nationalistic odes against British colonial rule and for actively engaging in politics when national governments took over thereafter. He published a number of poetry books and equally composed lyrics for lead singers in Sudan including such outstanding figure, Wardi.

Following are two examples of his poetry:

 

Dirge

The homeland of forgetfulness bears no fruit but yellow colocynth,

Malice and bitterness,

Knows only profits and formally

And sees loss in a stanza of poem

When in the face of burning lamps

Drifts a shadow of an earthly obstruction

Or iron or stones.

Ah, nothing remains but the poem to bleed

A dirge of thought in an era of civilization

Beat my heart!

Your pulses are a sad stanza beyond words.

 

Time of Sword

Round recesses

And in the innermost depths of vision I behold charming eyes.

Lo! This is me beholding the contours of barbarian faces

In the circle of dreams.

The distracted moon hides, crushed beyond the clouds.

All poetry dies.

This is not the time of the sword and the fever of a shouting rage

Emerging from the roots of origin

My body shakes with the beating of drums

This night, in my blood a thousand horses surge on

And I behold my bleeding history an ever green branch

Knowing not the shades of pale

In the hymns of the season, I am the bleeding wound.

Nothing remains but to draw the sword

Against the abomination of the moguls

 

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