Selected Poem: (Mohamed Osman Kajrai )
20 June, 2021
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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