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Cabdulqaadir Xaaji Cali Xaaji Axmed, born following independence in northern Somalia in 1962, is one of the younger generation of Somali poets. He was educated at intermediary and secondary level in Hargeysa until 1982. He taught for a year before leaving to join the Somali National Movement (SNM) based in Ethiopia. In 1987 he joined the SNM’s radio station, Radio Halgan (Radio Struggle), and while working there he began to compose poetry.

The poem translated here was composed and first performed in London in 1995 after he had moved to the UK in 1990. It is a powerful comment on the civil war and the destruction of much of Somalia at the hands of the previous military regime and the various militias. Its first public hearing was at a poetry reading in the East End organized by the Multicultural Arts Consortium at which Hadraawi also recited his latest poem of that time (Dabahuwan). Samadoon is composed as an oral epistle to a friend of the poet, Hirsi (Xirsi in Somali), who is entreated to pass on the message to the people. Most of the text comprises that which Hirsi says to the people.

This poem is of a type known as gabay, which is a genre used to deal with serious subjects. Each line in the Somali follows the gabay’s metrical pattern which divides the line into two half lines, each of which must incorporate an alliterating word. The poem makes great use of pastoral imagery and allusions to the countryside, the plants and livestock. Some usage is in a negative sense:

they enter the shade      of the dead wood
the forest’s been destroyed     by scorching sand
rotten brush      dense dead thicket
silvered tree stumps    calls of help help

These lines call to mind the hot arid landscape in the dry season at a time of severe drought, a great threat to the lives of the livestock and the people. Such times are often alluded to metaphorically in poetry. Good times in the countryside are also referred to:

the place where all points    to milk full udders the meadowland views unspoilt    clumps of grass
‘dihi’ in fresh growth    the plant life and verdure
the mossy shoots    with roots reaching deep

Here the countryside after rain is pictured. Such times are good for the people, plenty of pasture for the livestock means plenty of milk for food and people are more able to gather socially.

Such allusions to life in the countryside can be difficult to understand for people unfamiliar with that way of life. This, of course, also makes the translation particularly difficult in parts. For instance, the original Somali line:

Inaad delewo haaneed tidhaa Adi dantaa maaha

has been translated as:

      giving them the milking responsibility    it’s not in your interest

A literal translation of the line would read:

      that you say ‘Delewo’ at the haan side    it’s not in your interest

Delewo is the proper name of a camel and haan refers both to the containers used when milking and to the side of the camel which is milked by the person who is holding that container. This person would be the more experienced one of the two milking the camel, and the one, therefore, who takes the greater responsibility for preventing any loss of milk. It is this basic idea which I have tried to bring out in the translated line. It is not as detailed an image, nor as powerful a statement as the original line in the context of the poem, but one which hopefully renders both some of the image’s substance and its rôle in the poem.

Explanation of some of the Somali terms and other allusions in the poem may be useful to the reader.

aloe – this plant is known for its bitterness and is a metaphor here for malignancy.
bull elephant – here this is a name given to Hirsi.
Barre – the former president and dictator of the military regime of Somalia, ousted in 1991.
‘d’ – the sound of alliteration in the original Somali poem; in the original it is given its Arabic name daal.
Daabbad – the proper name of a burden camel; such proper names are often used in Somali poetry to represent the animals generically.
Daylo – a name given to a female sheep with a half black head as opposed to the full black head of most sheep; used here generically.
Awl, Daydad, Dirirad – sub-seasons in the Somali system of weather lore (Awl is spelt Cawl in Somali).

Dayr – the main rainy season in the Somali territories and when the rains are good a time of plenty.
dihi – a type of pasture plant which grows in salty areas (spelt in Somali: dixi).
duur – this is a herbaceous plant with a long stalk.
Deleb, Diirran, Doorran – are names of camels, again used generically;
Deleb refers to a game played with small sticks, the other two mean ‘eager’ and ‘chosen’ respectively.
Koofil and Doofil – Koofil is the Somali pronunciation and spelling of Corfield who was a commander of the Camel Corps in British Somaliland, killed in 1913 in battle and the subject of a very famous poem by Sayyid Mohamed Abdille Hasan, the Dervish leader he was fighting. Here Koofil stands for the British imperialists and Doofil is a play on the sound of Koofil but using the poem’s alliterative sound (‘d’) to represent the Italian imperialists.
Go’e – literally means ‘the one who is dying’ and is used as an insult. I have not found a correspondence in English, and feel that the tone of the original word is appropriate in this context.
Chosen, Outstanding, Support – where these are presented towards the end of the poem with initial capitals they refer to camel names. The names represent camels which in turn represent the poem. The camel is the most important animal in Somali pastoral society and is often used in poetry as a symbol for what is valued. Here the meanings of the names themselves are also of significance in the context and have therefore been translated.