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Born in the small mountain town of Boda, near Ambo, Mr. Tsegaye became one of his country's most prominent literary figures as well as an international emissary for its culture. Considered by some to be Ethiopia's greatest playwright, Mr. Tsegaye (pronounced say-GAY) wrote more than 30 plays, most in Amharic, Ethiopia's official language, and translated many Western works into Amharic, including those of Shakespeare, Brecht and Molière. (His native tongue was Oromifa, but he was also fluent in Amharic, several other African languages and English.)
He was even more prolific as a poet, publishing countless poems on topics from war (his father had fought for his country during the Italian occupation, 1936 to 1941) to peace. Steeped in the mythology of his region, he viewed the history of Ethiopia — an ancient kingdom with a tradition of independence from colonial powers — as symbolic of a continent's pride and potential.
"In order to bring about a better future, one must learn from the past," Mr. Tsegaye said in 1993 interview with The Ethiopian Review. "You cannot build a future based on hatred because hatred is the enemy of hope."
...In 2002, the newly formed African Union adopted one of his poems as its anthem.
"All sons and daughters of Africa, flesh of the sun and flesh of the sky," the anthem reads, "Let us make Africa the tree of life."
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Ethiopian Poet Laureate, Dies at 69 (New York Times) March 9, 2006
POET LAUREATE TSEGAYE gebre madin
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amharic poetry
Come With Me
Ethiopian poet mr. Gorfu
The great writer Rusian born Ethiopian origin
Alexander Pushkin
Born to noble parents (his father Sergei was a retired major, and his mother, Nadezhda, was the granddaughter of an ennobled Ethiopian general) on the 26th of May, 1799 in Moscow, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin became involved with a liberal underground revolutionary group that saw him exiled to the Caucasus.
He spent most of his time there writing poetry and novels. In 1826 Pushkin was pardoned by the Tsar and allowed to return home after six years of exile. He married Natalia Goncharova, whose coquettish behavior led to her husband challenging an admirer of hers to a duel in January 1837. Though both were wounded, only Pushkin died two days later from his injuries
Those……
Those who talk less and keep most – trust,
They have your interest at heart.
Fear of those who mercilessly expose their weakness
For they have other side of them untold – their strengths.
Awesome are those who ask for forgiveness
Before they tell what they have been wronged with.
Worry for those who walk at the forefront,
To protect and shield others strong they are not,
As they will be lost, for you and I, to an inevitable gunshot,
You are left with the cowards,
Your gate wide open, a hot spot,
And you will be preyed upon.
Copyright Haileselassie Girmay
28/3/2005
Silent
Silent before the storm
loseing my self my hart and soul
it so silent
looking for answer before dune
my dream and wishes lost in the storm
strageling in life to fullfeel my rol
way is so silent before the storm
Long ago, as a schoolboy, I had no intention to learn,
Any more than I could productively burn.
Nor did I, looking for adventures, want to travel to a distant land –not a mote,
Beyond the parameters of the hills,
Where I grew up kicking my naked butts with my wicked heels.
But by a quirk of fate,
Mercy Lord Alaah, the innocent and those who keep themselves private,
I was catapulted to a land far remote.
And in trying to decipher what had happened,
And at the same time dealing with the situations
I found myself in,
I acquired far too much knowledge I hadn’t hoped to gain.
However, deploying the armour, I have now become the owner,
To my advantage,
Proved to be a delicate matter to manage.
If I were to open my mouth,
And speak out all I know,
I knew the fallout that would follow:
Mildly speaking, a ridiculous sneezing at I sure would get,
Or worse still, a wrath from the people I live with,
And a denial of the means I could subsist with,
Conversely, If I were to keep silent,
Which, paradoxically, I am doing at the moment,
I know long before dawn,
The dormant anger inside me had won -
Consuming my essence right to the core of the bones.
......... ramzy
The Truth
My country Ethiopia
The Truth
People say, I have found the truth
For the truth has never been here on earth
If you get one today, you never know, it is an end
What tomorrow offers, may be by far better
And never say, I have found the whole
For every thing is not in your palm
What is in the palm, is only yours
It can’t be the real one, for it is in your palm
Truth belongs to no one on earth
For none deserves, for all is fake
How come fire and water dwell in one place
For one to live in, the other should go out
For truth to live, hypocrisy should be removed
For one to get the truth, one should be free
But, none is free, for all is brought up with copy
Who claims oneself, as one has the truth in the heart
For one starts lying at this very and crucial point.
The country I never had
It is so bad,
It offers me a drug,
Wrapped in a dazzling fluttering rug.
It really drives me mad.
It has a treble side effect,
Home sick is all I get.
And the arduous journey back
The frangible mind limps,
But the limbs are unable to take.
by Ramzy
Happiness
Happiness was when I lay in the womb,
sucking my thumb,
Fed without the need of painful reminder - hunger,
And I in turn need not cry ,
For the purveyor to supply.
Happiness was when I crawled,
The good old days, remembering it all,
Into the womb of a washing machine,
For my mother in panic to drop her meal
To pull me out and cuddle.
Come to think,
Happiness was when I tottered, stumbled, push and shove,
The rottweiler to share his food and drinks,
And watching my mother was on the tenterhooks..
Happiness was when I ran up and down the meadow
Chasing the dream to grow.....
Phew! Little me,
Little did I know ...! Little did I know
