Oral Poetry from Africa
This is another version of the much-loved Swahili love song from the east African coast (see Serenade), probably the best known and most widely admired of all Swahili poems in translation. Like My Mwananazi, it is associated with Liyongo, the epic hero.
O lady, be calm and cry not out but attend to your suitors patiently,
listen patiently to them who have climbed up to your window…
This is another version of the song in praise of palm-wine, attributed to Liyongo the national hero of the Swahili people. See also Liyongo’s Drinking Song for a different version of this song.
O tapster of soured wine,
from the sheath of the withered palm…
A Swahili poem in praise of the coconut palm, discovered c1905 by the scholar Muhammed Kijuma (1855.1945) in an old collection of marriage songs. It is attributed by some to the legendary hero Liyongo (see ‘The Legend of Liyongo’).
Give me the minstrel’s seat that I may sit at ease and tell of the praises of the coco-palm.
This tree, when it is young and sprouting, spreads its leaves outwards widely…
The nineteenth century Swahili poet Sheik Abdallah (d. 1820), wrote a poem called ‘Song of Liyongo’, in five-line stanzas, and are probably the oldest ‘text’ presented on this website.
Oh! much, much, I begin with many,
as well as going forward to finish,
child of good things…
