Kudu, a poem by Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac 'Gaarriye'

Kudu is a narrative poem by the poet Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac, known as Gaarriye, in an English version by David Harsent. It appeared in The Wolf's issue 11 translation feature, which presented work in five languages, and was printed by permission of the Poetry Translation Centre. A note says Gaarriye was born in Hargeysa in 1949 and describes him as an important living poet.

The poem is framed as a story that the speaker's father told him as a child, sitting in the shade of a tree. A king sprouts a pair of horns, at first only buds, and wears his turban low to hide the mark of shame. His man-servant, who washes the king's hair, knows the secret, and it grows inside him as a word that has to be spoken. When others tell him he is mistaken, and that dead men keep secrets, he cannot eat or sleep. One night he leaves the village and walks through the dark for many miles to the watering holes, where an eagle takes flight and a gazelle runs. He recalls an earlier age in which truth could be spoken openly, even to poor people.

At dawn he digs a hole with his hands, puts his mouth to it and whispers the secret to the earth, naming King Goojaa and comparing the horns to a kudu's. The burden leaves him and he goes on his way. The father interrupts the telling to ask that nobody question what it means, since the story came to him from his own father. His ending is that a gentle rain on that spot in the bush still makes horns grow out of the ground, like a kudu's.

Work

Kudu

Author

Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac 'Gaarriye'

Poems in this selection

• Kudu