WE ARE SURPRICED
They say time and again
“It is because of us
Now peace reigns.”
Instead of jumping
With restlessness from afar
In search of fallen star
Why they don’t go to the space
In order to prepare their place?
We have unsettled bill at hand
For which we shed our blood
A by product
Of historical injustice
For which we condemned
To die and bleed
A mark our struggle
So alive and memorable.
Whenever they intend
To neglect
No wonder, with lax
They ask us to pay historical tax
We live in the world
But it cannot see us otherwise
What is wrong with its own eyes.
We are surprised!
We are surprised!
Does our voice
That reverberates our strength
In this world?
It is the seed of our history
That drove the enemy
Once and for all.
We have a recordable history
That may drain the world’s ink.
A nightly star, we didn’t need
When the sun shone indeed.
What a conspiracy of silence
Didn’t he see when the people
Kill each other?
Didn’t he retreat
Lest his hand smear
While it bleeded?
When the demarcation line
Was drawn and signed
It seemed to be dramatized
As the moon
A queen of the night
Appeared in eventide.
But it is of no use to us
While we saw a drying grass
Or when we saw a cloud
Devoid of piercing light.
They say time and again
It is because of us
Now peace reigns.
Instead of jumping
With restlessness from afar
In search of fallen star
Why they don’t go to the space
In order to prepare their place.
We have unsettled bill at hand
For which we shed our precious blood
Which is by product
Of historical injustice
For which we condemned
To die and bleed.
A true story
Of our struggle
So alive and memorable.
Whenever they intend
To neglect
No wonder, with lax
They ask us to pay historical tax
We live in the world
But it cannot see us otherwise
What is wrong with its own eyes.
We are surprised!
We are surprised!
Our houses burned to the ground
Without rescue or helping hand.
Was not yesterday with famish
Our house so utterly ravaged?
It was once full of cattle
But now we live on sea fishes.
Didn’t they send us
Some predatory merchants?
When our historical dream fulfilled
They demand land with greed.
They are the very judges
Who strive to manipulate
Laws and fairness
To suit their needs.
It is irony otherwise
As one tries to burn ice.
He trains to the very destroyer
Who craves destruction.
Once with spears and shield
They started to fight
He abruptly joined them
And fortified.
No wonder, if some one
Willingly burned
By jumping into the fire.
No wonder, after all
If a burned wood
Gave birth to a charcoal
Or said “ To be frank
I am really black.”
Our train is indomitable
That dashed the railroad.
We are the real beneficiaries
Of our hard struggle
But they hurled plow
To disperse the fruit of our labor
They look like a hair brush
But they are messy sheriffs
Who don’t respect justice.
Their shallow self-appraisal
Is corrupt and falsely justified
Weather they like it or not
They are cursed to the end.
It is no wonder
If at the expense of brush
The smiling tooth glistens.
No matter, how we feel inside
Please let us smile
For our endurance
Is our true mark.
We are surprised!
We are surprised!
There is no alternative
To our real selves
As we march on the right track
It is un-Eritrean to move back
Those mountain and seas
Symbolizing our history
Are like fragrance
Of beautiful flowers
Stimulating our olfactory.
They are evil thinkers, of course
Being master-minded of untruth.
We are surprised!
We are surprised!
When the history is in progress
One is likely to stir up trouble
Which is likely to be denounced
By the real actors of events.
We are historical and one nation
Who is the leader
Who opposes our unity?
We are in the world
But the world can’t see us
It is an absolute endurance
Our historical mark.
We are surprised!
We are surprised!
Translated by Haile Bokure