An Anthology of Somali Poetry

This selection of Somali poems, in English only, contains samples from over 100 years ago to about 1990. The timeframe includes colonial rule by Britain and Italy, the creation of the Somali alphabet in 1971, and tumultuous times of natural disasters, international and inter-tribal warfare, and ineffective central governance. Despite all this, the Somali culture evolves to cope with the influences of word-wide trends among youth while adhering to the Islamic religion.Several of the poems had a long oral tradition and were later transcribed into written Somali, some recent poets used writing to assist in creation but did not publish them in print, and more recently some create and publish in print. Oral presentation can be by recitation or song, nowadays also in conjunction with dance and music.Somali poetic forms are complex and had to be 'teased' out of extant material and poets. The detail here will interest linguists and aficionados of poetry.Who knew that the integrity of oral tradition was preserved by a complex and, of course, unwritten copyright law? There are several such snippets of cultural detail to make for an interesting read beyond the intriguing content of many of the poems.

Good

Given the scarcity of works on Somali poetry, this will stand out as a must-read. The poems are engaging, lively and give a passionate insight into the aspirations and desperations faced by ordinary and extraordinary Somalis (what i mean by this is that some poems are from random pastoralists of whom we know little but their name and clan, while others are from such historical figures as Maxamed Cabdille Xasan, the leader of a 20 year insurgency against foreign powers in Somalia.Another good point is that each poem is well introduced, as is the author, which helps us appreciate the circumstances in which the oral poem was inspired, and the context in which it would have been first heard, then repeated over and over again. The appendix features a short explanation on Somali modern ortography but, most interestingly, on the principles of rythmn, aliteration, etc. in their original language.

well, there are probably millions of better GABIEs than this, but i think they are good to be transtilated in English, and thank the author for that

Given the scarcity of works on Somali poetry, this will stand out as a must-read. The poems are engaging, lively and give a passionate insight into the aspirations and desperations faced by ordinary and extraordinary Somalis (what i mean by this is that some poems are from random pastoralists of whom we know little but their name and clan, while others are from such historical figures as Maxamed Cabdille Xasan, the leader of a 20 year insurgency against foreign powers in Somalia.Another good point is that each poem is well introduced, as is the author, which helps us appreciate the circumstances in which the oral poem was inspired, and the context in which it would have been first heard, then repeated over and over again. The appendix features a short explanation on Somali modern ortography but, most interestingly, on the principles of rythmn, aliteration, etc. in their original language.

This is a lovely little book with some interesting and moving poems. I had read a novel with some somali poems in and had been fascinated by them so I decided to buy this little collection

It was Ok even good the book has only English translations no Somali text

Somali poetry is beautiful. I wish this was in Somali though. It'd probably be much more beautiful.

Fantastic book. I loved it.