Yemane: The Soul Singer
By Haile Bokure

My dear Yemane
Here, I am alone
In the alien land
I will not talk
With thee any more
Because you are gone.

But let me talk
With your dynamic spirit
Hark to me!
You did not finish
Beyond junior high
Right? Right?

But, oh......
That mother nature
had been so kind 
To the very you.
I wonder
It made you once
So influential
So charismatic singer.

Did you remember
While playing the fiddle
Oh, yes, alone
In tea rooms
In beer houses
As a simple vocalist
Without microphone
Or saxophone?
You were lucky
To be born
With musical tone.

Did you remember
Our favorite song
"wedebat 'adey"
Implying, of course
Our twin ports
That revived
Our revolutionary zeal
With vibrant ululation
That drove
Our young people
Up the hill.

Others?
Others?

To the bush you in
The bush you will
To find our hidden heart
That is freedom
Away and away
from serfdom
By aiming the muzzles
To the oppressor
But not...
To the oppressed ones.

At last, it became a reality
That witnessed the victory
Of our humble
And downtrodden people
Who can sail safely
In the sea of tranquility.

Oh, mother Eritrea
Let's now
With cosmic elegy
Chant her eelil!
At the time
Your  prophesy fulfilled
For this
You will always
Be remembered.


Haile Bokure
From "Eritrea is Born" P. 20.