SUFI POETRY IN SOMALI

with the basic conditions of survival and well being and

their opposi te:s.

II

Images Drawn from the Somali Natural

Environment and Traditional Culture

The majority of the images used in the Sufi poetry

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in Somali are drawn from the Somali natural environment and

the traditional culture. In this chapter, I shall endeavour

to relate this imagery to its background by commenting in some

detail on a number of typical examples which I have selected

from the texts given in Part ThreB.

Natural environment

The Somali nomads have a deep seated interest in

weather and its effects upon the environment and the lives

of people and animal~. For a people whose existence and that

of their flocks depends so much on the changes of weather, it

is hardly surprising that they should have so many images

related to weather in their poetry. There are images the

range of which covers the clouds, the wind, light, darkness,

drought and rain; and in certain cases when some of the

images are employed, they evoke powerful feelings which cannot

be adequately conveyed in ordinary speech. For example,

images which are connected with rainy weather ~all forth a

number of associations, such as birth, growth, prosperity,

abundance, happiness and ease of tension, in the minds of