SUFI POETRY IN SOMALI

Simaartii jannaa sadkaa yahayee, siyaaqo na

sii sawaab badaneey

Your provisions are fruits of Paradise, so

give us the much blessed water

(Text 13/5)

22.8.

In the following lines, the sea, as a massive body of water,

symbolizes something which is immeasurably abundant:

U soo urursha Aadmigana waa, badan idlaanaynne

Assemble the people, for them; they are like a

sea which cannot be exhausted

(Text 25/3)

Ayaankeedu Soomaali waa, bad an idlaanaynne

The good fortune of the Somalis is like a sea

which cannot be exhausted
(Text 25/73)
As the images which are connected with rainy weather evoke

positive associations, so the images related to drought

symbolize negative idea~. When droughts occur in a dry

land, like Somalia, they spread very rapidly causing men

and animals to die of thirst and hunge~. In addition, the

scorching heat of the sun dries out the vegetation which,

as a result, becomes easily susceptible to fire, a common

occurrence during the dry seaso~. In the following line,

the poet refers to simultaneous appearance of drought and

flowers, which only grow when there is rain. He intentionally

uses images, which strike every pastoralist as self-contra-

dictory, for he wants to create an effect of amazement

and wonde~.

I.