My favourite lines are from Xalima Khaliif Magool(A.N.), from her song "Allahayow Dad Ma' Aqaan". She says I am like the early afternoon that has darkened; I am someone who is tired and taken away by love I am someone who has been killed then covered by love; Oo God, I know no country; Oo God, I know no people; I am like a stick carried away by the flood waters; Oo God, don't let me fall and hang from unpleasant holes; waxaan ahay duhurkii gabal damow yahay oo waxaan ahay mid daaloo duufsaday jaceylku yee waxaan ahay mid uu dilay uu daday jacaylku yee allahayow dal ma' aqaan allahayow dad ma' aqaan qori daad wadaan ahayee dawya hayga raaridin I am someone who has suffered the ocean's fury in a boat alone I am someone, who is tired with no strength even to walk; I am someone who has been killed then covered by love; Oo God, I know no country; Oo God, I know no people; I am like a stick carried away by the flood waters; Oo God, don't let me fall and hang from unpleasant holes; waxaan ahay mid dooni badwayn ku la dakaantoo waxaan ahay mid daashoo dirgan weydey socodku yee waxaan ahay mid uu dilay uu daday jacaylku yee allahayow dal ma' aqaan allahayow dad ma' aqaan qori daad wadaan ahayee dawya hayga raaridin

Originally posted by Kisima: Thanks for opening this topic I think DHOODAAN is a good poet but I would certainly not put him on the category of "ONE OF GREATEST" and I will justify it if needed. However, he is one of the best (if not the best) comedian poets we have seen especially those poems which are now classified as JACBUR and you already quoted one whihc he talka about love. Personally his JACBUR make laugh and I enjoy listening to them. I will definitely disagree with you. Dhoodaan is one of the greatest if not THE greatest somali poet ever. His poems are not limited to JACBUR even though he is the father of JACBUR. He is a true patriot and his command of the Somali language is amazing. I think no poet since Raage Ugaas has reached his philosophical insight into the Somali culture and behaviour. His poems against Siyaad Barre are legendery. He is heads and shoulders above most of those you listed That is not say the anything less about the great list you provided but it is a reflection of how good Dhoodaan really is.

Originally posted by Malika: ^ ,uu sheeg especially that Ngonge dude..Lol Waa in loo sheego, loo wada sheego. EE DHAGALA'AY WAX MAQLA

Originally posted by SeeKer: whilst I wait in anticipation to form a new me....... ........ I emerge and sigh I am still the only solitary soul walking the earth Beautiful! Futility comes to mind when I read these two sections. You have captured a feeling many feel on a daily basis! At the beginning of each time, each day, each ramadan, each year! But, the "solitary soul" as you wonderfully put must continue to strive to "form a new". You have a gift! the gift of insight. you can look deep down and put into words what many will seek "Prozac" for! Keep it up and keep on sharing it in as many fora as possible.

Waryaada hee! war gabdhahayna ayaad u soo kaba xirateen maanta! May God forgive you. In all my life, I have been told avoid "gabadh qaxooti". They have this sweet tongue! aboowe, macaano, aboowe! they can remove a snake from its hole! And about the sixir, we have associated it with persons from the rivers whether from Somalia (Jubba, Shabelle etc) or Kenya (Tana). Gabadh Soomaali Kenya haddii aad heshid, ilaaheygaaga ku mahadi maxaa yeelay way ku dhaqaaleyni, reerahadana way dhaqaaleyni. Gayiga aan ku nool nahay waa gayi xasiloon oo dadku weli dhaqankoodi hore ay haystaan.

Originally posted by Raamsade: quote:Originally posted by Garmaqaate: I only see a problem, a conflict if i may say so, when a supposedly non-religious person criticizes religion That "conflict" would never exist if the pious kept their piety to themselves and not tried to impose their beliefs on everyone else. Raamsade, I understand the motivation behind the wahaabi follower, the tabliiq participants, even the christian evangelist, preaching about the end of the world and urging people to repent and join them in the true straight path. I understand them because the idea of "God" automatically comes with "life after death", "Justice and punishment and rewards". A person of faith believes in this deeply and is thus motivated to urge others to come along because the more he/she converts, the more happy he becomes and the more likely he will live a happy afterlife. I do not have a problem with such persons. I am such a believer. What i do not understand and can not understand are the preachers and the clergy of this "atheist" religion. I call it a religion because why else will they preach, pontificate and try to explain and emphasise the righteousness of their stand when in essence they are telling anyone who listens to them "life is not important", or essentially "there is no reason to life". An atheist will tell you there is no God. That we have evolved. That there is no life after death. He might be right because however much I believe in God there is no hard proof of his existence. Anything I say is always circumstantial evidence and is not beyond reasonable doubt. But what the atheist doesnt get is the implication of his statements. If there is no life after death then essentially you are saying you are here for the duration you are here on earth. Now think about that. The world is billions of years old according to these atheists, and will survive for several more billions. Now, on a scale of billions of years whether you live for 1 day or one hundred years, you have lived for approx 0% of the universal time scale. It is like a minute in 1 year. And whether you have lived for one day or one hundred years, in the end the world will come to an end and all humanity will for ever be gone. Essentially it is like making sand castles on the beach, however beautiful they look they will be swallowed by the sea. In essence what the atheist is telling you is we have evolved into what we are because our parents were lucky to survive disasters and reproduce and in the end their survival was futile because we will all perish anyway. Meaning life on earth is meaningless. Now I dont mind an atheist making such a conclusion for himself/herself but the question is, what is their to preach about such a philosophy? What "hope" is there in such an idea?

Ismahaan, waad mahansan tahay aad iyo aad. Qabiilku wuxuu ka mid yahay waxyaabaha soomaalidu soomaali ka dhigo. Dhibaatada nahaysata ma'aha wax uu qabiil dhaliyay laakinse waa arin uu qabiileysiku keenay. I believe we can transform the clan from a source that generates conflict and mould it into an avenue that can create stability. I do not know if you visited the blog above in afsoomaali but I wrote the "somalinimo" piece a while back. I was working in the refugee camps at the time and I met this lady, with a severe thyroid problem. She was from the Somali region of Ethiopia. She told me how soldiers came to their village and killed all their livestock. How their young men were either killed or imprisoned. She was jailed for months and gang raped by Ethiopian forces. She had bayonet scars on her inner thighs to prove it. As I looked at those scars, I swelled up. A few tear drops ran down my face. I could not help but feel a little bit—a tiny little bit—of the agony this lady went through. An agony she suffered because of her identity. follow the link below of my "garqaate" blog to read the transaltion and the background story. The blog is in English. http://garqaate.blog spot.com/

Faith my friends, religion is all about faith first, faith second and faith everytime. Any person who chooses not believe in a "God" can be excused for he lacks faith. I only see a problem, a conflict if i may say so, when a supposedly non-religious person criticises religion and then goes ahead and pontificates on his own new religion - "atheism".

Shahaadadu aan qabsana haddii kale waxaan is arki doona anaga oo diintii, dhaqankii xoornay oo qoon lumay noqonay. Jidkii Eeba waa toos. That said! Religion is faith. IIMAAN. Somalis have generally adopted Islam as their faith. I have never thought and will never think a debate is warranted between matters of faith and matters of science. Each has its own path. Each has its audience and each has it tenets. Religion has its doctrines and it bases its views on divine revelation. Science and scientific thought are based on human deductions (be they correct or incorrect). We should try to keep faith and science apart. That said! Alxamdu Lillaahi rabbil caalamiin. "Caalamiin!". Did you get that? The Quraan has plenty of such amazing aayas. Caalamiin=worlds/uni verses. In plural! At the time of its revelation, people had geo-centric (earth centric) world view. The Quraan emphasises the plurality of the universe at a time when it was a known "fact" that the earth was the centre of the universe! There are many more ayaas I could quote but just this one alone is enough to make any non-believer to think and pose for a second, a minute may be. May you all pose for a minute at the signs, the "aayas", of the creator.

If you love Somali poetry, then you will love this paper by Maxamed Daahir Afrax. He argues that Modern Somali Verse is being crippled by its over emphasis on rural imagery. http://www.soas.ac.u k/soaslit/issue1/AFR AX.PDF

Waa su'aal ee Maxay tahay soomaalinimo? I have been trying to answer this question. And I am still struggling to find an answer. It is 2009, more than a century since the birth of this powerful idea. The idea has suffered in recent years from a political disarray in the mother country. I am still on a quest to get an answer. See http://samadoone.blo gspot.com/

I have been asking myself this question for ages now and it still raises many more questions in my mind. Soomaalinimo maxay tahay? Please follow the link http://samadoone.blo gspot.com/ I only raise more and more questions. I am still wondering in a "la ma dagaan" and can't find something, anything, that can quench my thirst for an answer

I have been asking myself this question for ages now and it still raises many more questions in my mind. Soomaalinimo maxay tahay? Please follow the link http://samadoone.blo gspot.com/ I only raise more and more questions. I am still wondering in a "la ma dagaan" and can't find something, anything, that can quench my thirst for an answer