Meeting with a Somali Icon Hadraawi By Ugaaso Boocow Dec 03, 2008

Meeting with a Somali Icon Hadraawi By Ugaaso Boocow Dec 03, 2008

Editor's Note: Ugaaso, artful and vivid, a young talented writer shares with WardheerNews readers the rare opportunity of meeting the renowned Somali poet Maxamed Ibrahim Hadraawi. Ugaaso’s piece captures the mind with the richness of Somali Suugaan. This young gem reminds us that the Somali Suugaan is rare and the Somali poets deserve their respective place in history. Amid the sad and sorrow that has plagued everything Somali this piece takes you away to dwell into a forgotten culture and momentarily takes you back to the land of punt, and poets.

One of my greatest achievements thus far is having been bestowed with the honour of delivering a speech to one of Somalia’s most renowned poets: Maxamad Ibraahim Warsame Hadraawi!
The Persians have their Fardowsi, the Italians their Dante, the Russians theirs Pushkin, the Brits their Kipling—the Somali’s then, have Mudane Hadraawi! The poet Hadraawi, I can say with unprecedented confidence and temerity is truly waa-weynka, an embellished icon, and his work both metaphorical and literal—is effortlessly symbolic!
I remember how anxious I was when I walked on that stage. My heart was somersaulting in my chest, and had it not been for my natural habit of laughing off my nervousness I’d be at loss for words, such is the spell being in the presence of Hadraawi casts upon us ordinary little people! I held the microphone firmly and shot him an appreciative look to which he replied “Hello, how are you!”—I was caught off guard, my Lord thought I, he speaks English impeccably! (I didn’t know he spoke a word of English!), so I wanted to astonish him as he had flabbergasted me “Adeero” I began, “waa kuu raayaa, nabbadeydaan ahay! I’m doing wonderful!” A smile spread across his lips, he was repressing a rising laughter.

You know, people often ask me how I became interested in Suugaanta Somaaliyeed as though I’m not Somali! Truly, there’s not a definite, concrete answer in which I can grant such a dense question. I was raised by my grandparents that should explain a lot! The Somali culture deems children who were cultivated by their grandparents as inadequate adults—I was told “naag WEYN oo WEYN baa tahay, you’re a big woman”, whenever I threw a tantrum as a mere child!
Children like myself were made to rapidly mature, I was denied ownership of childhood whilst still a teething toddler! I can’t remember playing in the play ground nor can I recall having playmates—I still really don’t have friends aside from my books, in which my closest confidant is my pen and my Somali literature! When you are made to leave your Native land whether by force or choice, you try laboriously not to forget the most microscopic of details you’ve left behind, and in doing so you try desperately to recreate what you feel you’ve left behind when you arrive in a foreign land, a practice known as simulacra. We’ve left behind an entire culture and with knowledge of that, I taught myself how to read and write Somali, how to ‘love’ my birthright, Somalia—the liniment to battle the depression associated with nostalgia is hunger for authenticity, please believe it!

I was shaking like a leaf when I finished my keynote speech. It had just then sunk in. I’m really here—right next to Hadraawi! I thought. I prepared to bolt off stage (I’m a bit claustrophobic) when Hadraawi actually reached out to me. He patted my head with such gentle a hand that I was sure all his intelligence and wit were transferring or rubbing off on me! We then conducted a conversation:

Hadraawi: Adeero, caawa waa i farxad gelisay, khudbada waad ku mahadsantahay!
Aniga: Adeero Hadraawiyoow farxadeydaa ka badan!!!!!! Adaana mudan
He chuckles, continuing, “Adeero..”
Aniga: “Haa adeero...”
Hadraawi: “Adeero Libaaxad baa tahay! Ilaahaay ha ku daayo. Amiin dheh. Adeero magacaa ‘Ugaaso’ waad u qalantaa! Guul Ugaasaay Ugaaso baa u tahay ogoow! Hawsha meeshaani ka sii wad, aniguna wax allaa iyo wixii aan kaaga caawin karo waan kaaga caawinaa. (because I had told him I wanted to write novels and implored him to assist me in translating his compositions into English)... The rest is history!

The poet Hadraawi who tops the chart of my favourite poets (just under him lies Cabdulqaadir Xirsi Yamyam and Maxamad Xaashi Dhamac Gaarriye)—is a literary genius. A poet galloping far beyond his time, the usage of Romanism and Realism can be noted in his work far more than any living Somali poet (I say living because Yamyam A.U.N also displayed this rare talent).
Hadraawi’s work illuminates the genre of Romance and the use of melodrama so prevalent in Somali Literature (especially love songs) with fine, sharp detail can be noted in songs such as my favourite ‘Cajabeey cajiibeey’. Most Somali songs should be noted are eponymous—Cajabeey cajiibeey is the only song in all of Hadraawi’s compositions that is epithetic, in which a phrased is used in place of a name, cajab is a quality which takes its namesake and purpose after Cajiibeey!
Maxamed Salebaan (Tubeec)

In his Cajabeey cajiibeey, the narrator, who in this case is the singer with one of the world’s most ethereal, celestial voices rightfully earning the pseudonym Boqorkii Codka, the King of Voice—Maxamed Suleymaan Tubeec, speaks to his audience about a woman whose love threatens his capacity to function, complaining that she seized his ruminations, that she’s possessed him:
‘Cawo iyo ayaaneey, Caqligaad xadeysaa!’
‘Night and day, my mind you invade!’

He continues juxtaposing her striking appearance to that of nature, this is called imaginary, a literary device our narrator is using to express the way in which she delights his eyes adjacent to everything else. The usage of metaphors can also be noted in the lines depicting the way in which her splendour is at harmony with his surroundings:
“Sida geed cal iyo buurCarra hodan ku yaalloo!’, “...as though a mount on prosperous ground...”

My favourite part of the song in its entirety is when our narrator confesses at once to his mushrooming madness, revealing in the lines below his overwhelming obsession:
“Haddaan lay cadaabaynRabbi ii cadhoonaynDadku inuu ku caabudoo... sow kuma canaanteen"
“If I were to not be punishedif my Lord were not to be enraged,You, the people shall worship...wouldn’t I have proclaimed?
Note: the translation is my own, thus copyrighted.
I
n a word, the above poem speaks delicately as though not to alienate the audience member who haven’t experienced xanuunka jacaylka iyo mowjada caashaqa ah—the ascending and capsizing waves of love and admiration with poignant sympathy. It must be said Hadraawi as an accomplished writer and poet has been gifted with the skill of reaching the masses using conscious narrative discourse. I’m extremely gleeful to have met him—to be 21 years old and have met and still communicate with the likes of such prominent literary giant as Hadraawi is quite astounding! He is to me what Nikolai Gogol was to Fyodor Dostoevsky, what Dostoevsky was to Russia—inspiration!

Ugaaso Boocow (Caasha Luula)
Email: gobeey@hotmail.com

source:Wardheer News.com
http://samotalis.blogspot.com/