Sudan
Sudan is a land abundant in resources, characterized by its natural beauty that inspires poetry and reflects the dedicated efforts of its people, particularly the women who embody the spirit of perseverance in their lives.
Sudanese Poetry
Below are a few verses from a poem dedicated to Sudan:
I carried your elegant star in my heart
And walked towards you until I reached my homeland
I painted your face upon the brow of dreams
In the wave of leaves
And dozed within the bosom of twilight
I awaited our meeting, yet it did not return
From your heavens, I have nothing but the specters of wakefulness
O whisper that poured dewdrops as your melodies
O flower of fragrance that
Washed my soul with its essence
Your forthcoming birth
May it come with all seasons of delight to me, how I wish
With its arrival, it would reveal to you my longing
Born of false patience and anxiety
Rest assured that I still
Ascend the peaks of emotions, soaring
Like lightning in the brilliance of the heavens
Those boats in the waters of yearning
Start to sink
And I, alone on the sands of the shore
The migrating waves from your ocean embrace me
Like fragments of silence
And the gravestones of sorrow
Understand that life will bend its pathways one day, smothered by congestion
And know that the still eyes
Upon your homes will be engulfed by darkness
And realize that the perceptions in the shadows of love
Rise like flocks of pigeons
This is an era not fulfilled by restraint
Nor is it freed by conflict
If my feelings approach you as they pass
With the wind, dressed in garments of desire
And the supplications of speech
Rest assured I have dedicated my life to you
As long as you remain, I will harvest from your gardens my flower
To cherish it between my ribs
So that it is not cloaked by the clouds
And that I come to you as the most beautiful
All the stars in the sky align around you modestly
And for you, the dawn shall shine
And your glory will be sought
Illuminating my universe when it is shrouded in groans
And now, I wait for you
As the cold paints the nerves with deep yearning
The clouds have settled over my poetic abodes
And the river of poems resonates with melody
So come, O hope of footsteps to the shores of encounters
Teach the strands of love the essence of emotions
And carry to the people your goodness and nostalgia
For you, the fields have blossomed
And to you, the seasons have beckoned
Your world is enveloped with dreams of the years
And the sea in your eyes dives into the depths
And gazes at the horizon of your desires, becoming nourished
And walks against the weight of the wanderings
Feasting on your silence and madness
If only it knew the pains, it would not fall
Or if it understood the longing, it would not burn
Yet it has cast upon you its cloak
And flowed from between the eyes
Bringing you love tinted with longing and visions
With sincerity and gentle rain
O sun-kissed flower that
Uncovered the treasures of eternity and erupted
The night of secrets in order for you to exist
And slept upon the ebb of worlds and wisdom
Filled with the mysteries of the arts
And the sanctuaries of aged magic and flowers
This is the heart’s discourse whispering to gardens
With radiant clarity and dignified longing
Indeed, I sense we
Are two dawns of a mythical era rising while, around us,
The shores of impossible possibilities rise
Upon every bridge
I never dreamt of embracing you unless I
In the mirrors of your cheeks left my heart bare
And wandered into the horizon of life
A wandering spirit in the hallways of your beauty and palaces
And walked the land of strangeness
Riding the brilliance of feelings
I have no beginning except you, transferring my steps
Backwards every day, retreating
To the corners, writing my story
While my right hand falters on the lines
I am not running from my time
But I am peeling away the days before you
From my steadfast orbit
And returning, penetrating ages
Until I come to you behind them
Draped in longing, pulsating with wishes
And the steps deflect the hardships
I arrive pure from the beads of my yearning
And the wounds that bled with love and despair
This time bears the melancholy chords
And I see you in every expanse
I see you in the silence of reverence
And in the heights of clouds
From every home in my country, you emerge
And upon the chants of hope
And in the prayers of the righteous
And from the hymns of beauty
And in the songs of absence
The night watches me
And begins to wear its cloak
And the moon reveals the secret of my sadness
And the horizon moves, lonely
In the paths of fear
Traversing the coasts and heights
And the earth in your hands finds its home
While in the distant horizon, it wanders
And drifts in the orbit of your smile that
Opened the pores of the way
Your love in every world
Is like the delicate butterflies that surrendered
Their yearnings to the wind and then flowed
In the sanctity of feelings, sipping nectar
Now I realize the revolution of branches
When the walls of doubts swayed
Inviting droplets of dew to the fire
And the clouds absorbed the sparkle
Now in the roar of longing
I have lost my stars
My orbit is overshot by your light
And my cloud has vanished
The rain of flames
Sudanese Poetry in Colloquial Dialect
Here are some Sudanese poems in the local colloquial dialect:
Poem About Mother
Here are some verses dedicated to mothers:
O Mom, the most beautiful word I say
The sweetest melody, the finest note
My mother, a wing of mercy and light
My mother is tenderness, hope, and feelings
My mother, a nurturer to all of us… she raises us
Caring for us and bringing happiness to us
She fills our lives with beauty
And the finest hymn
We repeat on the day of celebration
Mother’s Day
My mother is everlasting mercy beneath your feet
My mother, paradise is under her feet
My mother is great, kind,
Her compassion is upon us, she is the light of our eyes
She fills our lives with beauty
And the finest hymn
We repeat on the day of celebration
Mother’s Day
Poem About Longing
Here are some verses expressing longing for a traveler:
When you return safely
And our beautiful days return
O light of the soul, O beloved
And our cherished emotions
You bring smiles to our nights
For a time we called you “sweet”
The day you left my beloved
I saw the whole universe as a traveler
No flower blooming in the meadow
Nor perfume in the fields
No encounter quenches my yearning
No conversation comforts my heart
May the months swiftly pass by
And every day, may tomorrow come sooner
Oh how lovely you are, my spring
And how beautiful life is within you