Children of the night
Chorus to the night
He Xikoriyo heee
Heee
We sing Xikoriyo chasing the dark and weight of sleep
I of the night have gone away many times
From the dry rivers that nurtured fish that fed me
And dry tree branches graced by birds praying for rains
Lightning that thundered flames that consumed crumbling huts
And dying bushes that once sheltered the snake and the rabbit
To bustling cities on whose streets a thousand languages flow
And strangers drinking blood with guns
Love chokes here from the rushed greed for wealth stolen
And birds become passersby whose landing songs are cursed
Children of the night
Invaders singing
Ka nhwe mi dya yini What do you eat in your father’s homestead
Hi dya maxalani We eat corn
From fields of nourishing greens and nourished livestock
Wealth that exploded clans unfolding to cover the land
The fat squeezed by imposed dog tax and hut tax
The brutal force of those who reap where they did not sow
To pregnant cities that have hatched casinos where human lives are tokens
Where wealth is buried in stones with names and prices and owners
Glittering stones planting angina in the bleeding heart of justice
A dog with teeth buried on a bone does not bark
Echoes far away
Children of the light
Tihuku ke And the chickens
Ti dya vusokoti They eat ants
From the rambling drums and wild dances of my forefathers
Bones that speak and a marula tree that smokes and drinks
Embrace buildings that tower to kiss the skies
The hope and promises of a New Jerusalem in a land eroded by rot
Echoes nearby
Children of the night
Hi khoma N’wamani Who are we catching
N’waXitihlwani The one-eyed-one
We sing Xikoriyo chasing the weight and dark of sleep
I of the light have gone away many times
Returned many times to find patterns that turned me foreign
Here where we all ate from the same pot once
Listened to parables and idioms and folktales around whispering fires
Here in these ruins that stand deserted by love
Chorus to the night
Children of the night
He Xikoriyo heee
Heee
I Have Gone Away Many Times
Moses Mtileni
translated from the Xitsonga by Moses Mtileni
Listen to the poem read in the original Xitsonga by the poet:
‘I Have Gone Away Many Times’ is a poem selected from the anthology of poetry, Ntsena Loko Mpfula A Yo Sewula (Only If It Could Rain), featuring ten young poets and edited by Moses Mtileni. Xitsonga, the language of the original poem, is a southern African Bantu language spoken mainly in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland. It is one of the eleven official languages in South Africa.
Moses Mtileni was born at Nkuri-Tomu village, in the Limpopo province of South Africa. He is the author of two collections of poetry, U ya va Rungula and When the Moon Goes to Rest, and a novel, Mpimavayeni. His short stories and poems have appeared in anthologies like Voyages, New Pegasus, Tyhini, and Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology, and in journals Timbila, Botsotso, and Poetry Potion Quarterly. He has recently edited a Xitsonga anthology of poems, Ntsena Loko Mpfula A Yo Sewula (Only If It Could Rain), and translated Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s short story, ‘The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright,’ into Xitsonga (published in Jalada, Issue 01). He holds three master’s degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and Rhodes University.
