Somali ‘Hees’ poems translated

[Abaq]

You might be surprised at the title of this thread. After all, every knows that hees is Somali for song so what on earth are hees peoms? Well, Somali poetry has many different forms “bado” and hees was simply a form of poetry before musical instruments were added in the mid-20th century. Just like gabay (the most famous style of Somali poetry), geeraar saar etc, the hees poems had their place in Somali literature and customs and were commonly utilised to make tedious manual labour more bearable such as when watering camels or building the traditional Somali aqal.

After the innovations of the mid 20th century, the humble hees style had a bit of a makeover with modern instruments and the melodious cuud (oud) adding an extra flair. However, the words themselves remained as they always were, simple lines of poetry that follow a particular meter. Up to today, this remains the case. If you analyse the lyrics of most Somali songs today, you will quickly identify the pattern.

Which brings us to the first Hees we will translate. It was composed by the poet and colonel Mohamed Ciise Cabdi Ciise-Ganey who is the father of the modern hees jacayl and the first head of the band Hobollada Waaberi. This song which is called ‘Horta ina ayaad tahay’ is a song the poet composed lamenting after he had fallen in love with his cousin who was the daughter or a prominent politician at the time. In a first so Somali poetry and songs in general, the poet addresses love itself, rather than the girl herself.

He says:
Indho kuma arkaanoo - Eyes cannot perceive you
Ogeysiis ma dhiibtidee - you give no warning (before your arrival)
Halkaan laga ordeyn - the immobile parts (of the body)
Iyo halistaad abbaartoo - and the vital [organs] do you target
Awooddaad mooyee - only your might [do you act upon]
Amar qaadan mayside - refusing all orders

The poet laments how, despite the fact that love is intangible, it hits without warning targeting the most vulnerable parts of the body and listens to no man’s commands to leave.

Ummaddii dhammaysee - you have ravaged the nation
Asal guridhiggaagiyo - from what homestead
Aqalkeed u hoyataa? - and to which house do you return to (at night)?
Abuurtaadu waa maxay? - what creation are you?
Insi iyo jin keed tahay? - are you man or jinn?
Horta in ayaa tahay? - whom do you descend from?
Jacaylow ayaa tahay? Oh Jacayl (love) what are you?

The poet wants to know from where has this foe come? This foe that has attacked him unrelentingly, of what stock is it? Is it man or jinn? He also highlights how this love has conquered all when he says ummaddii dhammaysay.

Aadamaha bal daayoo - forget mankind
Caqli-xumo ugaadhiyo - even the mindless bush animals
Adduunyada ma dhaaftidee - you do not even spare the cattle
Uunfashkaagu badanaa - how deceitful(?) you are
Yaad amaah ku leedahay? - who is indebted to you?
Ood ka aarsanaysaa? - that you are taking revenge upon?


The poet here claims that even the animals are not safe from the onslaught of love. In bewilderment he asks concerning the reason for this attack? Is it to avenge a personal slight? Or perhaps exact payment for an old debt?

Ummaddii dhammaysee - you have ravaged the nation
Yaad amaah ku leedahay - who is indebted to you?
Ood ka aarsanaysaa? - that you are taking revenge upon
Waa eray su’aalee - Indeed I ask
Abtirsiin ma leedahay? - do you have a lineage?
Horta ina ayaa tahay? - whom do you descend from?
Jacalow ayaa tahay? Oh Jacayl (love), what are you?

Still bewildered, the poet questions, still trying to find out from where this love has come from? Does it have a qabiil to whom he can complain to?

Afrika iyo Eeshiya - Africa and Asia
Urub iyo Ameerika - Europe and America
Quruumaha ilbaxay iyo - the civilised nations and
Kuwa ariga raacaba - and even the pastoralists
Adduunyada dhammaanteed - the whole world (knows)
Arxan-goys in aad tahay - that you are one who severs the ties of kinship
Aan aqoonin naxariis - and that you do not know mercy
Belo yahay ku aragtee - may you be struck with misfortune
First the poet described to us how love had attacked him without warning. Then he explained how even the animal kingdom is not safe from its onslaughts. And now he shows how the whole world had become a victim to it.

Ayeeydaadi hore iyo - neither your late grandmother
Awoowgaa la garanwaa - or your grandfather are known
Ummaddii dhammaysee - you have ravaged the whole nation
Hooyadaa ma inanbuu - was your mother a virgin
Aabahaa ku guursaday? - when your father wed her?

He further returns to describing just how foreign and unknown this jacayl is. Forget about knowing its lineage, even its grandparents are unknown. Curious to find out what lies behind the wicked nature of love, the poet asks if the mother of love was a virgin or a divorcee in an accusatory tone.

Horta ina ayaa tahay? - whom do you descend from
Jacaylow ayaa tahay? Oh Jacayl (love), what are you?

 

[iskufilann]

Somali male poets and singers back then were extremely romantic

 

[Abaq]

Somali male poets and singers back then were extremely romantic

They were very romantic. Stay tuned for the next part in the series!

 

[Awd]

You might be surprised at the title of this thread. After all, every knows that hees is Somali for song so what on earth are hees peoms? Well, Somali poetry has many different forms “bado” and hees was simply a form of poetry before musical instruments were added in the mid-20th century. Just like gabay (the most famous style of Somali poetry), geeraar saar etc, the hees poems had their place in Somali literature and customs and were commonly utilised to make tedious manual labour more bearable such as when watering camels or building the traditional Somali aqal.

After the innovations of the mid 20th century, the humble hees style had a bit of a makeover with modern instruments and the melodious cuud (oud) adding an extra flair. However, the words themselves remained as they always were, simple lines of poetry that follow a particular meter. Up to today, this remains the case. If you analyse the lyrics of most Somali songs today, you will quickly identify the pattern.

Which brings us to the first Hees we will translate. It was composed by the poet and colonel Mohamed Ciise Cabdi Ciise-Ganey who is the father of the modern hees jacayl and the first head of the band Hobollada Waaberi. This song which is called ‘Horta ina ayaad tahay’ is a song the poet composed lamenting after he had fallen in love with his cousin who was the daughter or a prominent politician at the time. In a first so Somali poetry and songs in general, the poet addresses love itself, rather than the girl herself.

He says:
Indho kuma arkaanoo - Eyes cannot perceive you
Ogeysiis ma dhiibtidee - you give no warning (before your arrival)
Halkaan laga ordeyn - the immobile parts (of the body)
Iyo halistaad abbaartoo - and the vital [organs] do you target
Awooddaad mooyee - only your might [do you act upon]
Amar qaadan mayside - refusing all orders

The poet laments how, despite the fact that love is intangible, it hits without warning targeting the most vulnerable parts of the body and listens to no man’s commands to leave.

Ummaddii dhammaysee - you have ravaged the nation
Asal guridhiggaagiyo - from what homestead
Aqalkeed u hoyataa? - and to which house do you return to (at night)?
Abuurtaadu waa maxay? - what creation are you?
Insi iyo jin keed tahay? - are you man or jinn?
Horta in ayaa tahay? - whom do you descend from?
Jacaylow ayaa tahay? Oh Jacayl (love) what are you?

The poet wants to know from where has this foe come? This foe that has attacked him unrelentingly, of what stock is it? Is it man or jinn? He also highlights how this love has conquered all when he says ummaddii dhammaysay.

Aadamaha bal daayoo - forget mankind
Caqli-xumo ugaadhiyo - even the mindless bush animals
Adduunyada ma dhaaftidee - you do not even spare the cattle
Uunfashkaagu badanaa - how deceitful(?) you are
Yaad amaah ku leedahay? - who is indebted to you?
Ood ka aarsanaysaa? - that you are taking revenge upon?


The poet here claims that even the animals are not safe from the onslaught of love. In bewilderment he asks concerning the reason for this attack? Is it to avenge a personal slight? Or perhaps exact payment for an old debt?

Ummaddii dhammaysee - you have ravaged the nation
Yaad amaah ku leedahay - who is indebted to you?
Ood ka aarsanaysaa? - that you are taking revenge upon
Waa eray su’aalee - Indeed I ask
Abtirsiin ma leedahay? - do you have a lineage?
Horta ina ayaa tahay? - whom do you descend from?
Jacalow ayaa tahay? Oh Jacayl (love), what are you?

Still bewildered, the poet questions, still trying to find out from where this love has come from? Does it have a qabiil to whom he can complain to?

Afrika iyo Eeshiya - Africa and Asia
Urub iyo Ameerika - Europe and America
Quruumaha ilbaxay iyo - the civilised nations and
Kuwa ariga raacaba - and even the pastoralists
Adduunyada dhammaanteed - the whole world (knows)
Arxan-goys in aad tahay - that you are one who severs the ties of kinship
Aan aqoonin naxariis - and that you do not know mercy
Belo yahay ku aragtee - may you be struck with misfortune
First the poet described to us how love had attacked him without warning. Then he explained how even the animal kingdom is not safe from its onslaughts. And now he shows how the whole world had become a victim to it.

Ayeeydaadi hore iyo - neither your late grandmother
Awoowgaa la garanwaa - or your grandfather are known
Ummaddii dhammaysee - you have ravaged the whole nation
Hooyadaa ma inanbuu - was your mother a virgin
Aabahaa ku guursaday? - when your father wed her?

He further returns to describing just how foreign and unknown this jacayl is. Forget about knowing its lineage, even its grandparents are unknown. Curious to find out what lies behind the wicked nature of love, the poet asks if the mother of love was a virgin or a divorcee in an accusatory tone.

Horta ina ayaa tahay? - whom do you descend from
Jacaylow ayaa tahay? Oh Jacayl (love), what are you?

The Somali hees tradition is a descendant of the heello genre style of music which came before hees. The heello genre was in turn a descendant if the balwo which is the earliest genre of Somali music ever developed.

"With the advent of a new genre called Hees, the dominance of the Gabay-genre began to wane. The Hees (song) came on the heels of the Heello and its putative ancestor the Balwo. Gabay gradually had begun to loosen its grip as the medium muscle of might to reach the masses as soon as the Heeso, a new version of itself, arrived at the scene. So it was the 1940s and 1950s that Gabay started to encounter steadily rising but fierce competition from the more popular genre Balwo that morphed into Heello and soon evolved into Hees (song) or Heeso in plural in 1960s."

Somali Heeso (Songs): An Effective Weapon in the 1977 Ethio-Somali (Ogaden) War

What a pity that the pastoral interlocutors had apparently never heard of that British wizard of words, named Shakespeare! If they could override the barriers of space, language and culture, the English Bard would no doubt win many literary disciples among the Somalis. - Said S. SamatarIt has...

www.warscapes.com

The earliest style of Somali music was the Balwo genre and it originated in Awdal and was created by Abdi Sinimo in the 1940's. The name was changed to Heello later after some controversy raised by some Muslim scholars. This is what the earliest prototype of Somali music sounded like:


It goes Balwooy, Balwooy, Balwooy hoy Balwooy.

 

[Internet Nomad]

This just goes to show you somalis are very romantic it was just the civil war that traumatise the people. Inshallah once stability comes back i would love to hear more contemporary somalis making poems

 

[Abaq]

The Somali hees tradition is a descendant of the heello genre style of music which came before hees. The heello genre was in turn a descendant if the balwo which is the earliest genre of Somali music ever developed.

"With the advent of a new genre called Hees, the dominance of the Gabay-genre began to wane. The Hees (song) came on the heels of the Heello and its putative ancestor the Balwo. Gabay gradually had begun to loosen its grip as the medium muscle of might to reach the masses as soon as the Heeso, a new version of itself, arrived at the scene. So it was the 1940s and 1950s that Gabay started to encounter steadily rising but fierce competition from the more popular genre Balwo that morphed into Heello and soon evolved into Hees (song) or Heeso in plural in 1960s."

Somali Heeso (Songs): An Effective Weapon in the 1977 Ethio-Somali (Ogaden) War

What a pity that the pastoral interlocutors had apparently never heard of that British wizard of words, named Shakespeare! If they could override the barriers of space, language and culture, the English Bard would no doubt win many literary disciples among the Somalis. - Said S. SamatarIt has...

www.warscapes.com

The earliest style of Somali music was the Balwo genre and it originated in Awdal and was created by Abdi Sinimo in the 1940's. The name was changed to Heello later after some controversy raised by some Muslim scholars. This is what the earliest prototype of Somali music sounded like:


It goes Balwooy, Balwooy, Balwooy hoy Balwooy.

My brother, I will have to respectfully disagree that Heelo came before hees. Hees, as a genre of poetry is as old as poetry itself. There are forma of hees in traditional somali culture such as hees hawleed for when watering camels, heeska mooyaha the girls sing when pounding maize, hees caruureed mothers would sing for their children etc. If I’m not mistaken I think even the heelo comes under hees poetically based on its meter but I will have to double check this. Where I agree with you is that the belwo was the first genre of hees to have music added to it and the history behind that is as you have mentioned.

 

[Abaq]

This just goes to show you somalis are very romantic it was just the civil war that traumatise the people. Inshallah once stability comes back i would love to hear more contemporary somalis making poems

Back then, nearly everyone was from the miyi (countryside) even if they were doctors, colonels etc as they all started off as nomads. They were in a very unique position where they intimately knew the miyi lifestyle and the rich Somali spoken there and at the same time they were in touch with the modern world. That's why the likes of Ciise Ganeey here and Hadraawi were able to compose such beautiful poetry that still resonates with us people city dwellers. That unique generartion was also the generation that translated many scientific words into Somali for the first time (e.g. radiation = kaahfal, velocity = keynaan). Unfortunately, that generation is mostly dead and the ones left are elderly. The city dwellers really lack poetic skill as their spoken Somali is limited (you need a rich vocabulary to be a poet). Poetry still lives in the rural areas amongst the nomads and the less developed parts but the more they urbanise, the less prevalent it will become I am afraid. Ironically, one of the silver linings in the ONLF war has been that the Ogaden is the least urbanised place in the Somali peninsular and as a result poetry still lives on there.

 

[Internet Nomad]

Back then, nearly everyone was from the miyi (countryside) even if they were doctors, colonels etc as they all started off as nomads. They were in a very unique position where they intimately knew the miyi lifestyle and the rich Somali spoken there and at the same time they were in touch with the modern world. That's why the likes of Ciise Ganeey here and Hadraawi were able to compose such beautiful poetry that still resonates with us people city dwellers. That unique generartion was also the generation that translated many scientific words into Somali for the first time (e.g. radiation = kaahfal, velocity = keynaan). Unfortunately, that generation is mostly dead and the ones left are elderly. The city dwellers really lack poetic skill as their spoken Somali is limited (you need a rich vocabulary to be a poet). Poetry still lives in the rural areas amongst the nomads and the less developed parts but the more they urbanise, the less prevalent it will become I am afraid. Ironically, one of the silver linings in the ONLF war has been that the Ogaden is the least urbanised place in the Somali peninsular and as a result poetry still lives on there.

I see what you're saying, hmm. The Miyi people were able to develop a culture that only grew more complex through time, much like a fine wine, but city dwellers dilute their culture to fit in on a larger scale. Because of this, somali music becomes less somali every year.

This can be translated to other fields for example there is nothing especially somali about the buildings that have been constructed in somali cities as of late; they appear to fit in with any other country's architecture without raising any eyebrows. When i see the old footage of Somalia it looks so beautiful the rich mix of Somali and Italian building styles look gorgeous.

If you want to experience anything like it you would have to go to Eritrea where the building still live on.

 

[Awd]

My brother, I will have to respectfully disagree that Heelo came before hees. Hees, as a genre of poetry is as old as poetry itself. There are forma of hees in traditional somali culture such as hees hawleed for when watering camels, heeska mooyaha the girls sing when pounding maize, hees caruureed mothers would sing for their children etc. If I’m not mistaken I think even the heelo comes under hees poetically based on its meter but I will have to double check this. Where I agree with you is that the belwo was the first genre of hees to have music added to it and the history behind that is as you have mentioned.

Keep the gems coming I really like this topic and I agree with you.

 

[Abaq]

Keep the gems coming I really like this topic and I agree with you.

It’s a nice change from the cesspit of generals and the never ending chest beating of the politics section. iA more to come soon!

 

[Amber]

Somali poems are soo romantic, if only you single-brain-celled Abdis could talk to me like that

 

[Garaad diinle]

Somali smoothness is underestimated a lot. Somalis can spit when given the chance which is pretty clear from the gabayadii hore. Will waal and raage ugaas poetry is a good example.
I've seen this somali man on tiktok that was real smooth with a quick wit.

 

[Abaq]

In the first canonical hees poem, our poet and father of the hees jacayl, Colonel Maxamed Ciise Cabdi (Ciise Ganey), complained to love itself about the onslaughts it had launched against him and how helpless he had become. In contravention with what was previously known at the time, the poet chose not to address the subject of his love in his poem but love itself. However, unfortunately for the poet, the girl he so desired did not get the message so he chose to go for a more direct approach.


In the second hees poem, known as Heeska Toomaha (The Grove Song), the poet chose to directly address the girl he loved in the conventional style at his time. As with other poets of his era, he chose to use the similitude of the natural beauty of his homeland, The Ogaden, to highlight the beauty of the girl he loved. In particular, he mentions the beauty of the areas he grew up in (Awaare, Milmil, Dhagaxbuur, and Bullaale) during the rainy season. He hopes that by trying the more direct approach, the girl will reciprocate his love.



He says:



Sida meel tigaad loo – like a verdant pasture

Tuska uu ku hooroo – upon which a shower has passed

Duunyadu ku tarantoo – wherein the animals multiply

Toddobaad xareeddii – and week’s worth of rain (has fallen)

Togogguna rogmanayaan – and with the wadis discharging (their water)

Kuu soo tusmeeyay – such (beauty) have I described for you



Tii keli ahaydee – Oh she who was the only one (for me)

Tabashada indhuhu – for the vicissitudes of sight

Nuurka u taraysay – for which she gives illumination

Qalbigaa ku tabayee – indeed the heart longs for you



Toomihii Awaariyo – ln the groves of Awaare

Milmil tooxaheediyee – the * of Milmil

Dhagaxbuur tuskiisii – the * of Dhagaxbuur

Tartarrada Bullaaliyo – the sides of Bullaale

Naqa toos u soo baxay – with the vegetation growing straight

Ubax kaaga taagay – therein have I planted a flower for you



Qurux loogu taliyeey – Oh she for whom beauty has been designed

Anna waxaan ku taamaa – indeed I long for

Talo in aan wadaagnaa – that our affair should be coupled

Iga tiiri caashaqa – (so) strengthen the love for me



Yaynu noqon tabtoodii – let us not become like those

Kuwii tolay jacaylkee – who sewed together their love

Tarkiisiini gooyee – whilst at the same time cutting the semes

Shaanshaanka tuuree – casting it far away



Keennu waa mid toosoo – our love is an honest one

Tashi kaa maqlaayoo – accepting of advice

Oo kala tiir ahaynoo – with only one pillar (i.e. no deception)

Taagan oon dhaqaaqinoo – firm and immovable

Innaga aan naga tagaynoo – that won’t ever leave us



Tala maw samaynaa – shall we decide upon it?

Ubax maw tallaallaa – and plant a flower (in its honour)?

Taariikh maw xarriiqnaa – and set the date in stone?

Tinta maw shallaynaa – and combe our hair for it (prepare for the date)?

Timir maw ugu maydhnaa – And lather our hair with dates(?)



Waxbo yaan ku tumanoo – let me not waffle

Tabta ila fogaanee – and divert from the point

In aadan tasayn baan – so that you won’t hide (our love)

Kuu soo tubiyay heeskii – I have composed this song.


* I couldn't find the translation of the two starred words. The obvious describe a geographical feature of the areas mentioned, but I couldn't deduce exactly what so I have left them untranslated. If anyone knows the meaning, please share with us. Also, comments and corrections are welcome as always.

 

[Abaq]

Heeska Toomaha explained by Abwaan and Suugaanyahan Haldhaa