Zweimal gekreuzt
Gerade Wege
Ein drittes Mal treffen wir uns
In der Meinung, dem Verständnis
Wir waren immer vereint.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
2013
WAVING GOODBYE
When I started to interact with you
Little did I understand
That true friendship is an addiction
Too hurtful for lonely people
Metamorphosis from yesterday’s amnesia
To today’s cage of painful memories
Was like dawn that swiftly recedes
Unobserved.
The numbing melody of a thousand shards
Crashing to the splintered ground
Is a sad song
Yet I must dance alone.
Life has petalled pain
With the scent of a red rose
A caged rainbow beats in my chest
Like Harmattan waving goodbye to the rains.
-Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
HATRED AND HOPE
Branded roses
Blood is your dance floor
Beast is the yeast of your flour
Your moist garden is the handle of my door
And your soup is dour.
I saw a stranger, dressed in black,
Quietly step back from your door –
I saw you, a black bird in grey skies
Flapping, rising
Hatred flaming in your chest like
A torn rose.
Yet I kissed you, don’t
Ask me why – your lips parted and I tasted
Hope on your tongue
Like a squirrel hiding in the bush.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
NACHTSÜBER WANDERND
Daß ich davon nichts weiß
Ist das nicht eigenartig – ?
Nacht ist dein Rücken,
Tag deine Vorderseite – – –
Das ist dein Gesicht
Und Nachtsüber wandernd
Drehst du dich,
zweimal –
Wie ein Wunder
Wenn der Sieg dem verlorenen Kampf
Plötzlich entsteigt
Das ist dein Gesicht.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
PALM NATION
Like a glove
Her palm fit into mine
I saw her struggling
With the shock
Recognition brought.
We tried to decipher our fate
But saw neither
Its beginning nor its end
The flask has gone out of the djini
Tracing the palm groove…
Ever the palms
Lining our every path
Kissing our everything
Wild trees become a garden, untamed…
A jungle becomes a park, intriguing…
The rivers are wetting the vallies
We clasp hands and become a palm nation.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
STRONG AND STRONGER
What yesterday I pushed away
Returns today, stronger
With even more hunger
Songs that I must play.
I have to move
Fly like a dove
Driven by love
I have to remove
Myself from illusion
Confusion.
Unfinished Verses stare at me
Repeated Verses endlessly.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WAS WIR ALLES SCHON WISSEN
Das wissen wir schon
Am Ende des Tages steigt
Die Sonne…
Das wissen wir schon
Daß ein Herz kein Mund ist
Ein Mund kein Herz hat…
Das wissen wir schon
Daß unsere Liebe nur Schein ist
Wahr-schein-licht…
Denn ich liebe dich
Mal so mal so –
Das wissen wir schon…
Und wir schritten getrennt
Einen gemeinsamen Weg –
Das wissen wir jetzt…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
CLEAR SIGHT
What is this haze?
My mind becomes a maze
My feet remember their ways
By memory always –
The things we learned by heart
Shall be the surest chart
In our last days
The Adult becomes a child anew
And sees what the child once saw in the morning Dew.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
ỤTỤTỤ ỌMA
Mmiri…
Anyammiri…
Hicha Anyammiri,
Chi e foola…
Hicha Anyammiri
Na chi e foola…
Lee nụ ụwa nile –
Uwa nile e bilieela n’ụrǎ…
Gee ntị…
Gee ntị…
Gee ntị mma mma…
Ị nụrụ ya?
Ọchị ahụ, egwu ahụ,…
Ọ n’ime obi gị ka ha si a pụta.
Ngwa, hicha anyammiri, nwanne m,
Na chi e foo la…
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE END MUST BE STRONG
The end must be strong
Or it will not be satisfied with itself
Shall return again
And again
Demanding to be ended…
The end that drags out must be allowed to drag out
That way we shall never forget
It is imprinted, chiselled, branded prime-deeply
Into heart and mind
Unforgettable, memorable, forever recognisable
Never to be dared again.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 