Verlangen ohne Erwartung
Wie geht das denn?
Haben ohne Besitzen – Vor- und Nachteile?
Alles, was ich für dich fühle
Nicht alles hast du gefühlt
Alles, was du von mir hast
Entspricht nicht allem, was du in mir hast.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
2013
SURVIVAL
What don’t I know
About you is what
I silently ask myself
Each time you ask me
What I’m thinking
As I think about you
How many wars
Have you fought, won and lost?
How many lives have
You taken, how many given?
How much hunger did you endure
To nourish so much anger?
How many loves have pierced you?
How many wounds are
Dripping a trail back to
How many acts of survival?
All I see is the smile in your eyes
And the hope in your heart.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
WHAT IS POETRY?
What is poetry? Rounding up a collection of old news and new olds too, poetry is the sea that washes the shores of my heart; and each time the tide is out I pick up the treasures which the sea has deposited on the sand this time. If we do not mark the sand, how shall we pick the shells? The sea is a strange one. She journeys her own Depths every dream and discovers strangers every morning. In every human there is an explorer. Some explore distant poles, some explore nearer goals, some explore the gardens in our souls. Poetry is a garden, and those who find the garden understand the poem.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
THE DRUMS OF WAR ARE SOUNDING
The drums of war are sounding
The dead are readying to dance a dirge
Upon the graves of the living
Quarrelling woman to Solomon has spoken
If I won’t have world peace my way
Then tear the child to pieces
Those who crave world dominion
Are set to fight to the end to end
The culture of mixed opinions
The world grows dark with worry
And mothers clutch their babes to their breasts
And lovers fear what tomorrow will bring.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
RÜCKSPIEGELUNG
Als sie Probleme, Missverständnisse
Mit ihrem Freund bekam, schlichtete ich
Doch war sie überrascht
Daß ich mit ihm Solidarität zeigte
Obwohl sie meine gute Freundin war
Ich bin halt kein Frauenversteher
Sagte ich, leise, ihr
Auch wenn ich Gedichte schreibe –
Das glaube ich dir nicht, sagte
Sie, das begreife ich nicht.
Ich sagte – ich hab zu lang ritterlich
Meiner Mutter immer Recht gegeben
Bis wurde mein Papa einsam und schweigsam
Und ich älter und ein Papa auch
Und habe, fast zu spät, begriffen
Wir Männer trotz Fehler sind am Ende
Doch alles, was wir gegenseitig haben.
Wenn nicht mal wir uns verstehen
Wer soll es tun? Mein Vater hat
Einfach das Beste getan, was und wie er konnte.
Vielleicht steckt nicht ohne Grund
Der Begriff Sohn
Irgendwo in dem Wort Versöhnung
Irgendwann wird das Leben zum Assoziationsspiel
Wer fährt dann vorwärts ohne Blicke in den Rückspiegel?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
SEVENTEEN POEMS
If I wrote seventeen poems
In one word
Would you understand my language?
If I wrote one word
Sung one love-song
In seventeen poems
Would you understand my language?
What if they were eight?
What if they were eighteen?
If every human smile were a poem
Every laugh a song
Every look a promise
If every human word were silence
You would not need seventeen poems
To understand me
Just one.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
LONELY, BROTHER
I have a lonely brother, born of a single mother and father, lonely and alone, trudging patiently home through the land of snow-mountains and smoke-forests and sandy deserts, not to forget the bottomless sea. He has few friends, for few comprehend him, even though he treasures the goal also all so alone. I want to help him, but I do not know how to, nor does he always accept help. I know only that, in the end, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. Are you lonely, brother? Nobody is ever alone. An angel, a beast or a solitary star – one of these is always there with you and me. If I am not my brother’s keeper, who is? And whose keeper then am I? I guess I keep again our second goal.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
FARSIGHTEDNESS
There is a Nigerian saying
What a child cannot see from a treetop
An adult can see from the ground
They usually say it with a gentle smile
The boy that I was, the child now in me
Was nourished by my mother’s love
While the man I was becoming, who now I am
Was nurtured by my father’s severity
So when they say true love is severity
And severity is sometimes the truest of love
I guess I know now, in retrospect,
What they mean to say between the lines
It is impossible to see both sides –
Day and Night – simultaneously
You have to experience them one by one
And then piece it together in your mind.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
BEGEGNUNGEN
Tröpfchenweise
Unauffällig, leise
Wie Saat auf weiche Erde
Ohne Erwartung, ohne Beschwerde
Erwachsen, nachdenklich
Zurückhaltend, menschlich
Wie Antworten auf Fragen nach anders sein
Fallen neue Menschen in mein Leben ein.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
ASỤSỤ MKPỤRỤ-OBI
Onye ọbụla sụọ Asụsụ nke ya,
Ọ bụ ịhe a gwara anyị –
Mana asụsụ dị abụọ…
E nwere asụsụ-ọnụ,
Nwere asụsụ-obi…
Asụsụ-ọnụ buru ibu,
Asụsụ-ọnu dị iche iche,
Asụsụ-ọnu bụ nani asụsụ-ọnụ…
Ma asụsụ-obi dị sọsọ otu…
Anyị nwe ọnụ, anyi nwere obi…
Sụpụta obi gị otu ị ji chọọ,
Ma ka ọbụrụ mkpụrụ-obi gị
Na-ekwu okwu.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 